Dos: I'm working on a Valentine's Day gift for Job!! Clearly it's late. It's taking awhile because, like me, it's crafty. I'm going to take the chance that he won't read this; it's a series of note cards, sheathed in adorable handmade envelopes, each labeled with an integer (1-91), entitled something like "91 Reasons I Love You". Not an arbitrary number! There are 91 days between Valentine's Day and our wedding...I may post a picture of the project at a later stage, because while it's been said there is a fine line between genius and insanity, I wouldn't want it ever to be said that I enforced a line between my genius and your insanity (for being a supporter of mine!). Also it is shaping up to being super cute, and I really feel like, Masters in English aside, coffee career aside, political stuff aside, my TRUE calling may be as a note card afficionado adviser to the executives at etsy. Duh.
I used to make almost all of my gifts (ask Jude), regardless of budget, and while I arrived at the decision to make vs purchase this one for a number of reasons, ONE of them is that I have a ton of extra and new expenses right now. I'm grateful to have arrived here, though, because I've forgotten that I'm artistic. Not autistic though. It kind of tickles me that the concept of do-it-yourself stuff is not new to me, but the acronym is. I feel like it's one of those phrases where, once I'd learned it (thank you etsy & pinterest: it's like I just became an offical woman, according to the internet), I now hear and read it absolutely everywhere. Everything is uber "DEEE EYYYEEEE WHYYY", y'all. This could, however, be because I'm utterly inundated with (for the most part unnecessary, unsolicited) wedding planning information--much of it a result of having visited upon myself the abomination that is theknot.com (which I am sure is a fabulous resource, IF you have, perhaps a year or two to plan a wedding, and wish to be apprised (daily)(hourly, even) via an assault on your email inbox, of allllllllll of the "ABSOLUTE ESSENTIALS!!!!" that "EVERY WOMAN" other than you is sure to include in her wedding. I don't even like to denote is as "her special day". I guess I'm kind of anti-establishment when it comes to wedding planning. I am LOVING the amateur (don't be offended, anyone, there's no "ish" suffix there! I just mean no one's on the payroll, yo! in large part because there exists no payroll--.) assistance I'm getting on a near-daily basis from people like Anne (Visit her blog! My best friend! Her blog! Visit it! And read it! you don't even have to do what it says! hey, I don't even do it: we have no Whole Foods or Trader Joe's in Vermont, so I have an out. But she's masterful at what she does, much more succinct a writer than me, and most importantly, blogs very, very consistently: http://www.glutenlessfoodie.com/); my mom; Christine; Lisa Richard Tate; Stacey; Jamin; --it's fun to add semi-colons but I'm done--, with wedding thoughts and planning. Anne's also planning her wedding, and although she and Josh were engaged before Job and I, their wedding is two weeks after ours. Primarily (and even secondarily, tertiarily, systematic, hydromatic, well it must be Grease(d) liiiightninnnnn') because of Job's impending military commitments, we're doing what I quickly grew to accept is a bit of a rush job, but is in no way unmanageable. Thanks to the women I mention above, really. And God. Where's it's due. Where it's due.
Also, I have no doubt that though it'll be marked and marred by mistakes, oversights, last minute anxiety-laden freak outs, this wedding will be mine, will be ours, Idiosyncratic, memorable, imperfect & therefore utterly perfect. <---btw if you just puked a tiny bit in your own mouth, nbd, so did I.
DIY, right? Lol, OMG, totes, obvi.
Tres: I suppose there is no reason not to disclose what has long been a dream of mine. There's nothing proprietary about dreams, particularly ones that are far-fetched. I have a lot of experience with dogs (helped open a dog daycare...beyond that my 'experience' is purely personal), and a ton of coffee experience. I wish I could somehow synthesize the two. The one that serves a greater need, arguably, is the idea I first began to toy with 7 years ago, just after graduating from college. A dog daycare/shelter hybrid. That sounds more socially aware, more conscious of pairing a love of mine (animals!) with an actual marketable scheme, with the end result an actual product that a significant demographic has both the need and disposable income for. The other? is just coffee. But I love working in the coffee industry. I wonder what would happen if instead of providing daycare for both owned (commonly called 'homed' in the rescue community) and homeless/shelter dogs because the owner needs to go to work, or on vacation, the draw was the actual space. the place. What Starbucks has termed one's "third place". A coffeehouse! A place you (the human) would love to spend time in, socialize in, work in, conduct business in. While your dog gets his or her socialization on. Separately. Just a thought. or many. Someday. Mark my Helvetica. :)
CATORCE: Hope you enjoy this...I know I have enjoyed the daily fodder from which I'm drawing the inspiration for the 'column'.
"How Speak-To-Text Technology Is Both Ruining AND Enhancing My Life"
I'll try to keep these in roughly the appropriate columns,but it should be pretty intuitive :)Mom:"Great, but your text says "traffic settings for thurs", what is that?"
Me:"Hahaha, I said, "dress fitting's on thurs". Sorry mom!"
Me:"Almost home, will send you the draft pick in two mns!!"
Me:"HA!! Dress pic. not draft pic. WOW."
Jamin: "I was able to translate ;)."
Me:"Screw the Patriots AND THE GIANTS!! I am a future gay man's strife!!!"
Me:"Wow."
Me:"Baby, I meant "Navy Man's Wife."
Job:"Well, I should hope so."
-------------------> and, my personal favorite<-----------------------:
Me: I know you know this like 10 fold bike just dance of the ballad eating your decision!!!
Anne: (silence)(already annoyed at my Speak-To-Text incompetence)...
Me: "....Oh....my....gosh....are you KIDDING ME SPEAK TO TEXT? I meant: I know you know this, like tenfold, but this stuff is just validating your decision!!!"












