Finally!

Holy crap Amanda is amazing.

We just had a 30-minute brainstorming session on Gchat and came up some seriously amazing ideas for decorations!!!

I am legitimately excited.

More explanation to follow sometime ... as for now, wait in anticipation for our crafty genius.

Penguin swimming trunks

So, I've always been a vivid dreamer. When I get stressed, it tends to follow me into my sleep in the form of nightmares. I've had my fair share of bad wedding dreams already, so I figured I'd catalog them here ... mostly because they are hilarious.

Last night's:

I am surrounded by a dozen other brides, and we are all wearing green wedding dresses. All in the shade of green that I like. We seem to be in a salon attached to a wedding venue. I am sitting in a chair getting my hair done ... except the stylist is a retard. My hair is wet, but she is trying desperately to use a curling iron. As my hair sizzles, she proceeds to tell me that my hair holds the worst curl she's ever seen. I am frantic and take to doing my own hair after the dumbass stylist refuses to blow dry it.

The rest of the dream is a blur, but I remember all of the green-dressed brides are ALL getting married at the venue. One right after another. I wonder why I chose such a popular, in-and-out kind of place. Finally, it's my "turn" to get married, and I am helicoptered out of the salon over what seems to be a delta (Amanda - remember the area where we went to the beach with Eric and Jo? Where we had to walk really far from the car? It looked exactly like that ... when he had to go under the overpass and the ocean spilled into the smaller rivers through the coast. So random.) The helicopter was low enough that I could pick out my guests, who were all making this terrible trek across the sand. I picked out the two Zacharys ... Markey and Horne, and called out to them. Zac Markey was wearing penguin swim trunks, a bucket hat and flip flops.

And then I woke up? What an odd dream.

I have been freaking out about finding a salon to work with. I haven't gone to a real hair stylist ever, basically. For the past five years I've just been going to Carsten, Tempe's hair school. I need to find one I can trust, but I don't know where to start.

Apparently I have some issues with being the "same" as everyone else. A dozen green wedding dresses? Wedding factory? Jeez.

Real updates to come about being thankful for life, holiday to-do lists, bakeries!, rehearsal dinner, fitness, etc. Stay tuned.

I want this coconut in my mouth.

I honestly just want this to be my wedding cake:

Six-Layer Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Filling

I've wanted to make this for more than a year now, but haven't found a reason to tackle this six-layer monster of deliciousness. Amanda suggested we make it for my bridal shower ... best idea ever!

Spoke card guest book

So, yesterday I came across this really cute postcard idea yesterday at The Knot’s blog.

They suggested using vintage postcards for the guest book. I thought, “Damn, I need a cool idea for a guest book.” I voiced my concerns to Amanda and, like a good Maid of Honor, she pulled through: spoke cards.

In the fixed gear culture, many people have spoke cards in their rear wheel. You receive them at every alleycat, basically representing your attendance. Some people have them for other random reasons too like if you’re in a bike club. Some people proudly display their cards in their spokes, some choose to hang them up on their refrigerator. Either way, spoke cards are all over the place.

I had wanted to use spoke cards in our engagement photo shoot, spelling out our wedding date in our back wheels. I definitely still want to do that. Plus, we could tie it into the wedding too.

Basically, I’m thinking that we need to have some spoke cards printed up, maybe tying in our name “logo” from our invites. If we printed that lightly along the side, everyone could take one and write a memento on it. After the wedding I could get them all laminated. Then, we could collect them all and frame or install them somehow … or we could put them in a pair of wheels and hang them in our house! I think it’s super cute.

So much napoleon in my mouth

Holy cow. What a whirlwind of a week ...

So, I went to Baltimore. I made it on the second flight, which was excellent. The weekend was filled with a lot of dessert, a lot of laughs and a lot of jumping. I figure I'd upload some of the pictures here for your viewing pleasure.


In Amanda and Jaren's swanky Baltimore high-rise apartment. Puts my decrepit house form 1912 to shame!


This is us jumping in the mouth of a megalodon (dinosaur shark). If it was eating us I'm sure we'd be this ecstatic.


It was 40 degrees and raining the whole damn time. So. Cold.


We seriously took like 84 jumping pictures. This is the best!

All in all: a great trip. It was quick and involved a lot of travelling (I spent 14 hours in the airport/flying on Monday), but I am so happy I got to spend time with Amanda ... even if we didn't do any wedding stuff haha.

On to more good news: I kicked ass at my weigh in this morning.

134.4. That's right. This is the first time I've weighed under 135 in years. Like 5 years. Freaking crazy.

I ate a crap ton of bad food this weekend, of course (though I tried to be somewhat good), and I weighed myself on Monday to much horror. Granted, it was at 4 p.m. and I usually weigh myself at 9 ... so it was going to be higher regardless. But still, it was back up to 137.badnumber and I was pretty pissed to have gained back the weight I lost last week. So I was a stellar eater and exerciser this week and somehow made a victorious comeback. Also I didn't eat breakfast this morning because I wasn't feeling well, so not sure how much that would affect today's results.

Week one (10/9): 137.2
Week two (10/15): 136.0
Week three (10/23): 134.4

Because of my shortened week, my goals are a little odd. Since Tuesday I've ridden 55 miles, which is pretty good for three days. Last week I did three resistance workouts, so good for me. I did another one on Tuesday and am going to work out in a second over here.

Tonight the Central Slayer alleycat hosted by Hot City Destroyers. I'm hoping all of my training pays off.

Last but not least ... I haven't been doing any wedding stuff. I suck. This weekend I am going to post a checklist of what I've done so far on our timeline. Hold me to it.

Flight Friday

I am currently in the airport, waiting to (hopefully) board my plane to Baltimore. I can't even wait to see Amanda this afternoon. It's hard to believe I haven't seen her in two-and-a-half months. This will be the first time she sees my engagement ring! So exciting. So much wedding stuff will get done this weekend. Hell yeah.

As of yesterday, I weighed 136.0. Pretty stoked about that. Dropped 1.2 pounds in less than a week. I didn't get to ride that much because of vacation preparations and being mildly ill (Josiah is full-on ill). BUtttt, I bought a road bike on Wednesday! I can't wait to ride it when I get home.

Sorry for the short update, but I've got to pay attention to the standby situation!

Edit: Didn't get on the first flight. Hopefully I'll get there at some point.

My maid of honor

Three months ago, my best friend Amanda moved 2,400 miles away. She packed up her tiny Hyundai with as much crap as it could hold, and she drove to the other side of the country to participate in Teach for America.

To be honest, it's been shitty. Really shitty. I've cried a lot, felt sorry for myself, wondered why I have no friends and, overall, been very lonely since she left. I feel selfish for wanting to keep her here forever -- to go to sushi, eat McDonald's swirl cones, make fun of everyone, use terribly ugly voices, etc. It sucks to be with someone non stop, then have them torn away from you, never to return again. (At least not for two years.)

But before she left, she gave me a going away present: a bridal list book and a pack of brightly colored felt-tip pens (my favorite!). The big engagement was coming up and she knew exactly what I needed: a place to keep all of the lists that would soon consume my life.

I love Amanda. I love her more than I've loved any other friend. I'm not gay, but if I was I'd love Amanda in that way too. Right now, that love is devoted to Josiah.

Amanda is the best. She is the friend who will drop everything for you -- no matter what. She is hilarious, thoughtful, gorgeous and nurturing. She is the friend that has made me pee my pants. And even though I fake peeing my pants a lot, I'm being literal here. Not only is she the greatest friend on earth, but she is brilliant and an extremely hard worker. She was my assistant editor when I was EIC at the State Press Magazine. And to be honest, I would have not be able to do it without her.

It's funny, because Amanda and I have known each other since our freshman year at ASU. She was the awkwardly tall and obnoxiously loud one who lived a couple doors down from me in the Hayden West dorm. I was the reclusive hipster in room 209 who did not like anyone having fun remotely close to me. My roommate Bethany and I would complain about everyone outside who would never shut the hell up.

Then, sophomore year Amanda stumbled into the SPM editors' office during one of our weekly meetings. She was a new writer, and I recognized her as the loud girl from the dorms and promptly decided to not talk to her. Instead, I was pretentious and made fun of my fellow staffers with Katie Lehman, our photographer.

The next semester, our paths crossed again while working at the Arizona Republic. I figured I might as well get to know this girl, considering we'd probably just run into each other more and more as we continued our journalism classes. Surprisingly, we instantly became attached at the hip, hanging out at all times and becoming BFFs.

Since then, there have been three trips to California, too many days spent in the basement, countless hours getting goofy and a lot of wondering why everyone else is so dumb.

I am so thankful we came to be great friends. She is truly a blessing in my life. I would be even more of a disaster without her right now. Even though she lives on the other side of the country, even though she teaches Pre-K full time for TFA, even though she's taking graduate classes at John Hopkins ... we still manage to talk every day. I think that speaks volumes about how good of a friend she is and how much she means to me. I have friends who live 15 minutes away who couldn't be bothered to pick up my calls, let alone call me in the first place.

Thanks, ManFru. I don't know what I would do without you.



Photo courtesy of Deanna Dent.









P.S. - I forced Amanda to get a blog to chronicle her experiences as the greatest Pre-K teacher in all of Baltimore. You can read it here.

Edit with Amanda's response:
Amanda: celeste
oh my god
i am crying right now
you B
i cannot believe you did that!
ugh you are the best friend ever
and i miss you all the time tooo!

Then:
Amanda: i am in shock
me: why?
Amanda: i didnt think you liked me that much!'

Hahaha. Oh man.