My family is weird. Last night I was talking with my sister and she said that my mom still hasn't put away the Christmas tree. No, seriously. And it's now Valentine's Day. We've already passed at least four major holidays (New Year's, MLK, President's Day, V-Day) since Christmas, and the damn tree is still there. It would still have ornaments on it if my sis hadn't taken them off. But all the decorations are still there in the house, on the floor, awaiting transfer to the attic. Damn, I'm glad I don't live with my parents anymore.


I've never gotten along with my family when it came to housekeeping. Around the time I was 10 or so, I started noticing that my immediate family members were very messy. And not just socks-on-the-floor kind of messy. They are dirty-dishes-on-the-living-room-floor, pots-and-pans-on-the-washing-machine-because-the-cabinets-are-too-full-of-junk-to-hold-them kind of slob. And this bothered me. I am not Martha Stewart by any means, but I do like some semblance of order and cleanliness in my house. So from the time I was in middle school, I kept my room clean, neatly making the bed every morning and keeping the floors clean. It was easily the best looking room in the house. Even if I was tired, I'd clean up. I still do that today. Usually the first thing I do when I get home is wash dishes, make the bed, vacuum or put stuff away.


But my mother is the total opposite. If she's tired when she gets home, she crashes. She'll doze on the couch all night, every night, not really caring that there are toast scraps under the couch. And then she'll complain about how her house doesn't look nice. As for my father, he doesn't care one way or the other, as long as he can watch the evening news. Weirdly, somehow they manage to bring the mess with them wherever they go. When my mom and sister stayed with me for a few days last year, my house turned into a disaster area. They'd go to Target and just toss the plastic bags on the living room floor for the cats to pulverize. Their clothes piled up under the coffee table.


So I'm glad that I have my own place now. I can go through my house with a garbage bag and throw away useless stuff without worrying that Mom is going to ridicule me for being "obsessive" about neatness. I'm glad that we're not having our wedding in Alabama, because I'd have to stay down there at my parents' cramped and messy house, sleeping on a twin bed. With a wedding in SA, we all get to stay in hotels, where the maid cleans up for you and you don't have to worry about who's going to do the dishes. Okay, rant over, I was just shocked when my sister told me about the Christmas tree.


Workout - didn't do one last night. Mark and I did our Valentine's dinner last night, at an Italian place, because any restaurant tonight after 6 p.m. is going to be bedlam. Lotsa waiting in the lobby. But the point is, there was no time to exercise, unless I wanted to go do it at 9 p.m. with a belly full of pasta. But tonight I'm going to make up for it by shooting for 50 minutes of cardio. And yeah, I did eat some pretty heavy stuff last night but I figure it's OK since I ate practically NOTHING all day long before that. We're talking a granola bar, a couple of pretzels and a turkey sandwich.


Lots to do at work, more later.

Jen from nowhere @ 10:49 AM

Men don't listen. Seriously, I think they have a little switch that turns itself on when you're talking about sex, food and sports, but stays off all other times. Case in point? My Valentine's gift from Mark. It arrived today. Three long-stem red roses with greenery and baby's breath, and a big box of Hershey's chocolates. The good kind.


Now, be assured that I am not complaining - anytime anybody gives me a gift, I appreciate it, even if it's ugly or totally useless. And the gift is certainly not that. But man, I dropped hints like you wouldn't believe during the past two weeks or so. For example, I made a point of telling him about this news item I heard on the radio, about how women rank pink, yellow and white roses as their favorite colors to get, but men say red is their favorite color to give. And I made sure to say, "Yeah, I really love pink and white roses. The best roses you ever got me were those peach ones when I had my tonsils out...Remember?" And he just grunted absentmindedly, but I figured he was covering and that he really did plan on getting me some flowers in my favorite color.


Wrong.


Now red roses are lovely, but they're just not my style. Even if I was having a fall or winter wedding, I wouldn't carry red roses. I don't know, they just remind me of...some fake flower arrangement in an old lady's house. But, let me reiterate, I love that he remembered me. And the chocolates are yummy. I should lock them away so I don't eat any more.


Last night I worked out, did 35 minutes of cardio because the weather was yucky and I didn't want to be out in it long. I'm really liking this new gym. I need to get a Walkman so I can tune in to the big-screen TVs they have there. I was planning on my usual yoga at 8:30 tonight but Mark has suggested we go out for Valentine's tonight, to avoid the crush tomorrow. So I guess I'll just have to do cardio and then run home and bathe before going out.


Last night we went to look for paper for the rehearsal dinner invites and for thank-you cards, but we didn't find any we liked. I'm going to try a paper store this afternoon but that may not be possible since Mark wants to go today and get the marriage license. We have a full 24 days till the wedding but he wants to get it out of the way.

Jen from nowhere @ 11:50 AM

Well, we have musicians. Yep, we secured an organist and a trumpet player for our wedding. Only problem is...they don't know much about music! Mark is very well-versed in classical music and suggested a few things to the trumpet player, and she'd never heard of most of them. Of course, she has heard of Trumpet Voluntary, which is my processional, but some of the preludes and stuff she wasn't sure of. We'll see how it goes. I hope it works out.


Last night I tried a new gym...well, actually, not TOTALLY new because I'd been there a couple of times before, but only for yoga. This time I used the cardio machines. This gym is tons better than my usual one. They had this huge room filled with treadmills and bikes, and it's darkened so you can better see the 5 big-screen TVs at the front of the room. And if you tune your headset to the right frequency, you can actually hear your desired TV. I didn't have a Walkman with me last night, so I couldn't do that, but it was fun nonetheless to watch The Osbournes silently and try to make out what Ozzy was saying. He was riding in a limo with Greta van Susteren at one point, I don't know what was up with that.


Tonight the workout will be cardio. I did 45 minutes last night and it felt great, so I'm hoping to repeat the process today. No good classes are being offered, save for yoga, and I'm getting enough of that this week. I've also been doing pretty good dietwise; last night we had baked fish and couscous, so that was good.

Jen from nowhere @ 9:13 AM

Wedding plans are chugging along...but I'll keep it short this time. I know most of you don't come here to read about my wedding. My obsessive father-in-law, who's been bugging me about the rehearsal time ever since we set a date, finally reserved a room for us at a steak place for the banquet. Woe to all vegetarians.


I did something a little different yesterday with my workout routine - I did yoga last night instead of cardio, which is my usual Monday workout. I just figured that this would be a better idea, since the gym is super-crowded on Mondays and you can hardly find a treadmill or bike right after quitting time. So I did a yoga class. The guy is tougher than my normal Thursday night instructor, but surprisingly I'm not sore today. But if I know my body, I'll be aching tomorrow. It's weird, I get these second-day muscle aches for some reason. I like my Monday yoga guy because he does more core exercises that strengthen ab muscles and stuff. My Thursday teacher is more about stretching and relaxation. I've been thinking about going to Bikram yoga again lately, but it's so expensive and we should be saving money right now. ($14 for one class?!?)


So it looks like tonight is cardio. Blah. I wish I could do yoga every day and still reap the same benefits that I get from running on the treadmill. There's a cardio combo class tonight which would be cool if I liked step classes...but I don't. And there are spinning classes, but I'm not about to put myself through that. I'm fitness-obsessed, but I'm not stupid.

Jen from nowhere @ 11:26 AM

Busy busy busy. Haven't even had time to read my normal blogs. First I was retyping my notes from this stupid story I'm working on, then I had an interview to do, then I waited in line at the post office for 25 MINUTES just to get two lousy books of stamps. When I was there, one of the cashiers walked back into the back room after taking care of a customer...which made us all mad because we were waiting...and then he came out and started working again, after like five minutes. Then when I get up to his register, he said, "I can't believe she (the manager) pulled me off my line to tell me to upsell. It's not like they don't have ads all over the walls." See, everyone, this is why the U.S. Postal Service is in the sorry state it's in. Because of these piddly middle-level managers who want a bonus at the end of the year, even if that means lining up customers out the door. But anyway...


We went to San Antonio again and worked on wedding stuff. A small wedding cake is going to be like $100, which isn't too bad. The musicians will run about $225 and then we put $100 down on a reception site. Things are going smoothly - only major hurdle left is the bridesmaid dresses for my sisters. I don't think there's enough time to get them altered so we will have to buy them off the rack. I found a nice one at David's Bridal, but I don't know whether my mom wants to pay $99 each for them. She is really cheap.


Oh yeah, and we had a groomsman drop out. Supposedly he was Mark's best friend, but last night Mark was online and he IM's him with this sob story about how he was in the hospital for 2 days with food poisoning and that he's really sorry, but he doesn't have insurance and he can't afford to come from Michigan now. WAIT - lest you think I'm being heartless, listen to this - this guy and his girlfriend were supposed to come to Texas and visit us last year during the summer. Well, we set a weekend and weeks went by, but we didn't hear from them. That is, until 3 days before they were supposed to arrive - we got an e-mail saying that his girlfriend got food poisoning and they wouldn't be able to make it. So you can see why I'd be suspicious of the same old food-poisoning-song-and-dance. We were suspicious this first time because he was supposedly making plans all along, for months, to come down here - airfare and stuff - yet he can drop it all with three days' notice? I think not. I don't think they ever planned on coming.


So, using my journalistic skills, I called the main hospital in Ann Arbor last night. By God, I was going to find out if that weasel was lying again. (Not that I could say anything if he was, but anyway.) Turns out - he was in the hospital this past weekend. Boy, did I feel bad for doubting him. But maybe that's God's way of punishing him for using a fake food poisoning excuse the first time.


So the upshot of all this is, Mark's dad will have to be the second groomsman now. Oh well.


Dietwise, I did pretty good this weekend. I didn't exercise Saturday because we were in SA, but I did 45 minutes of cardio on Sunday and I'm doing an hour yoga class and 20 minutes of cardio this evening. Boy, tonight's yoga instructor is a killer. He is seriously a taskmaster. I will walk out sore, no doubt. But that's good. I need some soreness.

Jen from nowhere @ 4:03 PM