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Friday Five: I do believe the worst is behind us

By on January 4, 2013 in I love Disney, I love the Internet, Wandering Minstrel

Happy Friday! it seems like my seeping illness of the past week is finally lifting. My appetite is coming back so I baked some chocolate chip cookies tonight. It’s going to be nice just puttering around the apartment this weekend and breathing without chemical assistance. Our Christmas tree is still up and I’m fine with that.

Here’s the Friday Five! This week’s theme is: I do believe the worst is behind us.

1. What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done in the past six months?
I got married on July 5.

2. What recently could qualify as a happy accident?
Disney discounted room rates yesterday for the time we have our next trip planned. After an hour’s wait on the phone, BOOM! We saved 30% on the room!

3. When did you last experience Buyer’s Remorse?
Five months and 29 days ago.

(rimshot)

Kidding! Back in March I went to get my hair cut at a swank-a-doo local salon. The cut was…okay. But even though I told the stylist that I don’t spend lots of time on my hair each day, the style required lots of product (which I bought) and precise blowing out to maintain. If I didn’t dry my hair all the way and kept it wavy, the layers looked weird and chewed up. I’ve spent the last 8 months growing it out enough so that I can get the last layer lopped off and still maintain a decent length. The loppening is coming.

And I had gift cards, so it wasn’t even money out of my own pocket.

4. In what way do people keep underestimating you?

I know how to operate a computer.

5. What have you got in your pocket?

Change from lunch (Coconut Thai curry soup from the cafeteria — thanks TM for the lunch tip!) and an expired SEPTA transfer.

Today is Scrivener’s birthday. He’s the intelligent dude behind the Friday Five questions each week. Happy birthday, Scrivener! He’d like for us to quote a lyric from our favorite recent song for him so here goes:

We could close the curtains
Pretend like there’s no world outside

And we could pretend it all the time
Can’t you see that it’s just raining?
Ain’t no need to go outside
–Banana Pancakes, Jack Johnson

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Stupid Beading Tricks: Sorting

By on September 3, 2012 in I have hobbies, I make jewelry, Wandering Minstrel

I haven’t managed to create ONE stupid thing since before the wedding. I blame married life for sapping away all of my creativity. And the more I look at beading sites and Pinterest, the more I think I’m a talentless hack.

So to reacquaint myself with my beads, I decided to clean up my trays. Meaning, sort them by color. Every. Bead.

Fact: Every Facebook status is funnier if you fit in the word “slobbering.”

It’s taken me about 2 1/2 weeks, but I’m finished. And I now have 5 color trays instead of 4. :)

Purple, blue, green & yellow

Red, pink, orange, brown

Black, white, and 3 shades of gray.

***
WM heads back to school tomorrow. I’m very thankful and grateful that he has a job to go back to. This is in mostly due to Governor Pancakes-(R) frightening a bunch of teachers into retirement. My feelings on this are very mixed. Because we knew he had a job to go back to, our summer was laid-back and worry free. If you’re keeping track, this was our first worry-free summer. Here’s to many more.

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Yes, I’m still married!!

By on August 5, 2012 in I live in New Jersey, Kim 4.0, Wandering Minstrel

Whoa. I blinked and July flew by. What happened in July?

1) We got married.

The lovely wedding photos were taken by Douglas Bovitt. Douglas did a masterful job at making two pasty gaming misanthropes look human. “Look like you’re happy” he kept saying…it worked!

Going to the courthouse and we’re gonna get married…

It was a lovely little affair on July 5th (one month ago!) at 8:30 am at the Cherry Hill courthouse (because my current town only does weddings on Wednesdays and Wednesday was July 4 and I was a doof and planned the honeymoon before I set a wedding date. The judge performed a lovely ceremony, and inserted much more than the “do you? do you? okay” that I expected. He added in a phrase about letting go of the past, embracing the present and moving into the future that brought tears to my eyes.

Behind this door is a courtroom full of traffic court perps.

Interesting highlights included someone asking us if we were there to pay a fine as we waited, fully dressed, inside the municipal building hallway, and the half-hearted round of applause from the people waiting in the gallery as we exited the judge’s chambers.

Ok…one more photo…

Who knew outside the Cherry Hill courthouse would be so pretty?

So again, if you are looking for South Jersey wedding photography (see what I did there, SEO peeps?) Douglas Bovitt is your guy.

2) We went to Walt Disney world. (yes, again. shush)

It was 95 degrees and 90% humidity at the time this picture was taken. I’d have left the ears on all day, but the sweat was starting to trickle down the sides of my face.

We stayed in a newly-renovated room at Port Orleans: Riverside and ate at Le Cellier, San Angel In, Sci-Fi Cafe, and Tony’s Town Square. All meals were phenomenal. And as an added bonus the entire continent of South America sent its teens to Walt Disney world in gigantic,.clapping tour groups to cheer on our honeymoon. Gracias.

3) I celebrated my 6-month anniversary at TNP.

No pictures for this, but I am still very happy there. Do you know I haven’t even had a cold since I left the C-P in January? WM has a cold now though, so I’ll probably be getting one in 3 days.

4. I’m changing my name. (again, again)

It’s frighteningly easy to get a name changed on your Social Security card. My new one came in the mail in just 5 days. I had to wait 90 minutes at the DMV to get my driver’s license changed.

Thank you very much for your kind comments on my last jittery post. We appreciate them all. Sometimes I click “Publish” on this doofy blog and sort of forget that there are people who take time out of their busy day to check in on my ramblings. I appreciate all of you, commenters & lurkers alike.

5. I will be continuing to blog.

So how many of you thought I’d end this endeavor with the remarriage?

(raises hand)

I was going to wrap it up then, because it’s been almost 10 years of rambling. But in my 4 weeks away, I missed this place.

Next on my list of 2012 changes — my 40th birthday next month. Bring it.

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I believe in second chances

By on July 5, 2012 in Kim 4.0, Wandering Minstrel

Today I get married again.
–
A man deserves a second chance, but keep an eye on him. – John Wayne
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To make a long story short, WM has been wanting this for years, and I’ve been hemming and hawing. Today that ends.
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If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down. – Mary Pickford
–
It’s going to be small and quick, yet I felt the need to buy a cream colored dress, to have a bouquet, to foof up my hair, to wear Crest whitestrips, and to indulge in Mom’s “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” request. (She didn’t accept myself as the “old.”)
–
We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. – Harrison Ford
–
I can’t lie. I’m a bit terrified about the whole thing. For the longest time, I felt like because I failed my first marriage, I didn’t deserve another shot. I didn’t deserve the attention, the gifts, the well-wishes. I mean, I ruined the sanctity of marriage once already, right?
–
All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else. – Mae West
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That self-pity ends this morning. I’m going to do this again, and I’m going to give it every ounce I have.
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If you ever get a second chance at life, you’ve got to go all the way. – Lance Armstrong
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So at 8:30 this morning, all dozen of you, could you send WM and I some good positive vibes and prayers? Whichever is your thing. If none of those is your thing…play the awesome beginning of Welcome to the Jungle in your head. Dun-na-na-nuh! Dun-na-na-nuh!
–
For, behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. Solomon 2:11-13
–
And thus, the era of Kim 4.0 begins.

(Edited on 1/25/13: Six and a half months after I quoted Lance Armstrong above, he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs and lying for decades about it. Hopefully my marriage won’t need performance enhancing drugs.)

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