My life. Probably not the most interesting thing, but then again, if you're reading this, yours probably isn't all that great either!

 
Today was practically better than Christmas!!! I had my last bridal shower - and discovered, to my delight, that church ladies are very generous gift givers, even to people they've never met. Then, my mom and I went to JCPenney's and I used my five gift cards from the last shower and bought the rest of the stuff that had been on that registry (all four items). Happened on a decent sale and bought a bunch of bras (Buy 2, Get 2 free). One of them was blue.

Finished doing that stuff around four, then me and Ben headed over to Logan's for an early (for us) dinner and caught Bruce Almighty, which I found quite funny.

The icing on the cake was, when we got home, Trish had left a message on the answering machine saying one last shower gift had been delivered to her house, it was big, and did we want to come pick it up? And of course I wanted to go get it! So we did.

The loot I got today, or at least, what all I can remember: a framed art print, a banana hammock (which I think is the coolest thing ever!), a George Foreman Double Knockout grill, a chip and dip set, a crystal candy bowl, a giant Igloo cooler, an acrylic pitcher with four coordinating glasses, muffin and mini muffin pans, a beach towel, two duffel bags (one big, one small, both red and black), $110, a hand mixer, assorted cooking utensils (big spoons, a potato masher), a mixing bowl, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a storage container, a salt and pepper set (the cool kind that actually grinds the pepper), Pyrex bakeware, cookie sheets, coolings racks, and even some lingerie. It's crazy! Now, I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to store all of this new stuff, but I'll figure that out later.

Tomorrow me and Ben are headed up to the lake with the canoe. I plan on taking my book and laying in the sun; I think Ben's more interesting in swimming. I think we're even going to take a picnic lunch (in our new cooler, perhaps??). How nice does all that sound?

... and then I can come home and write out a zillion thank you notes - again! :-) But that's a small price to pay for so much awesome stuff.

Actually, it's kind of scary - I had just registered about Bed, Bath, and Beyond like, a week ago, and my whole registry there is practically bought already. There are only twelve items left and most of it is for rather cheap stuff. It's crazy how fast these women shopped! Not that I'm complaining by any stretch of the imagination.

Life is good.
posted by Stacy at 11:12 PM

 
YAY!!! Booked the honeymoon! The wedding stuff is finally wrapping up. Invitations are out, except for a few, tents are reserved, ceremony is partially planned, food is mostly planned, dress is ordered, favors made, last bridal shower on Saturday... And now I know for sure we get to escape to paradise to relax for a few days afterwards.

Hallie came over yesterday. It's always good to see her. She sounds like she's doing well but then I read her opendiary and she doesn't sound nearly as happy in that. Is she lying to me or have those issues stopped bothering her? She promises me she's coming to the wedding though - so that's good.

Ben's been really bitchy recently - like he has PMS or something. Not sure if the little things that go wrong during everyone's day are eating at him or what. Or maybe it's me and I'm in denial about it. Rugby and beer seems to cheer him up though. And falling asleep on the couch, while claiming to still be watching the TV show that's on in the background.

I was looking at our bills today and it's just depressing sometimes about the debt we have. Yes, we pay off more debt that we get into each month, but the amounts we owe just don't seem to go down very quickly, and it's frustrating. And then of course, all the other random expenses that appear have to be taken care of too - like new truck tires, and prescription medications, and veterinarian visits.

In fact, I was over at Mom and Dad's today, booking the honeymoon with Mom, when I noticed these two plastic dog piggy banks that are in the corner of the family room. It's one of those things that you've seen so many times that you don't even notice anymore when you walk in the room. Except, for most people, these would probably stand out. They are two and a half foot tall, plastic piggy banks. One is bright blue and is an upright, sitting basset hound looking dog wearing a tux-like vest, with a smashed in nose when he tipped over on his face once. Also, one of his paws has been chewed on by Kira. His name is Patches and my Dad got him and his been filling him since he was fifteen. He thinks there could be rather valuable older coins in the bottom of Patches. The other one, is a bright pink poodle, also sitting upright. My mom got Fifi as a child. How random is it that as children they both got plastic neon dog banks? And kept them?! Anyways, the point is, it occured to me that there is probably a decent amount of money in these - especially Patches, you can hardly budge him - even if they were only filled with pennies. I mean, pennies add up!! So I called Dad and tried to convince him to give me Patches to help pay for the honeymoon, but apparently, he is insanely attached to that thing. Mom seems to be wavering slightly about Fifi's fate - although I think her main hesitation about giving up Fifi is the way you get the money out. See, there is no opening in the bottom, so the only way to actually remove the coins is, well, beheading her. While I see how this could be traumatic, I'm a bit more concerned that there is potentially a good bit of money in there that I could use towards the honeymoon - I'm even offering to split the money with Michael, so they don't play favorites or anything like that. It's time for the dogs to die. Mwahahahaha!
posted by Stacy at 4:52 PM

 
Discovery of the weekend: The later it is at night, the better pizza tastes.
posted by Stacy at 11:51 AM

 
Well, I had my first bridal shower. It was more fun than I thought it would be - considering I didn't know very many of the guests at all. We played a game called "20 Questions" where my mom had called Ben and asked him questions about me, and for every answer I had that matched his, I got $5 - so I could have won $100. But I only got $60. Some of the Q and A's were amusing. Examples:

Q: If Ben could change one thing about you, what would it be?
My A: Ummmm, my father??
(huge laughing fit from all the women)
His A: My fear of the dark

Q: According to Ben, what are your measurements?
My A: He won't know this, but maybe 34 - 26 - 36.
His A: 34 -14 - 26.
(another laughing fit -- yes Ben, my waist is inches smaller than your neck!)

Q. What is Stacy's favorite sport?
My A: I don't really have one, but maybe male gymnastics.
His A: Couch sitting.
(Ben sucks for that answer)

Coco, Toni's golden retriever, was the star of the show. She kept going around the room begging to be petted. People would cooperate for awhile, then get tired of it, then she'd just move right on to the next person. Anyways, I received all kinds of nifty gifts - knives, glasses, towels, luggage, sheets, lots of gift cards. Four or five people who couldn't come to the shower still sent a gift anyway, so I really made out well. As a result though, there's not too much left on my JCPenney registry and yesterday Mom and I went and I registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I moved a bunch of stuff from my Crate and Barrel registry to BBB. My favorite thing I registered for yesterday is this. I think it's awesome - but then again, I'm easily amused.

Mom and I also went to the travel agent. Turns out my honeymoon is probably going to cost than I want. Airfare prices just suck! Hopefully Mom will find some amazing way to make it work for us.

Ben's working this whole weekend for some extra money. I kind of feel bad for him, but we really need the money, so I guess it's kind of a good thing. Tomorrow he's going to be working at a slaughterhouse though - how gross is that?!


posted by Stacy at 3:14 PM

 
Another spurt of wedding activity has commenced. Invitations have been printed - painstakingly, one piece of paper / cardstock / envelope at a time. They have been assembled with a sheer silver ribbon. They are getting postage as we speak. Honeymoon booking is also beginning. As is menu choosing and bridal showers. Ahhh, the joy.

Speech class update: still weird. We all have to write down a topic, pull it from an envelope, then speak on it for two minutes with no prep time. No big deal right? People were getting nice easy topics: what is your favorite movie? what would you do if you won the lottery? how do you feel about the United States? Then my turn. I got my piece of paper and all it said was "gym memberships". Uh, ok. So I talked about gym memberships. And that's what I did in class today. Thrilling, isn't it. I can hardly wait for tomorrow when we actually begin - gasp! - real speeches. You know, the really important kind that last all of five minutes and are assigned for a speech class you don't really want to take so you sign up to take in the summer where you can just get it over with in four weeks instead of having it drag out into 15 weeks of drivel. You know, that kind.
posted by Stacy at 3:38 PM

 
It felt like we didn't even have a weekend. But at least he was home so there was a "we".

Saturday, we had to pick up wedding bands. Ben didn't quite like his, so we've ordered a new one and it'll be in later this week. We went and visited his folks 'cause he hadn't seen them in a few weeks. It was an anniversary, but we didn't really do anything special. We hit Sam's. We should not be allowed to go there. We always seem to find extra stuff to buy. Not that we bought tons of extra stuff - but we did somehow manage to spend more than $60.00. They had this gigantic tent there for like $80, and all of these neat camping accessories - portable A/C, a queen size air mattress, fold up camp kitchen, even sunscreen. We contemplated buying a bunch of it - then thought - oh yeah, we already have enough debt. Maybe later. We had free tickets to a country concert with some no-so-well-known singers, but after sitting in the rain and watching the lightning for an hour, we decided it wasn't worth it - even if the tickets were free. Random observation: the people who attend country concerts are, on average, much uglier than the people who attend other concerts. Could the whole "redneck" deep-fry everything diet be the cause? Or are ugly people just attracted to country music? The world may never know. Anyways. So we hit Chili's and got some grub and drinks. I didn't get ID'ed - which seemed like an accomplishment at the time. Their mudslide was awesome and their Calypso Cooler was, well, interesting, but I probably wouldn't bother to order it again.

Sunday - time for premarital counseling. Had to wake up early - like 8:30 AM on Sunday - which is highly unreasonable to me, but I still managed to get up, which is an achievement. Left by 9:30 to drive to Lawrenceville (near Atlanta). Of course, we ended up missing a turn somewhere and having to backtrack 20 minutes, but due to Ben's excessive speeding while I slept, we were still on time. We went to this great little Italian place called Ippolito's. Then we talked about whether happiness is a choice and about communication. Not the most enlightening stuff - but, then again, I've taken a goodly number of psychology classes at this point and have heard all of this same information before. Tried to drive home. Construction and bad rain made people think they could only drive 30 on I-20. We dug out a map and took some unlabeled backroads for about 40 miles then hopped back on the interstate where traffic was flowing just slightly faster. Finally got home at 7:45. We were too tired to do much more than eat the rest of our lunch from Ipp's and crash on the couch. I did - for some unknown reason - stay up and watch the finale of The Bachelor. He chose the right girl out of the two choices he had left - but how long will it last? Cynical me suspects not too long once the show's spotlight fades but Romantic me hopes it works out for their sake. And because Andrew Firestone is darn cute. And rich. The rich part doesn't exactly hurt.

Still dying to see The Matrix: Reloaded. Hopefully this week or next weekend. Maybe Ben will get off soon and we'll catch it tonight or something so the crowd isn't so bad. That'd be cool. I've heard lots of good things about it. And then afterward, we can get ice cream or something for dinner. That would make for a nice Monday night. Don'tcha think?
posted by Stacy at 4:41 PM

 
School started for me again today. I'm only taking one class though - it's basically a speech class. We have four speeches to give, so basically one a week. And we all sit in a circle - which I hate. The professor is - interesting. Apparently, he used to work in Hollywood - he wrote and produced for shows like Welcome Back Kotter (sp?), and something called Our Magazine, and The Mickey Mouse Club. And then, for some reason, the lure of ASU was too hard to resist and he winded up here. He looks like Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and seems like one of those people who cares waaaaay too much about hurting someone's feelings. Like we're in middle school, and not college. But whatever. The only cool thing about the class so far is he decided we don't need to have class on Fridays. Yippee! One day off a week from it - I really wasn't looking forward to going everyday. Oh, and after I bought the book for the class, the prof said we're not going to use it. So I went to return it and the stupid place had closed. And I'm worried about having trouble returning it tomorrow, 'cause I didn't get a receipt - but I did sign a piece of paper they keep - so I better get my $43 back! I tried to sell back last semester's $300 worth of books and got a rousing $49, because two of the books are coming out with new editions. I got back $6.00 on the $120 Abnormal Psych textbook I had bought brand new in January. I hate textbook companies. It's just ridiculous.

I've been a bit bad and I keep sneaking peeks at my registries online and seeing what's been bought so far. Someone bought my set of pots and pans, which I was really hoping to get, so that makes me happy. But so far, the only gifts that have been bought have come from JCPenney. Apparently, people don't want to / are scared of ordering off the internet at www.crateandbarrel.com. 'Cause, you know, the internet is sooooo shady. There's only a few items left on the JCPenney registry though - for the most part really cheap stuff, or really expensive stuff, so I wonder what's going to happen. I thought about trying to find more to register for there, but there's not really anything else I want there. Oh well. I'm not going to worry about it. I think it's great that I'm getting any gifts at all.

I got the bill from when Ben went to the emergency room last September again yesterday. We've been disputing the bill with the hospital for months - and now apparently, it doesn't matter what we say, we have to pay or they'll send the account to collections. Somehow, that doesn't seem fair that they are basically just disregarding our perfectly legitimate dispute. I hate insurance companies too.
posted by Stacy at 4:26 PM

 
Apparently, I am not a very good person:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I'm actually rather surprised at the results. While I don't think I want to be any of those things, I certainly wouldn't have labeled myself "wrathful and gloomy"... and the fifth level of hell is really not all that pleasant sounding. Pray for me.
posted by Stacy at 10:18 PM

 
I got to celebrate my birthday this weekend. Me and Ben went to Stool Pigeons Friday night. Saturday, my parents took us to Villa Europa. I got a Slow Gin Fizz, which is actually quite delicious. Lots of different flavors all mixed together. And the food is wonderful there. Then, we went to see a really late showing of X2. It was nice having Ben home. It sucks that it was only for two days!

School starts back again on Wednesday. I didn't really get much of a break. And Tuesday, I have to be at work at like 8, instead of 11 - which is so not cool. However, I suppose having nothing to do Monday will be nice. I think I'm going to hit the mall, and then lay around the apartment reading a book and eating ice cream. And cook up a huge pot of spaghetti or something else really good for dinner.

I have a bridal shower next Thursday. I'm starting to really look forward to that. Greedy, selfish Stacy keeps thinking - Presents! And all for me! Mwahahaha....! :-P

Ben thinks they might not even finish at this job site in Baxley this week. He might have to go back AGAIN next week. I'm not liking this aspect of his new job - although we both agree that the extra money will be nice. Like, yesterday, we went and picked out our wedding bands (while we still had some birthday money to be able to pay for them!). Apparently, his plain gold band costs three times what my plain gold band does. What's up with that?? Yes, it's slightly bigger, but come on! Not three times bigger!! Ah well. Not much I can do about it - I mean, I definitely want him to wear a wedding band so all the ladies (yeah, like he ever sees ladies at work!) know he's taken. He's going to be mine! All mine!
posted by Stacy at 1:17 PM

 
Got my grades for the semester. B in Anatomy and Physiology II, and an A in everything else... which is good! My Real Estate grade was borderline A/B going into the final, so it's nice to know I pulled off an A. So I got a 3.69 GPA for the semester and my overall went from a 3.16 to 3.27. Yay! I'm getting smarter!!

My visit with Casey was fun. We played lots of old board games. She totally won at Trivial Pursuit, but I beat her at Life, Scrabble, and Risk. Which was only fitting, since it was my birthday. And her parents house down there rocks! It's gigantic and pretty - and it has a hot tub! And very soft leather chairs and couches. I want a house like that one day.

Ben finally comes home today. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him again. Unfortunately, he has to go back next week, for the whole week again most likely - which does not make me happy at all. Except that he gets paid more than usual for doing the job down there. And I suppose we do need the money. But i miss him when he's gone. It gets lonely at the apartment. The cats aren't very good conversationalists.
posted by Stacy at 11:54 AM

 
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me-EE
Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 21! I'm 21! Woohoo!!! And I'm in Valdosta! And Casey made me a cake! With three layers! Just wanted to say YEA!!!!!

That is all.
posted by Stacy at 4:13 PM

 
Had my sociology of medicine final this morning... get this: The teacher gave us a set of questions the final would be taken from a month ago. The questions included the page number where we could find the answer in the book. Then, he decides the final will be open notebook. If everyone does not get an A, it will just be pathetic. A lot of people wrote down the answer to all 80 questions - which I think is hilarious, because we only had to answer 4 for the final. I wrote down the answers to about thirty, three of which were on the final. But, then again, I only had to get a 62 to keep my A. So I'm not all that concerned. :-)

Only one to go... woohoo!
posted by Stacy at 12:15 PM

 
Well, I'm moving my blog, as Casey's server seems to have crapped out.

I'm alone. I hate being alone when it's dark. I guess I'm scared of the boogey man. Luckily, I'm really really tired tonight, so I shouldn't have any trouble falling asleep. And Ben should be home Thursday. That seems like a long time, but I'm sure it won't be all that bad. As long as he remembers to call me at night and say hi!

Two more finals to go. Better head on to bed, so I don't sleep through the one tomorrow morning...
posted by Stacy at 10:28 PM

 
No classes today, no finals today... ah, life is good. Got to sleep in until 11:30, and all I really need to do today is review some anatomy notes for my final tomorrow.

Tonight, mom is taking me mattress shopping. Our parents are getting us a queen sized mattress set as a wedding gift - and I'm really excited about it. The mattress we have now is so hard. I want a soft one. And since Ben has no desire to help pick one out, he gets no say in the final choice (hee hee, 'cause I want a soft one, and he wants a firm one).

So Ben's not going to North Carolina after all. That job got cancelled. Instead, he gets to go to some little itty bitty town in south Georgia from Sunday to Thursday. At least he won't be gone quite as long, but he'll still be gone on our birthday. He seems to really like his new job though, so I'm happy for him. Just hope he gets a raise soon.

Everyone else should be finishing up school for the semester, and hopefully some of my friends will be coming home for the summer. Yay!! If you're one of those people, expect a call in the next week or so!
posted by Stacy at 1:50 PM