cityblog

Umm, what?

Filed at 11:34 am under Daily Goings-On
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Wow, bummer. I feel like my elementary school education is in peril.

We looooove our Mukka Express. So yummy, so easy to clean, sooo good.

I went to a workshop at the Manhattan Center yesterday given by Edward Tufte, who is to information design what Jakob Nielsen is to web usability. In other words, he is the man. And I got all four of his books as part of the conference fee, which is awesome. And it was a day “off”, which is always a good break.

We bought our surrogate wedding rings yesterday in the East Village. The ones we really want are just way out of our price range right now and needed a lead time that was almost longer than our engagement, so we figured we’d just go for the gritty version for now and get the real ones when we can.

Other wedding things are coming along. We’re doing what we’ve termed the “burn party” on Saturday night with Ken and Sarah at the apartment. W00t w00t.

We’re in single digits today.

Filed at 10:53 am under Daily Goings-On
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They’ve been burning the coffee at work lately, and it just tastes dreadful. Boo! Hiss! I don’t want to have to buy coffee, but this is not a Good Thing.

So Tom and I went up to visit my parents this weekend, mostly to see my Dad before he starts his treatments. Dad is holding up ok, though he’s feeling worse as time goes on, which is to be expected. Mom said he had an EKG yesterday before his first treatment and he’ll have to continue to have EKGs because his heart has trouble handling the arsenic. (Isn’t it just great to think that they’re pumping poison into my dad?) He is doing outpatient, for now, and so far is fine at home.

We had a good weekend, hanging out with my family and some family friends, eating a lot of junk food, watching Junebug, buying wedding shoes, getting lots of people fitted for suits and tuxes, and drinking really random things at Starbucks. I had an iced caramel macchiato for the first time, which is much better than the too-sweet hot version.

I have a good-sized smattering of work to do this week; programming, design, writing, and oh yeah, my job. We also need to actually buckle down and buy a bed this week, and probably curtains. Mmm. I want sleep.

Or maybe just better coffee.

Speaking of coffee, Tom and I had a discussion on the train ride home that I keep thinking about, regarding beverages and their place in relationships and social circles. Specifically, we were thinking about the differences between the effect a cup of coffee and a glass of wine have on the brain. It ended with the idea that a mugful of coffee sharpens the intellect and makes you think better on your toes (it doesn’t really keep me awake - it just makes me smarter), but a glass of wine makes you slow down, stop thinking about all the things that you need to do and all the circumstances of your day, and focus on the conversation at hand and the person in front of you.

I guess it’s not that interesting, but it’s mildly intriguing to think about.

I seriously need a haircut. I don’t think I’ve had one since April, and my hair is yicky. It just needs a trim. I am so haircut-o-phobic and afraid to let anyone near my hair with scissors (which explains why I go to Bumble & Bumble, since they cut with razors). Anyhow.

Filed at 10:53 am under Daily Goings-On, Dad Update
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I just don’t have much to post today; August is exceeding quiet, and I’ve been scheduling and rescheduling a meeting today with an incredibly busy trader who is putting out fires left and right. So I’ve just been sitting around doing not too much, and my email has even slowed to a crawl, but it’s all good. I’d rather be paid to be bored than be bored for free, right?

Tonight I’ll go home and chug on through some more work for IAM - more fun, though I am much rustier on programming than I used to be. I did manage to get a pretty solid database structure together for them this week, and I just got a script working that logs users in and out, completely with mildly-encrypted password (woohoo!). I rock, verily, and sometimes.

After doing a little more with that, taking out my trash, and finishing a logo design for another client tonight, I think I may actually break down and read for a while. My brain is performing a meltdown from lack of real use, and I need to do something that does not involve sitting in front of a screen and jabbing at little black plastic squares.

I did, however, have some lovely writing-related news yesterday, and that brightened the day up considerably. A first: a real print article. (One of the profiles from the book I contributed to - Angela’s profile, in fact - will be in the next print issue of RELEVANT, and I’ll be credited under my married name, Wilkinson) But this is an article I’ve genuinely pitched and had accepted and not had the editor just quit returning my emails. Hurrah! More details when it gets closer.

I am slowly going through my weekly routine of eating everything in my refrigerator. I cleaned out most of the vegetables yesterday, though I have three yellow tomatoes in my fridge that need eating, and still have a bit of ice cream. I also suspect that a bunch of the food in my kitchen cabinets has seen better days (a lot of it was from Tom’s kitchen, which means it was bought when he lived in Boston, which was not recent) and need chucking.

Things have started disappearing from our wedding regstries! (Shameless plug 1 and 2.) We got the first one yesterday from some awesome friends:

We also have several wine goblets and the ice cream maker, which is good news for the future Wilkinson family. Tom is as in love with ice cream as I am with pizza, so now he can get it whenever he wants. Experimentation is the name of the game.

Lastly, the dude who made this hat has my utmost respect.

Call me a cold New Yorker, and then please, please, stop standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

Filed at 4:42 pm under New York City, Daily Goings-On, Work, Wedding
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Yes, I’m still alive.

My dad’s waiting on his doctor to get back from vacation, but he is resting at home and will likely be admitted to the hospital for treatments next week. So, I’m hoping to get home this weekend to see them beforehand.

We decided, after talking with my parents and Pastor Stan and a few other people that the best option was to keep the wedding and reception on September 2, but to have a small private ceremony early in the morning at the hospital on Saturday. This way, Dad can be there for the “real” wedding, but our community of friends and family can be involved as well. We’ve toned it down a bit at the reception (no dancing!) but we thought this was for the best.

Other than that, life plods gently along. Tom’s sister Jessica (hi!!) was in the area last week and we spent Sunday with her, culminating in a Jars of Clay concert. Judd & Maggie and Christopher Williams were the opening acts, and both were excellent. I’m always a bit skeptical about the quality of opening acts, and I’m usually bored when listening to songs I haven’t heard before, but this was great.

And Jars . . . well, they were awesome. It’s long been one of my life goals to see them in concert. They were rocking out, which appears to match their upcoming album (intriguingly titled “Good Monsters” and dropping on September 5). But they also played a ton of old songs, including “Flood” and “Love Song for a Savior”, and even inserted a bit of “Worlds Apart” into another tune. Dan Haseltine’s voice has been one of my favorite voices in music, so it was just awesome to see them live.

Filed at 10:03 am under Daily Goings-On, Music, Dad Update
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Dad, on the phone to me tonight: Yeah, my shoulders and neck just hurt so much . . . I felt like diving headfirst off the deck.
Me: Wow, that would leave a crater.
Dad (chuckling): You are your father’s daughter.

Filed at 9:00 pm under Daily Goings-On
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Ohh, praise God, it’s raining.

Filed at 7:30 pm under Daily Goings-On
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Oh! I forgot to mention that we saw Philip Seymour Hoffman at Joe on Sunday morning before church, with his little kid who was clutching an Elmo doll. Poor guy - he was trying to hang onto his son, and shut the front door, and I was trying to open the door and practically wrenched it out of his hand. Whoops.

At any rate, we so rarely see celebrities anymore that it was very fortunate for Sarah & Sarah to actually have that experience.

Filed at 2:09 pm under Daily Goings-On
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Pictures from this weekend’s visit!

Filed at 10:16 pm under New York City, Friends, Daily Goings-On, Photos
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Tom and I drove home from Albany this Sunday listening to Grey Ghost Stories, one of Linford Detweiler’s instrumental albums. We were talking about something entirely different when Tom laughed and said, “Stop. Listen.”

He reached over and backed up the CD just a hair, and we listened and heard a lovely feminine chuckle in the middle of one of the melodies. “Karin,” I said, and Tom nodded. (Karin Berquist & Linford Detweiler are the married couple that anchor Over the Rhine.)

I told him that I think someday, when we’ve done some real work, someone’s going to ask us who we took as modern-day role models, and we’re going to name people like Linford & Karin and Alfred & Alma.

Alfred, of course, being Alfred Hitchcock, and Alma being his wife of over 50 years. We saw Psycho a couple of weekends ago and watched the “Making of Psycho” documentary afterwards, and Joseph Stefano, the screenwriter, mentioned that he knew the screenplay was good when Alfred came back and said, “Alma liked it.”

In fact, a biography of Alma on an Alfred Hitchcock site says that “she was his assistant in virtually every production” from when they married onward, and that in a biography, “Hitchcock mentions several times that Alma was his harshest critic, and had a great eye for finding out inconsistencies in the rough cut.” Alma was an editor and a screenwriter. IMDB says, “She was Alfred Hitchcock’s closest collaborator . . . contributed to all of her husband’s films, usually uncredited. She would be shown stories, scripts, storyboards and all elements through the final edit.”

Tom and I, when we heard about Alma in the documentary, turned and grinned knowingly at each other. That’s us. That’s where we hope to be - Tom being the brilliant creative people-person guy, and me being the girl who makes things happen, and both of us finding scripts we like and fiddling with them till they’re perfect. Maybe we’ll write one together.

Rarely have I had real-person role models, but now I do. Alma. (Karin too.)

Filed at 4:20 pm under Daily Goings-On, Film, Love
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The last 24 hours have been a wee bit on the stressful side, culminating mostly with me (generally a polite, friendly person on the phone, who isn’t even rude to telemarketers) demanding emphatically and assertively that a certain company providing certain invitation-related services to us fix their own mistake at their own expense and hand-deliver the results. It worked.

But it’s just been a lot to deal with, and then today has been so busy at work (I know, right?) that I didn’t get to get out of my chair until about 3pm.

So I threw caution to the wind, picked $1.95 in change out of my wallet and the cup of pennies I keep near my desk for emergencies such as this, and marched down to Starbucks to purchase a fruit slice cookie.

Ohhh. Soooo good.

Filed at 3:21 pm under Daily Goings-On, Facepalm
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The wedding planning finally feels like it’s moving along . . . because invitations are getting near printing. ;) They are lovely and we are so thrilled for our amazing friends who helped out with getting them to look good. Woohoo!

Tom called me about an hour and a half ago and said that they wrapped early and he’s going to drive into the city to hang out with me this evening. Double woohoo!!!

I have tomorrow off. My super-cool brother is coming for the weekend. We are going to paint the town red and hang out in hipster areas like the East Village and Williamsburg and and spend some time on the movie set. That will all be fun, but right now I’m concentrating on how incredibly happy I am that today is “my” Friday!!

Filed at 4:11 pm under Daily Goings-On
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Started pounding the B vitamins today. GNC tells me that they “replinsh B-Vitamins lost during stress - essential for energy production”. Let’s hope so.

Filed at 10:20 am under Daily Goings-On, Wedding
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I spent most of the day working from home on Friday, in the vain idea that someone was coming to check the leak in my downstairs neighbor’s roof and would therefore want to get into my apartment. But then I found out they came on Thursday. Ha!

So, I caught a train after “work” to New Jersey to hang out with my adorable fiance. We had dinner with his parents, and it was fairly late by the time we got home so we didn’t do anything else that evening. The next morning we headed out to Panera for a while and he taught me how to do film scheduling. Sorta. Really just hour-by-hour schedules. But it was fun and I was productive and hopefully thorough. After a graduation party, we went to Starbucks and continued on said schedules. We took the train back into Manhattan on Sunday and went to church.

We had the surreal experience of watching the Italy vs. France World Cup finals on a Spanish TV station in a Japanese sushi bar on the lower east side. Not something you do every day. We had to leave before the second overtime finished (but not before the head-butt incident) to catch Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest, which was great fun, very like an amusement park ride. Woohoo!

And then we wandered about town, tossed around ideas for the wedding, and eventually went to our respective dwelling places.

I got to work today and had a voice message from Tom - “Hi, it’s me, just heard about the building and wanted to make sure you were ok.” What? I went to CNN and found this. I’ve been hearing the sirens all day.

Filed at 3:21 pm under New York City, Daily Goings-On
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I haven’t had much urge to blog lately. Hmm.

Anyhow, I was able to leave early on Friday due to everyone else leaving early on Friday. So Tom came into the city and worked from his phone while I picked out bridesmaid dresses at David’s Bridal. I finally settled on this one, in Peridot (light green). It looks horrible on that model but when I tried it on, it was lovely.

We went to see Double Indemnity on Friday night, after Thai food in Astoria. ‘Twas good. Film Forum is having a Billy Wilder festival of sorts and so we were trying to hit them.

On Saturday, Tom came over in the late morning and I cooked scrambled eggs for the very first time (I don’t usually eat eggs, but I’m learning) and we had chocolate biscuits and grapes and orange juice while he tied up some loose ends. Then we headed into the city for another premarital counseling session (which was great). Then we met up with Tara Leigh and her friend Doug (who she calls Danger, for no apparent reason ;D) for dinner/coffee/lots of conversation. Twas an excellent evening. Will post pics soon. They are blurry, unfortunately, mostly because we were at this grill & bar place that’s on the end of Pier 46 in Chelsea, right on the water, and you can feel the dock floating. It was a weird sensation.

We went to church on Sunday, and then brunch with a bunch of people (including Angela, who is in town for most of the month, hurrah!). And then to see Some Like It Hot. Odd bit of trivia from IMDB about filming that movie:

Marilyn Monroe required 47 takes to get “It’s me, Sugar” correct, instead saying either “Sugar, it’s me” or “It’s Sugar, me”. After take 30, Billy Wilder had the line written on a blackboard. Another scene required Monroe to rummage through some drawers and say “Where’s the bourbon?” After 40 takes of her saying “Where’s the whiskey?”, ‘Where’s the bottle?”, or “Where’s the bonbon?”, Wilder pasted the correct line in one of the drawers. After Monroe became confused about which drawer contained the line, Wilder had it pasted in every drawer. Fifty-nine takes were required for this scene and when she finally does say it, she has her back to the camera, leading some to wonder if Wilder finally gave up and had it dubbed.

And they wonder why people make blonde jokes.

I spent Monday kicking around the apartment, checking my work email and messages (there were none; everyone apparently took the day off), doing laundry, working on some websites, buying groceries, cleaning the bathroom, etc. I tried to go see The Devil Wears Prada, and even walked all the way down to the theater at 16th St (like 20 blocks), but it was sold out. Pooey. Better luck later.

And yesterday I went to Jersey to hang out with Tom and his family. We ate Chinese food and ice cream and watched fireworks. ‘Twas a thoroughly enjoyable holiday.

Filed at 11:05 am under Daily Goings-On, Film
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No offense to anyone whose job this currently is (dear me, I hope you’re not reading my blog), but I just saw the most depressing job idea ever.

Web producer for TV Guide.

Filed at 10:07 pm under Daily Goings-On
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We saw Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival on Friday night. Existential goodness. Very long, but worth it.

Then we saw Brick, which was brilliant. It’s like a 40’s film noir story & dialogue (detective tries to solve mystery of missing woman, whom he loved, and all hell breaks loose, including . . . well, I won’t ruin it for you), but it’s set in a modern-day California high school. But the dialogue is brilliant.

Yesterday after church and brunch we went shopping for some things at Crate & Barrel - a few big glasses (28 oz - was tired of refilling tiny glasses all the time), four wine glasses, a pepper grinder (I think we’ll end up getting the salt one too), and tealight holder. Good prices! Good stuff!

And then Tom & I went to Think Coffee and drank coffee and ate pecan pie and homemade ice cream and played Scrabble, which I astoundingly won, mostly due to my early procurement of a Q and later procurement of not one but two U’s. “QUINCE” won the day. (Tom: “What’s that?” Me: “I dunno . . . some kind of fruit?”)

Moleskine love: ESV Bible and the 18 month planner.

Filed at 10:41 am under Daily Goings-On
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I have got to stop listing to the Relevant podcast at work. I’m generally left in silent, convulsive laughter. And that’s just weird, at work.

Filed at 4:39 pm under Daily Goings-On
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I am still alive and kicking, but I’m a little buried in work and weddings.

The good news is, there will be a wedding, it will include food and a roof over our heads, and everything else will fall into place in the near future.

We went to the Soho House on Sunday after brunch for dessert with Steve & Louisa, who got us in, as well as a few others. One of the more surreal experiences I’ve had since I moved to NYC.

Filed at 12:23 pm under Daily Goings-On
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I broke my “never-drink-regular-coffee-at-Starbucks” rule today with an emergency cup of iced coffee, shot of hazelnut, and YUM. Sugar. And sweet. Mouth tastes funny now.

So many pending projects! So much to do. Much that is exciting. Web projects, writing, editing ideas, decorating a new apartment that will be home for years to come (what colors? textures?), discovering that I am well suited for life in Brooklyn. It’s a little less frantic out there. And I actually like commuting when I’m not the one driving the commuting device. I can read. I missed reading.

I get up in the morning, flick on my “morning” playlist on the computer, start a pot of coffee. Only marginally embarassed about a few of the songs. Click for list.
(more…)

Filed at 10:38 am under Daily Goings-On, Music
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Last night, after work, I struggled home with bags of cleaning supplies and attacked my kitchen, with a brief distraction to the bathroom to figure out what I need to do about the tiles-in-the-bathtub situation. They are rather mildewy. Actually, the grossest part is the curtain over the window IN the shower. I had originally planned to just ditch the curtain, as I thought it looked out onto a very nearby exterior wall of the next-door house, but apparently there is also a window on that side. Not so good to have people able to look into the house.

But, the kitchen is mostly clean now, and most things are put away neatly. There’s JUST enough space for all the dishes. We will be renovating our dish collection eventually. We also need a microwave cabinet of some sort for the microwave (duh), toaster oven, blender, recipe books, stuff like that. And some clear jars for the myriad of pasta, rice, and beans.

Mugrat - er - my college friend Margaret called around 9:30 and I talked to her for a while. Haven’t talked to her in like a year! And she grew up in Park Slope, a few blocks away. Smallish world.

I finally got to bed after 11pm (had to find clothes to wear today), only to rise at an hour I find painful in order to get into Manhattan for my 7am women’s group. I had no idea that the sun was up at 5:30 am. Wonders never cease. I made it at more like 7:15 am (I don’t think I took the best route) to the new and delightful Think Coffee, which apparently does awesome things like screen indie films and host a Thursday Scrabble night. Anyhow, it was good to see everyone and chat and drink awesome iced coffee that early in the morning.

I generally lack the discipline to rise a second before absolutely necessary in the morning. And it got worse when I moved to New York. At first, I had training at 8am in Times Square, so for six weeks I got up at 6:30 am. But once I moved to the office, showing-up time got later, and I got more lax. But now, being in Brooklyn, I have to be up early . . . and I want to try and make it to the girls’ group on Tuesdays and to IAM on Wednesdays, so maybe I can overcome my slothfulness. And maybe I can go to bed earlier. (Ha!) Once I’m up, I am completely fine, especially now that I’m fully recovered from mono. But convincing myself to get up is a serious battle.

On the wedding front, we are still looking for a reception location that is big & inexpensive enough. Once that’s found, we’ll have a date. And I think most of the other things will fall into place.

I’d like to take this opportunity to sing the praises of Method cleaners. They are chemical-free, smell good, and come in pretty, design-savvy bottles. Because, really, why must cleaning solution simultaneously murder brain cells and look horrible! These are bottles you can leave out on a counter with pride. I particularly recommend the Pomegranate Handwash. Yummy shade of red and smells great.

Filed at 10:29 am under Life, Daily Goings-On, Geekitude
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Another great one from Overhead in New York:

Why New Yorkers Are Always Going Underground
Little girl: What’s that, mommy?
She points to double-decker site-seeing tourist bus.
Mom: That’s what the tourists use to look at us.
–46 & 8th

Filed at 11:04 pm under Daily Goings-On
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I’m packing to move, with the TV on. Best reality TV show ever. The National Spelling Bee.

Filed at 9:22 pm under Daily Goings-On
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I went to Rachel’s wedding this past weekend at home. It was great. Tom had driven me home to help me pick up my things (bed, dishes, etc.) and they had some cancellations, so he was able to come with me and meet a ton of people. I pretty much grew up with the Rennells family, so I knew an astounding number of people there, and saw kids that I hadn’t seen since I used to babysit them eight years ago, people from old homeschooling days, people who used to go to my church at home, and a host of people who I just hadn’t seen in a really long time. The wedding itself was HUGE and beautiful and a lot of fun. And lots of people ran over to coo at my diamond. :)

My brother Sean was supposed to come back to the city with me, but he wasn’t feeling well, so I had two unexpected days of no plans. We went to IKEA on Monday to check out the furniture and do some ideagathering. We did find a table we really liked (in medium brown). The leaves slide under the top part of the table and are quite sturdy, so it’s a little more practical than drop-leaves, and it gets small or big, which is perfect for NYC. We may end up getting it. I did leave IKEA only purchasing a cutting board and two CD cases. Total price: $5.36. We hearts IKEA!

I am officially a resident of Park Slope, starting four minutes ago (technically, my lease starts at noon today). I am going out there tonight to get my key from the landlord, and Tom and his Dad are moving things in tomorrow. I have to finish packing tonight. The predicament: I’m out of boxes, and I don’t know where to get more. Many things will be packed in garbage bags, methinks. It’s not like I’m moving far, just across town, and I really only need boxes for my books, of which I have six large boxes full so far. Whoops.

I have a futon but no mattress, so I am trying to decide whether to leave work early and buy a mattress tomorrow, or if I should stay at the current apartment tomorrow night and buy a mattress Saturday. I’m leaning toward the earlier option. But I don’t know. Agh. I don’t want to work tomorrow!

Wedding plans are at a standstill till we nail down the reception location, which still is not nailed down and is starting to drive me bonkers. But soon. I hope.

Filed at 11:07 am under Daily Goings-On
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My dress came yesterday. It is lubbly. I have never worn anything that beautiful!

I am traveling home tonight to see my dear friend Rachel get married. Rachel’s a missionary in Central Asia, and met her fiance, Chris, there (he is British). I grew up with their family, quite literally, and Rachel was by turns my piano teacher, choir leader, fellow choir director, fellow choir member, swim teacher, music teacher, fellow musician, and probably a half dozen other things.

My brother, Sean, is coming back down for the weekend to hang with us. He is far cooler than I, so we will probably hang out in Williamsburg, East Village, maybe go out to my new neighborhood in Park Slope, possibly Top of the Rock here at Rockefeller. I’ve been up the Empire State Building, but not Top of the Rock, and I walk by the entrance at least twice every weekday. And I get a discount.

Apparently today is a half-day for the business, so I’m going to duck out around 2pm, drop some things off uptown, and then try to find a dress at Forever 21 as fast as I can. I tried on dozens of dresses yesterday (well, ok, all the dresses in my wardrobe), and none of them are good for this weird weather we’ve got, or they’re very black, and I just can’t wear black to a wedding. Forever 21 had nice inexpensive adorable dresses, or at the very least I can get a white shrug to wear with a yellow dress I’ve got. Oy.

Filed at 9:59 am under Daily Goings-On
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