Thursday, November 13, 2008

Four years ago today...

I have written this story before, but it was on my old blog, which is now gone, so I'm writing it again, the highlights as they have remained in my brain 4 years later.

Four years ago today, I woke up on the pull-out sofa in the ante-room of my parents' hotel room, somewhat hung over from a great rehearsal dinner at this fabulous Italian restaurant in the theater district, the name of which I'm blanking on right now.

Everyone staying in the hotel gathered for brunch. I was not overly emotional until my grandma presented me with her own engagement ring that she had received in 1928. I started crying then and was on the verge of tears for the next 24 hours. In a good way, I assure you. I wear this ring every single day and I love it so much.

My bridesmaids and I went to get our hair and nails done. I had my heart set on having my hair down and curly, but the dude said that would not be advisable on a cold November day. I appreciate that it was out of my face, but I'm still a little sad that it was not down.

At Alger House (in the west village, best wedding venue ever), my mom showed us how to tie bows on the chairs and we all worked on those while her friends set up flowers around the room. A dear friend of the family showed up from Virginia, with the cake she had baked for us in her backseat. I always loved her desserts and her family, so it was a very wonderful gift and one of my favorites that we received.

The bridesmaids and I got dressed upstairs and the guests began to arrive. Lots of guests coming from NJ were stuck in tunnel traffic and missed the entire ceremony, especially because the ceremony was so short. Our minister forgot to call up my mom's oldest friend (who I call aunt) and my dad's youngest brother for the readings. We recessed to the Star Wars throne room song and went upstairs to sign the official stuff. We came back down and did the two readings plus a speech by my dad while the three of us stood on the stairs. I really liked doing it that way, actually. A lot of people assumed we'd planned it that way, which was just fine.

Our first dance was to All You Need Is Love. That was a damn difficult song to dance to, but we pulled it off. Whenever I hear it, I get a little misty-eyed. I never thought of it as an overly romantic song until we danced to it at our wedding.

Those are the main highlights. Click on the photo to see the rest of the set. Everyone looked so great and I honestly believe that everyone had a really good time, too. My mom looked gorgeous in her green dress. And all my bridesmaids looked fabulous in the black dresses of their choice. My dad and Jeff looked extra dapper in their tuxes.

Here's to four great years and to 40+ more! I love you, Ponty.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

For Catie

As soon as I published the last entry, I found out that my friend Catie's cat, Peter, had been hit by a car and was killed. Less than two weeks ago, another one of her cats, Roo, died of old age. I cannot even imagine what she must be going through right now. Even though I did not know these cats very well in person, I know that they meant everything to her. They were both gorgeous and full of personality and they will be very much missed by many, many people.

Elizabethan cat

The problem with not blogging for a month is good lord where do you even begin again. I don't have the slightest idea where I even left off. Hold on, let me go check...

Right. So, a month later and Booie is still wearing the collar. Well, for a week or two in there, she wore a black and white striped dog shirt. But that was not ideal as the issue was that one section of her incision, under her armpit, was remaining moist and not healing up properly. The shirt was just exacerbating that problem and making it even harder for the wound to breathe.

She's worn the collar ever since. She's gotten used to it, as much as she could. At one point, after most of the stitches had been removed, a small hole in the incision re-opened and fluid continued to dribble out, which was pretty gross. The vet assured me it was what her body wanted to do, so he allowed the hole to remain open for a week and then he put some little stitches in, which somehow got pulled out within 24 hours (or possibly they just disolved too quickly), so it stayed open another week. The vet said not to worry, it was all part of the process.

Last week he put in two staples. I have high hopes of them coming out this week and the cone coming off. The cat is getting rather greasy, as I'm sure she knows. She needs a bath. And I'm tired of being head butted at 3am by the cone. And I'm no longer laughing at the sound like whisking she makes when she scratches at the plastic cone with her hind leg.

Booie has never been one to appreciate being picked up. I pretty much never picked her up, except on the rare occasion after returning from a trip when I'd grab her and give her a hug and then she'd make a pitiful noise and I'd put her down. I've had to pick her up a bunch lately and have had to negotiate an open wound which I didn't want to touch if I didn't have to (so as not to hurt her). I have developed a technique of wrapping my arms around her and then sliding one underneath her so she's standing on it. This way I don't have to put any undue pressure on her underside. Surprisingly, she has gotten used to being picked up this way and doesn't really resist.

Otherwise, it has been 6 weeks since the surgery and there are no lumps that the vet can feel at this time.

I also turned 33. Jeff took me to Baltimore for an overnight and we saw The Decemberists and they were just as good as the last time we saw them. It was a few days after the election and same as the last time we saw them, they had the audience sing "hear all the bombs fade away" over and over and I don't know why, but that just really gets me, especially this time, when we were so full of new hope.

I haven't spent any quality time in Baltimore since approximately 1994. It's quite charming, actually. There is a good beer bar there called Brewer's Art.