Epic Brain Dump

Because, yeah…it’s been a minute. Howdy, folks!

• I am ridiculously far behind on my CPCU reading. I will be reading every night until that test on 12/14. I set a study plan and failed to follow it. I swear I shoulda waited until Kanary 2013 to sign up for this test. Trying to be ambitious, #nshit. Sigh.
• HH started his new gig out of town on 11/1 and I HATE IT. Hate it, hate it, hate it. We only see him 2 days per week, and both are days in which I’m working, so I really see him for about 8 hours each day. I basically have to focus on this thing one week at a time, instead of thinking about how long we could be dealing with this. And them I hope like crazy that one of the oldsters here retires, so a position will open back up.
• I took CH to see NC A&T (Aggie Pride!) play FAMU on 11/10. He had a good time. We enjoyed the game and it was cool to once again see my nephew play his quints. Unfortunately not all the band members can march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade due to size constraints. Since he missed some practices (due to placing studies ahead of band,which I fully support), he will not be marching. But he’s going to make the trip, anyway. I took the greedy boys out to dinner, along with my nephew’s girlfriend, to a place called Kickback Jack’s. I like her. She’s nice. A year behind him. Seems very sweet and more so his speed than that last one.
• On 11/15 I attended a continuing education seminar thrown by a popular law firm in this area. It’s always informative and entertaining. Tis year we earned about arson investigations and they had a demonstration with one of the CFD dogs who is trained to sniff out accelerants. They always have a great holiday party afterwards, and we earn 6 CE credits. Every adjuster in NC must earn 24 credits every two years to keep their license in good standing.
• Thanksgiving is with my in-laws. I would rather be with my sisters, but compromise, right? Next year it’s my family. LOL!
• it’s been weird to sign my new last name. My license arrived on Saturday, so now it feels more official. It’s funny to me how some creditors/accounts request documentation, and others were like, “oh, I can just change it over the phone.” Chase and Citi didn’t ask me to send anything, they just changed it. SunTrust and NavyFed needed more documentation…perhaps because it was checking accounts as opposed to credit cards?
• shout out to the DMV employee for taking my pic so close up that my face looks uber-wide and Shamu-ish. Yay.
• I think I’m about halfway through my name change list. I’m hoping a lot of the remaining accounts can just change it over the phone.
• I sent my mom her copy of our wedding photo album. It’s supposed to arrive today. I need to check and make sure she gets it…although she’ll probably just call me.
• flabbergasted that the Cowboys had to beat the Browns in OT. Sigh. HH said Tony Romo has gotten too comfortable and needs to be traded for a change in scenery. I can’t disagree. Shake up the team a bit.
• I am eligible for early upgrade for my phone on 12/1. Otherwise, under contract until April. I’m trying to decide what to do. I currently pay $29.99 for unlimited data because I was grandfathered in. Now when we upgrade, they are taking that away and we must choose a data plan. I honestly don’t even know how much data I use per month and if a new plan would even change my bill all that much. My iPad has AT & T data…wondering if I should hold out until April and get a new iPhone with them. Who is your cell phone plan with? Do they have reasonable data plans?
• I am currently participating in the cardio/strength challenge through The Fit Lounge’s blog. I like working out. I HATE tracking food. Guess what we get bonus points for this week? Tracking food. Booooooooo. Making me be all conscious about what I eat. I just wanna scarf cookies without knowing their calorie content, dang it! Alas, I need to do it because I need to shed 15 lbs. For real. 20 would be bonus, but I don’t think I could realistically maintain at 145 lbs. especially since I can’t run. 😦

That’s all I have. What’s new with you?

Wedding Recap!

About two weeks ago, Miss Mile High sent me a text with the weather forecast. It showed 60 degrees and partly sunny. That was before Hurricane Sandy decided to develop. So, when we woke up Monday morning, we were greeted with clouds and chilly temps.

No matta – the show must go on!

PRE-CEREMONY

We had laid out our clothes the night before. Thankfully, we both had long sleeved white shirts to wear under our jerseys. HH even had a Redskins jacket, but I don’t have a Cowboys jacket, so it’s not in the pics. LOL!

We headed uptown a little after 8:30am, so we could hit up the register of deeds to get our marriage license. Everyone who knows me knows I hate dealing with parking in uptown Charlotte, but thankfully we had no issues. I had already filled out our application for the marriage license online. We made it to the office and filled out another form indicating that the magistrate would perform our ceremony. The staff noticed our opposing jerseys, so we launched into a football discussion. When we had to take our oath about all the info in the license being true, she told us to raise our right hands. Guess who raised his left? LOL! He said he was just making sure she was paying attention.

We left there and decided to get one breakfast uptown. As we were walking, HH got a call from his job about working in the Hamlet yard. It’s about 2 hours away from here. While we’re not happy about it, the alternative was to be furloughed…which – for all intents and purposes – means being unemployed. Thankfully, he will not be.

With that bit of news, we headed to Panera and had breakfast. At that point there was actually a bit of sun and blue sky going on. By the time I finished my egg white sandwich, the sky had gone completely cloudy and the wind was picking up. I guess you can’t win ’em all, right?

I shot an email to Mike Strauss of Strauss Studios to let him know we were uptown eating breakfast, and all set to meet him at Marshall Park at 11:30. He replied and said he was at Freedom Park and would head out way. I have to say, I was a bit nervous. I got the photo package via a Groupon, and we had only talked via email. I never met him before, but his work looked good.

I had told Mike that we’d be on our jerseys and that we had a house divided theme going. He actually got to the park about 20 minutes early, so when we got there it was 11:20 and we went ahead and started the shoot.

I have no idea what I was laughing at…LOL

This may or may not be us on Thanksgiving…LOL!

It was a pleasure to work with Mike. He did a great job setting up the pics and finding pops of fall color in the background. He told us he’d upload the pics to the website the next day, and mail our CD as well. He was true to his word and I would definitely work with him again.

When we finished the shoot, it was a little before noon, so we zoomed home to change and pick up CH for the ceremony. By this point, the nerves are kicking in. I was wishing my sisters and mom were here, but I knew they were sending me positive vibes.

THE MAGISTRATE
I had planned to have Lori, one of our witnesses, take pics during our ceremony. As we were driving to the courthouse, I perused the paperwork we were given at the register of deeds, regarding the magistrate.

NO CAMERAS/CAMCORDERS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE THE COURTHOUSE.

Say what?!? Well, so much for that. Although it did say you could have a cell phone with a camera, but could only use it inside the courtroom where your ceremony was taking place. I thought that was weird. A camera is a camera, no?

CH and I made our way through security while HH parked the car. Our other witness, Kenya, had beat us there and was sitting outside the courtroom waiting for us. There were two couples ahead of us, and she was sitting there joking and laughing with them when we walked up. That was my first chance to lay eyes on our broom, and it was beautiful!

Lori purchased a boutonnière for HH as well as my bouquet. I hadn’t even thought about having one. Thank goodness she got involved and became the planner/photographer. LOL! I suck at pinning flowers. For the prom, I took a pic pretending to pin on my date’s flower. Then I handed it to my mom and let her do it. I can report that nothing has changed, and I let Lori attempt to pin the flower on HH’s lapel. LOL! Ultimately he ended up pinning it on himself.

The couple before us went in, and then it was our turn. The deputy told us we could not take cell phone pics during the ceremony. Booooooooo. I was gonna tell the,m to get some bootleg cell phone video, but I didn’t think it would be prudent to start our marriage with one of our witnesses getting arrested. The magistrate came in and introduced herself, and then had Lori and Kenya sign the papers as witnesses. We gave her our rings for the ceremony. Once the paperwork was squared away, she had me give my bouquet to Lori and called us up to the front of the courtroom.

We turned and faced each other and held hands. “This is it!” I thought. HH was smiling and I was smiling, and he was rubbing my hands with his thumb. When he started repeating his vows, he was looking at the magistrate…she jerked her head towards me like, look at your soon to be wife! LOL! That was just the first of the laughs. When she told him to place the ring on the third finger of my left hand, he COUNTED MY FINGERS. We all fell out. Seriously, dude? (After the ceremony, this led to a discussion of whether or not a thumb is a finger…)

The next thing I knew, the magistrate was pronouncing us husband and wife, and inviting HH to kiss his bride! We were married! It seemed surreal. Everyone was cheesing, even the teen.

As we walked out of the courthouse and towards our car, a woman walked by us on her phone speaking Spanish. She saw my bouquet and stopped to talk to us in a mixture of Spanish and English, but I know she said that we looked beautiful. Despite the cold temps, I felt great!

We were going to go back to Marshall Park to jump the broom, but we decided to head to Freedom Park instead. Our caravan arrived and we walked over to the big bridge over the water, so we could jump the broom and take our pics.

HH’s boutonnière fell off somewhere between the magistrate and the park, and none of us noticed until we got to the park. Oh well. It was a yellow flower, like the ones in my bouquet.

Pretending we were going to run and jump.

Discussing whether we would do 1-2 and jump on 3, or 1-2-3 jump. LOL!

We cleared it! And there’s no backwards jumping to get a divorce. 🙂

Sandy tried to blow our broom away!

I could bore you to death with pics…I won’t. 🙂

DINNER
Dinner was at Red Rocks Cafe in Huntersville, NC. When we arrived, our baker – Tiffany Steward of Sweet Slices – was there with the cake. I loved it! I hugged her four times. LOL! She took the pics I gave her and made us something that really represented us.

I was happy with the wait staff. Sometimes they can get an attitude with big groups – especially a group where all the checks are split. I never got that vibe from them, and they were very helpful. I definitely give the venue two thumbs up. We had a great time with friends…it was almost like a mini high school reunion for us.

We really felt such an outpouring of love and support, from those who knew before the ceremony took place. A few folks, including my brother, almost busted us out on Facebook, but thankfully the good folks of FB must’ve been hard at work and didn’t notice. LOL! As the plans came together, I realized what giving friends and family we have. My sister paid for my shoes. Her hubby paid for our cake. My aunt sent us a gift card to pay for dinner for the three of us. Lori and Kenya donated their time and talents providing the flowers, photography, the broom, witnessing, and keeping me sane. This really was one of the happiest days of my life. We did it, we had fun, and we didn’t go broke to do it.

Thank you, ladies!

And thank you to everyone for your thoughts and well wishes. We appreciate it!

What’s In A Name…

Apparently a lot, when it comes to changing it. I am definitely proud to have my new last name, but it is a pain to change everything over. I made a list of all the creditors and utilities I need to change, and was like O_o. Not to mention the passport, because somehow my dang birth certificate has gone missing…and I know *I* didn’t move it. But anywho…

I started the name change process at my job, and realized I’ll need my new SS card. I love my supervisor, as I have been MIA a lot this week, and his response is, “no worries.”

Friday morning I went to work early, then left and went to the SSA office and signed in, prepared for a long ordeal. But it actually wasn’t that bad! Based on my four square check in time, I made it out in about 50 minutes. Winning!

Then I decided to hit up the bank and change my info. The lady at the bank wanted to see pics. I had my iPad, so I happily obliged. LOL!

I got back to work and ate lunch at my desk. I called State Farm to add HH to my policies, and his auto insurance will be cheaper with better coverage (I KNOW I told this dude to increase his minimum limits coverage, but looking at his GEICO dec page he still had state minimum limits *facepalm*). I also called the student loan people to see what they needed, and I’ll have to mail or fax documentation to them. After that, I was over it dot net as far as name changing, so I got back to work.

Death to student loans, by the way. Sigh.

Anywho, my supervisor came over and shooed me out early. This is the second time he’s done this, and the second time I couldn’t – well, didn’t want to – leave because I was working a new claim. I’ma learn to work my new claims earlier in the day.

On Monday, I should be able to call the IT help(less) desk and change my email address at work. Then I’ll change my voice mail greeting, and it’ll feel more official. I must say, it was a giddy and weird feeling to sign my new name. I also need to fax my info to HH’s job so they can add me to his health and dental plans.

On Wednesday, I’m going deal with the NCDMV. The SSA said their system needed 24 hours to update and then my new name should be in the system. I am debating on taking my chances on Monday.

Despite the madness with HH’s job changes, this first week of marriage has been like walking on the clouds. I promise the wedding recap post is next. 🙂