Dress Shopping

On Saturday my mom and I are going shopping for my wedding dress.

I'm actually slightly dreading it. I remember my sister went shopping for hers, and since I'm going to the same place I imagine the experience will be the same. It was a bunch of women milling around in a highly pastel place, with chirpy salespeople and loud mothers and things that cost about five times more than they should. At least my sister had her dress all picked out already - I'm gonna have to go hunt for mine.

This is, of course, preferable to what I witnessed when my friend Erica went shopping our our bridesmaid dresses. There were occasionally women who were in the shop looking for bridal gowns when we were there, and they stood on a little platform in front of a three-way mirror while everyone ooh'ed and ahh'ed.

I don't want ooh's and ahh's. I don't want to be the center of attention.

I don't even know what size I am, for cripes' sake.

Maybe it'll be more fun than I'm anticipating. Maybe dressing up in all that stuff will be different than I'm thinking it will be.

Of course, the most fun of all would be showing up at the church in this. If it wasn't for my very real fear that Mike's mom would have a heart attack, I'd be tempted to try it.

First Day

Today I started my new job at a nursing home. It was supposed to be my summer job, really, but they were so desperate for people that I agreed to pick up a few afternoons a week to help out. But I can already see that what I agreed to - four or six hours a week - is going to explode into something much bigger.

It was a hard first day. I misunderstood paperwork, didn't move fast enough, couldn't get myself organized, and asked questions. A lot of questions. The woman helping me out has an accent that's tough to understand so I kept getting confused, and by the end of our time together it was pretty clear that she thought I was rather dim. It was hard.

I met three patients, and they were the bright spot of the whole experience. One especially sweet man was a cancer patient who's slowly dying. I woke him up from a nap to test him, but after he got over his grogginess it was apparent that he was slightly confused, but happy for the attention. At the end of the test I gave him a drink of water and said, "There, how did that taste?"

"Pretty," he replied, "Just like you."

I smiled. "Well, I want to start giving you softer foods for the time being, and we can try some exercises to see if you get stronger and swallow better. How does that sound?"

"Good," he said softly.

"So you gonna let me come pester you some more?" I joked.

He grinned widely. "Please," he said.

I know better than to think that he's excited to be recieving speech therapy. I'm sure he just likes the attention. But it was nice to be appreciated a little bit.

Plug

Who wants to listen to my boy's band?

Yeah, I knew you did!

The Scarring Party, the band Mike plays bass for, is going to be on the radio at 8 PM American central time tomorrow evening (Tuesday!). If you'd like to tune in, you can listen online at WMSE's website. They'll be playing some stuff, doing some talking, and having fun. Also, they do not play death metal, despite what the band name implies.

If you miss the broadcast but would still like to check out their music, they have mp3s available for you listening pleasure on their MySpace site, as well as their website.

Go listen!

Wedding Photos

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Originally uploaded by Lucky Haskins.

I had a big entry planned out, but I can't quite say what I want to. So instead, here's a picture I took yesterday at Mike's cousin's wedding. The reception was at the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, so Mike and I spent some time on the balcony looking at the city. You can click on the picture too to see the rest of the photos I took. Enjoy!