old lady aches and pains...

My last night in Florida is beginning right now. I can't believe that I've been here eight days. My, how the time has flown. I'm including an email that I sent to Easton with our wedding info. I must say my wedding is going to be much better than I originally thought. My mom bought Easton a joke gift today from B&N, complete with a sparkly gift bag. I think the title of the book is something like "Everything You Should Know about Being a Groom." They do love each other; I must say, which is way better than the alternative.

Old lady aches and pains have struck again. You could set time to my back pains. Every six months, without fail, I do something to fuck up my back. Right now it feels like someone his pinching my lower back...um nerves, I guess you would say...or whatever is back there (groan - bad pun). Anyhow, I just got off the couch after a couple of glasses or Merlot, some hummus and tortilla chips that Mom made, after experiencing her super-sonic massager/heating pad combo. It just hurts now when I stand for ten minutes or more. I can't stand it - the pinching and pain. Unfortunately, I left the muscle relaxers at home. Hopefully, I can get better before next Monday when we go back to school for pre-planning. I'm ready and not ready. I just spent over $90 at Barnes and Schnoble. $22 of that was a B&N 10% off card which I fortunately found out I can use in the cafe for a year. I bought two wedding books - one overall type planner deal and one on weddings on a budget, and a couple of chic lit. books - "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan" by Sophia Kinsella and Marian Keyes, "Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married." It's a guilty pleasure I must say. My 16/17 yr. old junior girls were obsessed with the Shopaholic books last year. They generally speaking, are not the most literate bunch and it feels weird to be reading the same lit. of choice they are, but ahhh well, we all must step off our academia pedestal every know and then, I guess.
Some of the bridal books have good tips on user gowns and rip all over the bridal factory dresses at David's Bridal. I know a couple of my friends have bought dresses there and all has worked out well, but I'm a little leary because of a couple of points the book brings up.

When I was in B&N today, I heard two women in their 40's talking about who R.A.B. was in Harry Potter 6, and I wanted to interrupt and share my BFF, Catie's theory on who RAB. Sirius' brother, if you must know. Catie's read the book twice. Me, just once, so I will defer to her as the HP authority. Plus, she has a better memory than me and she's read each HP book at least twice.

Okay, I transgressed....here's the wedding info. that I sent Easton.
http://staaa.org/ - Ceremony location. Not so exciting on the outside. We'll be getting married inside in the central art display area. It's beautiful. Art and sculptures all around the room. A big central area where chairs will be set up and mom and I are arranging for an arc that will be decorated with flowers. It's two blocks from the hotel and its definitely within walking distance. We are going to have to advise everyone to get to the hotel early and valet their cars - otherwise they're going to have to fight for a street parking place which will be hard during Labor day weekend. We put down the deposit to reserve the place today. There is a room for the bridesmaids and me to change and do hair/makeup, etc.

http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml;jsessionid=0ILJFY1P4MOXMCSGBIV222QKIYFC5UUC?ctyhocn=USTHDHF

Of course, you've seen this already. This is the hotel. I cannot express how pretty it is. The hotel fits in with the architecture of St.Augustine and was an old historical hotel that the Hilton totally redid. It's actually 18 separate buildings and takes up about half the block. It opened Feb.2, 2005, so it's really new. We met with the head chef (who designed the menu for the restaurant) and the events coordinator. He seems excellent - really creative dishes. Of course, we're doing heavy hors'de uerves (I know I spelled that wrong!) and the reception will go from 2-6pm. The wedding will start at 1 pm. I told the chef I'd like some New Orleans flavor so he's going to develop some cajun and creole appetizers that we can choose from. Since they've only had a couple of weddings, they don't have a full menu designed, yet, so we will have a lot of options to choose from him and he will basically do whatever we want within the price range. We put a deposit down today for the hotel/food. The view is gorgeous. We are going to open up the ballroom doors to the hotel for more open space and circulation. If you walk down the hall a bit, there is a balcony with a gorgeous view. It's such a good deal for the money. I feel so lucky we got these two places.

So, we have flowers almost done. Flowers for my family and yours. If your grandmother can make it down here, we'll add flowers for her, too. I think I'm going to ditch the celery green color for the bridesmaids and go brighter. I like the purple, orange, and fucsia flower combo. that I picked out for the reception area, so the bridesmaids will wear gowns to match that. I also had the idea of making some beachy/flowery centerpieces for each table.

Ohhh...I almost forgot...one of my kinda dreams was to ride in a horse drawn carriage.. We would take it from the ceremony site to the reception...I know you're prob. excited about this one.

On a post note, Mom got lobsters for us tonight. They were not cheap. She is so goddess-like to me. She's talking to Tim right now. He is spending lots of time with new gf in the chic, trendy West Village. She has a baby grand piano and a new dog that he likes quite a bit. She went to Brown and Columbia, so she is no slouch in the intelligence dept. and is a writer. She freelances for magazines and just wrote a book. He likes her a lot. I hope she feels the same way. After his last long term relationship with Psycho Emily, we all just hope for someone that is nice and relatively normal.

Okay, must go begin packing and get into my shopaholic book. I bought it in the wrong order, hopefully, it shall not matter. I should be reading Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies or Anthem which I will be teaching shortly to my 10th honors classes.