A Little Zen

I seem to create my blog themes to match the big event going on in my life at any given moment. I had a skiing theme. When I was planning our cruise - I had a cruise theme. What’s with the Zen, you ask?

chinese lantern This theme is in keeping with our wedding theme. After visiting NYC, we came up with some great ideas for the wedding. Jane’s garden (Chris’s mother) is beautiful . . . and it has a very zen theme to it, as she is a buddhist. Well, at least this month she is. There is a creek that runs through the garden that has two waterfalls . . the creek runs down and splits off, creating the two waterfalls. In between the waterfalls is a small island . . which is where we will have the actual ceremony.

There are little bridges that cross over the stream, and multiple garden paths with tons of trees all around.

The ceremony, itself, will be at 4pm with the dinner/reception/drinks immediately following in her garden. We hired a caterer for the even who will be catering the meal and the bar.

The decorations will be kept simple (more money to spend on the honeymoon!) - but we’re doing a white theme. White luminaries will line the multiple garden pathways, and white rice paper chinese lanterns will be hanging from the trees. I found these beautiful shoji lanterns that we’ll be using for the table centerpieces. Maybe we’ll string some white lights on some of the trees. The whole garden will be lit only by the candles from the luminaries, and the lights from the paper chinese lanterns. I am imagining it will be beautiful . . . at least in my minds eye it is.

My dress!! Ooo . . it’s just beautiful! I don’t have a picture of it at all, because it’s being custom made . . . but I am so excited about. I went with a silk fabric in a gorgeous silver/dusky purpleish color. A Zen Wedding with a bride in purple. Leave it to me to be WEIRD about it!It’s hard to describe, but I fell in love with the color when I saw it! Jane is a couture dress designer in Manhattan and deals mainly in wedding and evening gowns. She brought me to her shop and had all these gorgeous gowns up on the dress forms . . lined up in her shop for me to take a look at. I went through them all . . tried a few on . . and mixed and matched the different options for the color, fabric, overlays, beading, bodice types, etc, etc - it was great fun, and I am really excited about this Free sex chat experience!

I’m going back to NYC in February to do the final fitting on it (diet, anyone?) - - and we’ll also have an appointment with the caterer to finalize the menu and bar, as well as the cake (mmmm. samples!)

I even made a decision on the invitations. Of course, I’m designing them myself - but I browsed through hundreds of samples for some nice ideas. Doing them myself is saving me about $200- 300 . . crazy, ain’t it?


What I Did on Thanksgiving Vacation

I tried hard to explain to Ben and Melissa. I tried to describe it to them . . yet, they found it very difficult to stand on this ground and imagine the towers standing where there is now nothing. We talked about the emotions of that day - - and what it must have been like for everyone there. I tried to get them to understand what used to be here . . what it meant . . what happened to the people, and to our country.

We walked down Church Street together, the three of us. We talked about that day. We looked at the pictures and memorials. We turned our noses up at the vendors selling t-shirts, posters, CD’s and anything else you can think of - vendors who promised to donate all the proceeds to the victim’s families. We read the signs posted that implored visitors not to give money to these vendors - and yet the vendors persist.

We walked and talked. I pointed up at the tall buildings around Ground Zero and tried to give them a Jasmin live reference from which to draw from on what the towers might look like if they still stood today. Pictures don’t do it for them. Television doesn’t do it for them.

It’s so hard to imagine.

They get it. They understand what happened and why. Melissa’s statement about the towers: “I just can’t see it, Mom - I know what it was. I know what happened. I see pictures of the towers - but I look at this ground and I just can’t imagine it in my mind.”

Our generation has a responsibility to future generations to make sure they do not forget.

On the road

We’re on the road back home from NYC. I really dislike the long drives back home .. they are much longer than the drive there .. or, at least, they seem so. Currently, we are about 50 miles east of Cleveland, headed West.

If this post is laden with jasminelive typos, apologize up front, I’m posting this from Chris’s PDA Treo phone. It’s kinda cool .. Ilve been surfing the net and chatting with pals on Yahoo while we drive through the fields and plains back home. Gives me something to do anyways, while Chris listens to a Robert Ludlum book on CD. I never can get into audio books … my mind wanders to much.

We had great fun in NY over Turkey Day holidays. I have lots of fun pictures to share once I’m on my normal computer. Actually, I took a few pics with Chris’s phone to share with you to show you just how far out in the middle of nowhere we really are … but it seems that I can’t upload pics in Wordpress via this phone, as the ‘browse’ button doesn’t show up. Ahh well, can’t be completely e-spoiled, can I?

Goping everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday weekend. Aren’t ya just jonesing to get back to work tomorrow?

Yea, me too.

Later!

Gobble

Turkey FateOver the river and through the woods to .. umm . . Chris’s-mother-my-soon-to-be-mother-in-law-the- -soon-to-be-grandmother-in-law’s .. house we go!

I’ve heard the weather is just supposed to suck over on the East coast this week. A snippet of what I read today:

Residents in the higher elevations from western Virginia to central New York will change to wet snow at the end of this storm. Some areas may receive a slushy mix of rain and snow, while areas above 2,000 feet may have 1-3 inches of snow. The big story will be the extreme cold over the Thanksgiving weekend. An Alberta Clipper will move across the Great Lakes and into Northeast Wednesday night and Thursday, producing a band of light snow across the Great Lakes and the Northeast. Even the major cities like New York City and Philadelphia will have some light snow Thanksgiving Day. Extreme cold will following the clipper, with temperatures on Friday dipping into the 20s and 30s across the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, New England and the mid-Atlantic. Lake-effect snow will be heavy across western New York, where over 2 feet of snow is forecast.

So I’m worrying, of course, about people on the highways who inevitably break out into seasonal psychosis on the road at the initial sign of the first snowfall of the year. I’m voicing my concerns to Chris - - who tires, so easily, of my neurotic ramblings about my inevitable demise via trains, planes and automobiles.. who reminds me that we’re driving in a Yukon XL with a big deer catcher in the front. Well, it’s not really a deer catcher - - it’s those big bars.. ya know what I mean - whatever they’re called.

But, either way - we’re stocking up extra blankets, hats, mittens, gloves, etc - - ya know, just in case we get stranded out the in middle of nowhere in the freezing cold and our battery dies and we get snowed into our truck and can’t contact anyone because both our cell phones are dead and our OnStar system doesn’t work. We could freeze to death.

It. Could. Happen.

Alias Marathon

Amazon is my friend.

Blockbuster gave me the first episode of Alias. However, on their shelves is Season One and Season Four. What happened to Seasons Two and Three?? I finished Season One and just about died right there in Blockbuster when they told me that they didn’t have Season Two or Three.

Just. About. Died.

Totally serious.

So desperate was I . . I headed over to Amazon.com and purchased Season Two and Three and had it shipped overnight.

Been working my butt off all day today setting up 10 new blogs for one client that has at least 25 different plugins and tons of custom PHP coding. My right hand is killing me. It’s 7:30 and I only have two more to go and then…THEN!

It’s me and Alias for the rest of the night and probably well into the morning . . . most assuredly stretching into the mid-morning/afternoon tomorrow.

Totally. Addicted.

Have a great weekend!

3NYC Planning

We’re leaving for New York on Tuesday. The are more than a little excited about it, too! This will be their first visit to New York . . and they just can’t stop talking about it.

Over dinner last night, we were going through the different plans that we have made, so far. We’re leaving Tuesday, just as soon as they get home from school and hopping in the truck to make the drive to NY. Driving, you say?? Are you nuts, you say?? I am nuts - and I’ve been all the way through this conversation with Chris and the - - I am nuts, ok? We’re not flying. I have a hard time flying, myself, as it is - and I’m not ready to pop my whole entire family on one plane, at the same time. Why abolish an entire family in one singular swoop - when you can drive and avoid the crash altogether?

I know, I know… flying is safer than driving, yada yada. People have tried. I’m irrational. It’s my own little paranoia that, believe it or not, has gotten much better over the years. And yet, it still lingers and it is what it is. So, there.

We’re driving. We’ll arrive in Putnam Valley, NY sometime early Wed. morning and will spend Wed, Thurs with Chris’s Mom for Thanksgiving. We’ll also be spending those days making some preliminary wedding plans, choosing what type of dress she’ll be making - then getting fitted for it…all that fun stuff. Then on Friday and Saturday, we’ll be taking the into the city to see Manhattan.

Chris, having spent much of his hood in NYC, turns up his nose at the regular touristy stuff that I want to do when we’re there. But he just has to stuff it - - the didn’t grow up in NYC and have never seen it - - so he’ll just have to excuse our plans to head to the observation floor of the Empire State Building. Pfft - - NY’rs - - some of them can be so elitist about their own damn town.

My daughter really, really, really wants to go see either Wicked or Hairspray on Broadway. Great idea! And then I looked up the ticket prices - going anywhere from $175 - $365 per person. I sat at the dinner table last night, trying real hard to justify it . . and just kept getting these looks from Chris like “are you NUTS?”

I guess I must be nuts, eh? lol

Anyways - we’re planning the usual tourist stuff.

One of the more important things I want the to see when were there is Ground Zero. We went in 2003, the last time we visited Chris’s Mom for Thanksgiving.