Confessions of a Wizard Rock Fangirl

We'll start with the confession portion of this evening. I have two things to tell you.

1) I love wizard rock.

2) I only discovered wizard rock one year ago, on July 25th, 2008, during The Mudbloods, JFF, Whomping Willows, Remus Lupins show in Pittsburgh.

I went to this wizard rock show on a whim, and I was totally amazed by it (of course). I had wanted more friends that were into Harry Potter since Deathly Hallows. Most of my friends had read it; some had even gotten the book at the midnight release with me. By the time we had all read and discussed it, most of them were done. That was just...the end. And I didn't want it to be.

When I went to the show, most people were much younger than I was. The only ones that seemed my age were the bands, so after they were done playing, I went over to talk to them. I ended up talking to Alex Carpenter for a bit and left wanting to know more. Here's part of my blog entry from four days later:

"Being completely oblivious and ignorant can have certain advantages, I suppose. Since going to the Wizard rock show on Friday, I have spent much time listening to and finding Wizard rock. I can't get over how adorable it is to listen to songs and sing along about Harry Potter. Seriously, so much fun. Why did I never pay attention to this before?

But it turns out, uneducated in wrock as I was, that meeting Alex Carpenter is a Wizard rock fangirls' dream come true. I also introduced myself to Matt Maggiacomo of The Whomping Willows since he was sitting right there. Since I had missed most of his set, I really had no idea who he was, and have only found out by seeing pictures of him online while finding more wrock.
I wonder if they are so used to squeeing from their fans that they were amused by the fact that I was not? Did they realize I had no idea? If so, was that refreshing or disappointing?"

This past year, I went to 20 shows and saw 21 different bands perform, in 5 different states.

This past year, I started writing for and running a website and had more than my friends and family read the things that I wrote. This introduced me to one of my favorite people ever.

This past year, I invited strangers to sleep at my house. I've also slept at near strangers' houses and felt perfectly comfortable doing so.

This past year, I stopped saying "this person I know online" and started saying "my friend" about people I had never met before. I also tackle hugged many of them when I finally met them.

This past year, I have gotten more hugs than I thought possible. I also learned the definition of "stink shoulder", but I didn't mind at all.

I could go on and on, obviously.

The other day, I was with a group of friends, one of which doesn't live in town. The subject of wizard rock came up, and one of my friends said, with pride, "You know, Freya's pretty important in the wizard rock community. She runs their website and is friends with the bands and travels all the time to go see them." I quickly explained that being "important" in the wizard rock community was a slightly ridiculous concept since we're such a tight-knit community. But I couldn't help but feel amazed that one of my Muggle friends thought of it like that. Like it was something that he thought was admirable and worth mentioning. It's become how I'm defined, and I'm perfectly happy about that.

A year and a day ago, if you had suggested that this is how my life would be, I would have stared at you blankly. And laughed. And now I can't imagine wanting anything more than what I have now. I love this. I love our community. I love the music. And I love having all of you in my life.

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

My friend Matt the wizard rocker is turning 30 this Friday. His band is The Whomping Willows. Since he will be at my house Thursday night, I thought I would get a cake for him. I called Giant Eagle to order it, and I believe that the woman there thinks I am insane.

me: I'd like to order a cake to pick up on Thursday.
her: Ok, and what would you like? (goes through cake/frosting options)
me: (I dislike cake usually, so I just pick random things.) Yeah, that sounds good.
her: And what do you want written on that?
me: "Happy Birthday Matt"
her: Ok, and do you want roses on that?
me: Um, well, can you put a guitar on there?
her: Well, we can certainly try to airbrush one on there, but I can't promise anything.
me: (imagining an entry for Cake Wrecks) No, that's fine. It might be funny if it's awful. I'm ok with that.
her: (laughter)
me: Um, is there any way you could also put a tree on there? Is there room?
her: We can put a tree on there, sure.
me: Awesome.
her: (slightly incredulous) Ok, so you want it to say "Happy Birthday Matt" and have a guitar and a tree on it?
me: Yes, that's perfect. Thank you so much!
her: No problem, ma'am. We'll see you on Thursday.

I outed myself on YouTube

I made this for the Project for Awesome, a day where we took over YouTube with videos just like this, promoting good causes and trying to decrease world suck. You can read more about it here.

The last 2 minutes are just the logo.



I know Jed Bartlett is fictional, but the information about MS on the West Wing was not.
Here are the links in case you watch it here and not on YouTube:

The Accelerated Cure Project

Accelerated Cure Project's Charity Navigator page

Information on MS

Post Wizard Rock Stress Disorder

A very serious condition that may include the following symptoms:

1) A feeling of disappointment when realizing the show is over alternating with periods of shit-eating grins when remembering how great it was
2) Scouring the internet to find more wizard rock shows to go to and justifying spending large amounts of money/backing out of plans made months ago to do so
3) Humming the song that's stuck in your head and realizing with a jolt that the person who sings it is sitting next to you in your living room
4) An urge to abandon your life and start driving toward the next Wizard rock show

I know that I tend to self-diagnose, but I really think I have this.

Seriously, this week in wizard rock was amazing. We had the Pittsburgh show on Tuesday, followed by a fairly impressive amount of partying at our place. After sleeping for about 4 or 5 hours, we woke up and hung out for a bit. The boys left to get to Columbus early, and I took off a few hours later.
When I got to the venue, I found the three of them outside the venue in the cold with a locked door behind them. No one had arrived to open the bar, and we had to wait about an hour and a half. Fans and the other band were all just standing around outside, definitely attracting some attention with the number of striped scarves in the crowd. The local Harry Potter group, a part of HP Ohio, bought us all pizza which I used to warm my hands up a bit. As soon as it was no longer warm, I ate it.

But of course it was worth the wait! Tom Riddle and Friends played, as well as Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills and The Whomping Willows. When I first arrived, I had told Matt how I needed to exchange the live CD of his from Wrockstock that I bought the night before because one track wouldn't play, and it was my favorite. Before his set, I tried to peek over his shoulder to see his set list, which he hid from sight while reassuring me that he would play my favorite song. With two songs left to go, he dedicated the song to me in thanks for giving them the best night of tour so far. Later on, the HP Ohio people gave me shit about how we had worn them out the night before, so they didn't want to go out partying again. Whoops.

Yay wizard rock!

Kinda fail?

Yesterday and today was the 24 hour readathon at Joseph Beth's Booksellers. It started at 5pm, and the point was to read until you 1) couldn't anymore and decided to leave or 2) fell asleep. Every 2 hours, we had a 15 minute break and every 6 hours, there was a 45 minute break. There were only 7 of us that started the night, curled up in comfy chairs with pillows and blankets.

Warning: The next paragraph contains some mild spoilers to the Twilight saga. If you know nothing about it and would like to keep it that way, just skip it.

I started by finishing the book I was reading, Neil Gaiman's book of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors (which is highly recommended, by the way). Then, it was on to Twilight. I have been sitting on the Twilight saga for months now, saving it for the readathon. No matter the complaints I've heard, everyone says it is at least captivating. This is true, I suppose. I certainly didn't find it more captivating than Harry Potter, but it did keep me awake the whole night through. I only got to halfway through Eclipse (the third of four, no spoilers, please!), and please don't flame me for this, but I think I desperately hate Edward Cullen. I feel he embodies everything about young love that deserves criticism, and that there is a clear distinction between protecting people you love and being an overwielding, control-freak maniac. Plus, does no one else find it creepy that a 104 year old wants to date a 17 year old? I know Bella is supposed to be an "old soul", and that he *looks* 17, but c'mon.

My book choices aside, I started the evening with a sinus headache. JP was supposed to visit during my first 45 minute break at 11:30 and bring me meds, but it turned out they locked us in while the store was closed. We could only leave for cigarette breaks out the back. I was annoyed because I had been told that people could visit for breaks. I made it until 7 am before I asked someone for something for the pain, and as soon as my headache went away (around 8:15), I passed out. BOOO! I really wish that I had tried to deal with it long before then because I feel that without the headache, I could have pushed through.

I did make it for 15.5 hours, though. This means I raised $145.87 for my charity, Beginning with Books. And I read 1,456 pages. I don't remember the last time I read for more than an hour straight, let alone read a book cover to cover. That part was really amazing. The other amazing part was sitting with 6 other people who were content to do the same. I've been thinking that maybe I will sponsor my own readathon, just for fun. We can put down air mattresses and all hang out and read for an evening. Even after this binge, right now, I think I'm going to go pick Eclipse up again.

I also appreciate the fact that this has helped me with the second ever New Year's resolution that I will have completed. I wanted to read 20 new books this year (no rereads can be counted in this). This also doesn't include any fanfiction, no matter how well-written or epic it is (if it did, I'm sure I'm well beyond my goal). I'm at 16 right now, so I should easily hit 20 by the end of 2008. Yay!

Fruition

So, today marks the two year anniversary of my blog! Two years ago today, I posted for the very first time. Sure, there have been some gaps without entries for awhile (like recently, sorry!), but I have stuck with it. And I have to say that being able to rant, rave, and just generally speak my mind to an audience is pretty awesome.

In addition to this anniversary, today also marks the beginning of lots of plans I have had for a few months now. Tonight is the Readathon at Joseph Beth's Booksellers. At 5pm, I will start reading. Hopefully, I will make the full 24 hours. If I do, I will have raised almost $200 for Beginning with Books, my charity of choice. So, I will definitely be out of any communication loop from tonight until Sunday morning (I plan to pass out shortly after coming home on Saturday and sleep until morning). 24 hours with no internet! Is that harder than the lack of sleep? We'll see.

I've also managed to write three articles for the Wizrocklopedia so far, and a fourth should be posted in the next few days. I've totally loved writing for them and getting to talk about wizard rock to an audience who cares. It's very cool to have people react positively to something you've written; especially enough to comment or email me about it.

In less than three weeks, we have the first wizard rock show I have been helping to plan. This has been going on since the middle of August, so again, I've been waiting awhile for it. The day after the Pittsburgh show, my friend Rose and I are going to jump in the car and follow the bands to Columbus, where they will be joined with yet another band. The day after that, we'll drive to outside Cleveland and see them again. Wizard rock road trip! I know some of you think I'm crazy and ridiculous and should be devoting my time to more worthwhile things, but at the moment, this is what makes me happy. After that, it's less than a month until the show that I set up at Your Inner Vagabond, followed quickly by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yikes! Am I really thinking about 2009 already?

And finally, Monday is my birthday. I am usually so super excited and planning craziness and jumping up and down, but I have really been far too busy lately to anticipate it. Plus, 27 may be a bit old to make a huge deal out of it. There will still be parent celebration and drinks and dinner with friends on Monday, and that's all I really need.

If you've been reading this for two years, thank you so much for following my life, step by step. If you've jumped in somewhere in the middle, I appreciate the time you've spent here. Thanks to everyone for letting me sound off - it means a lot.

Brett and Andrea's wedding

In which I manage to make a video that is only 3 minutes and some change. Yay!

Jim and Bethany's Wedding

Freya editing, take 2.
I tried another compression technique, and it still looks like shit! Dammit.

This is probably incredibly boring if you weren't there or don't know these people, and only mildly interesting if you were.

Song during the photos at the end is 'None Shall Pass' by Aesop Rock. If you don't know him, go buy any of his CDs immediately. You won't be disappointed.

I have a new interest, and it's called Awesome!

I know I emailed this to some of you already, but thought I'd put it out here as a blog entry as well.

I'm sure many of you can remember how excited I was when I met Seth Rogen in January. If you haven't heard the story, "met" in this case means rolling down my window to talk to him and then driving away. It was then that I really accepted my fangirl leanings. They had always been lurking, but getting to do that really just brought it out into the open. And like anything, if you nurture it, it will grow.

As interested in my spritual growth as I'm sure you all are, I do have another point. I've always had a thing for Harry Potter, even moreso than anyone else I know personally. My latest foray into the fandom has been exploring the world of Wizard rock, which I've posted about before.

I don't even know how to really explain the Wizard rock community to you, but I can tell you that these guys are very into promoting literacy and raising money for various social awareness movements, most notably the HP Alliance. Their goal is not so much to make money, but to tour around and get to play. They all eschew big media and record labels, and are proving that you can be a musician without that. They do this with the unerring support of their fans, like me (us?).
One of my favorite Wizard rock bands is launching a fall tour specifically to make money for the HP Alliance and asked their fans to help them book shows. I spent a day contacting various venues and organizations to see if anyone was willing to have them play and have booked a show for them at Your Inner Vagabond in Lawrenceville on November 25th, at 7pm. Cover is $3.

As silly as you might think this sounds, it would be really awesome if as many of you could come as possible.

Pros:

• $2 of your cover goes to the HP Alliance.
• You support me.
• You support a fan movement that has managed to bring people together from all over the country.
• You will avoid my great disappointment by not attending.
• You will prove to Your Inner Vagabond and the bands that Pittsburgh is a place that is willing to make itself available to Wizard rockers.
• If you're lucky, you can meet Matt of the Whomping Willows. If you just read some of his lyrics, I think you'll agree that he is definitely someone that most of us will get along with.
• You can watch me all dressed up in my HP finery, bouncing around and singing all night long.

Cons:

• For 2 hours you're going to have to listen to 2 guys playing music that might not be your cup of tea.
• You'll have to be in the same room as some teenagers.

See, when you break it down like that, isn't it obvious that you should come?
I also have to ask a big favor of someone(s). I need someone(s) to work the door and collect the cover. Normally, jobs like this would fall to my go-to guys (JP and Tim), but they both already have assignments for this (JP is allowing random people to sleep in our apartment, and Tim is doing photography). It would be nice if someone would volunteer for the door, but if you desperately need to be paid, I can pay you in goods and/or services.
I know it's awhile away, but think about it a little.

Wishing much love and Wizard rock your way!

Post 200

Since I started this blog in October of 2006, I have posted 291 entries. Since I am an editor first, and a writer second, I agonize over many of these. I actually write most of my posts in Gmail, and then send them to myself to have a separate archive. I guess in case the whole internet except for Gmail disappears? Regardless, I only use this method for things that aren't just links or surveys. So, out of these 291 entries, 92 so far have been links or surveys. This is post 200 of the "real" posts.

I knew it was coming up, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write about. And in fact, there are two things we can talk about.

1) Yesterday, I received a text from one Stephanie Pierce. A text from her brand new phone in Georgia! For those of you who don't know Steph, she spent from May 2007 until July 2008 deployed in Iraq. And now she's back and coming here in mere weeks to visit.

2) Today would be Harry Potter's 28th birthday. What has he been up to since we last saw him? He married Ginny, of course. They have 2 or 3 children at the moment - James is about 3, Albus is about 2, and Lily is born sometime in 2008 (we just don't know when). Last year, he was appointed Head of the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. Seems like he's doing pretty well for himself so far! Good to know that he keeps that up for another 9 years, at least.

So, Happy Homecoming to Steph, and Happy Birthday to Harry.

Heat seeking missiles, bloodhounds, foxes, barracudas...

It's almost that time. 'Pineapple Express' comes out in 12 days. *squeal!*

I feel like I am far too old to get this excited about:
1) A celebrity
2) Stoner movies
but I am anyways. Based on this review, I have a feeling I may like James Franco's character better than Seth Rogen's. He "immediately wins over the audience with his affable, perpetually stoned demeanor and often hilarious non sequiturs." There's nothing I like more than hilarious non sequiturs.

Though, I never understand why critics review movies like this as if they are expecting something more than stupid high people doing stupid high things. Justin Chang isn't entirely dismissive or critical of it, but he does seem disappointed. Since I'm not expecting it to be nominated for any Academy Awards, I think I'll like it just fine. Plus, it's theme song is the amazing 'Paper Planes' by MIA that I have the EP of. Yup, I bought 5 different versions of this song.

Here's the trailer, in case you haven't seen it yet:
(possibly NSFW...there is drug use and cursing)

4th of July

It has long been a tradition in our circle of friends to spend the 4th of July weekend at Silent Bob's parents' lakehouse, near Scranton. This year was easy, with the 4th on a Friday. I took Thursday off and left after work on Wednesday with Josh and his dog, Zehe. We left Pittsburgh at 8pm, and drove the 6 1/2 hours to the lake. I think I am getting too old to do that. It was exhausting and never-ending, especially since 80 has no lights toward the eastern part of the state. We arrived at 2:30am, and JP, Silent Bob, Brian, and Keiser were already there. The next night we were expecting 9 more people, and then 1 more on Friday, to make us 16 in total.

In the past, we have had to leave the house at least once a day to go pick up beer and food. No one likes to leave the lake, so we decided to get everything ready ahead of time. This meant ordering 2 kegs and making a grocery list for 6 meals for 16 people. I was asked to put together the food list, and Josh and I volunteered to go get food on Thursday before everyone was there. The list included things like 7 loaves bread, 144 hot dogs, 12lbs of pork roast, 8 bottles BBQ sauce, etc., etc. We filled 3 carts with groceries, and the total was around $400. Not a bad deal at all. I kept the receipt to take a picture of, but it's actually too big if it's on the floor, and I didn't feel like hanging it on the wall, so I measured it. 75 inches. That's 6'3" long. It's a good thing I thought to sign up for their discount card - it saved us $50.
So we had pancakes, bacon, and fruit for breakfast on Friday, BBQ chicken, corn, and roasted potatoes for dinner; eggs, bacon, toast, and baked beans for breakfast on Saturday, and pulled pork and coleslaw for dinner. Planning, cooking, and cleaning for 16 is exhausting even with tons of help. I'm glad that JP and I do not have 14 children.

There is so much that I love about the lake that it's hard to pick my favorite thing. Afternoons of reading while there is hacky sack in the background?

Naps on the lawn?


Fireworks set off from our dock and the dock next door? (Which, by the way, rival any that I have seen, especially as you are close enough to have flaming ash rain down on you)


The fires and marshmallows and s'mores?

It might be the stars seen laying on the dock late at night. How many constellations do you know? We could pick out 4 - Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Casseopoeia, and Orion (who can only be seen early since he is low on the horizon in summer).

When JP and I travel, we like to explore. Neither of us wants to spend days laying on a beach. We would much rather wander around an unknown city and eat at hole-in-the-wall restaurants. The lake is the only place that I go to just escape it all. As soon as I see it, there's just this feeling of peace and leaving everything else behind. We call it recess for adults - pure fun that lasts for days and you get to drink.

"I'm so tired of bullshit weddings!"

Man, oh man alive.
We did it. It be done. Will and Shannon are legally bonded.

It was quite the trip to get here, and this weekend was filled with all the crazy of running around and then the whooooosh of relaxation as it all came to a head. I started my Saturday by driving to Philip Pelusi's at the Westmoreland Mall and getting my hair done. The next 3 hours were spent driving on various portions of route 30 to arrange different things that were forgotten or overlooked (decorations for the bridal suite, snacks and mixers for the after party). I would just like to say that if Brett and Andrea were not going to get married at the same place in September, I would be done with Greensburg forever. It's like Monroeville times 10,000. Ugh.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready and taking embarrassing pictures of the bride as she put on her dress. I have chosen not to publish those, so you can have this gorgeousness instead:


The ceremony itself turned out to be 99% perfect. I definitely choked up at times, but I made it through our speech without any actual tears running down my face. But give me a little credit. How many of you could stand up at the front of all the loved ones of some of the most important people in your life and say "It would be hard to overstate Will and Shannon's significance in our lives" without sobbing like a baby (of course, given that Will and Shannon are those important people, lol)? You can read the entirety of the speech here.
Our speech was very well received, and people loved that we officiated the ceremony for them. It was touching and meaningful and very sincere. Their vows were as well, and I finally totally lost it when Will read his. Luckily there was little for us to do after that, so I was ok.

Ceremony was followed by pictures, of course. Will and Shan used the same photographer that we did for our wedding, and he has continued to be awesome (and possibly continued to grow. Guy's like 6'7" or something ridiculous.) I was tall and statuesque with my 4 1/2" heels (taller than Tim Scott!). I lost them before the official dancing, but did manage to keep them on for the hora, which was confusing for 80% of the guests. It was still fun, even though Shannon vetoed the whole chair thing.

The reception was outstanding. The drinks and conversation flowed continually, and I managed to have a good combination of dancing and interacting with guests. I'm glad that I got the time to chat with various relations of the bride and groom. Becky's story about buying a suit for the wedding was hilarious, and I much appreciated the eye roll that Will's uncle Brian made when I mentioned Will's mother's very excited friend who had come up to me to tell me what a touching ceremony it was (at least I think that's the general message she was trying to convey...) by saying "I'm so tired of bullshit weddings!". And Rosie and I managed to take this adorable picture:

(Seriously, she looked so fantastic in that tux.)

One of the best parts was the mended fences. There are not many people that I don't get along with, but over the course of a life, there will be some falling outs. It happened that at this wedding, all of my falling outs were there. One was fixed long before the wedding, another at the rehearsal, and the other two at the wedding itself. Yay, I say, yay. I feel lighter and much better about the world at large now.


The dancing was fantastic as well. Steph and I did an entire rendition of 'Like a Prayer' alone on the dance floor, which was super fun. The time warp was excellent, as usual, though I do have a vicious bruise from my collapse at the end (swollen, red, and bright purple). There were many that got down, which I appreciated.


At the after party, I was the sober one, trying to make sure everyone was all right. I forced food and Gatorade down the throats of those who needed it, and got to laugh at how everyone slurred and fell and couldn't actually focus their eyes. The next morning at breakfast, I was glad to have been in better shape than most. There were people slumped over the tables, vomiting in the parking lot, and even one or two grey-complexioned.

Ahhhh, marriage. Such a serious and solemn event.


(Sorry about the lack of pics of the bride and groom. I didn't really manage to take any! I'm fairly certain the photographer did, though.)

The States of the Union

When I was younger and living all over the country, my mother would keep track of all the states that we went to. Since our family lived on the East Coast and we lived somewhere in the middle (Texas, Michigan, South Dakota) and we were a young not-so-well-off family, we would drive to visit everyone. Because of this and a New England road trip that JP and I took in 2001, I have been to 40 of the 50 states. Here's what I'm missing:

Iowa
Oklahoma
North Dakota
Washington
Oregon
Idaho
Utah
Arizona
Alaska
Hawaii

But good news! At the end of this month, I am flying to Chicago to help Laura move to Portland, OR. So we are jumping in her car, and driving across this great country of ours. I'll fly home from Portland when we're done. Along the way, I'll pick up 4 new states! Iowa, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. We'll get out of the car, do a little dance, and I can claim those states as my own. I definitely plan to make it to Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, and Arizona in my lifetime, but I'm going to have to go out of my way to go to North Dakota and Oklahoma. It seems silly to go either of those places just to say I've been there, but then again, can I really die happy knowing I've been to 48 of the states?
Where have/haven't you been? Is there anyone who's hit all 50? I know my father has, but he's the only one I know of. Are you close? Does anyone else have this as a goal?

I'm eating my words.

Guess I should apologize to Omi now about being offended by her remarks.

I, Jen, take you, Doug... (part 2)

And onto Saturday.

I had to be at Pelusi's at 11 to get my hair and makeup done. I've never had my makeup done before, but since I have no idea how to recreate eyebrows, I wanted to have a professional do it. 2 hours later and I looked a little funny - tons of makeup, classy Edwardian updo, and jeans and a tshirt. We went back to the Fridy's, where there were 5 bridesmaids, 4 significant others, my in-laws, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and a photographer. Needless to say, "chaos" has never been so well-defined for me. But we all got dressed and all gussied up and looked great!


And then there's the ceremony. Luckily, I rode to the wedding with Lisa and Ian (Jen's high school friend and her husband) and Lisa read me the speech she had written. I almost cried in the car, so I was prepared at the wedding. Joe read a sonnet he had written for the occasion and when he lost it during the reading, so did I. Tears just poured down my cheeks for the rest of the ceremony and even a bit afterwards. My favorite part was during their vows when they said "you are my favorite and my best". This is something that I tell JP on a regular basis, and it was nice to know that the same exact sentiment is voiced by other people in love.


So, the reception. Bryan gave a lovely toast (why are grown men crying just so touching?) and Jess and Jaime (another bridesmaid) presented Doug and Jen with their gift from all their friends - we bought them their honeymoon to Amsterdam. Airfare, a cute loft apartment for the week, and about $500 spending cash. They were overwhelmed and wonderfully excited about it.

The rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking, and being merry.

First of all - the food. It was amazing. Super delicious, not your average wedding fare. I'm fairly certain that my father didn't realize the seitan fajitas weren't actually meat. My brother and all the other vegetarians could eat 90% of the food. Everything was labeled as 'vegan' or 'vegetarian' to help everyone out, and when Ian needed to ask the caterer about what had nuts in it, she told him the only thing with nuts in it was the salad, because Jen had called them to make sure nuts were not featured heavily because of his allergy. The caterers were all great - really helpful when the cupcake lady was over an hour late, lost in Leechburg and without her cell phone. But she did arrive eventually, and we all got to eat Dozen cupcakes instead of wedding cake. Yay!

And the drinking. Like at my wedding, my father-in-law insisted on being in charge of the booze. He and JP tasted wines and ordered cases of them. They pored over the beer list every chance they got and had expert Jess advice to rely on as well. He even got a case of Rodenbach Red for me, one of my newest beer discoveries. Unfortunately, everyone else loved the Rodenbach as well. After I had downed my second and there was no more to be had, I decided to switch to champagne. After I consumed the rest of our table's bottle left over from the toast, I took to stealing the half empty bottles from other tables. I spent the rest of the evening walking around with a bottle of champagne, drinking directly from it.


Since much of our guest list overlapped from our wedding, I spent a lot of the evening wandering around to talk to various co-workers of my father-in-law. They are all some of the coolest adults I have ever met. I spent the rest of the night getting to know my brother's date (who is not a "date" date, but a really good friend from out of town) and talking to Jen's friends. I spent a fair amount of time talking to Héctor, who used to run the gallery where Jen has had several shows (one of which I went to KC to see last year). He is also an artist and started telling me about the comic series he has been working on, Screamland. Check it out on MySpace here, and here is a really great interview with Héctor and Harold that includes some good images. So, why am I plugging a comic book series in the middle of my blog entry about Jen's wedding (you mean, besides the fact that Héctor is amazingly talented and we wish him luck in all he does)? Because Héctor needed a girl about to be attacked by Dracula, cowering in a hallway. A 30's starlet type, he said. And I fit the bill. So we did a mini photo shoot and I'm going to be in one of the upcoming issues! My second 15 minutes of mini-fame!

There were many interesting people there, but none moreso than this person I call "scrunchie guy". I am very intrigued by his choice of hair, as I usually have this same hair while washing my face. At least the scrunchies matched the wedding colors!


Anyways...it was finally time to leave and we managed to get lost on the way to the after party, with 2 other cars following us. Luckily, Erik was one of them and he has a GPS, so we were golden. We all hung out in the hotel for a few hours and then JP, Bryan, Jen, and I all came back home. They had a 5:45 am train to catch, and I needed some sleep.

Overall, I have to say it was quite the lovely time. Not being wasted and making as ass out of myself was great, too! Who knew you could drink in moderation and still have a blast?

Rock on, Jen and Doug, rock on.

(all photographs by Mary Jansen, except for scrunchie guy. He is from a random McDonald relative/friend.)

I, Jen, take you, Doug... (part 1)

Ahhhh, the sweet, bittersweet bliss of 2 days after Christmas Jen and Doug's wedding. The relief of "now i can relax" and the crushing disappointment of "wow, that was just too awesome and it will never happen again". A big round of applause to absolutely everyone who participated. We did it! We got Doug and Jen married!

Now, last week was craziness. It started out well enough, but as more and more people converged on our world, things got more and more complicated. There were centerpieces to make, brunch to have, decorating to be done, people to coordinate, houses to clean, girls to be prettified. We managed to do it all.

The first major event was the brunch I held at our apartment on Thursday morning for 13 people. Yup, I managed to feed and entertain all 13 of them before 11 a.m. This involved getting everything ready the night before, including cleaning the entire apartment to spotlessness for both the brunch and our weekend guests. So we had me, JP, Jen, Doug, Jess (other sister-in-law), her bf Goat, Jean, Joe (my in-laws), Bobby, Noah (JP's uncle and 4 year old cousin), Malcolm, Maureen, and Leeanne (Doug's father, mother, and sister, respectively) eating quiche and drinking mimosas and coffee at our place. It was lovely to hang out with everyone and I'm a huge fan of feeding/hosting people. However, I did have the looming prospect of an 8 hour work day after this, while everyone else ran off to do fun things. That evening, I left work for a split second to get the worst eyebrow waxing of my life. It involved a large amount of swelling, me missing half an eyebrow, and the lady spilling the wax in my hair. Overall, I would have to recommend you not go to Daniel&Co. to get waxed.

So, the next night was the arrival of our houseguests (Bryan (best man and glassblower extraodinaire) and Jen (friend from KC)), rehearsal, and dinner. The venue was in Leechburg. Suffice to say, it's far away, in the middle of nowhere, and a little difficult to find. After we all converged, rehearsal was delayed by the fact that my father-in-law insisted that between all of us, we drink one of each kind of beer (10 different kinds) and have an "example" bottle for the bar to list the beers. We managed to do this and rehearse and get to the dinner where we met up with bunches of other people. Omi (JP's grandmother) was one of the first I talked to. She is not quite all there. However, her recent memory problems have not made her forget that she has no tact whatsoever. We had a conversation that went like this.

Omi (looking me up and down): Are you pregnant?
Me: No!
Omi: Well, you look it.
Me: (pause, as I try to think of the appropriate response that doesn't involve yelling.)
Omi: Has anyone else told you that?
Me: No.
Omi (looking me up and down again): Now you're just sucking it in!
Me: Yes, and I will be for the rest of the night, thanks.
I walked away at that point.

Here is a pic of me at rehearsal, talking with Jen and Uncle Bobby. I am wearing an empire waist dress. Maybe that confused her.

(picture by Mary Jansen)

Can you spot the baby bump?

Party like a Rockstar

Saturday was Tim Scott's going away party. I labeled it as such, but I also intended for it to be about Alecia. We did a little bit of prep for the party - bought a cake, some flowers, JP made salsa, us girls made a giant poster filled with Tim pictures.
The best part of the party was the setting. We were trying to decide where the party should be while we were at happy hour one night, and our bartender told us there is a private room upstairs. So we went with that. The room was amazing. It was the 70s basement that my parents never had at our house. The entire room is wood paneled, with a circular booth in the corner. The booth is covered with floral vinyl that has puzzle-pieced texturizing placed over it. Absolutely, amazingly out of date. The room wasn't huge, but it held us well. We had to go down to the bar for drinks anyways, so all of us were never really in the room together.
I also bought a blank book and asked everyone to write a message to Tim and/or Alecia. Knowing myself, I wrote a real message earlier in the day and wrote a p.s. that warned against any/all future messages I may write in there. Of course, I did write a second message. I believe that I wrote I was seeing 2 of the page at that time. I also wrote that I hoped they could read it, followed a little later by "No, seriously, I hope you can read this."
Since we were the VIPs of the evening, Binder, the bartender, was awesome to us. Around 2:30 he came up and said as long as we kept the drinks up there and didn't come down in droves to order things, we could stay as long as we wanted. That turned out to be 4:30. Hopefully, we made it worth his while. I know I did. I definitely tipped him $4 for a $6 pitcher of beer at one point. JP said he spent about $20 total that night. I spent about $60. Ouch.
The evening ended with us saying goodbye to Tim and Alecia. I'm not good at goodbyes, and I do usually tear up a little. However, drunk + 4:30am + hormones equated to me hugging them while wiping away tears and then turning to JP and sobbing on his shoulder while he and Alecia held me. Ach. I haven't cried like that since...no clue. It's been a long, long while.
JP, Zac, Rob, Brandon, and I decided to meet up at EatnPark and wind down. Brandon made some hilarious comments about Zac's sandwich (mostly insisting that it was a hot sausage when it was, in fact, fish). I had to lead Brandon to the men's room while the busboy looked at me in sympathy. By the time we made it home, it was 6:30am. As I was crawling into bed, I looked at JP and remarked that I was really proud we could still hang out this late. It had probably been years. Thank Gods it was dreary and grey yesterday. I managed to sleep until noon.
Oh, what a night.

Pictures can be found here.

Turn and face the strain

I'm tired of goodbyes. I'm tired of being so happy about how things are and then having them change in a heartbeat. The most important thing in my life is the people I care about. I want them to be in my life. I want them to be happy and successful and find someone that they adore that feels the same way about them. Sometimes these things are mutually exclusive. Sometimes they mean me thinking really selfish, shitty things.

Sometimes your friend wants to be successful and be able to go to school and so they join the army to do it. And then they get deployed to Iraq, come home for nothing more than a tease of a visit, and leave again. Which hurts so much more than if they had just stayed.

Sometimes people have a long distance relationship. People who you want to make things work, who are absolutely great for each other. And to be together, the best, happiest thing for them is to move thousands of miles away. On Monday.

Sometimes people come back into your life after a long absence, and you forget why they weren't there the whole time. And then they lose their shitty job, get one that seems entirely fulfilling and exciting. And travel 5 out of 7 days a week.

Change just hurts sometimes.

This is Halloween!

Yep, today is Halloween. I plan to spend the evening at Will&Shan's passing candy out to the hoodlums of Swissvale. Last year, we gave candy to teenagers that didn't even bother with costumes. It had been our intention to give them shit about it, but some of them were pretty scary looking, so we refrained.

Last Saturday was the annual costume bash. This year it was at Brian&LeeAnn's. It was an especially awesome year because Steph was there! Yes, after 5 months in Iraq, working 12 hour shifts 6 or 7 days a week, Stephanie has been rewarded with 18 days off. We're not going to get into how that doesn't even equal the weekends that she should've had or that she has no more leave for the next 6-10 months. We're just going to appreciate that, for now, she is a mere hour away in New Castle.

Check out the pictures here.

Some notable costume mentions/details/explanations:
JP and I - O-Ren Ishii and a member of the Crazy 88. I sprayed my hair black for the occasion. I had to shower before I slept so it didn't get all over the pillows. It took 3 shampoos to get it all out. Not fun at 4:30 in the morning.

LeeAnn - When she told me she was going to be a clown, I thought she was going to wear something incredibly unflattering and look ridiculous. Instead, she wore something ridiculous and it was incredibly flattering. No fair.

Zac - Zac was "white and nerdy". It was awesome. And hilarious. I made him call me at the party so that I could have his theme song playing (his ringtone on my phone is "White and Nerdy"). He did have a point, though - he really needed a Donny Osmond.

Will - Will's crow was amazing. I am head butting it in one of the pics.

and finally...

Tim Notari, as "The Son of Man". Outstanding. He won a much deserved "Most Creative" award.