Wednesday, July 28, 2004

"Why Don't You Go And Cut Your Hair..." - Pavement

I jokingly told a lot of friends that my hair was going to get all chopped after the wedding.  I was only semi-joking.  A year and a half of growing my hair one length so it would be perfect for the wedding can make a girl bored to tears, so off it came today.  Think about 4 inches off.  My once very long hair now falls in soft layers just above the shoulders.  Sure wish I had pictures of all the hair on the floor around the chair at the hairdressers!

I throw out a challenge to Heidi now, who said she would chop her hair if I did.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

A Beautiful Day...


Matt and me exiting the church after our wedding Posted by Hello

I will write a more detailed post about how wonderful our wedding was.  In the meantime, here's a link to all the pictures from our wedding for your viewing and ordering pleasure.  Matt is also hoping to add a smaller selection of pictures to our wedding website. And one of the nifty things about the photographer we chose is that we already have a cd of 467 photos from our wedding to play with and share digitally.


Wedding Update Soon.. In the Meantime...

I hope to do a wedding update soon.  All good times!!  For now, visit Heidi's blog at this link.



Thursday, July 22, 2004

Knot Tieing To Commence

Matt and I are about to head out of here for the big weekend.  I'm leaving for Buffalo in about 45 minutes for a final dress fitting to make sure the train "hangs right."  Tomorrow involves the girly stuff of mani-pedicures and then the wedding rehearsal.  Saturday is the big day of course, involving getting up way too early to get my hair to cooperate.  Fortunately, the weather looks to be quite nice.  Some say, even perfect.   Wish us luck and I'll catch you all next week, perhaps when I'm manning the booth again for work at the County Fair.


Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Julia's "Last Night" Out

Several of my friends here in Jamestown decided to throw me a little bachelorette party this past Friday.  I had originally said that I didn't want much of a fuss and that beers consumed in front of a fire at my friend's parent's house was a fine idea to me.  Fast forward a month or more, and that idea switched to wanting to go to Bemus Point.
 
Lori spearheaded organizing the event, despite the fact that she's getting married about a month after Matt and me.  I slowly began to realize that there might be some small shenanigans when she innocently asked me if I would wear a veil that had condoms attached to it.  I nixed the idea of the condoms, but consented to wearing a veil. 
 
Friday night, a little after 7pm, Lori, Clair, and Lynda arrived.  Matt complained just before they arrived that I was wearing "his" shirt.  I had to nicely explain that any shirt I had that exposed some cleavage was not "his" shirt, and that there would be times that I would be wearing those shirts while he wasn't around.  The veil turned out quite nice, with a strip of red roses hiding the barrette the veil was attached to.  I opened some presents that had some honeymoon appropriate attire in them, took some photos in the veil, and we took off.
 
Lynda, our wonderful designated driver, maneuvered into a parking spot near the Surf Club, where we were eating.  Lori ran off ahead of us as we waited for traffic to pass by.  I assumed she was going to get us a table until we got to the entrance of the restaurant.  Plastered on the door was a poster that said something to the effect, "Sexy Single Gentleman!  It's Julia's Last Night Out!" with my picture in the middle.  I could feel trouble sneaking up on us.
 
After we ordered sushi, I asked Lori where she had put the posters since she had run out before our appetizers arrived.  She replied, "Oh everywhere!  There are these guys down the street that wanted one to put on their porch too!"  I groaned and said, "I'm not used to such fuss!  I mean.. I know people around here!"  Lori said, "Well, mostly vacationers will see it, so I wouldn't worry too much!"  And just as she finished saying that, one of the town supervisors I know walks by and sees me.  About 10 minutes later, Darin and his wife (from the Legislative office) walks across the street, sees the poster, laughs, and then sees me.  So much for being incognito!  This on top of the fact that the girls were giving me a hard time because I was chugging water like it was my business.  I knew my earnest efforts at telling them it was due to the massage I had and the need to flush the bad toxins out of my body wasn't going to hold water for long.
 
After stuffing ourselves with sushi, bruchetta, soup, and panini sandwiches and reapplying lipstick, we took off for The Village Casino.  As we walk in, we run into another girl I know that used to work with Matt.  At the bar, while we pondered what drinks to start with,  Darin comes over with a pitcher and several plastic cups, "Here's a pitcher of Sex On The Beach to do shots with," he said.  Drink number 1.  Drinks number 2 were a blow-job shot, which we convinced Lori that we didn't really need to pick up off the bar with our mouths.  Drink number 3 was an overly sweet Midori Sour for me.  Drink number 4 was a Buttery Nipple shot courtesy of Darin.  Drink number 4 was another blow job shot courtesy of some random guy sitting at the bar next to us.  Drink number 5 was a regular sized Sex On The Beach. And finally, Drink number 6 was another buttery nipple courtesy of John.  Needless to say, I was happily making my way to being very, very inebriated.

In the midst of all the drinking, another guy from the other side of the bar ran over, looked at a copy of the poster Lori had hung up that he had apparently torn down, looked at me and said, "It is you!"  He then ran away.  I think I said something like, "Well of course it's me!  I'm the only one wearing a veil in this place."  Then our friend John from the newspaper showed up and we gabbed for a little while. 

Smackdab was the band playing that night, so we grooved for a little while.  Eventually, I got tired of standing and insisted on getting a table where we could see everyone but rest our feet a little.  By that time, Mark and Clair's boyfriend, Kevin, had shown up after getting out of work.  So much for a real girl's night out, but those guys are a lot of fun, so we let them sit with us.  Lori kept bugging me to go dance until she got the band to announce that "It's Julia's last night out!  This one's for her" or something before launching into a Rolling Stones cover.  We had to go shake it of course, and were even joined by Darin on the floor. 

 
I get tired when I drink, so we packed it in a little after 1AM.  Clair said good-bye to Kevin, and we took off for my house.  Lynda still had to go home, but we got Clair and Lori set up with pillows and blankets for a little sleepover.
 
I stumbled into the unoccupied guest room to escape Matt's snoring and was sleeping quite fitfully until Matt came in later on to ask if I was getting up.  I think I whined, "Why?" He replied, "It's 10:30!"  I shot back, "What, you act like that's late or something??"  That morning, Lori and Clair found out the real reason Matt calls me "sunshine."  Admist some grumbling and orange juice, I pulled myself together to go hang out with everyone downstairs.  The girls were checking in with their significant others and we decided that a big breakfast from The Coffee Cup was the only cure to a night of drinking.  Kevin joined us as we scarfed down some greasy goodness and caffeinated wonder.
 
An excellent time all around.  I saved one of the posters that had been stuck to a tree.  I'm almost afraid to go back into Bemus to see if any other posters are lingering in the doorways of the bars there.
 

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Settling Back Into Blog Obscurity...

Phew. Well, it looks like the number of visitors to this blog is slowing winding down to a more average number for me. All that attention due to some links I provided to the Fahrenheit 9-11 tran"script" culminated in over 3,000 visits last week Wednesday alone, with similarly high numbers for about a week. I tell ya', getting linked by some bigger players is a nice high, but unnerving at the same time. You start to wonder, "Who are all these people? Do I know any of them? Is it anyone that didn't know I had a blog and is now all like 'Geez, Julia has this blog.. you should see some of the stuff she writes about!'"

It's stuff like this that makes me paranoid. The kind of paranoid where you wonder if the government has a file on you, which I'm sure they do in my case since I've worked on the White House grounds for the annual Easter Egg Roll in 1999 not to mention other sundry details. I'm kidding. Mostly.

In non-related items, the local bachelorette party is tomorrow night. Just a very small group of my female friends here in town and me are going to dinner and then taking in a local band (and alcohol) at one of the hot,summer spots in the county. Hopefully I will have some good stories to tell after that!

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

"Just as long as I don't call myself a 'jelly doughnut'!"

It's always interesting to see candidates for office in action when confronted with a large ethnicity in the district they are running in. My boss had his campaign staff searching high and low for someone who speaks Polish so he could place an ad in the local paper for the Polish-American festival this weekend. I overheard the various phone calls of, "Well, can you find Chester? He should know. He's fluent. Well... who else do we know??" Finally, I asked what was needed and said I could call my grandmother.

My grandmother speaks Polish better than she writes it, but we came up with something that worked:

"Vyczemy wam najlepszego dnia Polskiego Americkanskievo festival!"
(We are wishing you the best day at the Polish American festival!")

I checked it against a free Polish-English translation site and we fired this off to my boss:

"?yczymy Was Lepszy Dzie? przy Polskim Ameryka?skim Festiwalu!"

He laughed when I said I wouldn't venture a guess at how to pronounce the phrase since he might end up saying something he wished he hadn't. I jokingly added that he wouldn't want to make a mistake and call himself a "jelly doughnut" like JFK had reportedly done while visiting Germany (classic urban legend).

Monday, July 12, 2004

Summer Smack

A week and a half ago, I got a case of musical cravings that led me to consume some downloads off Napster. Fortunately, the playlist that was born of this included some songs I already possessed. Here's my answer for when you start craving the musical smack that summer brings:

Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Modest Mouse - Float On
Blink 182 - Down
The Killers - Somebody Told Me
Muse - Time Is Running Out
The Music - Take The Long Road And Walk It
The Vines - Ride
The Darkness - Growing On Me
JET - Last Chance
Beastie Boys - Ch-check It Out
The Cure - The End of the World
Sarah Slean - Weight
Morrissey - I'm Not Sorry
The Thrills - Big Sur
Fountains of Wayne - Hey Julie

Friday, July 09, 2004

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Matt and I will be headed up to Rochester, again, this weekend to take care of more wedding details. Some will be fun, like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party that my bridesmaids are throwing me tomorrow at Hicks & McCarthy in Pittsford. It's a co-ed event, so I'll get to hang out with a few of my guy friends from way back. I'm honestly feeling some trepidation about the event since Heidi asked me if I knew where she could pick up some cards that had strippers on them. Oh the mischief!

We only have about two weeks left before the wedding now. If you see a huge fall-off in posts, you can guess why!

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

So You're Just Discovering This Thing Called A Blog...

One of my good friends here in Jamestown stunned me last week when she asked, "What's a blog?" I decided to round up a couple primer blogs for her to check out and then had the idea to copy on here what I sent her. It'll also give you a quick glance at what I'm reading most days:

Blog For America: The Blog that “started it all” in the political sense. This was Howard Dean’s very effective campaign blog that he used to raise his millions until he stepped down. It’s still being updated everyday as he works to get John Kerry and other Democrats elected.
www.blogforamerica.com

Eschaton: Democrat that really gives it to the GOP. One of the best “left-leaning” blogs out there.
atrios.blogspot.com

GirlHacker’s Random Log: Updated week days. She usually does two different paragraphs about something she’s read about or items of interest happening where she lives (State of Washington). Simple design, but usually pretty interesting bits of trivia.
girlhacker.com/log.html

Jenny’s Blog: This is the girl I know from Rochester. She has a really well designed blog and updates it daily.
www.ljcfyi.com

Wil Wheaton’s Blog: Yeah, the same guy from the movie Stand By Me and Star Trek – The Next Generation. He’s a good writer though. Funny stories.
wilwheaton.net

Wonkette-Beltway Blog: Washington DC gossip
wonkette.com

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

No Sleep, No Dreams

I've essentially been up since 3am this morning when Matt's snoring forced me to find refuge in the guest room. A quieter outer environment, yes; a quiet internal state, no. The stress of all kinds of things is catching up with me. The easy ones are the wedding and general work stress that comes from being assigned too many projects to get done properly in part-time hours. There's a myriad of others ranging from mundane household chores that I can't manage to stay on top of due to always being out of town on wedding-related trips to a smash of political hassles and public radio station responsibilities.

Matt actually got up and sought me out when he realized I was stomping around the house at the wee hours. We talked and hopefully some of the manageable items will sort themselves out. I just can't wait until everything is all over, which may be as soon as the middle of September or the middle of November depending on how things go.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

me(ish).org is alive!

The blog that inspired it all for me is back up and running as something entirely different.

me(ish).org is now less blog-like in the sense that there isn't daily "wibblings" as the author, Meg, would say. What remains is a photolog area, a words area that replaces the blog, and a jumble of other nice things to distract yourself.


Meg of me(ish).org Posted by Hello

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Fahrenheit 9/11: Verbatim Tran"script"

The script for the second most controversial film of the year now is available:

Part One

Part Two
Part Three

Addendum: I'm aware this goes to a pro-Bush site and is not a perfect transcript. It's still an interesting supplement to seeing the movie. I highly encourage everyone to see the movie, despite their political affiliations/beliefs. If you're going to criticize or praise the movie, you should at least see it before you make any commentary on it.

The Important Albums of My Teen-Angst-Ridden Years

A flash of boredome made me think of creating this very incomplete list. Steal the idea all you want.

Morrissey - Viva Hate
REM - Out of Time
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Beethoven - Symphony No. 2
U2- Achtung Baby
They Might Be Giants - Flood
Live - Throwing Copper
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Harry Connick, Jr. - We Are In Love
Twin Peaks Soundtrack
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Full Moon Fever

Fashion By Women Who Love Women

Some would say that the phrase "Lesbian Fashion" is an oxymoron, but those same people probably had no idea that the trend-setting fashion in Sex and the City was put together by a Lesbian. Find out more in this article, The Secrets of Lesbian Style.

Before Sunrise... Before Sunset

One of my favorite movies from the 1990s was Before Sunrise. The sequel, Before Sunset, will start showing in theatres tomorrow and already is garnering favorable reviews.

The great thing about the first movie was the dialogue. It reminded me of conversations I had with friends throughout the years. I suppose people like certain films depending on how much of themselves they see reflected on the screen.

While I've seen this movie with many friends, the time I watched it with Matt holds a special place in my heart since it was a time when our relationship began its slow turn from friendship to something more.

Before Sunset: Official Site
IndieWire Review
Related Post on Chicagoist

Cutting to the Scene with the Pixie

Ten years ago, I decided to do one of the most drastic things I had ever done to my hair. I went from a long style (below collarbone) to a p...