Wireless Internet has been a thing of the past since we left the Homewood Suites, but I have finally gained access to a computer plugged into the wall. I am still alive, still have the ability to type. I can’t wait until I can get Wi-Fi in my car. Or at least an iPhone.

Over the weekend, we spent some time in Charlotte, NC with the Greens, Mr. Andrews’s grad school roommate (and my former bowling teammate), and his wife.

Mr. and Mrs. Green

Our bowling team, circa 2002

We had originally planned to take the new Charlotte light rail downtown and walk around the city. When we got downtown, it was freezing and raining so we quickly got back on the train, went back to our friends’ house, and watched Scrooged. We also had lots of fun with the dogs, who were a little bit scared of Tyson, the gregarious boxer who belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Green.

Tyson and Mr. Green

In Columbia, the music video shoot went extremely well, and was even done a day early. We spent a few daytime hours walking around our old college campus, eating at some of my favorite local restaurants, and impressing people with our cute Chihuahua. I took many, many dog pictures, which I am sure I will share as soon as I can upload them, which should be by Sunday night. Thank goodness my mom is technologically advanced enough for the Internet.

Since we were done in Columbia early, we drove north to visit friends who live in Greenville, SC. Mr. Zufall and Mr. Muldrow are the college roommates of Mr. Andrews, and are always happy to let us stay with them when we are in town, or passing through town, or as we are now – temporarily homeless.

Mr. Zufall, Me, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Muldrow in August 2003

Mr. Muldrow, the Mac expert, is helping us install all the radical programs we want on our new computer, and Mr. Zufall is providing hours of entertainment with his HDTV, Playstation 3, and DVDs of the British version of The Office (also, I am using his computer right now). It is also a dog-centric universe over here as Mr. Muldrow has a dachshund, Sidney, who is the mother of Mr. Zufall’s dachshund, Mayday. Mr. Muldrow brought Sidney over (as well as some white chocolate key lime cookies his wife made – yum!), and all the dogs got along quite nicely.

Mayday

Sidney

Tomorrow, we are going to Charleston so Mr. Andrews can see his family, then we are going to Massachusetts so we can hang with some people we actually know through me. Mainly, these guys:

Harris/Roberts Christmas 2006

Christmas with Dad 2006

My mom just bought a mattress for the room that used to be my sister’s room, but is now is a guest room since she moved out. Hooray for not having to sleep on our camping air mattress for Christmas!

Us, Christmas 2006

As usual, too, there has been lots of discussion between husband and wife about what we will be doing with our future. We know we want to do something, we just don’t know what. Maybe when I narrow the options down, I will post a poll, and you guys can help us choose. Stay tuned for trip photos and deciding my fate!

From tomorrow at 11AM until the evening of January 2, Mr. Andrews and I are free from the daily grind, weekday monotony, and an official place to live. In the great tradition of us, we are packing our stuff and our dogs and ourselves in the car and cruising a good portion of the Eastern United States. We will be visiting our tails off, and doing lots and lots of the work we actually like to do – the independent media kind.

When we found out we had this much time off for the winter holidays, we had originally planned a trip to the west coast, but since opportunities arose that we couldn’t pass up, we decided to make our rounds around here. On this trip, we are getting to spend some time with other married couples our age, which we never get to do . The Greens live in the Charlotte, NC area and were married in May, and the Barneses live on a farm in Indiana,  have been married for a long time, and have a daughter. We are going to North Carolina first and Indiana last. In between we are going to Columbia, SC, our college town, for the previously mentioned video shoot for Closer’s single, The Difference. And rounding it out, we will be pit stopping in Charleston, SC to visit the Andrews side of the family, then heading North (stop snowing up there!) to celebrate Christmas with my family in Massachusetts. Fun times.

I’ll be reporting from the road, hopefully taking lots of pictures and having exciting times that will fill the internet with joy and wonder. At the very least, it will be more interesting than anything that has happened to us while living in a hotel in Maryland. But if you like that kind of thing, don’t worry. We’ll be back here in the new year!

Early on in the wedding planning, Mr. Andrews knew what he wanted to wear to get married: Humphrey Bogart’s Casablanca tux. White jacket, black pants, black bow tie - very summery, yet also formal. I actually made him get an ivory jacket because my dress was ivory, but otherwise he picked it all out himself. I’m not sure if I was supposed to see it before the wedding, since he obviously didn’t see my dress, but I went with him anyway when he got fitted. Luckily for all of us, I took pictures with my phone.

Looking Good!

The groomsmen and the fathers got the same tuxedos, except their jackets were black. They looked great, and Mr. Andrews got to stand out from the crowd.

My dad, Mr. Andrews & Me

Tuxes were rented through Mr. Tux, which was convenient because of the many locations in Massachusetts, as well as their affiliation with After Hours. Groomsmen in South Carolina and Florida could get measured there, and have their tuxes ready for them in Brookline, MA when they arrived. Handy!

Shopping for bridesmaids’ dresses was a little bit more work than my wedding dress – we actually went to three stores! My sister (and maid of honor) was a very good sport and tried on a ton of dresses for me, since my other bridesmaids live in Virginia and Hawaii (the one from VA ended up not even making it to the wedding!).

David’s Bridal – the fabric was too clingy

Creative Bridals – too low cut, too poofy

Country Weddings – pretty, but strapless

Country Weddings – perfect!

I had no idea what I was looking for – we hadn’t even picked colors yet! – so I am glad I got her help. She got to find something she was comfortable in as well as something that looked cute.

We started at David’s Bridal, but didn’t find much. Then we looked at Creative Bridals, my wedding dress store, which had some nice stuff (my mom actually got her mother of the bride dress here – a two piece satin outfit by Impression in Palomino), but the perfect bridesmaid dress was found at Country Weddings in Hingham, MA. We picked a knee-length chiffon dress in Sage from Watters “Wtoo” collection (style 130). The cut was good for the different body types with minimal alterations, and the color was beautiful on everyone dark and tan to redhead.

My mom & My sister

Bridesmaid love

The girls wore the same $20 gold shoes from Marshalls that I wore, and they also got some Old Navy flip flops for the reception. My mom picked them up some  very cute gold, green and turquoise necklaces and matching earrings for cheap (really, I think they were like $9 total) to pull the whole outfit together. They looked gorgeous!

 Here’s how the entire bridal party looked (try to picture us without the funny faces…)

Bridal Party

In the end, we weren’t a bad looking bunch!

Holbrook, AZ (the inspiration for Radiator Springs in Disney’s Cars)

In December 2005, I spend some time on iTunes, gathering up all of my favorite Christmas songs. They have been on my iPod since then, sometimes messing up shuffle mode, because who really wants to listen to songs about snow and reindeer in May? But it is finally the time of year when I want to hear Christmas music (most likely because I don’t work in retail like I did in college, where the continuous loop of four holiday songs by Nat King Cole songs made me want to choke on a candy cane), and I am excited to share my Christmas Mix. It is not the coolest playlist in the world (you may see some effect of my 80s childhood and my parents’ affinity for adult contemporary artists in there), but these are the songs that say “Christmas” to me:

• Silver Bells – Anne Murray
• Away In A Manger – Anne Murray (This song made me cry as a kid – so sad that a baby was born in a barn!)
• Mele Kelikimaka – Bing Crosby 
• Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms
• Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
• Let It Snow – Boyz II Men
• Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town – Bruce Springsteen
• Dream A Dream – Charlotte Church with Billy Gilman
• Chipmunks Christmas Song – Alvin and the Chipmunks (This was my first tape ever for my Fisher Price tape player)
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Christina Aguilera
• Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley (reminds me of my dad)
• Christmas – Hanson (reminds me of my sister)
• I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Jimmy Buffett (reminds me of my husband)
• Frosty The Snowman – Jimmy Durante
• Merry Christmas Little Zachary – John Denver (My cousin Tyler was almost named Zachary after this song)
• Christmas – Mariah Carey
• All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey (I danced to this every year with my H.S. Dance Team)
• O Holy Night – Michael Bolton (reminds me of my mom)
• Twelve Days of Christmas – The Muppets feat. John Denver
• The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
• Little Drummer Boy – Neil Diamond
• Funky, Funky, Xmas – New Kids On The Block (you KNOW Joey Joe is ready!)
• Green Sleeves – Vanessa Carlton

I haven’t listened to the new batch of Christmas albums for 2007, but I may have to add Josh Groban or Barry Manilow sometime in the Christmas future. 

What’s your favorite holiday song?

Tonight, Mr. Andrews brought home our new iMac. It is awesome.

We have about a billion uses for it in the next few weeks, and since we have been saying we were going to buy one since about June 2006, we finally went for it. We bought it yesterday, but had some stuff installed, so I had to wait 24 hours for it to come home. I pretty much wandered around all day, doing nothing but anticipating. In the end, it was worth it.

The computer is pretty and enormous and full of good stuff like 2GB memory and a 320GB hard drive. Way, way better than anything we’ve ever owned. And next week, when we install Final Cut Pro – well, if my head doesn’t explode from glee, my life may just be complete.

So far, we have only played around – pretty much opening every application and then watching a trailer for Cloverfield in HD (kind of pointless, since it’s supposed to look like home video, but whatever). We can fool around with it for the next three days, and then we are off to Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC, where Mr. Andrews will be directing a music video for the band Closer(which is one of the reasons we got the iMac). So luckily, even though it is heavy, it is somewhat compact and mostly portable. Although, it is weird to need a mouse pad again. I haven’t had a desktop in 5 years.

I just realized I am blogging from my cheap-o Compaq laptop. Why am I doing that when there is a gorgeous Mac not three feet away? I’m crazy. I’m gonna go play with Garage Band.