Ode to the USPS

Blogger Note: I meant to write this post back when I mailed out our STDs but my bridal ADD kicked in and I got distracted.

Oh, United States Postal Service, you have become the bane of my existence. Why must you keep increasing rates and coming out with butt ugly stamps for me to put on my pretty Save The Date cards? Why must you have completely unreasonable office hours and no available parking spots that make it impossible for me to get there in time to buy the butt ugly stamps? 

Now, I'll admit it-I don't necessarily blame to post office for having to raise their rates. With email, facebook, texting, and what not the art of actually sending mail has gone by the wayside. But, that doesn't mean that I have to be saddled with butt ugly stamps.

I walked into the Post Office wanting this stamp. Pretty wedding cake stamp, perfect amount of postage for what I needed.  

Instead the post office wanted me to walk out with this stamp...

 Now, I'm not racist and it wasn't the fact that it was a black man on the stamp that made me not want it-it was the fact that it WASN'T the pretty wedding cake stamp that I wanted. I almost had a bridezilla moment and tried fighting with the poor postal worker over the stamp but instead I bit my tongue and tried to find a compromise...

The compromise was the pretty "Love" purple flowers that don't go with our theme but it's an envelope and most people are just going to throw it away anyway. We just have to add the ugly blue big horn sheep stamp and then it's enough postage to get our magnets out the door and on their way to the right people.

As for the crappy hours and parking spots? Yeah, ummm who the heck closes the post office at 4:30 in the afternoon? Not only that but if you walk through that door at 4:29 they're already closing up shop and won't even sell you stamps. Their parking lot was a one way and I couldn't figure out which was the "right" one way. 

Did you have problems with the USPS? What do you think of the compromise stamps? Should I have just sucked it up and put the ugly black man stamp on the envelope? Which reminds me, anyone know who that guy is? I know I could google it but I figure if someone else knows that'll save me some time.

The Holiday Tug Of War

    Ahhh...the Holidays. A time for; family, friends, peace on earth, happiness, and playing tug of war over where to spend the holidays. This year in the Fishie household has been a particularly brutal battle.
    This will be FI Fishie and I's 3rd Christmas together, the last 2 have been spent with his family. This year, we decided that it was only fair to spend it with my family. Seems fair and reasonable right?
     Did I mention we'd also spent the last 2 Thanksgivings with his family too? As of this Thanksgiving I hadn't spent a holiday with my family since we'd gotten together. So we spent Thanksgiving Day with my family up north, where I spent most of the day cooking but that's beside the point, then the next day we traveled south to FI Fishie's aunt's house to have another Thanksgiving with his family. This is the Thanksgiving that I would like to forget, why you ask? Because it turned into a nice little battle between me and FI Fishie's family over Christmas and when would work for everyone. I almost wish I would've had some Rock'em Sock'em Robots for us to fight it out with, that way might've been a little more fair.

 

    Here's what happened, we'd already eaten dinner and our bellies were full. I was enjoying playing a rousing game of Spoons with a couple of FI Fishie's cousins and his aunt when FI Fishie came over and asked about Christmas. We'd already agreed to spend the 25th with my family and figure it out from there. Well, FI Fishie's family decided to get together on the 25th. I kindly reminded FI Fishie that we'd already agreed not to drive on Christmas as a rule. Well, that must've made some of his family members upset because next thing I know I'm getting the proverbial middle finger and being told that "Christmas is going to be on the 25th and if Fishie Bride can't make it then oh well." 

    Umm...excuse me? Way to make me feel welcome to the family huh? I stewed about it and then promptly forgot about it. Until today...

   So what happened today you ask? Well, I recieved a copy of an email that FFIL Fishie had sent to FI Fishie. 

This isn't the whole email but you can get the gist of what he's saying...

"Frankly I think you need to consider how you can  compromise more over your Christmas plans.   I have stated that I also don't want to travel on Christmas.  [T]raveling more that a couple of hours is hard since nothing is open.  The final reason is that I want to reserve Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to spend with [FI Fishie] and [FSIL Fishie] and your families.  None of these apply to you.  You don't need to be up late on Christmas Eve, and you don't need to travel that far to either family.
Both [FMIL Fishie] and I are rather hurt that you want to spend the weekend in [fishie bride's hometown] and only a couple hours with us.   We also feel like we are being taken for granted."

Ok...anyone else feel as disrespected by that as I did? I have a few things I want to clarify on this-1) on a good travel day, it's at least 2 hours from the Fishie Parent's to my dad's house; in winter this can take upwards of 3 hours, 2) over the last 2 years I've spent many holidays with them, while I was working 3rd shift so I'd either be working the night before and then going to there place for whatever or I'd be there and then go to work, this is the first year I am not working 3rd shift, 3) The original plan was to spend the 25th with my family and the 26th with his, this isn't "the whole weekend in [fishie bride's hometown] and only a couple hours" 

The solution we came up with? I'm spending the holidays with my family and FI Fishie is spending them with his, which made FFIL Fishie enormously happy since apparently he doesn't want to spend the holidays with me.

What do you think? Am I overreacting to be hurt and offended by FFIL Fishie throwing his weight around and insisting the the holidays be spent with that family? Did we come up with a viable solution or do you have a better one?

Technology...Fail (UPDATE!!!)

So if you remember a few days ago I lemented my misfortune over the untimely death of my external hard drive. Well, ladies and gentlemen I stand before you today a much happier fishie.

Technology...Fail

I love technology, or at least most of the time. So when it came to wedding planning I carefully constructed elaborate spreadsheets detailing the comparisons between different reception venues. I had a nice budget spreadsheet, documents with inspiration for the readings, downloaded way too many tutorials and I had folders of pictures and inspiration. All of these wonderful, time intensive, irreplaceable (for the most part) items was securely stored on this little guy...

Formspring Me

Alright, so Formspring may be my newest addiction...too bad no one reads my ramblings enough to want to ask me a question. Then today, BAM! right there in my inbox, "Someone asked you a question"...really? Ok, so this person didn't have the guts to actually tell me who they were but it was still an interesting question for me, the comments I made were made in High School and forced me to reflect on the changes I've made since being in high school. I encourage everyone to go to http://www.formspring.me/FishieBride and ask a question-I promise to answer all of them!

Hello Sam.... I remember a certain someone who called marriage is for losers and monogamy is stupid.... Now getting married and settling down... MMMM I think I was right all along...



I don't think I used those exact words but ok, if that's how you remember it. As humans, we are naturally and constantly changing and evolving. I’m not the same person I was when I made those comments-I'm guessing you and I haven't interacted since high school otherwise you'd know that. Marriage is all about what you make it-I don't intend to have the same kind of lifeless boring marriage my parents or grandparents had- if you allow your relationship to become stagnant and lifeless then yes, marriage is "for losers" but if you allow your marriage to continue to grow and flourish, making time for your relationship and by not getting bogged down by the day to day monotony but making sure that on a daily basis your partner knows that you are still “in love” with them. If you knew me at all, you’d know that I am not one who enjoys the same old same old, day in and day out. Life is what you make it, if you make it stale and boring then your relationships will be stale and boring. But, if you find a way to inject your normal day-to-day existence with something unexpected and enjoyable then that’s what your relationship will be, unexpected and enjoyable. I’ve had two years of unexpected and enjoyable with someone who understands me and motivates me to be more than I ever thought I could be; and if losing my mother taught me anything it’s that life is short and if I am able to get even 1 more day of unexpected and enjoyable with this person it’s all worthwhile.

Blog Face-Lift

In case you hadn't noticed, this poor little blog has gotten a much needed face-lift! Thanks to http://www.shabbyblogs.com/ for the fabulous background and other elements. 

So what do you think? Should I leave it, go back to the way it was, or scrap this and find a different layout?

This Fishie's Been Tweeted

Since I was bored this morning I decided to google my wonderful blog and see what, if anything came up, and wouldn't ya know it-I've been tweeted!

Source

Apparently Emily Bouchard read my blog and thought my post on "Marriage Advice" warranted being tweeted! I think this makes it official that my blog is worth reading and not just to me.

New Weddingbee Icons...Sea Creatures

Ok seriously? I love love love weddingbee I literally spend hours and hours a day on the site reading the blogs and logging onto the discussion boards. But, now I'm a little disappointed since my wedding is 18 months away and they chose to bring out the sea creature icons for their "bee" bloggers now? Ahh...oh well, maybe by the time I'm eligible to apply to be a "bee" (not until next year, it has to be only 8 months until the wedding for you to be a "bee") they'll come out with a lovely fishie icon just for me. Until then, I'll just sit and stare at the lovely-ness that is the newest generation of bees.

source

MS Research

This post is totally and completely un-related to wedding planning but I had to post it. Podunk Studioz, a video game design company, is collecting donations for MS Research. They'll be broadcasting live feed of them playing retro mario games for the next 72 hrs and collecting donations to benefit MS Research. Visit their website at http://www.podunkstudioz.com/ this is near and dear to my heart since if you'll recall MS is the terrible disease that took my mother's life 4 years ago. Any donations are appreciated thank you!