The Wildest Wedding!

Hey everyone! So last night, Patrick and I had the honor of attending the wedding of our friends Doug and Julie, who made the amazing decision to have their wedding at the San Francisco Zoo! Crazy? Not even a little bit! In my very short life I haven't been to too many weddings, but this one was hands down the best one I've ever been to and will likely ever attend.

Obligatory pre-wedding selfie

This was supposed to be a selfie with a giraffe, but as you can see he stayed pretty far away.

I made a real attempt on my hair for this event, and I must say I am super proud of the way it came out! I learned how to finally use my curling wand AND I only burned myself once!

Patrick and I arrived at the wedding early to help our friends Mandy, the wedding planner, and James, the DJ, set up before the ceremony and reception. While I was setting out gold leaf chargers and injuring myself with plastic boxes of candles and the like, Patrick was busying himself with sound equipment. Thankfully the other Brook (Mandy's wife) alerted me to the time so that I could (quite literally) run to the ceremony just moments before it started!

There was a photo booth right outside of the zoo entrance that we took advantage of before we got to work

One of the guests

Mandy and Brook's son, Harlow! I got to see this little old man before we got started with the setup. 

Our good friends James (the DJ) and his husband Nate! 

Thank goodness I had my tissues ready, because as soon as Julie, the bride, started walking down the aisle, I was in tears. I have never seen a woman look more lovely on her wedding day, and immediately you could see every emotion on her face. Her pure joy and excitement was too much and my mascara was making a run for the hills before she even reached Doug at the altar. When the two of them met, they did a short dance number before they stopped right in front of their officiant, well-known San Francisco drag queen Peaches Christ. While this could have definitely gone overboard and been a little bit tacky, Julie and Doug looked nothing but radiant with the gorgeous, glittery Peaches readying them for their nuptials, and she kept the entire ceremony casual, intimate, and high with emotion.

Doug's emotional hug with his parents, with whom he walked down the aisle

Radiant as ever, Julie walks down the aisle at the hand of her father.

The dancing duo, showing off their skills just before the vows.

Of course, two people as in love as Doug and Julie wrote their own vows, and they were nothing if not packed with love, commitment, and geeky puns-- but like everything at this wedding, they worked so well and were so beautiful that I had to look away from their sweet faces multiple times to keep from completely ruining my makeup with tears. Don't mind me, weddings always make me cry. Not always from the very first moment, like this one, but I am definitely a sucker for love.

Doug and Julie after their deal-sealing kiss

Julie and Doug looked like royalty. Julies dress was a beautiful off-white satin with this incredible blue peekaboo section in the back, held together with this amazing satin corset in the same color with lovely blue floral embroidery in the bust, topped with a sleek mini-jacket. Everything, from her gold charm bracelet to her custom tri-force inspired engagement ring and (afterwards) wedding band, just screamed "radiance." Even her makeup complimented her beautiful porcelain skin and gave her the long-sought-after "blushing bride" effect. Her bridesmaids complimented her in lovely tea-length dresses in blue, and Julie as well as the ladies of the bridal party all carried these amazing paper flower bouquets, made with different shades of blue and ivory paper and sheets of music. You'd truly have to see them to believe it.

Doug was dashing by her side in his black tux with complimenting blue striped handkerchief in his breast pocket and an incredible boutonniere (that he and all of his groomsmen sported), which he made with blue and gold duct tape. I wish I'd brought a real camera instead of just my phone!

Both of them wore faces packed with emotion-- from joy, to excitement, to nervousness-- and they couldn't have looked better together.

The ceremony was held in the middle of the African Savanna Exibit, and we even got to see zebras walking behind the lovely couples as they exchanged their vows.

After the tear-packed vow exchange and "I wills", we headed over to the Lemur Boardwalk for cocktail hour, where they served the most incredible food. If you think chicken skewers with spicy peanut sauce and fried risotto-and-cheese balls are "simple" foods, think again. Because these were hands-down the best appetizers I've ever had. Ever. Even outside of a wedding. I could have eaten an entire tray of just those two things... But I made an effort to save room for dinner.

Lisa and I during cocktail hour

During cocktail hour, we got to meet some awesome furry (and not-so-furry) friends, including a Legless European Lizard, a Kinkajou, a Prairie Dog, a Barn Owl, and an Alligator! THEY WERE SO COOL AND WE GOT TO PET ALMOST ALL OF THEM (only the barn owl wasn't having a good time).

THIS IS HARLEY THE KINKAJOU

#selfiewithakinkajou

Prairie Dog! He was sleeping when I got to him, but when I started to pet him he looked up at me, as though to say "That's nice, thank you," and then went back to napping.

After drinks and socializing, we made our way to the banquet hall, which was decked out in the gorgeous gold and blue colors that were chosen, where we witnessed the bride and groom have their first dance, speeches, and lots of love exchanged throughout the group. When we arrived, we found our wedding favors (two delicious cookies for each guest) which had our seating arrangements on them. Instead of numbers, each table was an animal! Patrick and I got to sit down at the Sumatran Tiger Table, which was (mostly) tech crew (from our Rocky cast), and we were the coolest table, if I do say so myself! Our Rocky friends (Doug and Julie are also fellow cast members) mostly grouped around our table, and even though there was a perfectly nice dance floor at the front of the room, we stayed right where we were and danced in the spaces between tables. One of the best moments of the night was when James played "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers and we, the insane Rocky cast, shouted along and danced together. We must have looked like lunatics to the rest of the guests!

At some point, we got to witness Julie and Doug cut their cake, which was a truly amazing work of art. It was a silhouette of the zoo animals on a sunset background which gradiated (not a word, but it is now!) to twilight with each tier, topped with a Tardis that had Julie and Doug peeking out of it. Such a wonderful incorporation of their beautiful wedding venue and their love for Doctor Who!

And now I will apologize in advance for the poor photo quality.

Kris, Victoria, Maggie, and me

Kris, Maggie, Patrick, Jules, and me

Jules, Mikey, Siobhan, Jack, Matthew, and me

Matthew, Jack, Christopher, and Jules busting a move (they're really good dancers)

Jules is the best dancer.

After a long night of smiles, laughter, and dancing, Patrick and I said our goodbyes and gave our best to the bride and groom before they headed off to their awesome Disney honeymoon today. I can't remember the specifics, but I know they're going to Disney World for somewhere around a week and also headed on an additional Disney cruise! Are you jealous? I know I am!

Our best goes to Julie and Doug and we wish them the happiest life together! We love you guys! Your wedding was the bomb! I've got some really big shoes to fill when Patrick and I get around to having a wedding for our friends and family.



DOUG AND JULIE, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, STOP HERE. I'M ABOUT TO SHOW EVERYONE YOUR WEDDING PRESENT, AND I WOULD RATHER YOU TWO BE SURPRISED WHEN YOU OPEN IT!

EVERYONE ELSE... DON'T SPILL THE BEANS!

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How cool is this? Patrick and I custom ordered a street sign with the happy couple's last name on it. Practical? No way. Awesome? Duh!

The card that I hand-made for them! The paper is tea-dyed, so please excuse if it looks "dirty": I assure you, it is not.

Front (the actual card is a curved shape, as shown, bit since we scanned it in you see that white bit at the bottom from the scanner's backdrop)

The inside, with the phrase that I came up with to go with the gift

(for those of you who can't see it)

"Seeing the two of you together

is the only sign anyone ever needs

to see that true love exists

Best wishes for a long

and happy life together"

The back. I made the card as more of a keepsake than just a well-wishes card!

Several Huge Updates!

Well, I just killed my first Black Widow Spider, so I'm going to need drink. Or seven. And I don't drink.

Hey, everyone! I thought it was time for an update since we have a whole lot going on right now! If you don't feel like reading the whole darn thing, scroll through, read the bolded points as a summary, and then check out the photos at the end!

1. We're Moving Again

If you guys remember, we moved here to our current town, Tracy, last August. The intention was to save money on rent by moving further away from The Bay Area so that we could save up for a down payment on a house, however several things happened along the way.

First of all, the apartments we were looking at just weren't very nice. So instead of saving $800 like we had intended, we found some more decent apartments and ended up saving only $500. Of course this is still saving, however we're not where we'd like to be in terms of how-much-is-going-out-in-rent.

For those of you who don't know, homes in California are OUTRAGEOUSLY PRICED. Homes in San Mateo (where we moved from) that would cost about $150k (or less) in Michigan (and you'd get a much bigger yard in Michigan), can cost close to $1,000,000 here. I'm not kidding. The prices make me sick. And, as you can probably figure out, this drastically increases the amount needed for the down payment on a house. By a LOT. Which is why some people in California live in apartments all their lives, and why there are 4+ bedroom apartments here.

Therefore, we are moving once again this August to try to achieve our saving goals and to rid ourselves of a lot of apartment and general area related stress.

Our apartment is not all it was supposed to be. We constantly have problems with trashy neighbors, parking, the gardeners, the noise, and the dumpsters. The amount we are paying for the quality of these apartments is not worth it and we cannot stay here any longer. In addition, moving out here put us 1.5 hours away from an airport and at least 30 minutes away from anything decent in terms of shopping, food, etc., and we have found that the area is just not for us. The drive to the airport coupled with Patrick's work travel is taking a toll on us, especially since my car is not in service right now. I'll get into detail with that in a bit.

The moral of this story is that we will be moving again, which is a pain in the dupa, but it is necessary for our sanity. The good news is that we've found a couple of really promising apartments in Roseville, which is where we're set on moving. The other good news is that moving to Roseville puts us so much closer to stuff, like shopping and food and civilization and an airport. Plus it's only a 25 minute drive to Sacramento, and who doesn't love Old Sac? (No pun intended, this truly is what it is called in shorthand)

2. We Are Retiring from The Bawdy Caste

The bad news is that Roseville puts us a full two hours away from the Bay Area, and that's in decent traffic. It was with heavy hearts that we announced our retirement from The Bawdy Caste at the most recent show on April 4th. We will be close enough to do occasional shows, but Patrick's schedule is so unpredictable that promising to do our part as cast members and show up to as many shows as we do now just isn't possible. We plan on guest performing when time allows, but as of the July 4th show, we will no longer be full-time cast members. We are going to desperately miss performing and doing shows with our Rocky Family, but the time has come for Patrick and I to focus on our goals as a family and what we want our future together to look like.

3. Patrick's Leg Injury is not Healing, My Health is Improving

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this to any of you or if you all remember it even if I did, but Patrick injured himself last summer. It was just after we moved to the new apartment and while on stage at a show, Patrick turned the wrong way and his tendon separated from his calf muscle. It resulted in an incredibly painful injury that he was given no time to heal from, because the following Monday (and he did this on a Saturday), he was at the airport gearing up for a week in Canada. The nature of Patrick's job is that he either travels to a client to train its staff or he teaches virtual classes from home, but none of this is ever regular, so he could be travelling for a month straight and only be home on Fridays and Saturdays, or he could not travel for several months. It truly just depends on what the clients want.

Patrick was given no down time in terms of healing and went straight on the road with a cane. He was gone for three weeks with only one full day at home between each trip, which took him to Canada, Washington, and Sacramento. Not to mention that much of the time his hotel is so close to the client that he doesn't even bother renting a car and opts for walking every day to the client-- something that really took a toll on him this time around. When he got back, he went to Urgent Care (the only thing he could find the time to get to because we had just moved and he had not switched physicians-- the distance and his schedule made making an appointment with his old doctor in San Mateo impossible). He was told to RICE the injury and he did the best be could, but in order to prevent the tendon from snapping again, he began walking heavily on his heel to prevent the muscles from stretching in his calf.

Long story short, his injury healed but he created a new one when he tried to keep the weight off of the healing injury, and he has been living with chronic pain ever since. He finally had time to make an appointment to see a specialist, who worries that he has created so much scar tissue around his Achilles tendon that he may need surgery to remove the scar tissue and rebuild the tendon, which will be determined by the results of his MRI scheduled for this Thursday, and he's currently in a orthopedic boot. A surgery like this could set us back drastically in terms of down payment savings and moving, so good vibes and positive thoughts would be super helpful! I will keep you all updated about this situation.

Additionally, my health has been improving. My possible brain leakage has not recurred and my symptoms have mostly subsided, which makes me hopeful. However, I am still dealing with a lot of anxiety, which for some reason mostly went away for several weeks but is now back with a vengeance, although otherwise I'm doing alright. I want to thank everyone for their warm wishes towards my health and hopes that I'll feel better, because truly I am.

4. My Car Is Most Likely Retiring

The winter before this past winter, we discovered my that car had some trouble starting in severe weather (when it was too hot or too cold), and quite often I would have to run back inside the house, grab Patrick's keys, and take his car to work. When he would go out to start my car at lunch time, it would start right up, and it took a while for us to figure out what the difference was and why it would start at 11am but not 7am.

The issue continued when we moved here, and now that I don't have much reason to drive it (except for when Patrick is out of town), the car has died completely. The battery will not hold a charge and, regardless of how often I start or drive it, the thing dies. I'm right at the mileage cusp where things in the engine are going to start needing repairs, especially for its age (I have a 2000 2 door 4 Cyl Grand AM, 87k miles), and we've decided that trying to put more money into it to keep it going is probably not in our best interest, especially since the body of the car has suffered a lot of damage from a previous accident with a pole and is rusting out in quite a few places from the lovely weather in Michigan.

Our hopes are to get the car a new battery and turn the vehicle in towards a different vehicle for me. Notice I said different, not new. Though the car will be new to me, it will likely not be "brand-new," because I truly don't drive enough to need something with such low mileage. As affectionate as I am towards my car and as much as I love it, I think that after five years and a trip across the country together, it has finally given up on me and it's time to let it go.

For those who don't know, my car's name is Hercules, and it was my graduation gift from my parents. My dad sold his beloved '64 Impala-- which he was planning on fixing up-- in order to get me a decent first car. We were lucky when a customer of my dad's offered to sell him a car that she just had sitting around (I believe it was her late son's), which only had 53k miles on it at the time. The price was way under what it was worth, and even though it required some work, the result was worth it. That car saved me in my first accident-- the length of the front end prevented what could have been very serious injuries-- and even though the insurance totaled the car out, we bought it back and fixed it up and it was as good as new. During 2011-2013, I practically lived in my car with as much as I drove around, and eventually it got me across the country to start my new life in California. This is a really sad subject for me because I'm so attached to the car, but I think I'm finally ready for a new chapter after all its gotten me through.

5. We're Going On A Trip!

In July, we will be spending a week in Portland (sort of for Patrick's birthday but also because I've never been to Portland). I'll get to meet Patrick's best friend Dennis AND my sister-in-law and her family, all for the first time! I'm so jazzed about this. We're technically staying in Vancouver, WA, but Portland is a short ride right across the bridge. I am definitely way too excited for words about this. Also, does anyone else think it's weird that there is a Vancouver in Washington and in Canada? I keep feeling like I'm heading to another country when, in fact, I'm headed to the Pacific Northwest. Still awesome, though!

6. The Loss and Gain of a Family Member

If anyone knows me well, or even just knows me a little bit, they most likely know that I am a crazy cat lady. I mean, if we had our own house and weren't hindered by a two-pet limit, I would have like fifteen cats.

Good thing I'm already married, amiright?

We adopted my cat Marble back in May of last year, which brought our household cat total up to two. Some of you may know that when I moved in with Patrick, I also moved in with Beep, the tabby cat. This part of the post is incredibly bittersweet because our ability to adopt a new pet came after we had to make the incredibly difficult decision of letting Beep go.

Beep was almost 18 years old and was suffering from severe arthritis and dementia. She constantly limped and would only get up to go to the bathroom or eat. She also wouldn't leave the office, but would lose her memory every few minutes or so and start to cry and yowl at the wall, wondering where everyone was. Unless Patrick was in there constantly, Beep would continue to suffer and was almost always scared because she didn't know what was going on. It was definitely time to let her go, and so last month in March, we made an appointment and let her pass on peacefully instead of allowing her to suffer as much as she was. It's difficult for both of us, even though she was specifically Patrick's cat, and sometimes we catch ourselves and can still think we hear her snoring underneath the desk. The loss of a pet is never easy, and Beep's passing is no exception, but we are glad that she is no longer suffering.

Some of you may also know that our apartment complex has a ton of stray cats in it. We've fed them on our patio ever since we moved in, we've named all of them, we've been able to trap and adopt a couple of them out, and some of them are friendly enough to let us pet them and play with them. Especially Agador.

Agador Spartacus, who we initially thought was a boy until we got a closer look, would follow us home from the mail box almost every day and would let me pick her up and bring her inside. She did this for several months, and a few weeks after Beep passed, Patrick and I knew that our hearts still had a lot of room to fill, and we decided that the next time we saw Agador, we would bring her inside and bathe her and clip her nails. If she allowed us to do these things, we would keep her.

Since she has been living with us since April 2nd, obviously the bathing and nail clipping went alright. She is about 4-5 months old by the state of her teeth (she is getting her big kitty teeth still and losing her baby teeth, which means she is under 6 months). We even discovered that someone has already spayed her, although we are certain she was a stray and was either abandoned or someone took her in as a TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) and didn't tell the vet she was a stray, so they marked her differently than they would have a stray (spayed/neutered pets have a tattoo on their belly to indicate that they've been fixed, which is what Agador and Marble have; fixed strays that are taken in for TNR have the tip of one ear clipped for easy, distant identification).

Agador is so super sweet and playful. When I lay down on my back next to her, she will hop up on my belly/chest and start to purr instantly. She likes to run inbetween our legs and she twitches when she dreams and she is very talkative. She has a very high pitched "MEW!" and almost sounds like she is saying "hello?"

We had been keeping the two cats separate up until a couple of days ago, and the introduction seems to be going well. Marble is learning to share her space and Agador is learning to give Marble her space. The only thing we need to work on with Agador is scratching the carpet (we're trying to teach her to use a cardboard scratcher but she just isn't getting it) and eating Marble's food (which we've moved to on top of the dresser where Agador has a harder time getting to it and hasn't found it yet).

So without anything further, everyone please welcome Agador Spartacus Powers to our family! Points if you know where we got her name from! Agador has joined Marble on her Instagram, which is now @marbleandagador, so go follow them if you haven't already for your daily dose of kitties!

My dad sent me a bag of chocolates, a card, and this bunny for Easter. Agador promptly stole the bunny and tries to "kill it" on a regular basis.

She'll hop right on top of you and start purring! 

"What are you eating? Never mind, I don't care. Give it to me."

That's it for now! I will keep everyone updated on our health and anything else they might be curious about. I still have a blog that I haven't done... I'll get to it eventually! Right now I'm crocheting up a storm, using Youtube to teach me new skills. I've even made a few amigurumi catnip mice for the cats, how cool are they?! I'm hoping to add to my skill arsenal so that I can start to put things on Etsy and make some profit off of my hobby! We also have a wedding to attend this weekend which we are both super excited for, so I'll probably get to a post about that sometime next week! Thank you again for the love, everyone! 

Why We Eloped: The Decision Making Process

Patrick and I eloped in late October of this year, as I shared in my previous post. I hope you'll all read this post thoroughly before making any judgments or remarks regarding what he and I know was the right decision for us and what will result in a long and happy life together.

Let me be clear and start out by saying that I am not pregnant. This is not the reason that we eloped and postponed our "big wedding." I am including this only because I have had at least two people ask me this question and I would like to get the presumptuous curiosity and speculation out of the way. If you would please read on, you will see the story and reasoning that lead up to our decisions. 

When Patrick and I got engaged in February, I was so excited to start planning the wedding of my dreams that would end with my marrying the love of my life. We began to make phone calls, reserve vendors, and invite people to be a part of our special day.

By March or April, we had almost everything planned out and ready for the big day. Everything was in order and only needed execution. We had reserved and paid for the venue in full, we had our wedding parties set up, our invitations designed by our dear friend, and I had been in contact with a caterer in Livonia which I had had high hopes in.

When I went back to Michigan in June, I got to work on getting my bridesmaids their dresses, I toured our venue, and I got 90% of our decorations completed. At this point, I was still as excited as ever.

Then, the trouble started. It seemed that I could not get a hold of our caterer. After trying for over two months, I ended up needing to find another one and start from scratch, and it seemed that relations between my family members were dwindling due to a very messy divorce in the family. Patrick and I started feeling skeptical, like our wedding day would end up being made about people other than ourselves, and I started to stress out to the point where I was starting to have anxiety-induced physical symptoms. We would sometimes joke about wanting to elope, because no normal person needs to go through so much stress!

When Patrick travels, I normally do not go with him, as very few people could afford plane tickets that often, but when he is able to drive to his work I am able to, and I do, go with him. Most of October was a lot of drive-to travel, and when he got the assignment to go to Las Vegas for a business convention, we decided I would go with him since I had never been.

While we were planning our trip, we joked often about how we should elope while we were in Vegas, but we were determined to have our wedding in Michigan on May 9, 2015. However, when we arrived there, we started to seriously discuss getting married in Vegas. We looked at several different venues and, once we had decided that we were absolutely going to get married there, we discussed the terms of our wedding and who we would tell and what we would do about our May wedding in Michigan.

Our final verdict was that we would get married in a small ceremony by ourselves, accompanied by Patrick's boss and his training partner as witnesses, and tell no one about the ceremony. The decision in this was that we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not including them in our special day, but we felt a sort of impending doom that was cast over our May wedding because of all of the snags and bumps we had encountered at that point. We wanted to take the pressure off of ourselves and do something private, because we both agreed that while a wedding is a celebration of two people coming together as one, a marriage is for the two people who have agreed to share their lives together. Once our May wedding was over, which we still planned on having, no one would ever need to have known that we had already gotten married in Vegas because they would have witnessed our wedding in Michigan and seen us get married on that day. Our marriage in Vegas would be a private, intimate moment shared between my husband and I, and no one ever needed to know.

Patrick and I were determined to keep this ceremony to ourselves, but as you are clearly finding out about it now, things did not go as planned.

Without sharing intimate details of my family situation, let me just say that something happened that would ultimately prevent all of my family from being in the same place at once, something that I would not accept for my wedding day. Because these issues would absolutely not have been resolved within the 5-6 months that we had left before the wedding, and I would not have had a big wedding without either of the people involved in the situation, Patrick and I had a long discussion between ourselves and a couple of my family members who are close to the situation, all of whom agreed that it would be in our best interest to postpone our May wedding in order to let the dust settle and hopefully, in the future, have an amicable wedding day that everyone could enjoy.

Because no one knows when that day may be, we did decide that it would be in our best interests to tell our loved ones about our special day in Vegas, as we did not want to pretend to live as an unmarried couple for an undetermined amount of time, instead of just the 5-6 months that we had initially planned.

While I know some of my loved ones are hurt by my decision, I do hope that they respect that this was the best decision for my husband and I, and that we are both extremely happy. Of course I wish that things could have gone as planned and our wedding in May did not have to be postponed, however that is not the case, and, as I said before, I believe that a marriage is between two people and a wedding is a celebration of that with loved ones. We are still determined to have the wedding of my dreams in the future. However, we do not know when that may be and therefore our wedding is postponed until further notice, as the situation may even take up to several years to be resolved, though we would hope that it would not take that long.

Patrick and I know that you will be happy for the two of us and wish us the best, as we are incredibly happy and know that some day we will be able to have the wedding we both hoped for.

We've Eloped!

Yes, you've read that right: Patrick and I eloped!

While on a business trip in October, Patrick and I decided to take the pressure off of ourselves and our upcoming May wedding, which we still planned on having, and get married at The Luxor Chapel in Las Vegas!

After a couple of days of deliberation, and then a day of shopping, we tied the knot in a small ceremony on October 28th, 2014.

The happiest day of my life

October 28, 2014

Las Vegas, NV

For several unrelated reasons, the original planned wedding, which was scheduled for May 9, 2015, is postponed. It is for this reason that we have decided to share our happy news with everyone.

To keep the tone of this post upbeat, please stay tuned for my next post which will explain our reasons for getting married before our "big wedding" and the reasons why that wedding is postponed until further notice.

Thank you in advance for your love and support in our decision!