I vow to have better vows at our renewal ceremony

I'll just start by saying that I am in a much better place than I was when I wrote that last post. It was a rough holiday to get through, but now it is a new year and I have a renewed sense of vigor. The restaurant reopened to the excited return of all their customers. They were packed those first two days. Really incredible how much people love going there.

So things are returning to normal. The routine is back to normal and that's good on it's own. I got a lot of writing done and am now beginning to work with an editor to get it ready to publish. (cross em if you got em)

But none of that is really why you're here, is it? Well, okay then, let's talk about the wedding. This week I dusted off the little white book and we started going over what we want to do with the plans we made. Nothing much should change. The venue has been secured, which I'll reveal where later, and now both the ceremony and reception will be in the same place!

Unfortunately, our singer who was going to accompany us down the aisle has moved away, another casualty of the restaurant fire. We have been considering short songs, but nothing definite there yet. Chef has decided the menu will be a dinner instead of finger foods. He says it's easier and can be made weeks in advance (kidding) You guys are in for a treat!

Another good thing is all the items I chose are still in my Amazon wish list. I totally forgot about some of it, which is fun because I'm getting excited for the first time again about things. We did lose our bus tickets. That was my bad. So we will start from scratch for the honeymoon. As far as I know it's still New Orleans. I'm back to shooting blanks when it comes to vows. Maybe if I pretend I'm writing a wedding scene.

Lastly, it occurred to me just the other day that I have a great opportunity since we postponed the wedding. Now I have time to lose a little weight, maybe tone up a little. The moisturizing MUST begin. I have time to play with hair styles. Get a new tattoo so it'll be all nice and healed. Train the cats to carry the hems of our wedding capes.

Move over Bride/Groomzillas. The Wedding Kraken is back for the reboot. Crushing everything in his way, and he's perfectly willing to destroy everything to get what he wants.

To get married. That's what he wants, to get married.

The Wedding Kraken is me.
Ready to destroy.

Words

Let me just take this time to get everyone updated as to what has been happening the past six months or so.Most recently I have been enjoying the killer new season of Doctor Who. The rest of TV has begun to air as well, but for some reason more than ever it just isn't stirring anything in me. This is more than likely an offshoot of changes I felt after our cats died. Certain things have just become less than important. Doctor Who is not one of those things, thankfully.

After we decided to postpone the wedding, I put it out of my mind for a while. Both Scott and I then fell back into the time/money vacuum known as Second Life. It was different this time. Mostly we played together, renting some land together and breeding some cute simulated pets. It was nice, except for the amount of money we pumped into it.

I made a decision to spend less time on and get back to my writing. Coincidentally, there was a fire at Scott's restaurant, plunging us into a frenzy. We sold a couple of things on Craigslist. Funny enough, they were two things we bought at the same time, my Bose headphones and Scott's laptop. So Scott's old tower that I had been using went back to him and I went back to my old tower, which had died at some point after it's last use. Now I am on my reeeaaalllyyy old laptop. It did take Windows 10 but is still a bit sluggish. Definitely no gaming.

Nevertheless I have been successful at completing a few new stories in this time, and am deciding how to proceed, be it submitting something to a contest or trying to have something published. I am but one story away from having a book length collection of stories about my creation, The Witch of Nothing.

Scott and I successfully emerged out of the year of the itch. The only other thing I have done successfully for eight years is to age. Right after our anniversary, Scott got a new job. It's going well, but he will have a decision to make because the old restaurant will be wanting him back after they finish rebuilding the kitchen.

It was at this point I got the idea to reset the date. Subconsciously I had the idea of doing it by the time of our original wedding, so I just made it in time. With a new job, the prospect of the return of a job, and a year to plan (with a sweet head start) the time just felt right. There was no way I was just going to let the idea fade away.

Some people say, "Oh, a piece of paper doesn't change anything," but they're wrong. The piece of paper represents and idea, a concept, which are both very powerful forces. You may not see any physical evidence of change, but the intangible feelings that come with it are unmistakably powerful. Scott and I won't be "more together" after we get married, but we will be able to, with a word, express to others how deep our love is for each other, for why would we want to keep that to ourselves? For now, I'm happy we are able have such a word again. Fiancee.

Ready, Set, Go!

The time is here. At this moment, Scott and I were scheduled to walk down the aisle. The problem is our first attempt was made without allowing ourselves enough time. The temptation is there to run to the court house, but we really want our friends and supportive family there to share in the joy.

If you were following along here on my blog, you know there were some stressful times, which is the reason things have been so quiet since the postponement. After discussing it and looking over the year to come, we are officially taking the nuptials off of pause and beginning the preparations again, with a mighty good head start at that.

I left clues on Facebook about the big announcement today, so let me share some of those and what they mean...

In 2016, the 22nd of October is our 9th anniversary of being together, but more than that it will fall on a Saturday. So this is the date, mark your calendars now.

The planning starts today, so I have some emails to send to ensure some of our original ideas can still be done. There is, I feel sure, plenty of time now to organize this without my becoming a train wreck.

Our honeymoon plans are still to travel to new Orleans by Megabus, but the difference is that this time we will be there the week leading up to Halloween instead of the week after. This will give us the opportunity to attend the Vampire's Ball if we choose.

I'll try and do a recap this weekend, unless you feel like going back and refreshing yourself with our plans thus far. Bottom line, though...

SCOTT AND SHERIDAN ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!

I'll throw this in for free-We need to come up with a name. Most of you know I have no qualms in changing my name. Sheridan David Layman-Lowe isn't bad, but Sheridan David Lowe-Layman sounds like playing the name game. The other option is to come up with our own name. Something like Loehmann, Song  or Corleone, but we could go with something a bit out of the ordinary, like Yum-Yumm, Gallifrey, or 3.333

Stay tuned, it's all beginning again. Well, hopefully not the groomzillaing.

***Side Note***
Yes, to all my OCD friends. I am aware of how well this plays in with my number, which is three. 10/22/16 adds up to twelve (which adds up to three), and of course nine is my uber three. Adding the nine to either the twelve or three brings you back to three. This is in no way strange. Move along now.

Not to mention Long Awaited

Halloween

Weekend Progress, part two: Park It

Today we went into Midtown and scoped out the park. It was hot and humid but pretty to look at. We took one of my favorite entrances, down 14th street. On our walk I found some good places to snap off some shots out of architectural appreciation.

I can't believe I've never seen this before

This is like an architecture collage

Buildings in buildings

Go home building, you're drunk

They spelled it wrong

The park was great, mostly in the shade. They've added some things and we scoped out the pavilion and bandstand in case of a rain emergency on the day. My fiancee insisted on being in a shot I got my finger in while trying to get him back for sneaking a pic of me.

We were reminded of how close some bathrooms are to the gazebo, of course they're park bathrooms, but it won't be a long ceremony. I took some shots from the side of the gazebo we will emerge from, one from the guest's side, most without a finger in the shot.

Where's Gazebo?

*considers jumping

Afterwards, we rounded things off by checking out the docks then the 10th street entrance, which is where the closest parking is. 

Once again the finger photobomb

My plan is to include a map of the park with the invitations. There is a lot of free parking along 10th and on the side streets across from the park. Then whichever entrance they use, they can find us.

Now I am full of delicious shrimp etouffee Scott was inspired to make in anticipation of our honeymoon trip. I think he should call it Fiancee's etouffee. Did you guys know Scott is a chef? Yeah, you got me now.

The best thing about today, for me, was getting to do it with my fiancee. 

Now, before I go, I know what you have all been thinking this entire time. Aren't those the same shirts they wore to Niecezilla's on Saturday? Well, yes, as a matter of fact they are. You wanna do something about it? Those are outside shirts. Good for 2 or 3 uses. If you don't like that then yesterday was laundry day.

Weekend Progress- part one: Beginning To Bubble

Logistically, things are coming together nicely. Besides waiting for that refund from the hotel. We will breathe easier when we get the money and still have the reservation. The list has begun of things we want to do in New Orleans. I was too wiped out yesterday to post, and I'll get to what we did today in part two.

Saturday, Niecezilla brought us over to her house to play. We stopped to get the bubbles at Party City, then some paint and cardboard paper at Walmart. The bubble bottles are going to undergo a transformation. Here is the beginning of the process with a cheeky peek at my fiancee Scott working away happily. First up is me taking a picture in the downstairs bathroom to remind myself to throw some flowers or something up in there.

I'll post the whole transition when I get them done.

It was also a great opportunity to study the rooms and figure out where all the weddingy things will happen. Some things are already ready already. Like this table in the entryway. I bet I don't have to tell you what goes there.

I also was able to get specific directions as we went. All in all it was a very good day and we are both very grateful to Andrea and Jimmy for opening up their home for our reception.

As if all that wasn't good enough, we ate at my favorite restaurant...

Up next: A walk in the park

Back From There Again: A Schlep It Tale

Here is a glimpse into today's journey to retrieve the invitations from the clutches of the postpeople, and it's soundtrack.

Light summer bag for a heavy summer day

I wish I had my shadow's shirt

I like this seat for the foot room and the view

No shenanigans today :(

Midtown arrival

Right about here I have to pee

The blue awning beckons

Targets acquired

The bus was watching and judging me for having a smoke

Ride the peach, but never touch the glass

Appointment next to The Temple

So Jewish they didn't have to name it

20 minutes early to the paper shuffling

Time enough to finish watching this man sniff Jell-o

Minutes from journey's end

Looks like Scott's boss bought some pinwheels