Friday, August 29, 2008

Summer's lease hath all too short a date...or not?

The weather here has lately been flirting with us, foreshadowing the looming seasonal change. Rather than sweat us out and die a slow death, the tail end of summer has turned unseasonably cool, and most recently, overcast. I suppose it’s timely, considering I’ve been in school now for over a week and a half, and the start of school has always, at least for me, traditionally marked the ushering in of all things Autumn.

When it comes to the seasons, I generally consider myself ‘season neutral.’ That is, I enjoy each of the four seasons for its own sake and in its own turn; I do not usually prefer another over the one I’m in. Most of the time. But the onset of Autumn is low tide for this attitude, for it holds so many simple pleasures: vibrant leaves, hay bales, shocks of corn, Halloween, crisp breezes, and hot cider. As such, I welcome all the tale-tell signs. Autumn is at the door! Let it in.

Ok, so maybe it is a little premature to get all worked up about the rites of Autumn. –At least that’s what Heather’s telling me as I write this down. Oh, well, she has a point. Why hurry? Time goes by fast enough as it is. Speaking of which, Heather and I already celebrated our one-month anniversary. I can't believe it. We’re well on our way to the gold. I want to pause and reflect a moment on all that we've accomplished. …Let me see. We have almost spent all the gift card money we received from all the receptions and showers, etc. We’ve almost finished eating the M&Ms (with our names on them) that were passed out at the wedding. Lastly, we’ve almost unpacked everything in our apartment. Well, I would say that’s quite a lot. Oh, and lastly, my part in it all--I remembered the anniversary. Rose, balloon and card. Not bad, huh? I know, I know, I really shoudn't be so modest. That was soooooo thoughtful. Really a nice touch. Way to go!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Wedding Pictures

Here are a few of the many pictures of our wedding taken by our lovely photographer Leslie Powers.
Here we are right after we were married in the DC temple...


In Chesapeake for the reception...

The Weekend

Well I would like to say that we finally got our apartment all put together and organized but our weekend took a little detour. Friday night wasn't too exciting. Ronnie thought it would be fun to have a picnic at a lake. So we determined that the only appropriate thing to have on our picnic would be KFC (or Popeyes...). So off we went to KFC...but there was no KFC. Falls Church has no KFC or Popeyes or Bojangles or.... So we walked around downtown Falls Church for a bit and determined that we wanted to eat at home. We came home, ate dinner and watched Maverick (which I had never seen). So that ended our lovely Friday night. Saturday morning we woke up and decided to take a trip to Farmville, VA. Farmville is about 3 hours southwest of the DC area. Ronnie wants to live in a rural part of Virginia and that is what this was. It was a cute small town. The only pictures we took were in front of Longwood University, which is in their historic downtown. So it was a pretty good trip, considering how spontaneous it was. Maybe next weekend we can finish the apartment.

Monday, August 11, 2008

The way Summer was meant to be...

Wake up whenever you want, go for a refreshing run, shower, eat your favorite junkfood cereal, crank up some country on the living room stereo, and finish reading a good book. Now that’s summer! Believe it or not, that’s how my day started today. It seems too good to be true, and, sadly, I know it can’t last. It’s a brief reprieve. A mere one-week window marking the time between the end of my summer internship with the Fairfax County Attorney’s Office – and all the recent wedding activity – and the start of the fall semester.


When I proposed to Heather during spring break back in March, I never anticipated the flurry of activity that would soon engulf us. To the casual observer, Spring was asserting itself slowly along the expansive network of Northern Virginia hardwood branches. However, in the world of “H & R” things were getting earnest. First there was the planning. Bless Heather’s heart, that’s when she had to do a lot of legwork. To be honest, the most I remember from that phase is giving a lot of affirmative nods while a long series of scenes from bridal magazines were thrust in front of my view. I tried to minimize comment, or, if I did offer verbal critiques of the glossy (overstated) depictions of wedding bliss, I tried to make them ambiguous. Reassuring if possible, but still ambiguous. I knew if I was too eager to voice approval at the first in a series of 100 pictures of reception table settings, I would be accused of picking the first thing to come along in a bid to avoid further ruminations on cutlery and seating arrangements. Of course it would be a hollow accusation. I think I probably did like many of the very first suggestions thrown at me, but I fussed and delayed and appeared as fastidious as possible, for good effect. I think Heather appreciated these genuine efforts. She is at work right now or I’d have her back me up. You may say stereotypical male indifference. I say, “Pshaaw! I’ll have none of that! I'm not beholden to any male mold. I am a sensitive, in-tune, Twenty-first century type of guy. Evolved.” :) ...Well, let’s see, what came next? There was the, ...um, --oh, yeah. The engagement pictures, the sample invitations, the dress selection, oh, and cakes, and favors.... –Actually, you know what? I think my mind’s getting a little fuzzy. Let me switch gears for a second.

I’m sure you’d all really love to hear about how my 1994 Kawasaki, Ninja 600R formed a part of our wedding preparations. I’ve been working on it simultaneously as Heather and I prepared for married life. I went to great lengths to get legal on it here in Virginia. That required riding my sport bike on an obstacle course at the DMV while a grouchy DMV-lady checked boxes on a clipboard and barked orders at me between routines. Talk about pressure. But Heather is worth it. I want to be able to take us for rides around the twisty fall roads outside the city later on. I don’t think Heather fully appreciates these plans yet but I’m doing all I can to warm her up to the idea. The horseback riding thing on our honeymoon kind of fit into that scheme. Admittedly, an animal can be pretty unpredictable at times. But an iron horse, on the other hand, is a smooth running masterpiece of human ingenuity and craftsmanship (or in my case, mass production), and it follows orders very literally. As long as she can trust me, she can trust the machine. No reason for worry. An exultant new hobby we can share together, even after horses get the boot! (Of course there is some added risk with uncontrollable variables like weather, road quality, traffic, and mechanical failures, but surely these are minimal. Breathe easy, Heather.) Will you go for it, Dear? Take as much time as you need to answer. Don’t jump to any hasty conclusions. Before you answer, you should read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” That book played no small role in justifying, in my mind, the decision to buy an old motorcycle off eBay (which has proven rather high-maintenance so far). It’s all about the opportunity for deeper meaning that motorcycle ownership brings: the mixture of visceral experience and personal reflection, the complexity and simplicity of it all, the proverbial freedom and wind rushing through your hair (interrupted only by Virginia’s mandatory helmet law, and the fact that I really have no hair). I ask simply, “What’s not to like?!”

Now that’s what you really wanted to hear about wedding planning, right? Well, notwithstanding what you think, that’s the version you’re getting today. I have to get busy soaking in this wonderful day devoid of court opinions and mandatory deadlines (and I have to walk to the grocery store and get the ingredients for our shish kabob dinner so it’ll be ready when Heather gets home from work at 6:00 pm). What a life! :)

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Honeymoon

Apparently after you are married it is required you start a blog. So we're married. We are back from the honeymoon in Dominican Republic and the reception in Kansas and now real day to day life begins. I'm proud to announce that Ronnie is making my favorite chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies that my mom makes. I like a man that makes me cookies. :) Since he is doing that, I get the pleasure of starting this lovely blog...

The wedding and all the events went great. We have great support from all our friends and family so things went smoothly. The DR was an adventure. We arrived in the Santiago airport and stayed our first night there. The next day we traveled to the north to the Villa Nadine in Punta Rucia were we stayed for the next four nights. Lets just say it was rustic. The "village" had around 300 people and we were staying in the nicest place by far. Everyone lived in little hut type homes and didn't have a/c or running water and rarely had electricity. The Villa Nadine was very nice and open. There were no windows or a/c. It was sort of like camping in style. We had the most beautiful view of the ocean and of the cows that would be herded down the street everyday. While we were there we kept ourselves busy with snokerling, seeing mangroves and manatees, visiting other towns, horseback riding, and visiting historic places where Christopher Columbus landed. So about the horseback riding...I was a little wary of riding a horse and now I know I had every right to be. This was my first time actually riding a horse by myself. Of course I have been on horses at birthday parties or at my Uncle Matt's place when I was younger but I was never on them for long and someone was always holding the reins. So we started our way through Punta Rucia on these horses with our german guide, who didn't speak much spanish or english (which no one spoke english there so that wasn't unusual). In the "guide's" or the "man with the horses" words, my horse was the Beetle and Ronnie's horse was the Ford Mustang. Which my horse was probably the laziest horse ever and he was spooked by everything. He was really spooked when we passed this black stallion and the beetle started jumpin' around and bucking up and neighing and I was scared and got off the horse. Then they wanted me to get back on! Yeah right...I have a hard time putting my life in the hands of a wild beast. So after a few minutes after we passed the stallion, I got back on the horse. I was nervous the whole time we were riding and didn't want anyone to come near me because I thought it would freak out. So after riding, for what seemed like forever, we stopped for a drink and then rode along the beach. Ronnie decided it would be fun to give his horse a little excercise and they galloped away. His horse tripped and they about went toppling over...which was scary to watch. But the horse pulled itself together and then went on trotting. We finally arrived back at the Villa, where my horse was spooked by a gust of wind and I tried to calmly pat its neck and tell him to stop freaking out. So bless all of you that can ride horses...because I'M DONE!! We left Punta Rucia and traveled south to the other end of the island called Boca Chica, just east of Santa Domingo. It was quite the opposite of Punta Rucia. We just happened to arrive on their Father's Day weekend. Our hotel was right on the beach but we couldn't quite get on the beach because of the crowds. TONS of dominicans everywhere. We just relaxed and went to church on Sunday and then Monday we actually got on the beach and spent the whole day there! Needless to say we were burnt by the end of the day and Ronnie ended up with a pair of fake Raybans and buying a $5 coconut...(even tho we were sitting right under a palm tree). Tuesday we left and visited the LDS temple and made our way back to Santiago to catch our plane. We were sad to leave but excited too...I really wanted some American food and fruit (which they have NO fruit there). The places we stayed were not touristy and we probably only saw a couple Americans and maybe a couple more Europeans the whole time we were there. Over all it was an amazing trip and we are glad that we were lucky enough to go.