The Strike - Not So Fun Anymore

So now we're in day 3 of the strike and it's the Thursday before Christmas. It's really starting to get annoying. The first couple of days people didn't seem to mind walking, but today everyone seems a bit crankier about it. Most people at my office are working from home, so it's really empty here. I'm also starting to get worried about getting to the airport on time tomorrow. I know we'll be fine, we're leaving 5 hours early, but even so, it's an added stress at an already stressful time. I don't need it.

I'd like to make a proposition to the transit worker's union. Next time you strike, do it at the beginning of the summer. The people who are majorly affected by the strike and have to walk will be happy to do so. After the end of a Manhattan gray and grimy winter, being outside on a nice day is so fantastic. Also, it gives people an added incentive for skipping work for a day because of the good weather. Everyone does it every once in a while, but if you strike on a beautiful day, the commuters will thank you.

A Quote From My Mother

I got an email from my Mom earlier today, and she said that if she had her own blog, she would post this quote, so I decided to post it for her:

"When the Devil goeth about like a roaring lion, he goeth about in a shape by which few but savages and hunters are attracted. But, when he is trimmed, smoothed, and varnished, according to the mode; when he is aweary of vice, and aweary of virtue, used up as to brimstone, and used up as to bliss; then, whether he take to the serving out of red tape, or to the kindling of red fire, he is the very Devil." Charles Dickens, Hard Times.

Strike!

So I never believed that the transit worker's union would actually strike, but they did. The strike hasn't affected me all that much, I walk to work and don't take public transportation unless i absolutely have to.

What it does affect, is everything else around me. Fiance's friend is coming in from California and trying to have a birthday party tonight. It's probably canceled, because most people aren't going to want to travel anywhere after work. I worry about how we're going to get to La Guardia on Friday to fly out for the holidays. But mostly, I worry for all the hourly wagers affected by the strike. How many of them aren't able to make it into work and are losing a day's pay.

Hopefully, it'll get resolved soon for everyone's sake.

It's In The Mail

So the save the dates are finally out. I was hoping to get them to my family in Cleveland before I see them on Christmas Eve and Day. They should get there on time. I dropped them in the mail on Saturday evening, so hopefully they'll arrive by Wednesday.

I'm trying to not do anything else wedding related until after Christmas, but I don't think that'll happen. We still need to find the Photographer, and that needs to be done soon. Fiancee is off for a couple weeks in January, so hopefully we can get that and the Honeymoon taken care of before February.

Rematch with the Printer

The printer and I battled again last night, but this time I won. It put up a valient fight, eating 3 pages of labels in the process, and refusing to print until I jiggled all the connections and turned it on and off a bunch of times.

So the Save The Dates are now progressing nicely. If everything goes as planned, they should be on their way to our guests by Monday of next week.

Score: Technology 1 - K8 0

Fiancé and I decided to start printing out the labels for our save the dates yesterday evening and were thwarted by the labels themselves.

First of all, in order to even get to the label templates on my computer, you have to go through Mail Merge and a whole bunch of rigmarole to get them formatted correctly. And, let's just say you format them to the 8660 standard, and the labels you buy are 5660 format. Will they be compatible? No. Is there some way to reformat without losing all your work? No. Will you throw your hands up in frustration, curse your computer and make Fiancé redo all the work instead of you? Sadly, the answer is yes.

Okay, so after we got our labels formatted properly, we then spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out which way to put the paper in the printer, eventually deciding to just do it and hope for the best. Unfortunately, the best was not appearing for us last night. Not only did the labels themselves somehow line up incorrectly and print off the page, BUT I also accidentally bought the laser print labels, so everything was all smeary and blurry. :(

So, I'm going to get the correct type of label, and tonight technology and I will have a rematch.

'Tis the Season... to get Engaged

I've known my friend Hairdye for almost 3 years. I call her this because on the first day I met her, she trusted me enough to choose an at-home hair dye and then dye her hair. She was the roommate of a friend of mine. Even though it ended up looking fantastic, it was really a leap of faith on her part. We've been friends ever since.

I'm so excited for Hairdye, her now fiancé is a fantastic guy, and they are so cute together. They're thinking they'll probably get married in September of 2006, and I wish them all the best!!!!

In other news, I'm in the process of trying to print out the address labels for my save the dates, and frankly that scares me a little. For some reason, printing things like address labels or envelopes is sort of hard for me. I feel like I need to make a leap of faith that they'll actually print the way they're supposed to. It's like sending a fax; I'm always surprised when they actually get through. Hopefully they'll all print out well, and I'll be able to get everything labeled by Friday.

A Heart Shaped Hole Punch

Friday night my wondeful friends came over and helped me to assemble all 140 save the dates we needed to send out. It took us about 5 hours, a half a bottle of wine and a selection of yummy foods from Whole Foods. (btw...I love Whole Foods, it's the only place I can buy anything I like and somehow convince myself it's healthy. Pizza made from whole grain dough and organic cheese and veggies, what more do you really need?)

When I was buying the supplies at Kate's Paperie I found a heart shaped hole punch. Originally I bought it thinking I could use it to make the holes for the ribbon to go through, but it was pointed out to me that 1. Due to the way the hole punch was made, the holes would be upsidedown and 2. Even if they weren't, no one would be able to tell they were hearts with the ribbon stringing through them. Instead, we decided to make one cute little punch in the corner as a decorative accent. It really looks fantastic.

Unfortunately, we ran out of blue ribbon while tying the save the dates together. Currently about a quarter of them are tied with the yellow ribbon, and I'm debating on redoing. I'm not sure yet, because it seems like more work then is really necessary, but the do look a lot cuter with the blue. Plus, I'm a little OCD about things like this, and I worry that if I don't change them, they'll haunt me for weeks.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon...

Originally we came up with a fantastic, cute and creative Save-The-Date idea. We were going to have my cousin design a postcard to look like an old movie poster starring me and Fiance. We'd title the movie "The Wedding" or "The marriage" or something like that. And our faces would have been turned toward each other, and we'd be starting into each other's eyes like Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman do on the poster for "Casablanca." How cool would that have been? But then we got lazy. Or, to be precise, I got lazy. When we divvied up the responsibilities, this was one that I needed to take care of.

And suddenly it was November, and we realized we had absolutely no time to get this done. So instead we decided to go the simpler route. We'd do 2 sheets of paper with a colored backing and tie them together with a ribbon. Since my wedding colors are ocean/sapphire blue bridesmaid dresses with yellow and orange flowers I figured I'd do a blue backing with a yellow ribbon.

I thought it looked fantastic, Fiance did not agree. Neither did his mother or his cousin. We went to Ohio this past weekend, and when Fiance was talking to my mother about the save the date, I was positive she's back me up. Instead I got "Yellow Ribbon, huh... What're you doing, supporting your troops." Now, I am in no way denigrating troop support, but since I don't want my save the dates to make a political statement, I agreed that perhaps I should change the ribbon. Thanks a lot Mom, how come you're always right :)

So tomorrow night, it's off to Kate's Paperie near Union Square for some less political blue or white ribbon.

Purpose of My Blog

So I started this blog mostly so my family living in Ohio can read all about my wedding planning experiences. My mom, my aunts and cousins all ask for updates, and I want to give them all the info I can as quickly as I can, but it never seems to happen. So ladies (you know who you are) this blog's for you :)

Okay, so next on my "To Do" list are the Save-The-Dates. My Maid of Honor (MOH) and one of my bridesmaids have graciously agreed to come over and help me assemble them. So Friday night we're having an exciting evening of paper cutting, hole punching and lots and lots of white wine.