I remember what I was going to write. My mom booked Scottsdale Bible’s Chapel for October 15! We have a date and a place! And probably a photographer, and maybe a reception place as well, though not for sure…it is really happening; we’re getting married!
I’ve had several people wonder what those gifts that we received are. And I will repeat: I’m not talking about them in a public place! Use your imagination.
Today, I went to www.noverb.com like usual with the thought of posting something in particular. When I arrived, I was shocked to see that it is different colors and I didn’t recognize it at first! Chad has obviously visited. Thanks, Chad. But now I forgot what I was going to write.
We went to Luxembourg this weekend, and then we stopped in Trier (Germany) on the way home. Guess what we saw there? Some Roman ruins, some mideval churches, some cool German people, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the most important part? Steve Urkel’s car! It wasn’t actually HIS car from the show (at least I don’t think it was), but it was that little tiny red and white BMW! You know what I’m talking about, come on! I begged for one, but Chris claims they’re not street legal in the US. We’ll see about that. You can look at it here: http://www.seriouswheels.com/1950-1959/1958-BMW-Isetta-300-Green-po.htm
“Sorry I just bit you. I don’t know what made me do that.”
“That’s okay. Biting is just your natural state.”
“Natural state? You mean like solid, liquid, gas, and biting?”
“Yes.”
Last night, my fellow student teachers orchestrated an engagement party for Chris and me. Jamie called me into her apartment to “look at something,” and when I got in there, she put me in a headlock, put her hand over my mouth, and dragged me outside. The other girls followed, and Donnie and John took care of Chris. I was spirited off to Chili’s (how many people can say they had an engagement party at Chili’s in Germany? Not many, I think.) to have a drink and wait for the guys to show up. Once they did, we ordered dinner, and Chris and I were given gifts that I’m not going to even describe in a public forum. Yeah, just leave it to Donnie to be in charge of something like that, and you will be scared, yeah…Pretty much it was a great night.
“There are two things I basically never stop thinking about: Getting married in October and “News Radio” coming out on DVD in May.” -Chris
To: My Printer
Re: Your Printing Inabilities
If you do not print my lessons this morning sometime before I have to teach them, I will be forced to pour water all over you. Thank you.
“Whoa! I just burped and everything got blurry!”
Here is what may shape up to be a problem: Neither Chris nor I care desperately about any details involving weddings. Chris also happens to be quite indecisive. Here is what will happen: We will be “planning” our wedding, and we will come up with eight thousand purposefully bad options concerning it, but no good ones. For some reason we are much more entertained by listing the tackiest, most cliche, most disgusting options and then laughing maniacally than coming up with anything good.
Some example (from actual conversations occuring in the last week):
1. We could go to Yuma; Topeka, Kansas; or the Florida Everglades for our honeymoon
2. We could have our first dance be to the song, “Black or White” by Michael Jackson
3. We could have children named Juventis, Panda Bear, and Geologist.
Good thing Lori will be there to police decision making sessions is all I can say.
If you’ve grown up in America, or pretty much anywhere in the world but Great Britain, you are conditioned to look left, then right, then left again when you cross the street. You don’t even think about it; you just do it. Not so in Britain. If you look left, then right, then left again, the street will look all clear, but then you will step into the road and nearly be killed by a double-decker bus that is barrelling toward you. After a few near smashings, we just hovered at the edge of the road until no cars were coming from any direction, and the nearest car was in London. That was a much safer plan.
The other day, Chris and I were walking down the streets of Edinburgh, and we saw a man who was attempting to sell CDs on the street, but instead dropped one down the sewer. He just stared forlornly down the sewer for a few minutes while Chris and I laughed discreetly. I mean, we felt sorry for him, but really, he just dropped it down the SEWER, and the staring was probably contemplation of whether or not he should go after it. Well, the next day, the same man approached us in the street and started explaining how he was actually a monk and needed to raise money for some sort of controversial trip that his order wouldn’t fund. So his friend who was an old rock musician made a CD with him and they were selling it to raise money. He ended his story with the offer, “So would you like to help us out and buy some monk rock?” Monk rock?
I figured that while I was in Scotland, I might as well eat Haggis. For anyone who may not know, haggis is the lungs, stomach, and intestines of a sheep cooked in the stomach of said sheep. When I ordered it in the restaurant, the waiter got very excited, and by very, I mean very. He started describing it as “smooth, meaty pudding,” which did not help my nervous stomach. He also said it was a perfect day to eat haggis, given the rain. I then found out that Scots eat haggis every day, and that it also rains every day there. So the haggis arrived at our table, Chris gagged and made a whole bunch of dramatic promises about how he’d never kiss me again once I ate it. So I tasted it, and I found out it was delicious! It was kind of like really smooth meatloaf, and it came with mashed potatoes on top. The moral of this story is: I’ve eaten lung, have you?
Here are some things I’ve realized in the last few days:
1. I’m getting married
2. My name will be something else, which means that:
a. I will have to change a lot of identification documents
b. My email address will no longer be accurate
3. a lot of other things I don’t have time to type because I’m running out of time on this internet cafe computer.
p.s. I am in Scotland
Well, I think I’ve notified a lot of people by phone and email now, and here is the official decree: Chris and I are engaged! He asked me to marry him on Saturday when we were in Paris, and I said something to the affirmative. Here are some responses to the most common questions and comments:
1. We are both so happy.
2. Yes, my ring is pretty much amazing.
3. No, we have no plans whatsoever yet. Except to get married sometime and somewhere.
More later…
“Anthony has a lot of…vocabularical flourishes.”
In a few minutes, I’ll be leaving for the train station. I’m off to France and Scotland and to see Chris and Lori. I don’t think there’s much to say about that. I’m sure you can figure out how I feel about it. 10 days with no kids, in Europe, with Chris and Lori…I’m off!
“People were outside mowing the grass, washing their cars; little kids were riding their bikes in the called-a-sacks.”
In the what? Oh, the cul-de-sacs.
I’ve just been grading some tests on elements of fiction. There are four different types of conflict: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Society. We talked about these in class, I wrote them on the board, we talked about them some more. And then one student writes the following on his test: “The main type of conflict in fiction is Man vs. Dinosaur, like in Jurassic Park.” Brilliant.
I love that my birthday provided me with a generous number of Hot Tamales for two whole weeks! This means I get to sit here during my prep period and work while listening to new CDs, eating Hot Tamales, drinking green tea, and thinking “Only two more days. I can make it through two more days…”
