Living In the World, Not on It

Just a quick note: I want to thank my boyfriend for helping me write some of these questions. After a crappy day, I really needed help with questions ... 1) If you were forced to live for a year in a shopping mall, a museum, or a zo o, which would you choose and why? Oh, the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan. Without a doubt. It has everything - decent food, all those cool weight measurements for e ach planet and moon, goodies in the shops, a year there would be fun! 2) If there was a male version of Victoria's Secret, what would you think it should be called? Hmmmm. John's Open Viewing. Men probably couldn't keep sexual conquests and weird under garments a secret, ha, ha! 3) My boyfriend says he wants Weezer's song "Death and Destruction" played at our wedding. What would be a song you'd never expect to hear played at a wedding? Anything by Eminem. Not romantic... unless you're really angry. 4) If your brain worked like a cell phon...

I'm delighted and happy to know that finally people can get married in New York no matter what gender the bride and groom, bride and bride or groom and groom (or however one wishes to phrase it) may be! Finally, a state that understands and bestowed its blessings on all couples. It has only taken far too long for this to happen. California, which appeared to be a modern and open-minded state, began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in June 2008 and then repealed that in November 2008, thanks to Proposition 8, which labeled marriage as a union between one man and one woman. I used to think highly of the state of California until that happened. How stupid is that? But New York has turned around and made it possible for couples - regardless of same-sex or not - to take vows, walk down the aisle, or whatever they wish in order to legalise their union. And I say, "Yahoo! for New York and same-sex couples!" I have always felt very strongly for this and it is none o...

Welcome to Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: White Wedding 1. Tell us about the most recent wedding you attended. Wow... who's was the most recent wedding I've attended? Oh, yes, I know! It was a coworker's wedding - mine, for a refreshing change, not one of Luis' - and it was in 2009. They were married on a boat and was wonderful - romantic, sweet and the best music! 2. Do you enjoy attending weddings, or do they bore you to tears? Most weddings do bore me to tears. What can I say? The standard, usual wedding is boring and except for ...

I setup the TiVO to record the Royal Wedding. Why not? I watched a fair amount of the 1981 wedding of Di and Prince Charles, but there was no recording device then - At least we didn't have one then, so I was laying in bed listening to the cast of the wedding. England is five or six hours ahead of us, so I am not getting up at 0400 just to hear the people staffing E! speculating for an hour on what Kate Middleton will be wearing. (Little tip: she will be wearing a wedding dress. Anything else is just gravy.All this fuss because no one's seen the dress yet!) I remember Di's dress, this unbelievably fluffy nightmare with something completely ridiculous like a 30-foot train. Why? I suspect she was dying to get out of that thing. I wouldn't have gotten in it, but it's tough to know if she was pushed to pick an over the top Disney Princess dress or if she really had such poor taste. I don't mean to knock her fashion sense - normally she looked very natty all the time...

Your Personal Style: Classic and elegant. You prefer to make a statement with a few quality pieces. Your Ideal Wedding: Traditional and formal, but not tacky. You think the most beautiful weddings are understated. Your Philosophy on Marriage: It's a serious commitment, and the couple entering it should be ready to work for their relationship. Your Perfect Marriage: Is calm, stable, deep, and meaningful. My Thoughts: Well, I will accept the first point, that's fine. I tend to be a little odd, but of the six images shown, there wasn't a Renaissance-style dress in there, so this was the best of the lot. I hate tiered dresses, I would not consider a pants-suit (for anything), I'm not one for sheath dresses and not merely due to my girth, and the other one was... was... hold on... a big bell look and one that was full from just under the breasts down. Yikes. Points 2 and 3 are good for describing me. I always tell people that relationships are hard work but the payoff is ama...

I feel funny about this. So, naturally, I want to share it with my fellow bloggers. In yesterday's mail I received a big card and had that hideous, sinking feeling... a wedding invitation. They are unmistakable and dreaded by those like me, who don't understand the need for an oversized, overdone party to get married. But I realise that there I am in a small minority. Well. I realised after a moment that I needn't have worried. It pertains to a wedding, yes, but it is most definitely not an invitation. In the big envelope, ironically addressed only to me (?), there was a white card with a filmy bit of vellum over it and a black and white photo. On the vellum, printed in black, it reads: "From this day forward, You shall not walk alone. My Heart will be your shelter. And my arms will be your home. Big space, to the bottom... "When children find true love, Parents find true Joy." It is with the greatest joy that we announce the marriage of our children: (B...

I haven't seen a single "Groomzilla" so I would have to imagine that this is a form of insanity that is strictly for women. Men can't understand the big thing about weddings and quite honestly, neither can I. (My friend Daniela, who is very much like me in things like this, can't understand it, as well.) Bridezillas are an industry-wide term among wedding planners to refer to women who turn into absolutely evil wretched monsters like Godzilla that have to have everything just right , get involved in every little bit of minutae, torture their fiances, friends and family (and sometimes the wedding planner) and ay far, far more money than I would even consider for a lifetime of parties, forget just one. I always maintained that our wedding, should we ever decide to go that route, which seems unlikely, would have a guest list about 20 people long. One bridesmaid, one groomsman. A place to have dancing and a nice dinner. No religious stuff, a JP (justice of the peace) ...

When it comes to most human mating (or worse, non-mating "love" rituals) I am at a complete and total loss. I fail to understand why people - especially women - get so worked up over this. Clearly I'm out of touch with the rest of the world - I've never heard of a "save the date" thing. What is the point of an invitation? Yesterday in the mail I found the tackiest thing I have yet to encounter: a "save the date" wedding magnet . Having seen a great many invitations and having attended entirely too, too many weddings, I can honestly say that this is a first for me. I sincerely hope it is a "last" as well. I keep hoping that only family I'm really close to and friends I want to be with will invite me to their nuptials. No more coworker weddings, no more family that myself AND Luis have never heard of or seen. What a stupid thing that is. I suppose the saving grace in this particular tale is that the bride, one of Luis' coworkers (of...