Gratituesday: Kristin

So you might remember me mentioning my BFF Kristin. Maybe once or twice. She does this thing on her blog called Gratituesday. I thought I'd borrow an electronic page from her book and try it out here.

Today's first Gratituesday is dedicated to...Kristin!

Kristin and I met when we were in the same Girl Scout Troop when we were still in middle school. Don't make the mistake of believing we were outdoorsy women. No. Think more "Troop Beverly Hills" and you'll get a pretty accurate impression of how we operated. Nonetheless, it is where we first met and where a lifelong friendship began.

Kristin did an incredibly touching Gratituesday about me back in July here, and it does a much better job of describing the origins and evolution of our friendship than I ever could. So let me, instead, describe the kind of wonderful person Kristin is.

Kristin is one of the smartest people I know. She is, and always has been, involved in a tremendous amount of things. In college she managed to keep up with an intellectual course load and start an open submissions publication called Call and Response, which is still in operation today. She studied at Oxford University for a year and when she graduated, she didn't slow down. Between working and keeping up with a demanding social life, Kristin began teaching poetry and creative writing, for FREE.

When some of us (i.e. me) were moving back into their parents' houses and floundering, Kristin went full steam forward, moved to Brooklyn, and landed a job at a publishing house. Today she's living in Manhattan, getting her MA in Poetry from a top notch university, and successfully keeping her cat, Virginia Woolf, alive. And now I'm jealous seeing it all written out.

I got to see her read her poetry this weekend, and was struck by how the girl I knew when I was 12 years old has grown into this confident, talented woman. She is constantly an inspiration to me to strive for more and to work at what you love. I don't think she ever slows down. She is taking advantage of every opportunity given to her and leading this amazing life for some one as young as us. And she always has time to text with me when stress is getting to me or when I need advice.

I am incredibly proud of her. My best friend, Kristin, is a poet who will one day be teaching creative writing to a whole new generation of writers and will be standing next to me as my Best Woman this September. I only hope everyone is as lucky as I am to meet their best friend so young and to have a role model/sister/teacher/companion all rolled into one.

So thank you Kristin, for being the best BFF a woman could ask for.

APW Book Signing

So I'm down in NYC for the weekend, visiting my BFF Kristin. She told me that the creator of a blog we both love, A Practical Wedding, was having a book signing at the B&N in Park Slope for her new book of the same name, and I just had to come down for it. Her blog features post by women and men trying to survive the wedding planning process in the most sane way they know how to. The articles tackle a lot of the cultural and moral dilemmas that can emerge when planning a wedding, and I have spent many a night laughing and crying over them.

We started the day off by having brunch at Lido in Harlem. I had the french toast and Kristin had the eggs with meatballs and we both took advantage of their bottomless mimosas. At around 12:10pm we walked out a little less sober and made our way to Brooklyn, which took longer than expected. It probably felt even longer than expected as the mimosas began to reach our bladders. We made it, though, and were treated to a wonderful talk by Meg Keene, who was shorter than I expected.

The after party was held at High Dive and we were given tickets for the taco truck out front, drink specials on Yuengling, and gluten free cucpcakes! Saturdays are my cheat day (BTW, I've lost 10lbs so far, so yay!), so I didn't feel bad about any of those calories. On top of some amazing food and drink, I got to speak to some of the most awesome people around. Everyone there was a fan of APW and we all pretty much have the same outlook on weddings. Men and women I've never met before spoke to me like old friends. We were all high on the excitement that maybe we can create weddings that stay true to us, and not play into the "Wedding Industrial Complex".

So now I have some new twitter friends and I'm definitely feeling a lot better about some of the decisions I've made, and will be making in the future. At some point in the near future I'm sure I'll make a whole post ranting about the things I hate about wedding planning, but tonight I'll just say that I'm so glad there's a community of people out there talking about the issues and hopefully outweighing the voices on theknot.com and Bridezillas. Cheers and good night.

A Sad Ghost Of What Once Was

I just wrote this amazing blog post about all of the wonderful wedding things we've done in the past week or so, and it all just got deleted. So I'm going to give a quick recap, as my heart is a little bit broken.

1) We booked our DJ! Yay! We Skyped with John from Music Speaks Volumes, and were totally sold. All of the reviews online give the company 5 out of 5 stars and he was super nice. Downside, the photobooth was booked. But we booked with him anyway, and now my crazy DJ-less wedding nightmares have ended.

2) Aprill and I went out to find a bridesmaid dress we had seen online, and instead settled on something completely different. The Bridal Gallery by Yvonne didn't have the Bari Jay dress we were looking for, but when Aprill tried on a different dress by the same designer, I was blown away. All of the ladies will look gorgeous in it and I think they're all pleased that I've finally come to a decision.

3) Mike and I had our engagement photos taken today by Amy Hedges. She's fantastic. My friend Lisa tipped me off to her work and I am eternally grateful. Amy has taken some beautiful pictures in the Empire State Plaza here in Albany, and I decided that's where I wanted our pictures taken. Unfortunately it was so damn cold outside. We opted for fashion over function and didn't bundle up well enough. She had us in some great poses, but even moving around, we couldn't feel our toes after an hour. Highlight, though, is that we got in some shots with our Harry Potter wands. And we got Mike into a pair of ice skates for the first time in his life. He is truly wonderful.

So I'm sad you all missed out on my witty and creative previous blog post, but there will be time for more of that in the future. I leave you all with a picture that sums up who will be making the rest of my wedding decisions.

Two New Members to the Family

Well, we're 8 days into the new year and already I have updates on all three things mentioned in my introductory post. Let's start with the most exciting news...CATS! Yesterday afternoon my fiance Mike's aunt and uncle dropped off two cats for us to adopt. The cats had previously belonged to their daughter whom could no longer take care of them in her current living situation. So we reaped the benefits!

Above is Saber. He's kind of a lazy butt, but he's a great cuddler. So soft. He looks just like a cat my parents and I had when I was little.

And this darling is Diamond. She's a cutie and very active. When we take the laser pointer out, she goes CRAZY! With her coloring, she blends right into the rug.

Mike, who had never had a cat growing up, was hesitant about adopting one cat, much less two. I had a cat when we met, but my poor kitty passed away in October and hadn't really been a prime example of normalcy. So I think that he was on the fence about them until the first one purred in his arms. And then he was theirs. Now he just needs to learn how to sleep with cats walking all over the bed.

Second piece of exciting news, I lost 3 pounds! It's not much, but I have been ultra vigilant with my protein intake and drinking lots of water. And as my BFF Kristin says, this means I've accomplished 10% of my goal. So yay! I haven't done any exercising yet. I'd love to be able to run, but it's dark in the morning when I get up, and it's dark when I get home, and I just can't seem to drag myself to a gym that will be crowded with new-year-resolutioners, like me. I'll keep on with the dieting and see how far it takes me.

Third piece of news isn't really exciting, but worth mentioning; I went to a wedding show at the hotel we're getting married at. The plan was to go in, sample some food (and wedding cake), speak to some DJ's, and hopefully come out with some idea of what we want. Well, we definitely ate some food. The hotel had a sampling of all the food that will be available at the weddings there (aka ours), so we were able to confirm that there will be some kick-ass food at this shindig. As for the DJ portion, it was a bit overwhelming. A lot of people trying to sell you a lot of things.

We're getting married in September, which apparently is the new August, and everyone is booking up fast. So the pressure is on. I work very well under pressure. Unfortunately I'm also a Class 1 procrastinator, and I had hoped to get the DJ booked two months ago, around the same time that we booked our photographer. I always had an excuse not to. So now is really the time to book some one, but there were just so many people there and it was so loud and I just wanted to crawl into my coat and pretend that we have 13 months until the wedding rather than just under 9. We ended up making a Sykpe appointment with a DJ who includes music, lighting, and a photobooth. We (I) really want a photobooth. But I'm also freaked out about not seeing a these DJ's in actions. What if they play sucky music? What if they talk waaaay too much? What if they don't play our correct wedding song and introduce us as Matthew and Shelia? Ahhh!!! And these are the nightmares I have.

Taking a step back, I do realize that while these are legitimate concerns, they're not the most important things I can worry about. I'm all about online reviews, so I'll do my research and see what the masses have to say. Right now I want to focus on fun stuff, normal life and wedding life alike. I've already had a mini feakout over the guest list (How did a list of 150 end up over 170?), so relaxing seems like a good option. Time for some cat therapy!

I Have a Blog

The year 2012 is going to be a big one for me, so I've decided to blog about it. How so, you ask? Well, I plan on losing about 30 pounds. I will be adopting two cats for the first time in my life. Oh, and I'm getting married. It's really the cats I'm excited about, though.

All kidding aside, I thought having a blog to document this year, and perhaps the years to come, would serve as a great piece of nostalgia later down the road when the cats are old and my marriage is settling comfortably into itself. Apparently I have a knack for run-on sentences, so anyone crazy enough to read this will have to deal with my blatant disregard for the English language.

I think stating my goals for this blog would be a good thing. I don't really know what those goals are, though. I'd like to talk about some wedding stuff. Advice is gladly welcome, on the grounds that I may ignore anything that I don't like or sounds too hard. I'd also like to document how the weight loss is going. I find that when I hold myself accountable to a high power, I tend to get things done. So interwebs, you will be my higher power. Oh, aren't you lucky? And lastly I'd like to post tons of pictures of the cats. You're welcome in advance.

Do I start with a little bit about myself? Who's really reading this, anyway? Well, for starters I'm a girl. Female. Woman. Chick. Whatever floats your boat. I like being a woman. I'm pretty proud to be a woman, considering there weren't too many other options and I didn't really have a choice in the matter. That said, I get angry as a woman and that will most likely come out from time to time. And no, that won't mean that it's "that time of the month".

I'm 25, I live in upstate NY, but have a lot of roots downstate. I came up here for college and never left, which seems to be the same story you hear a lot around these parts. It's not like I always dreamed of living in the paradise that is the Capital Region of NY, but it's not terrible. I met my fiance up here about 2 years ago, so I really have to believe that everything happens for a reason.

I chose the name "The Hungry Nerd" for this blog because at the moment I am incredibly hungry for dinner, but I'm waiting for my fiance to come home from work to make a decision as to what healthy choice we'll be making tonight. We both started dieting at the first of the year to be healthy, but mostly to look smoking hot for the wedding in September. The "nerd" part comes from the fact that I have been a self-acclaimed nerd since I was in high school and I'm pretty proud of that fact. Chances are that there will be times on this blog that I go all fangirl over some obsession or other that is so not considered cool. I'll try to make these raving posts sound intelligent, but they will most likely come out as jumbles of crazy rants and punctuations.

There will be times when this blog will most likely serve as a venting place, a soapbox, a temple of worship to the gods of fandom, an event planner, and services yet to be discovered. I'd really like to keep it up and at the very least, post at least once a week for the next year. That's my short term goal. After that, we'll see where this goes.

Happy reading, you brave, brave souls.