May 13, 2007 | Ottomatic For the People, The Year of Living Changerously, Woohoo!

I know I’m not southern yet… heck, once I’m down there, I know that folks will only be too happy to remind me that I am just a YANKEE in their midst, but I feel a Y’ALL comin’ on and it needs to be allowed.

Y’all, words cannot do this whole wedding thing justice. Cannot.

That doesn’t mean I won’t TRY, but I’m just SAYING. I will not be able to capture even a tenth of it all, not even if I allow myself to be as cheesy as possible. It can’t be done. Because on the one hand it was enormous and huge and now things are DIFFERENT and on the other hand it was so much just what was happening in the space between the two of us and so logical and natural and everything is just the way it was, only moreso.

So. You can see the problem with trying to describe it. Also, when I’m not busy marveling at the superfantastical wonderfulness of it all, I’m busy dying of tuberculosis. (more…)

May 11, 2007 | Ottomatic For the People, The Year of Living Changerously, Woohoo!

(I wrote this ahead of time and set it to post at midnight, lest you have the urge to come yell at me for posting on my wedding day.)

I’m ready to do this thing.

I’ve got something old.
And something new.
Something borrowed.
And something blue.

And I also have this.

(I’ll be back Monday as Mrs. Otto. Maybe even with pictures.)

May 10, 2007 | Ottomatic For the People, Woohoo!

Almost eighteen years ago I sat down in an auditorium next to a fellow eighteen- year-old who had dark hair, bright blue eyes, an earring (oh, a bad boy!) and an attitude almost as big as my own. I immediately set out to make him fall in love with me, but he was willful, you see. He found me amusing. He liked me. But he would not bend.

(Okay, he was dating someone else. Details.)

I told him we would end up together. He would laugh. Regardless, that was the beginning of a friendship that survived through our other relationships and our various moves around the country, and he still loves to tell people that he was at my wedding. And my baby shower.

I used to wish we’d figured it out sooner, that we’d skipped some of the detours and found our way to each other right from the start. But now I know that this was exactly the way it was supposed to happen.

All week I’ve kept sneaking peeks into this box, and tomorrow when we take them out and put them on, it will finally be the moment when I can look deeply into his eyes and say: “I told you so.”

Happy Love Thursday, everyone!

April 7, 2007 | Woohoo!

The very pretty Jackie nominated me for a whole slew of these Bloggers Choice awards, and I don’t really know what they are or if I should care, but here’s a handy link to go vote if you are so compelled. (I’m only linking the parenting category because, um, I’m lazy.)

I have a problem with trying to label things as “best” because my world is populated by endless shades of grey and I have a natural aversion to such absolutes, but in the absence of contests with easier-to-determine measures, I guess I’ll have to take what I can get.

There’s no “Most brutally honest about how much therapy her children require” category. Or “Most likely to blog about boob pus” category. Or even “Most verbose about things of no consequence at all” category. So this was the best I could do. (Get it? Best? Hello?)

November 22, 2006 | Ottomatic For the People, Woohoo!

But the last-minute deals on flights aren’t bad, either.

Thanks for traveling with Orbitz. This e-mail confirms the ticket number(s) issued for the “Atlanta 11/23/06″ trip.

This year, thankful doesn’t even begin to cover it. But right now I have to go pack.

Happy Thanksgiving, and happy Love Thursday.

November 2, 2006 | Woohoo!

I was totally going to make y’all wait for further details, because I was sure I’d have an even better story to tell you tonight about how Chickadee had a couple of teeth pulled, but things went awry. Instead of having two teeth extracted per the orthodontist’s instructions, this afternoon Chickadee had a shot of novocaine and became hysterical. After a few bits of poking around in her mouth (to ever-louder anguished wails, despite not flinching a bit at being jabbed with a pointy instrument when she wasn’t paying attention) we were sent away with a referral to an oral surgeon. Laughing gas, here we come!

In the meantime, I guess since you were so sweet and nice with your well-wishes on the last post, I should probably fill you in on that whole marriage thing that’s going to be happening. (more…)

Growing, Woohoo!

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.

—Plato

(more…)

October 26, 2006 | Woohoo!

Love is having a really frustrating, rotten, horrible, aggravating day yesterday and then losing my sitter and running around frantic to find someone who can come stay with the kids so that I can get to the airport, and then getting to the airport, finally, and mostly forgetting all about the stupidness that came earlier in the day.

Love is sitting here working, and being able to glance over at this and feeling that right now, all is right with the world.

Happy Love Thursday, everyone.

July 31, 2006 | Friends, Haven't been hit by lightning yet!, Woohoo!

I am home! I am exhausted! And I am (apparently) still on Pacific time, so here I am.

I am RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT licking my cable modem, because it’s just so goshdarned nice to, you know, HAVE INTERNET. (My favorite internet-connectivity—or lack thereof—moment from this weekend: Someone leaning over to me and saying, “You know, even at a conference that isn’t ABOUT THE INTERNET I can CHECK MY EMAIL.”)

We brought the system to its knees, I guess, and it turns out that I really CAN live for a few days without checking my email or blogging, though it was touch-and-go there for a little bit.

Anyway, I must SLEEP, but there are a few things to say, first, before I burst into flame what with all the unrequited blogging energy. (more…)

July 28, 2006 | Woohoo!

The freebies here are NOT TO BE BELIEVED.

I offer for your consideration, this lovely item made available by ThisNext. It really has to be seen to be believed.

Don’t believe? Take a look.

Here we have our kick-ass freebie modelled by the lovely Her Bad Mother of this place.

I may just skip the rest of the conference.