Sunday, October 25, 2015

Wine and alter egos

One of my favorite things about my sister's non romantic life partner (if you read my rant about PayPal you understand this term) is that every time he comes over he brings wine. Another thing I like about him is that he initiates conversations like this: Bryan (uncorking the bottle of Prosecco he brought): If my sister were a Disney princess, which one do you think she'd be? Me: what? Bryan: repeats question. Me: what are you taking about? Bryan: Well, I figure you'd be Elsa but I'm I can't decide who your sister would be. Me: why would I be Elsa? Bryan: hmm, perhaps because 'conceal, don't feel' is kind of your life's motto? I think about this as I drink my wine.The man isn't wrong. Me: Perhaps. Bryan (refilling both of our glasses): perhaps? Isn't it your general policy to keep everyone at arm's length? Me (grinning): You know me too well sir. I think Teri is definitely Jasmine. (Teri is my cousin). Bryan: I could see that. How about Vicki? (Teri's sister). Me (after a long pause that involves more than a few sips of wine): Rapunzel I think. Bryan (looking confused): why Rapunzel? Me: Cause I feel like she has this tendency to please others at the expense of herself. Bryan: makes sense. At least you didn't say Aroura. Me: Goodness no! I have far too much respect for Vicki for that. And, to answer your original question, my sister would be Esmeralda. Bryan: Cause she's deeper than people give her credit for? Me: Also because she's the most compassionate and most likely to see the big picture. Bryan (again topping off our glasses): good point though, technically, Esmeralda isn't a Princess. Me: Niether is Elsa. Yeah, Bryan fits right in around here.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Maybe it's just me...

So I just finished reading Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella and I loved it! So much so that I decided to look up the other books in the series (that and I wanted a picture of the book for Instagram, don't ask me why, i'm weird like that), and in doing so, I found Shopaholic Ties The Knot about the main character getting married (spoiler alert). In the synopsis it states that Rebecca Bloomwood, the main character, is faced with the dilemma of where to have her wedding. More specifically, she finds herself torn between having a glossy wedding (her words, not mine) at the Plaza Hotel in New York and having a wedding at her childhood home. Is this a common problem? I ask because another book series (Chocolate for Two by Maria Murnane)uses the same story line and it makes me wonder, exactly how many women are having more than one wedding? When I got married we did it one time, and we didn't even live in the same state as the majority of our guests. We lived in CA at the time but we're from NY. Our family lives in NY. Most of our friends live in NY. So we flew to NY and got married. It never even occurred to me to have more than one wedding (planning one what quite enough, thank you very much!) Now, granted, in both stories the reason for the conflict is because the mothers (of the bride and groom) wanted different weddings and in my case, my husband's mother didn't even come to our wedding (which should have been a red flag of some sort) and I don't remember my mother having much of an opinion about where and what kind of wedding I had. This 'have multiple weddings to try and please everyone' nonsense sounds like it was created by the wedding industry to get us to spend even more than we already do on weddings. Couldn't you just imagine the AD campaign; Why have one special day when you could have two! David's Bridal and the rest of the bridal shops would start pushing the Second Destination dress...for the wedding you want after you have the wedding they want! (insert eye roll here). And bakeries would go crazy, offering a cake for each theme...for the completely reasonable price of $50,000. Each. Ugh! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! If this 'have a whole other wedding thing so no one gets their feeling hurt' is actually a thing, here's my advice people: have the wedding you want and only the wedding you want. After all, you're going to be stuck with that idiot the rest of your life, might as well get a hell of a party out of the deal.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Ugh! Paypal!

As I ran frantically around my kitchen making dinner last night I looked up and noticed that Bryan, my sister's non-romantic life partner (it's complicated, was on the phone and looked more frantic than I was. Wait, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Bryan wasn't frantic, irate would be a better word. Why? Three words: Paypal Customer Service. Ugh! Just typing the words makes me want to scream! Seriously, customer service and Paypal shouldn't even be in the same sentence! If you're keeping score (like me) their latest offense involved imaginary hotel reservations, missing money, and their catchphrase "we'll make a note of it." More specifically, Bryan booked a hotel in Thailand for his upcoming visit with my sister (who lives there). And, naturally, said reservation is lost in cypberspace...along with his money of course. Not to worry though, after only a few (12-15) friendly, productive (LOL) phone calls Paypal assured him that they would straighten everything out right away (sometime before the next ice age). Right. I was going to tell you how much faith I have in that...but then I found a picture that described it perfectly, so I posted it on instagram. I know, not the least bit helpful but, hey, what are ya gonna do?