Couple Hard Days and Celebrity Sightings

Let me first say that it has been an extraordinary few days.

Late last week Tim got pretty sick, so I spent a few days taking care of him and doing what I could to help him, despite the fact that there wasn't anything I could do more than what I've already done. He still isn't feeling 100%, so hopefully he'll get over it soon. He got a pretty froggy voice yesterday so I loaded him up with medicine and some aspirin to take to work. I've also been pushing fluids on him, but I don't know if that helps much. I sometimes get frustrated because I can't "fix" it since there are no real symptoms I can take care of, save general achiness.

This turned out to actually be not so bad compared to Wednesday at work. Wednesday afternoon, a co-worker died on his lunchbreak. He walked over to the food court in the mall across the street as normal, and after eating a bit of his lunch, from what I heard, he fell asleep. About an hour later, mall cops tried to wake him up, and I guess they found he had just slept away.

He was 84 years old, and worked in our store part time, manning the information desk most days. He was constantly happy and constantly smiling, excited to be there. He will leave a hole in our staff, and today I saw that the lock on his locker was open, just like he had left it the day before. It just sort of hit me then that he wouldn’t welcome me into the store anymore, and this made me sad.

Wednesday night, shortly after I heard the news of my co-worker's death, Roger Ebert came into the store to do a signing for his latest book. I thought it was pretty cool because he walked past me and smiled. I also saw him do his classic "thumbs up" to his wife and assistant, who both accompanied him. He was wearing his neck covering because of his illness, but it didn't look to be too bothersome to him. Though I think it is a terrible shame he lost such an iconic voice in film critique. I remember always watching Siskel and Ebert growing up to hear about the movies that were playing in the theatres.

I also saw Brian Dennehy the other day in the coffee shop. At first I didn't even recognize him until a co-worker pointed him out. It’s the second time I’ve seen him in our store, because he’s in Chicago doing a play. He hasn't bought anything particular from me, but I still think it's cool. That’s all the celebrities I’ve seen so far, though I missed meeting Kat Von D by about 15 minutes when I came in on Monday. One of my bosses/friends is STILL giddy about meeting her and loses his cool whenever he talks about her. He's such a sweetie when he talks about it. Most of the people I work with don't tend to get star-struck (with the Kat Von D exception) but I still think it's cool. While I don't get too starstruck (in fact, seeing Ebert made me feel happy on the inside because I respect the man), I imagine that one day I will meet someone famous and I will absolutely lose my cool.

Tim has met a few more famous people, but I don't know who they are off hand. One of my other co-workers got to check Madonna's ID a while back, because apparently her credit card wasn't signed or something. According to him, she was like "really? you really need to check this?" and he was like "yes, yes I do." Truth is, he has to check because it's store policy. Still though, it's funny that he checked Madonna's ID. Celebrities come into our store all the time because we are a pretty big/nationally known store, so that's cool. If I see anybody else, I'll let you guys know!

Wedding Pictures

[Warning: Soppy post ahead. I apologize in advance. I'll try not to gush too much.]


I finally got our wedding album and I had quite a bit of fun looking through them again. With every picture I looked at, I couldn't help but smile and get giddy, remembering every little thing about the day. I can't help but smile even typing about it.

I am *so* thankful for our wonderful photographer Katie, who did a phenomenal job and who was just about as flexible as we were. I take great pride in the fact that she told me that she enjoyed putting our album together because we were simply one of the most laid-back couples she has had to work with. This fact alone makes it all worthwhile. I'm mostly happy that I was able to get some money into the tanking Michigan Economy and helping a local business.

I still get a flutter in my stomach sometimes when I think about how lucky I am to be married to Tim. I remember when I was in the back choir room sequestered away, I was as calm and as cool as a cucumber (at least mentally) and I didn't hear anything. It was only when the big church organ started to play when I realized it was less than five minutes until the wedding was supposed to start, and that Tim was probably walking the Moms down the aisle and seating them.

It was then, and only then, that I started to get really nervous. The lead up during that week was pretty bad (I turned into the Bridezilla I promised myself I never would...sad-making) but as soon as we got to Traverse City, as soon as I was there and things were falling into place, I relaxed and was ready to get the show on the road. Walking down the aisle looking at him, and looking up at my dad, I was just so happy.

It's not quite five months into the marriage, and like any newlywed, I am still in awe of the things that I am learning both about me and my husband. Life is not easy, by any means, nor is keeping cool when it seems like so much is stacked up against us. But I couldn't ask for anything more than the life I have now. He makes me happier than I have been in several years, and that's a pretty big deal, especially because the months leading up to the wedding I hardly saw him (In the 9 months leading up to the wedding, I saw him maybe for about a month total. Other than that, we didn't see each other and talked on the phone.) and I missed him terribly.

All this stuff was brought up just by looking at photos.

Just for a taste, here are two of my favorites.