Progress.

Wedding planning is going fantastic so far. Here are some of the updates:

• Andy & I printed the save-the-dates last night, and will not begin collecting all of the addresses we don't yet have. The save-the-dates came out perfectly as I do say so myself. They have a very hand-made look, which is what Andy and I were going for.
• On December 2nd Andy is going to apply for the permit for us to have out wedding in Prospect Park. Hopefully we will get it, and we will be getting married in my autumn wonderland! I have this sort of picture in my head of fall leaves, and beautiful trees...Prospect Park is truly a natural oasis in the middle of Brooklyn, and I am in love with it! It reminds me of the Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner, when he marries at the end.
• Andy and I bought the fabric for his suit from Mood fabrics, and we both love it! He handed it off to the tailor from Hong Kong last week, and in about a month he will get his custom suit in the mail! Yay.
• We booked our honeymoon!!! Okay - this is probably the most exciting news! If Andy already talked about this in an earlier blog post (and it is slipping my mind) I apologize for the re-hash, but I am just so excited!! We are leaving from Rome, and traveling to Naples, Sicily, Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Ephesus, Rhodes... Oh boy am I excited!!! The cruise is 10 days long, but we are also hoping to stay one night in Rome before we get on the ship. I've heard Rome is beautiful, and I would love to spend some time there with my Andy.

That's pretty much it so far with wedding things. Everything is going pretty smoothly. I am very happy that Andy and I gave ourselves a good amount of time for planning, and also that we both agreed to enjoy the planning, and not stress over it. This is going to be the best day of our lives, and I don't see any reason to stress for an entire year just to enjoy one day. Is that really that enjoyable?? So that is our pact. Enjoy the process.

Aside from that - we are both looking forward to the holiday season very much (as Andy pointed out). Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and we are spending it in Marlboro, which is new for us. My father is coming down to visit from Wednesday to Saturday, so he will be joining us for the holiday festivities, and also for some sightseeing in the city. Andy and I are looking forward to bringing him to see Bubby's, and also to get authentic Brooklyn pizza, and to show him the things here that we love and enjoy. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, as it did when my mom and Mike visited.

And speaking of that...I am getting very excited for their wedding on December 27th!!! I have my dress, have my shoes, have my escort (hehe...love you Andy), and have started working on my speech. Not that it needs a whole lot of work/ planning, but I want to have a good outline in order. I actually came up with what I want to say this morning while on my run...it was actually pretty easy. Probably because my mom and I have such a wonderful relationship - I could say a million great things about her..so it's more about choosing what I want to say. It's funny, but I'm not nervous about giving my maid of honor speech. In fact, I'm pretty excited about it. I can't wait to share my thoughts and feelings about my wonderful mom with all of her family and friends.

In closing, happy holidays to everyone. I hope you all can find it in your hearts to do something nice for someone less fortunate during this holiday season. Andy and I are attending an information session for a volunteer organization called New York Cares tonight. This organization partakes in many different volunteer efforts - from walking dogs who are housed in shelters, to spending time with the elderly, to tutoring students, to teaching adults computer skills. We are hoping to really get involved in doing some nice things for others, and we both are also very interested in getting involved in politics as well. I think sometimes we all get caught up in our own lives - work, family things, taking care of our homes, events, friends, etc.. and heck, it's quite easy to. But I think there is more to life than just going through the motions/ working until the next break, or fun event. So maybe my little rant will inspire a few of you to volunteer this season in some way. Hey...maybe it's just by donating an old jacket, or some canned goods to a local shelter or organization. That is a wonderful way to help if you feel you don't have time to spare. But I think the important part is that we can all make someone's life a little brighter through our own hope and love. It is my hope to help someone less fortunate than myself this holiday season. Hopefully I will have an update on this endeavor very soon. Until then, happy Monday! And Happy early Thanksgiving!

Stupidstitions...

As much as I like to stay completely positive on here, I find that something a little more, well, pressing is important.

 

Last night I got into an argument with Amanda, the love of my life. Over what? Well, I’ll explain.

 

For a while I have had this wacky thing called a superstition. A former co-worker (when I day-traded) used to call them stupid-stitions. I know they are, and I believe they are stupid, but I guess I have had one in particular that has dogged me. It is that if I buy someone shoes, they walk away from me. Now this is quite the dumb thing, but I guess I believed it because of past people I have bought shoes for have done this.

 

Now mind you, I have not bought shoes for some people and obviously I am not with them, and I have for some other people (my sister/mother) and they are still in my life. Actually, I have even bought sneakers (Soaps!) off of one of my friends (Swindler) and he is still in my life, and will actually be in the wedding.

 

Aside from all of that, I got angry. I have already had arguments with Amanda over this, but it came to a head last night when I appeared ungrateful for her kind gesture. For that I am sorry.

 

I thought about it a lot, and I realize that I was wrong. I should get over this stuff. It makes no sense.

 

Amanda said one thing during our argument that really hit me. She told me that by acting the way I did, I am actually propagating the “walking away.” So I am walking away by being crazy. I felt that is true.

 

No more, never again will I believe in this. It is silly. I am in control of myself and my own destiny. I am in love, I know this for a fact, and frankly buying shoes for someone will never ever change that. I am in this for life, and I will be here for life.

 

In fact, I came to a conclusion this morning about a lot of this stuff. I do not follow any traditional religion anymore (raised Jewish, heck no will you ever catch me inside a synagogue), and I feel that by believing in something like a superstitious boogeyman, it goes against my own “anti” stance of believing in a higher-power. So, well, I cannot fathom believing in anymore of these things.

 

Anyway, the sneakers she actually got me were totally awesome and really comfortable. I will enjoy wearing them until I have to get new ones to run in.

 

So this goes for everyone…don’t believe in stuff that goes against your core beliefs.

 

And I love you Amanda.

White Wedding

So randomly this morning I was listening to my iPod as usual and I was going through a bunch of songs that I haven’t heard in a while. I have to add that I want to add these to the wedding playlist. They include: Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” and Bon Jovi’s “Runaway.” At one point I put on some Springsteen’s “Born To Run” and got quite happy because not only do I want to add it to the playlist, but I had an idea for our table names.

 

Amanda and I thought it would be fun to name the tables after places in our lives. Since I spent a lot of my life living in Marlboro, NJ it would only be right to have a table be named “Marlboro.” That was sort of blah for me to begin with, so now I think I found a better term. “Born to Run” has a line in it: Sprung from cages out on Highway 9…

 

Highway, or like we call it “Route 9” runs right through Marlboro and is where I spent a lot of my teenage years driving on. So in conclusion, I want to have a table be “Highway 9.” This is sort of a double entendre in the Marlboro fact plus Amanda’s mother’s favorite singer is Bruce. So it works.

 

Well, we got the filters in for the Gocco machine, so we shall be working on a lot of stuff this weekend which is quite exciting.

 

Christmas time is coming up in the next few weeks which is awesome. It is my 2^nd time celebrating this gathering. I like it personally. In fact, I love it.

 

And there is nothing like being in New York City around Christmas time. You get to see the lights on houses, the tree in Rockefeller Center (in person!), and just all the amazing and pretty decorations around buildings and on the streets. Last year Amanda and I wandered around 5^th Avenue by Central Park before seeing the tree and took some great pictures. They were quite funny and part of some of my great memories that we made in the closing month of 2007.

 

I just love this time. I think the smell of holiday-season winter (Jan & Feb are just bleak!), is truly amazing. I always loved it going back to when I was living in Canarsie (Brooklyn) growing up. The lights were always pretty and the White Castle always filling. I love this time because now new traditions are being made. It is so exciting.

 

So anyway, we are now heading into the end of the year…and bright lights are ahead…

 

 

And for those fans of LOL Cats, I made this using Cleo

Checkin' In

So it seems that I have been severely lacking on here. Like total severity.

 

Today at work I went out and bought the envelopes for the save the dates, so I guess (finally!) we can start work on them. We have the printing machine, and I guess we are finally ready to start printing them out. The envelopes are pretty exciting, they are made of recycled paper and have the same texture and feel of lunch bags.

 

We also have to start looking at different flowers, so this week we (well, Amanda) has been looking at a list I printed out of different seasonal flowers available for October.

 

I totally forget what I mention so anyway, it looks like instead of having the wedding at Bubby’s (because it will be at night) we are shooting to have it in Prospect Park. Since we are having the wedding there, we are looking (awaiting response) to volunteer to beautify the park this weekend. I believe it is a “come one, come all” affair, so look for us to be helping out the wilderness this Sunday morning/afternoon.

 

I am going to have to revamp this site quite soon, with the AndyMandyWedding.com (if you come to the site from that link) being more of a portal and the blog being part of that. This will help with the different factors we have going on, from hotels, and directions, to actually contacting us.

 

Since the groom’s attire is somewhat important (well, I cant just wear jeans and a t-shirt), I wanted to give you an update. I have an appointment next week to go get fitted for a custom suit from a Hong Kong tailor. Pretty cool stuff. The suit will be a grey pinstripe, just the way I want it. And do not fret everyone, my sneakers will be picked out soon.

 

There are so many ideas that we have going on, from getting custom picture stamps for the invites (stamps.com) to having biscuits and onion rings at the reception. Wild, wild, wild.

 

 

President-Elect

Anyone who reads this knows the way myself and Amanda have voted. Yes, we voted for Barack Obama. We voted this way because we were passionate about something different. We looked at the two choices and went with one that grabbed us.

 

I think that we both understand passion. We both understand character, and we both understand the types of individuals who are mostly like us.

 

It seems that people wouldn’t vote for Obama because they “couldn’t have a beer with him.” Well, I sure could. His life history, coming from absolutely nothing, paying his own way, the struggle…well, I think I can draw a bigger parallel to that in my life rather than someone who really barely even shares anything I can ever relate to.

 

To look at America’s reaction, I think we now will go back to the “feel good” way that we knew for so long. The feel good America that I never experienced in my adult life.

 

We have fought two silly wars using our resources, and for what? What did we get out of any of them? We were distracted while there are and were people still starving on the streets, while financiers were building castles in the sky, leaving people stranded and deserted (Katrina anyone?) while our government went rogue and started acting like a menace rather than a friend. We have now voted a resounding “no” to the failed policies, actions, and attitudes of the Republican Party led by our current President Bush.

 

Perhaps the culture of more everything is over. We can look back on the immense greed, the snark, the disgusting way people acted towards each other and say “no more!” I think we have made our voice heard. The heir-heads, the socialites who care only about their outfits, your time is up. The attitudes that got us here have officially been put to rest. The people that have propagated their extreme and obscene wealth in other people’s faces, the people that acted like they were above everyone – they have now been brought back down to size. Welcome back to Earth. However, if they do want to be a part again, want to stress that we must bring them back into the fold where collectivity, community, and greatness for all can once again shine.

 

Government doesn’t have to take care of us, but it could be our friend. If not our friend, then what is it there for?

 

I hope everyone did their public duty and voted yesterday. I hope that we can all move forward under our next President Obama and actually get this country back on track to greatness.

 

Welcome back, America.

Halloween Weekend/ Mom & Mike's visit!!

I can't believe I'm actually posting consecutively, before Andy can get one in. Yay! I'm being a good blogger for once.

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. It truly was perfect. First we started it with the Ryan Adams concert (as per my last post), which was phenomenal. I think he played his entire new album, and a few from his last album and some older tunes. The highlight was when he played "Goodnight Rose" which is a special song to Andrew and I. I don't think I'm ready to disclose the signifcance of it yet, but let's just leave it at "special."

Saturday Andrew and I went for a run around Queens, and then cleaned up/ relaxed until my mom and Mike arrived. We picked them up in Manhattan and then headed back to Sunnyside and had an early dinner at De Mole, a Mexican restaurant I have been wanting to try for a while. It was really great. Then we headed downtown for some sightseeing - WTC, Brooklyn Bridge, etc. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge which was amazing. Really, there probably isn't a more phenomenal sight/ view in my opinion. Well, except the view from Bubby's!
Which is where we headed once we crossed the bridge - over to Bubby's to show Mom and Mike where Andy and I got engaged, and where we will be getting married!!! It was very exciting to show them our special place. Then we stopped and had ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. That was also a really great place - it had an old fasioned ice cream shop feel. I had vanilla chocolate chunk, and it was fantastic!

On Sunday Mike went to the Giants game with Michael, so it was just my mom, Andy and myself. We took the train to Prospect Park in the morning and ran the loop around the park - all the while taking in the beautiful fall foliage. It was perfect. Actually - Andy and I are considering having our wedding ceremony in the park now, so perhaps all of our guests will get to enjoy this lovely sight next fall too!
After our run we headed to Blue Sky Bakery (my muffin place. yes mine. I heart it). My mom and I had carrot cranberry cream cheese muffins, and boy were they good! (Are you starting to get the theme of the weekend - food, food and more food!) Then we walked over to Carroll Gardens to go to Mazzola's for coffee and bread. After that we walked up through Cobble Hill, and eventually made our way up to Brooklyn Heights (so pretty!!). Then we hopped the train back to Manhattan and stopped at Whole Foods (yes, food again) so that we could pick up some things for dinner.
June came over for dinner and it was so nice. It was really nice for Andrew's mom and my mom to get to know each other better, and spend time talking and eating, and being with us. It truly was the perfect end to the perfect weekend!!

Thanks mom for coming to visit this weekend. It really meant a lot to me to get to spend quality time with you, and to show you around. I love you!

xoxoxo.