anything but ordinary

wedding shoes...take 2.

so, the payless shoes are getting returned. they looked okay on my feet and were sorta comfortable, but i had an issue with my pinky-toe wanting to breathe a bit more...it kept trying to escape the confines of the straps. and that's int he first 5 minutes of wearing the shoe! also, while the shoes have a strap to keep them securely on my feet (or so one would assume) they still did a kind of "flip-floppy" thing as i walked. i don't exactly relish the idea of walking down the aisle sounding like i'm squishing my way thru mud puddles.

sigh. so, back to the drawing board. luckily, i DO have a few backup choices in mind. i'll see if i can hunt these shoes down, and if not, i'm basically planning on maxing out my credit card (or close anough to it) and buy a LOT of shoes all at once...and then keep one pair and return the rest. a lot of trouble for a pair of shoes...but hey, i'm gonna be a bride. teehee...i LOVE being able to use that excuse sometimes. don't really believe it, but it could come in handy sometimes, you know?

in any case, here is the next pair of shoes i might go for. wish me luck...

diet watch 2007...day 2

so, it's that time again...my clothes are just a wee bit snug. time to be less lazy...plan my meals, head to the gym, and get serious about losing this weight i'm always griping about. so far, so good...though this is only day 2. doing the "lindora" thing...going by the book. nice and "easy". 3 days of protein...can't wait for the 4th day, where i can actually have cereal. (woo-hoo!)

but, i'm feeling okay about this. got goals to meet. i know this is something i should be doing anyways, but having such a definite goal makes it that much more attainable for me...there is an actual deadline in place. my wedding. need to look GOOD for those photos.

good news is that i don't need to drop a whole lot of actual WEIGHT... i need to lose about 15 pounds, which really isn't that bad. however, i need to be gaining muscle and toning my body along the way...

here we go...

bought my bridal shoes...i think.

i am NOT a "shoe person." i know plenty of people who are...but i just don't happen to be one of them. i don't pay any attention to whose name is sewn onto the bottom of my shoe, since i'm stepping all over them anyways. and i gasp when i see pricetags above $50 for shoes, which usually limits my shoe shopping to payless shoes or target. which is fine by me...by the time the shoe is worn out, the style changes anyways...

so, i was NOT looking forward to shoe shopping for my wedding. i have to get my shoes early, doing things a bit backwards... since my dress is being custom-made by my future mother in law, it makes sense for her to know the height of my heels NOW and embellish the bottom of my gown accordingly, instead of making alterations later like most companies do.

shoe shopping...i looked online, went out shopping with friends, my mom, looked online some more... aaargh! but my feet are not shaped like "Barbie's" and thus I think it unfair to try and cram my toes into a 90-degree angle. that, and balance on stilts. for 12 hours. and look graceful. hah!!! so, i found it diffucult to find a cute, medium-height, thicker heeled sandal that didn't look like it was made for a 80 year old woman or a 10 year old girl. double sigh. match that with the fact that all of the toothpick-style shoes that WERE available were all around $300. seriously? i don't think so.

luckily, yahoo.com is my friend and i was able to track down some shoes that might actually work.

but...get this. after hours (seriously) of searching for THE perfect pair of shoes...you'll never guess where i finally found the ones i decided to go with. (drumroll, please...)

 

Payless Shoes Source. seriously. i found these puppies online for under $40. works for me...they look a bit plain-jane, but once i "bling" them up with the appropriate stones and such to match my dress, they will sparkle like the sun!

so, they are ordered and on their way. cross your fingers that they fit...otherwise i go to my backup plan... both zappos.com and shoebuys.com have free shipping both ways, so i might order a BUNCH of shoes from them and pick ONE pair, returning the ones i don't want. overkill, maybe. but i'm gonna be a bride.

wedding subculture

i've been bobbing around in the wedding world for quite some time now...who knew that it was a complete subculture? i was never one of those girls who dreamed from age 3 about what my wedding would look like; i thought that i would be "different" and "do my OWN thing" when it came my turn. man, was i EVER wrong. i'm kinda bummed that i'm turning out to love the "traditional" (gasp) approach. don't get me wrong...the whole thing will be personalized from top to bottom... but, here i am in a world where shoe shopping is a contact sport, and the debate between silk and tulle could go on for DAYS. and DON'T get me started on the proper items to include (and leave out) from a wedding invitation. hah! i don't know WHEN i became such a wedding expert, but it was probably somewhere between the 100th and 101st wedding magazine that i picked up. i find myself refreshing the messaage board on theknot.com several times a day... searching ebay, amazon and everything else that shows up on yahoo.com for the PERFECT ladybug ornament to place in my flowers (why couldn't i be have been a "butterfly" girl...THOSE things are all over the place...but no, i'm difficult and go with ladybugs). so, if my world seems a bit off-kilter lately, i must apologize. but still...i've got some planning to do.  ; )

play ball...

 

so, my brother and some of his friends got together, just for the fun of it, and put together a softball game. he invited tony and me to play.  now, neither one of us have done anything like this in over 10 years...but we decided to give it a shot.

it was so freakin' fun!!! my brother was amazing (i had no idea), and tony was also pretty good!!! i was as good as i could have hoped...not as good as i would have liked, but not bad at all.

there were about 25 people total; the teams were chosen a week or so in advance. the "captains" rented a baseball field at a local park, and even sprung for team shirts. unfortunately, they weren't too careful when placing the order, and my team ended up with BABY PINK shirts. i didn't care too much, but since the team was made up of mostly guys...they weren't too thrilled with that outcome. oh well. it made for great conversation.

since we had a lot of people and wanted to give everyone a chance to play (no matter how much each of US might suck...) we rotated positions...tony handled 2nd base and i covered right field. i'm terrible...i kept thinking "please oh PLEASE don't let the ball come my way"...soooo many eyes on me. i know it was all for fun, but i become even MORE of a klutz under pressure.

but, all went wonderfully. i scored our team a few points, which made me feel proud. but MAN, did my body hurt. when running the bases, they seem soooo much further away than they actually are. and my legs were ready to revolt the sudden action. sprinting is MUCH more difficult than any action on the treadmill...teehee.

we started the game later than we should have; waiting for a few last players to arrive. as a result, we were playing as the sun set. there were no lights on the field, so it became more and more difficult to even see the ball in play. some people suggested that we just end the game and call it a tie, but the other team said that they wanted to keep going. so we did. i was one of the last people up to bat. and it was DARK out there. i could barely make out where the next base was that i was supposed to run to, and the only reason i knew to run was because i heard the crack of the bat from the player up to bat.

but, in the end, our team WON by ONE POINT! 33 to 32. woo-hoo! it was a wonderfulo game, and i had a wonderfulo time.

my brother said that the next organized game might be kickball. i can't wait!

my new toy

i can't believe i splurged like this. i bought a new ipod nano!!! before it was even available in the regular stores (target, best buy, etc...) i got it directly from the apple store. woo-hoo.

long story short, i didn't need it. but i really, really wanted one. tony had bought me an mp3 player a few years ago. unfortunately, it has gone missing. somewhere. and unforturtunately, that particular player doesn't support music bought off of itunes... and the music service attached to it is starting to charge a monthly fee! which means that even to BROWSE the music, i'd have to pay $$ each month. i don't think so!

i went online to ebay, thinking i'd find myself a deal on an ipod. nope. they're too popular. i found what i thought was a good knock-off...complete price with s&h was about $55. not bad...so i thought. turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. first off, the players got stuck in customs, so i didn't receive it for about 2 weeks or so after i'd already paid for it. and then once i got it, i was NOT happy. the ebay ad had been deceiving. no click wheel like the ipod has (i admit, i LOVE that wheel...) and it was soo frickin complicated to use! and, once again, it didn't support itunes music...so i was back to the place i began. sheesh!

so, i pondered. should i spend the $$? tony talked me into it...so i can blame him! his family was always the spur-of-the-moment "why not?" type. i'm the shop-around-to-find-a-bargain person. but, throwing caution to the wind, i DID it!!!

using the argument that i could spend some b-day money i'd received, i really wouldn't have to spend that much of my own $$. and with all the overtime i'd put in at work lately, it was pretty much already paid for!!! well, shoot...

so, i got the nice 8gb model, in the shiny blue color. and i absolutely LOVE it!!! holds my music, photos, videos, etc... i LOVE this thing!!!

Under the Stars...

the Orange County Performing Arts Center had been holding "Monday Movie Madness" nights all summer long...where they put up a large screen against the side of the building and show a different movie there each Monday night. all you bring are your folding chairs and some snacks. i learned about this pretty late in the season...but was able to catch the last show before the summer disappeared...

a couple weeks ago was their last show of the season...Moulin Rouge. now, there was NO WAY i was gonna miss out on THIS one. i fell in love with this movie from the first time i saw it...it is now my all-time favorite.

so, after work, my brother and i made a trip to target for snacks and a card game to pass the time while we waited for the sun to go down. we found the performing arts center okay...made a few wrong turns along the way, but that added to the adventure. we set up our blanket and chairs a little after 6 pm, while the speakers were filling the open space with the wonderful sounds of Sinatra.

My brother's girlfriend met up with us around 7:30, and the movie started an hour after that. it was absolutely wonderful. something about seeing it up on the large screen like that, surrounded by a crowd of people who clap and cheer at all the same places. such a wonderful thing.

i fell in love with the characters all over again that night, holding the feelings close to my heart...and listening to the soundtracks on the drive home.

such a wonderful way to begin the week, don'tcha think?

wonderful weekend...

what a wonderful long weekend i had... saturday i spent most of the day with 2 of my closest friends...we went to brunch at this small place called "plums cafe". they had WONDERFUL food...

the "thing" in the pictre was a "deep dish pancake" which was like eating a funnel cake. served with lemon, butter and powdered sugar. yum. my girls surprised me by turning it into a birthday treat, and then surprised me further by taking me to a salon to get a pedicure. aaahhh...bliss! next we headed to south coast plaza to do a little shoe shopping. i need to track down some wedding shoes and didn't know where to start.

saturday night was awesome, as well. headed out with tony's friend (eddie) and his fiance (sylvia). we ended up joining a larger group, so there were about 15 of us. had a drink/appetizers in a bar around the corner from our desitation for the evening...Cohiba's. once there (almost 11 pm) we found a NICE spot in the club...in front of a large FAN. (it was HOT in there.) you can see by the crowd shot how the place was PACKED that night. but SOO much fun. we ended up leaving there about 12:30, but we weren't quite done yet. walked down the street to "taco beach"...a street taco place that didn't even open till midnight! tacos were a$1 each, so we grabbed ourselves a little snack. sitting outside, with lots of people walking by, listening to the bands of the various clubs surrounding us...it was a wonderful night. we would have kept going, too...trying out a few other places that night...except that eddie and sylvia were getting tired, and since we had ridden there with them, we needed to leave as well. probably for the best, anyways...it was a long ride home.

sunday was fun, too... tony's family took me to lunch at Champps (where tony and i had gotten engaged one year prior). after lunch we walked to the turtle fountain area, so the kids could play. (the pic shows the girls "washing" michael's hair).

sunday night we headed to our normal haunt...pierce st...just cuz it was a sunday and we COULD stay out late! fun night...and since it was my birthday weekend, i got to take home a really neat-o beer mug.

monday meant more dinners out... my dad treated me to a birthday meal. we had intended to go to BJ's...with the famous "pizookie" 4 dessert, but the entire shopping area it was located in was in the middle of a blackout. (dang heatwave.) so we ended up downt he street at Lone Star. nice...filet mignon and a sangria. not bad.  : )

i LOVE 3 day weekends...

2007...so far...

found a cool "new" (new to me) website called onetruemedia.com, where you can upload your photos and create a montage/slideshow of sorts. so, i played with some of my fave pics of my life so far this year. enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com