cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

As far as letting Downwood know that I love him, today is just an ordinary day. Granted, we're planning on making a fairly complicated and delicious dinner to celebrate, but there's not a whole lot about the calendar date that forces us to remind each other how lucky we are to have found each other and the love that we live every day. Yeah, things are a little rough right now, but we're still far stronger by far when we're together than not.

Also, it's Half Price Chocolate Day Eve! Thankfully, the alien sprog is starting to let me eat sweet things again, so I'm going to clean up at Walgreen's before tomorrow's Day O' Social Stuff.

In no particular order...

I am thankful for my husband. He is steady when I need it and silly the rest of the time. He watches football with me and doesn't look at me funny when I start cursing out my team and mocking the other team. Even when I'm crabby and stressed, he still treats me like I'm precious and amazing. He deals with my crazy daily and still loves me anyway.

I'm thankful for my dog. She has very little brain, but she's very cute and sort of loyal - if you have bacon or turkey, she'll be your best friend until it's gone. She's also a cuddlebug and makes me smile every day.

I am very thankful for my family. Looking around, I am struck by how lucky I am with my family. We are supportive, loving, and occasionally drunken. I know that part of our harmony comes from not living in very close vicinity, but we're still close. Tomorrow my dad and brother are coming up for the weekend, so I may not be thankful for family by Sunday night, but them's the breaks.

I am thankful that I have a job that I can tolerate. It has good insurance and good pay so that I can do the things I love outside of work. I am very thankful that Downwood has a job that he totally adores.

I'm thankful for my new car! We bought a new Subaru Outback on Monday and I'm in love with it! It handles like a dream and has enough room for all our stuff and maybe even another greyhound.

I am thankful for our friends. They're the family that we chose and the family that we're building here. I am fortunate to know so many creative, talented, crazy, and wonderful people. I'm not very good at keeping up with people who I don't see on a daily/weekly basis, but I still consider y'all friends. Also, you give me a good reason to go nuts with making cookies. Watch this space for details.

I'm very, very thankful that I could keep listing out the things that I'm thankful for until it's time to either go to work or call in sick (picked up a cold from someone in the last couple days). This list could go on for pages and pages. Just knowing that I couldn't possibly count all of my blessings makes me even more thankful for them.

Two years ago Downwood and I got dressed up and stood in front of our friends and family to create a new family of our own. So far, this has been the best decision we've made.

Hee! Married!

I'd had a bad day at work. Several more projects were dumped on me, more people demanding my time, code that didn't want to behave, and my cute sandals gave me the usual blister. I was talking to Downwood on GTalk just before leaving for dance class. He heroically tried to cheer me up, convince me that I'm not stupid, ugly, worthless, or fat, and be a snarky support.

So, being a little unreasonable, I asked if he would go buy me a copy of Diablo II (my illegal copy vanished in the move and hasn't resurfaced) and install it on my laptop before I got home.

He agreed. We spent the evening beating the crap out of various undead and demon hordes. This is exactly what I needed.

Now to get him a copy of the expansion disc so that we can multi and I can go back to playing assassin class...

Yesterday a friend asked me, "So, how's married life treating you?"

My eloquent response was, "Hee! Married!"

She said, "It's been a year, you're not supposed to be that excited about it."

"I knooow, but it's still kind of shiny..."


And that's really how it's been. There have been ups and downs, forwards and backwards, and a couple instances of sideways. We have good and bad days, but the good vastly outnumber the bad. I get to sleep next to him every night and talk to him every day. He's my best friend and the person who counts for the fewest People Points of anyone.

I love him very, very much. I know that he loves me just as much back. He listens, hugs, and does whatever he can to make my life easier and happier and he loves my dog.

So happy 1st anniversary, Downwood! Love you bunches!

Our living room has been filled with gifts from our friends and family. We are related to and friends with some incredibly crazy and generous people. The kitchen's going to need emptied and rearranged, but when we put the new dishes and "stuff" away, it'll be OUR stuff - not his, not mine, but ours. (squee!)

Though I was very tempted, I did not kill my mother this past weekend. We did lock the door on the room I was hiding in before the ceremony, but since we were letting The Band in, she snuck in anyway. She was mostly on good behavior, but she's still my mom and still batshit loco in her insistence that I strive for her ideals.

Everything went so well yesterday. We looked wonderful, the flowers turned out to be so much nicer than I'd expected, our families all got along, no one fell down or got hurt, and nothing went horribly wrong. My uncle's homily made me cry, as did getting a hug from my stepfather during the sign of peace. I got a little nervous when Downwood seemed to not want to give me the ring, but he snapped out of his reverie quickly enough.

Our photographer utterly rocked. She was wonderful about taking pictures without taking over. Because Downwood and I would be seeing each other before the ceremony, she set up a picture in front of one of the stained glass windows so that we could have a moment together before the insanity. She also suggested that we take the wedding party out for a drink in between the ceremony and reception. Those 15 minutes in the upper room of the Brocach were absolutely wonderful.

The reception was a hell of a party. The food was good, the champagne was good, and the cake was sinful. Our DJ seemed a little flaky, but the band was back together and we broke the dance floor. Both my sister's toast and my stepfather's words made me cry. I got to polka with my aunt, hear stories from my friends, and I'm never going to be able to listen to Jack Johnson's Better Together without smiling and thinking of our first dance.

Today, I cried a couple more times: reading the card that my mom gave us, looking at the Bible that my grandmother gave us, the words in the card that a good friend gave us, watching my father-in-law drive off with my dog (he's keeping her while we go on our trip next week), and now as I try to drag my brain back over the last 36 hours and I'm struck anew by how much emotion's been crammed into such a small span of time.

But my husband is bringing me a tissue and some tea and I know that I'm the luckiest person on the planet.

Me: *reads Gaiman's blog*clicks a link*
Me: Oh, bwahahahahaha!
Him: *waits for me to send him the link*
Him: Oh. my. god.
Me: Isn't it great?!?!
Him: And they spell "tarot" in semaphore.
Me: Bwa-huh?
Him: The flag guys at the bottom of the page. They spell t-a-r-o-t in semaphore.
Me: *blinks in astonishment*
Me: I am so blogging this.


I don't want to know why he knows the semaphore alphabet. If you lived with him, you wouldn't want to know, either.

Today has been a good day for resolutions.
( On happiness in the home )( On bridal showers )( On the ending of drama )( On painting )

So Downwood's flipping channels this evening and comes across HBO's Elizabeth I. I start examining the clothing, drooling over the fabrics, and lusting after the time, skill, and materials to make such beautiful creations. I attempted to explain my fascination to Downwood.

Me: "Ooh! Look! Her sleeves are set in with cartridge pleating!"
Him: "That's...nice?"
Me: "And that's such a nice line on that doublet. I wonder if they quilted it first and who is that amazing piece of jailbait?"
Him: "Wait, what?"
Me: "Him! Who is the hot young man with dark curls needing to be tousled? And the puppy dog eyes! And the overwhelming RAWR!"
Both of us: IMDB

Why did no one tell me of the extreme hotness that is Hugh Dancy? RAWR! And he's even legal! Yay!

Tonight after work, I got to take an extremely excited doggy for a walk. Then, we went and saw the place where we'll be having our wedding reception. Then, I got to do the Happy Sushi Dance at dinner. Then, I got to soak in a tub full of Lush's Christmas Kisses. Then, I get to sit here, eat half-priced chocolates, drink tea, and listen to the Olympics. Tonight's been a VERY good night.