The Professional Photos Part 1

I'm waking up to a beautiful June morning readers. The coffee is spectacular, I can hear the mourning doves and hear the wind in the trees (some rare moments in loud Brooklyn). The heat finally broke and it feels like a summertime from my youth (oh, I'm getting 19th century!) So I'll share it with you. I've been having trouble sleeping since there is so much up in the air right now, but more about that in a post down the road. (In my head, I just pictured a dusty old road lined with green grass where if I squint hard enough, I see a post down the road! Will there be answers at this post? Will it give me some clues as to what to do next? Jane Eyre sees a post, takes a chance and follows one of the signs and it leads her to a long lost family.) Way off topic.

So tonight is the Cake Boss episode in which the 13 couples that won the Empire State Building weddings appear. So far it's scheduled for 9:30pm on TLC. Tim and I will get a copy of the show after it airs which should be fun since we don't have cable and will probably be watching a movie. I do hope the Cake Boss is entertaining. No guarantee that we'll actually be in the episode - maybe a flash here or there. Hopefully they will catch Timmy saying "Yeah! Cake Boss!" with two thumbs up. Hi-Larious!

In other news, we received our photos from the Knot. I didn't want to use the word "professional" photos because so many of your pictures were wonderful! But these kids actually get paid for their photography, so I want to give them credit. We are slowly going through about 1660 images and I'm uploading just a small sample here. I'm thinking that I might just upload a chunk of the images to my Snapfish account and let people pick them out there? I'll think of something. Also, I think that this will have to be presented in chapters (I'm realizing this as I'm editing the blog because I don't want it to be too long and I'm realizing that my comments on each photo are really long. ) So, here is all the leading up to the actual ceremony, something many of you missed because of all the restrictions and time restraints. I should also mention that the photos were taken by the very nice people at STAK photography. Great job! Enjoy!

Let's start the day with a healthy breakfast - as our adorable nephew Nicolas would suggest we start the day with lots of nutritious food! He's so cute! This was my breakfast -well brunch by the time I was eating it- I think I had some pineapple slices and some grapes to go with my chai tea. I was pretty nervous and when someone is straightening your hair (the rats nest of tangles that I have) it's kind of hard to eat. But I managed to get some food down between winces of pain and waves of butterflies.
Poor Timmy. He's lucky he didn't see me before the wedding or he may have had second thoughts. I've added some of these photos of the prep for all the ladies in my life that didn't get to participate in the getting ready part. I half imagined that my own mother wanted a prep something like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Sorry mom.
My stylist Liz suggested that I go with false eyelashes. So they are being applied here. Sorry Liz, I don't think I'll ever wear them again. I'm a picker - as in if something isn't supposed to be on my body, I have a tendency to pick it off. It was really hard not to just pluck the eyelashes off... and then when they did start falling off, I thought I was infected with the zombie bug and imagined that limbs would start falling off and eyes would start falling out and I would ooze green. Eek.
The finishing touches. I'm not really sure why I have this weird chunk of hair sticking out. It's like a fish hook. Is that symbolic? Since I didn't see myself until dinner, I didn't even realize it was there. Maybe it adds sass?
And the obligatory putting on the dress. As you can see, there is this whole strapping in mechanism on the inside of the dress. Like an uber mega bra on the inside of the bodice. No, I love corsets as much as the next 19th century woman, and I'm thankful that it kept my dress up all day and into the night, but when you interfere with my dinner - as in I couldn't finish my dinner because it was not letting the belly grow, well, then I have a problem. Or maybe I was just too tired and happy to eat. Nope, I eat at Thanksgiving after cooking and entertaining. Oh well. At least it was pretty.
More tomorrow or later in the week. Next step - walking. I do hope you are waiting on the edge of your seats readers, for the next installment of photos and comments.

Links to photos

Hello readers. It's been a while. I miss you. What have I been doing since the last time I wrote to you? Enjoying life. Many things in motion right now as the upcoming visit from Enta - Tim's poet sensei. We are really digging in and making Gogyohka a focus right now - many events in NYC. I don't know if there is a schedule up yet, but I'll post it once I get it from my dear husband (I like writing that).

I still haven't changed the name of the blog, as you can see from the title. I'm trying to be a bit to creative I think. I've been reading books like mad and maybe one of the fantastic books will give me some inspiration. I've been dreaming a lot lately as well, so somewhere between saving wizard friends with a chomped wand or visiting grocery stores in the cold northern regions (yeah, my dreams are kind of weird) or maybe from conversations between Tim and I about our future, I'll figure out what to call this lovely blog.

So, I've promised some links. I cannot remember if I've posted the link from my sister-in-law Traci. Nope, just checked. I didn't. Click on the photo and you'll be directed to her flickr page and you can watch a fun slide show. Yay slideshow!

And now for our friend Margaret. She is the wife of Peter Fiore and just a lovely lady. I'm so glad that I had the chance to meet her. I hope I get to meet her again. She took some beautiful photos and you can see them here:






Still waiting for photos from my parents - no rush mom! And if you all are sick of photos - let me know. I'll change up the monotony with some pics that I took at the zoo a few days after our last snow storm!! The tigers and bears were quite playful in the snow!!

Ok. Think that's it for now. Enjoy!

You Are Invited!

Well readers, the invitations will be in the mail tomorrow. How fun this was - I wonder why I was so afraid of planning this before. I guess, again, that we have such a close deadline to actually get this wedding on the ground, that it is just something we have to do. Thirteen invitations have been addressed tonight - each with a special Fun Fact! about the Empire State Building. I figure people can get facts about me and Tim's relationship here. Or they can ask us.

I remember visiting a stationary store one time, listening to a bride to be pick out colors, paper, font, words, graphics, envelopes, tissue paper. I'm giving myself a panic attack thinking back to this moment. Why do women feel the need to make things so fancy? And so complicated and pay so much for something that can be done so simply? I'm not knocking them (oh, knock knock joke coming up) but, I really don't understand it. I spent two lunch hours photoshopping Tim and me onto the Empire State Building. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But it was fun! I stamped a bunch of snowflakes around us in the hope that it snows on our wedding day! I love snow. In fact, going a bit of topic here, but stay with me, I found a really beautiful band today with snowflakes on it! Imagine a wedding band with snowflakes!!! It's great - Tim is the desert, I am the tundra. we are both the same landscape in our own way.

Anyway, um, back to invitations. I wrote the necessary info on the back, used a nice font and color and voila! We have an invitation. They are postcards. We have a local copy shop where two very helpful gentlemen helped me. No waiting, good cardstock, great work. Thank you Park Slope Copy Center! And, I didn't use any excess paper nor did I pay a fortune for the cards. Simple. Stress free.

So, if you are coming to the wedding, your invitation is in the mail. For the rest of you, we'll be in touch... again, I'm sorry that we can't invite everyone that we want to. We really wish we could because we do want to infect you with our happiness. Ha! That sounded silly.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Butter.
Butter who?
Butter invite me to the wedding.

And, that's it for tonight.

Nature vs. Man Made wedding

Hello readers! Well, no new news today - well, two pieces I guess. One, we've finalized the invitation/announcement post cards, so yay! They'll be printed tomorrow and will hopefully be sent out this weekend. Or next week sometime. We'll see. Once everyone gets their invitation I will post a copy for all to see here. But I don't want to ruin the surprise!!

Second, I was contacted by the Empire State Building publicity people today. Tim and I have to tell our story and other details about our life to them so that they can send it out to different news outlets. Will definitely keep you posted on that! Ha! This is so funny.

Speaking of funny:
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Carmen.
Carmen who?
She'll be Carmen round the mountain when she comes.

There you go Reader who loves knock-knock jokes.

So, the thoughts of this blogger tonight. The opening to the email that I received from the ESB publicity person congratulated me for winning my dream wedding. I thought, is this my dream wedding? In so many ways it is - it's mostly paid for by someone other than me and my parents. It's almost totally planned for me. It's happening in a month, so I can't get too crazy or scared or anxiety ridden. But the cons, Mr. Kitty can't be in attendance (there will be a post completely dedicated to that insanity later). It's indoors. It's February. And we can only have a limited number of people, which sadly, excludes some people that I really love, including some of you readers. If I really thought about a dream wedding - it would have been dwarf/fairy themed outdoors. Now readers, Tim would have gone for the outdoors aspect - the dwarf/fair theme- I know he loves me, but I think his eyebrows may have retreated into his hair at that idea. And seriously, I wouldn't put him through that - can you see Tim in a pointy red cap? Or perhaps dressed as Mr. Tumnus? Me neither. But dappled sunlight and pine and mossy smells? Or leaves rustling in fall brisk breezes? Or the springtime in the botanic garden, with bees (and me) drunk on the dew and pollen of lilac branches - that readers, is what I would miss. But, when it comes down to it, it's not the scenery that I would pay attention to. That is all for the guests I feel. I promise you readers - the only thing that matters is the smiling happy faces of my friends and family and especially seeing Tim.

So, the pros (other than the mostly paid for wedding) is that this is such a truly unique experience. The ESB has an amazing history - which, will be posted at a later date and those of you getting invitations and announcement cards will be getting a pretty cool treat on your postcards. A (an) historic building in a (an) historic city, of course we would want to be a part of it. Who wouldn't? So, this is where we are. We are living in a city, not in the woods or by the ocean (well, kind of by the ocean, but not the craggy ocean like in Maine, or the blue of the Pacific) but in a concrete man made city. And we should be in this time, in this moment, and that is why it makes sense for us to have our wedding in a building of steel and concrete. Maybe we can think of that structure, and how it endured fires and attacks and movies, and King Kong and learn from it. It is still there in spite of King Kong.

Ok. Like I said, not too much to write about that is new tonight but some things on my mind. Tomorrow night, we get to invite two of our lovely friends to the wedding. Here is a picture of Tim with Tim and Amy. They just had their second baby. Tim and I have held both of their children within 24 hours of their birth. That is kind of unbelievable. I'll have to upload the photo tomorrow. Until tomorrow readers. Where maybe we'll have some more news for you all.

'What's in a name?' or 'To hyphenate or not to hyphenate'

So, no useful information tonight. Just some thoughts that I never thought of. Well, I've thought of them, but I guess not with such urgency.

As for the title, oh, where is my wordsmith man? Well, he is being a wordsmith. He is at a poetry reading/workshop at the Princeton Club. And me, well, Mr. Kitty decided that he wanted to watch one of his favorite movies. While he is watching the frivolities of 18th century France, I'm hauling down Tim's copy of The Riverside Shakespeare - the complete works to make sure I had the right quote (the former, not the latter). Oh, and the photo - I was a Renaissance dancer in college - here I am with my beautiful friend, Ashley. So if you didn't put two and two together -

Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell Gate,
he should have old turning the key. [Knock] Knock, knock,
knock! Who's there, i' th' name of Belzebub? . . . [Knock] Knock,
knock! Who's there, in th' other devil's name?

One of our readers wanted knock knock jokes... there you go! The first one courtesy of Macbeth! (well, the porter) (and not really a knock knock joke, just me being a smart arse).

Yesterday, I was told by our contact at the Knot, that my priority was to get the marriage license. That means, I have to think about what my name will be. Initially, I knew that I wanted to change my name and be a Geaghan. Then I thought, what are the pieces of I.D. that I would need to change and then, I had a moment of what the heck would my name be. Not that I would lose my identity or anything. But, I've been Olivia Morales for 30+ years now. It would be a bit weird to just drop it. But, on the other hand, I would move up in the alphabet scale - from M to G. So, I sent out an SOS to three ladies whom have or will be in this dilemma: Sister-in-law Shanna Farmer Morales, her sister Brenna Farmer (soon to be married to a Chu) and my future sister-in-law (although, I have thought of her as a sister for the last 12 years) Traci Snider.

My questions to these lovely ladies?

Me: I'm having a hard time deciding between becoming a Morales-Geaghan or just a Geaghan. Shanna, you are a Morales - are you completely Morales or are you hyphenated at all? Do you keep Farmer for work or anything? Traci, you are a Snider - no more Geaghan? And Brenna, are you going to be Brenna Farmer-Chu or Brenna Chu or Brenna Farmer? Who knew this was such a hard decision!

Shanna filled me in on what pieces of official documentation I would need to change.
Shanna: is now Shanna Farmer Morales. She dropped her middle name and turned it into Farmer. Now her daughter, and my absolutely adorable niece Sophia has her former middle name - Rachelle.

Brenna: Brenna has very good reasons to stay Brenna Farmer - professional licenses, articles, and professional diplomas all say Brenna Farmer...but she will be Brenna Chu in social life. I like this idea - but I only have one article published as Olivia Morales, and again I like the idea of moving up in the alphabet ladder. And since I know Brenna in social life - she will be Brenna Chu to me...

Then, here comes Traci!
Traci: Traci dropped Geaghan and became Traci Snider - but she did consider changing the middle name. She became Snider for the future kids - but worry not readers, kids are quite far away for this one - one thing at a time! It took 12 years to get married. Maybe another 12 for kids! HA! Anyway, back to Traci's advice. I'm just going to copy from the email - Traci if you are reading this, I hope you don't mind.

2. No matter which way you go, hyphen or not, if you modify your name you'll have to change all the documents like Shanna mentioned below. That said, why not consider having fun and plopping in a total surprise? Olivia Michael Jackson Geaghan, for example.
3. On the "legal name" versus "social" name, if you decide to have Geaghan be on your official documents but keep Morales as what you call yourself just be prepared for all kinds of mistakes and confusion when dealing with insurance, businesses, mortgage, etc. Again, lots of people do it, but it can get messy if people don't pay attention to what you are telling them.
4. Final interesting issue that I never realized until working at the hospital: many, many insurance companies will deny medical claims if the names do not match EXACTLY what they have in their database. Hyphenated names are a nightmare most of the time; now this is a very small thing to consider, but I'm just putting it out there!

So here is the freaky part - I woke up this morning thinking about the name change. So, I asked for help on the matter. But what really woke me up was that I thought of what my initials would be if I changed my name to Olivia Morales Geaghan...and here is what Traci said:

Traci: Ok, I'm done with the official listy part. The real answer is this: change your name to Olivia Morales Geaghan because your initials will be OMG. OMG! Think about how often your intials will be texted, spoken, and mentioned in documents across the globe.

And my response? I kid you not readers at 600 this morning:
I was thinking the exact same thing - my initials would be OMG!!!!!!! I think I snickered a little too loudly because Tim opened some angry sleepy eyes at my silliness....

So, we have some time. Any suggestions Readers?? Maybe I should change it to my future roller derby girl name - Dewey Decimator or La Lupe or Rosie Switchblade or something.

Tomorrow, maybe we'll have more news. For now, Mr. Kitty and I will be lost in 18th century France.