Yes, it happened.

It's been a surreal week. Around this time last Friday, Colleen and I were racing to finish place-cards, pick up shirts from the dry cleaners, finish flower arrangements, and re-calibrate our minds. We were fortunate and grateful that timely reinforcements had arrived that Thursday with our domestic and international family.

Last Saturday we got married and threw down a joyously unrestrained party that surpassed all expectations for the ramshackle gathering we thought we had planned. From the moment we walked into the Stan Mansion, the reception no longer felt like it was ours. This was a good thing. Colleen and I may have provided the skeleton: location, food, and decorations; but it was our family, friends, and the community they make that gave it life. We couldn't have been happier with our Frankenstein Party.

We're going to continue updates here, as there are so many little details and memories that we want to relive in words and pictures. First, we've started a Flickr Pool: www.flickr.com/groups/colleenandrodrigo/. We added some pictures to start and we'll be adding more as we get back photos from the various family digital cameras. Flickr is easy and free to join, and anyone can upload photos and add them to the pool. If you've got photos or video, add it! Let's Go Technology!

Second, our photographer John Christian Adams has linked us the first batch of photos that he and his wife Lindy took from the ceremony and the reception: www.goforjohn.com/rod&col/. John is an extraordinary photo ninja. He and Lindy were willing and ready to get weird with us; they even made the security camera at a Walmart look cool. There will be more to follow, and we're excited.

Last, we're compiling little nuggets and things that we want remember: poems read, speeches spoken, accounts of people falling, dancing, crying, and singing. We'll post those here, so stay tuned!

xoxo
street-legal rodrigo y colleen.

Rodrigo and Colleen vs. The Olympics

It's interesting to be counting down to an event that will effect about 150 people, to take place one day after an event that will potentially effect 2,842,518.

On October 3, 2009, Rodrigo and I get married (yay!).

On October 2, 2009, the city of Chicago finds out whether they have been chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

One event is obviously more personally significant than another, but I can't help but be excited about both. Because, despite some of the controversy surrounding the Olympic bid - the flawed financial projections, land use disputes, and the general hassle of having thousands more people in our fair city - I'm excited about the prospects of the Olympics coming to Chicago.

And if they do, you can bet I'll be the first aboard the sweet new trains we'll get out of the deal, and that I will also weasel my way in to the opening ceremonies some way or another.

Plus, it's interesting to think ahead to the year 2016 - What will we be doing? Will we still be living in Chicago? Will we all travel around on hover boards?

xoxo
C

Favorite Place: CTA Brown Line

My next favorite place moves around the city on elevated tracks.

It offers a surprisingly nice (and seated!) tour of the city, for much less than the double-decker bus tours. Although I hear those are nice, too.

It's the CTA Brown Line.

Here's the plan: If you're downtown, a little fatigued, and looking for a place to sit down for a half hour, skip the cafe and jump on the Brown Line instead. Or better yet, grab something to drink and then get on. You can board the Brown Line from lots of Loop locations - I recommend getting on at Washington and Wells, then riding the line around the Loop and north of the river.

(click here for a larger version of the map)

Then you can hop off at Fullerton or Belmont, both good neighborhood stops for food, shopping, etc.

On the way, get up-close views of downtown building facades, the Chicago River, and more.



I realize that not everyone gets as excited about public transportation as I do, but after a couple of years driving five minutes to a job because of discontinuous sidewalks and non-existent bus lines, it's a treat for me.

Just avoid rush hour on a weekday. Unless you really, really love humanity...

Enjoy!

xoxo
C

So, what's with the artichoke?

In lieu of wedding bands, Rodrigo and I decided a while ago to get tattoos. I'll pause here for a collective shudder from those who:

a) like my mom, consider tattoos to be inappropriate in any occasion (even as an expression of love or pride)
b) are picturing tattooed portraits of each other on body parts that don't normally see the sunshine

Okay, have we recollected ourselves? Good.

Walking down the street one day, we settled on identical artichokes. It went something like this:

R: So I was thinking some more about tattoo ideas.
C: Yeah? What are you thinkin', Palma?
R: Artichokes.
C: Yes!

We discussed the idea further, made our appointment, and the rest is (permanently applied) history. Here is some photo-documentation:

Baby's first tattoo. Awe...

Rodrigo smiling through the pain. Actually, it barely phased him. I was the one wincing and clutching his hand like a lifeline.

His

Hers

Thanks to Zach Stuka at Deluxe Tattoo here in Chicago for his rendition of a very complex vegetable.

We've gotten the question "Why artichokes?" a lot since then, and the answer is... there really is no firm answer. We like the way they look. We find them delicious. We wanted something that we would each get and wear (a la a wedding band, except there's no losing these babies down the drain when we wash our hands) and enjoy looking at every day.

We heart artichoke (hearts)!

xoxo
C

Friendly reminders

(yay)!

Or, you will not... (boo!)

But either way, please let us know - you can RSVP online here, or send in those smart little postcards provided just for the occasion.

Also - if you are somebody who adores the limelight and cannot wait to regale us with your special, samba version of "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" (or whatever) at the reception, please don't forget to drop us a line in advance. You needn't reveal too much (in order to heighten anticipation) - just your chosen stage name (if any), the instruments you'll require, and about how long your time in the spotlight will be.

Thanks, everyone! Can't wait to see you all soon!

xoxo
c+r

A celebration with laser beams!

I received this is the mail last week:


(click on the image to make it bigger and hence, actually legible)

While the color scheme is fairly lovely, there are several things amiss here:

1) Wedding date: September 17, 2009? Fail.
2) Offering Lasik to a groom with 20/20 vision? Fail.
3) Sending me this card a mere week before my supposed wedding date? Fail.
4) Calling my wedding date the most important day of my life? Fail.
5) Offering discounted corrective vision surgery to upcoming brides and grooms? Weird.
6) The jerk who passed my name and address along to these people? In trouble.

xoxo,
C

Favorite Place: Chicago Architecture River Cruise

Okay, so today's favorite place isn't technically a place, so much as an experience. But it's a great experience. The Chicago Architecture Foundation offers a multitude of tours around the city, highlighting the great architectural tradition of Chicago. But my favorite by far is the Architecture River Cruise.



You'll board one of three boats at a river dock at Michigan Ave. and Wacker Dr., and an experienced and entertaining CAF docent will give you a narrated tour of Chicago.



You'll travel the Chicago River heading west bound, then travel north, then south where the river forks. Lastly, you'll venture out to the mouth of the river where it meets Lake Michigan. All the while, you'll hear about architects and city planning for a city built upon a swamp, some interesting stories about the Great Fire of 1871, and some details about what it was like to live along the river before any anti-pollution measures were taken (hint: it was very stinky). It's an hour-and-a-half of relaxation and information, where you can rest your feet from all of the exploring you've already done, and learn a little bit more about our fair city.

I've done the tour about five times, with different combinations of family and friends, and I would definitely do it again. So get your tickets and get on board!



xoxo,
C

Favorite Place: Dusty Groove America

It's true that Chicago is known for its shopping. I try and do my patriotic part to single-handedly kick-start the economy--but if you take a look at my ragged shoes and then the racks of vinyl and compact discs we keep in the apartment, you know that I usually spend any surplus income on music. I like it soulful, I like it spicy, and I devour it.

Chicago is not lacking in great record stores, but my favorite has to be Dusty Groove America. You won't find the new Coldplay single here--but you will find CD reissues and vinyl records of forgotten soul music, psychedelic guitar fuzz from turkey, jazz and funk from ethiopia, and deep cuts from Brazil. There's too much good and interesting music to find here. Their selection is global, and they focus on the interesting side-streets that don't get explored by Putumayo and Starbucks compilations. Here you'll find the reggae that goes beyond B.Marley and pot-leaf posters. You can even strike gold by picking out something just for the crazy and weird album cover. Watch those fingers!

wrd,
rodrigo.

Hey ladies!

Okay, this is for any female readers out there. Or actually, any readers who wear make-up (because I don't judge).

So, I'm looking to buy some make-up for this whole wedding party thing happening in about a month. Items such as: foundation, eye shadow, lip stick, and other things that are as foreign to me as the Mandarin language.

Here is where you come in: does anyone have recommendations for what the good stuff is, and what I should avoid like a leprous appendage? I'm really quite clueless when it comes to this stuff. I blame my feminist mother (love you mom!).

Overall, I would like to look pretty, but not like I am covered in a layer of flesh-colored frosting. Any suggestions?

xoxo - C

You're All I Need

The invitation:



The inspiration:



By now, you've all hopefully received your invitations to our shindig in October. If not - contact us!! And if not again, how do you even know about this blog?? Anyway, we decided fairly early on that we wanted to replicate an album cover for our invitations. For Colleen, there are too many beautiful stationery designs to ever choose the one design that she could live with without going slowly bananas after the order had been placed. And we wanted something out of the ordinary, that would hopefully represent our love of music. There were a few album covers contemplated, but the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell cover was so sweet and simple, and honestly - fairly easy to replicate.

So our friend John came to our apartment one morning and shot many photos of us doing our best Tammi and Marvin. And did an amazing job capturing the vintage-ness of the shot, and the angles, and everything. Then another friend, Andrea took the chosen photo and some fairly loose ideas about what we wanted, and created some pretty unique and amazing invitations.

When the invitations came in the mail from the production company, we were so excited and eager to send them out to everyone. Then we remembered that we actually had to assemble them, and the excitement made way for mad resolution and the need for a bit more caffeine. But our friend Leah stepped up and helped in a major way with the cutting, folding, stuffing, etc. that was needed, and we're ever so grateful... Here are a few shots of Colleen and Leah, hard at work:


This seemed funny at the time.


Leah hard at work at the assembly line. The photo is blurry because she was fast as lightning.


Colleen thought the back of the mailing envelopes looked like little monster faces.

And here are some shots of the aftermath:







So the moral of the story of our invitations is: friends are awesome. We are very grateful for all of the help that has been offered to us as we check off our "to do list" leading up to October 3, including with the invites. And we are pretty proud of how they turned out - dropping them off at the post office felt like nudging nestlings out of the nest. Or, maybe that's a tad dramatic...

xoxo
c+r

PS - Don't forget to RSVP!

Favorite Place: Lurie Garden, Millenium Park

As promised, we're going to use this whole blog thing to highlight some of our favorite places in Chicago. We want to get you excited to come visit our fair city, and figured what better way than to take you on a tour (albeit virtual) of some cool spots, shops, nooks and eateries.

First up, Colleen's choice: The Lurie Garden at Millenium Park



The Lurie Garden is the perfect little hideaway right in the middle of the city. It has these amazing, 15-foot high hedgerows on the north and west side of the garden, which protect the plants within, and also make the interior of the garden feel surprisingly tranquil, given that busy Michigan Avenue is so close by. The hedgerows themselves are called the "Shoulder Hedges," meant to represent Carl Sandburg's idea that Chicago is the "City of Big Shoulders."



Within the 5-acre garden are tons of perennials, grasses and shrubs, which sway in the city breezes.



Another highlight are the hardwood bridges bordered with tiny water streams. In the summer, it's fun to slip your shoes off and dip your tired feet into the water. By October, that might be a fun experiment with hypothermia. But the walkways are beautiful nonetheless.



And the best part of all? The Lurie Garden is right smack in the middle of Millenium Park, making it very easy to get to. So, here's the plan: grab a coffee or tea at any one of the many nearby cafes, then take Washington Avenue east, across Michigan Avenue and into Millenium Park. Once you get to the Pritzger Pavilion (it's the giant metal ampitheater at the north end of Millenium Park), hang a right (that's south). The entrance to Lurie Garden is past the Pritzger lawn. Go in, sip your tea, have a walk and take a breath. It's a lovely place to relax and contemplate all of the fun things you've done/you're going to do in Chicago.

Map by Rodrigo

For those of you who prefer visuals, here is how you can get to our party in October. Click on the map, and it'll get really big! Then you can print it! Computers are so much fun...

Unflattering portraiture

Yesterday, Rodrigo and I took a stroll into Bucktown, for the explicit purpose of getting a portrait made. An ugly portrait. The good folks at Renegade Handmade were hosting the Misanthrope Specialty Co., so that some Chicagoans could get unflattering portraits made of themselves. We jumped at the chance to have severely ugly versions of ourselves hanging on our wall, and I couldn't be happier with the result:


Aitor, our portraitist, captured every feature I was hoping he would emphasize: my upturned snout, Rodrigo's scruff, my John Travolta-esque chin. And, bonus!, he also seems to have given me a goiter and elfin ears, and Rodrigo an unseemly large nose. We brought the portrait home and instantly housed it in the gaudiest frame we had:

Definitely check out the other unflattering portraits on Misanthrope Specialty Co.'s site - you can even submit your own photo via e-mail!

xoxo
C

Something to look forward to

Honestly, it's about time Rodrigo got a little doofier. He's just so able to accomplish tasks and press buttons and ... be generally capable. It's so annoying. I can't wait until he's breaking things or trying in vain to figure out how things work or burning the apartment down.

xoxo
C

colleen vs. rodrigo: random rules

since we want to make this reception the dance party of the (albeit young) century, we've been thinking a lot about music.

we are of the firm belief that a person's musical taste is an interesting way to get to know them, and since we haven't seen many of you in quite a while, we stole this idea from the onion's a.v. club, in order to give people a taste of who we are through what's streaming into our ears.

here's how it works: we each grab our iPods, and set them on shuffle. then we comment on the first five songs that come up. then the other person is allowed to ask a follow-up question or make a comment. no hiding guilty pleasures (rodrigo!). it's us, in five-song increments.

#1
rodrigo
The Happy Song (Dum-Dum) - Otis Redding

I'm very glad this song came up first. There's no guilt in loving Otis Redding. I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan of his ballads. If you like Otis or Al Green or Marvin Gaye or Sam Cooke, we are destined to be friends. If not, we are going to have words. Stern words.

colleen: Which of Otis's ballads is your favorite then?
rodrigo: "I've Been Loving You Too Long" might be one of the top ones. The MGs (Otis's backing band) - their dynamics and their control is... solid. It needs to be studied.

colleen
Electioneering - Radiohead

I have to admit, I think this is my least favorite song off of this album (OK Computer). Not to say that it's a bad song, just that the other songs on this album - like Let Down, Karma Police and No Surprises - are blow-your-face-off amazing, that for me, this one pales a little. It doesn't quite have the Thom Yorke weirdness that I crave.

rodrigo: which thom yorke song satisfies your weirdness craving?
colleen: I don't even have to think about this one - "We Suck Young Blood (Your Time is Up)" from Hail to the Thief. it's so creepy and slow, with the thick hand claps and then the up-tempo piano freak-out in the middle. yum.

#2
rodrigo
Come to Me (Unplugged) - Björk

I'm not surprised Björk came up. I have an unneccessary amount of Björk on my iPod, that I've slowly trimmed from the 500+ songs that were on it. Or maybe it was one gigabyte. When we were first dating, we listened to a lot of her album Vespertine, and I still think that's a pretty perfect album. This Unplugged album is a pretty neat bootleg. Björk always finds talented and weird musicians to bring her strange little songs to life.

colleen: do you secretly want to make out with Björk? It's okay - I kind of do...
rodrigo: It's never been a secret.

colleen
The Empty - Le Tigre

"I went to your concert and I didn't feel anything." Ouch, Kathleen Hanna. I love Le Tigre. It's one of the few "loud" bands that I was obsessed with in college that I still frequently listen to. You know, in between all of the Yanni. And "Eau de Bedroom Dancing" off of this album is so beautiful - that weird mournful guitar and the Casio beat? There's a reason it's "Bedroom Dancing" and not "Kitchen" or "Garage Dancing." You dig?

rodrigo: I dig. Whose mustache do you admire more: Yanni's or JD from Le Tigre?
colleen: Well, considering that the hormones were against her and she was up against a Greek guy, I'd have to say JD's. It's formidable.

#3
rodrigo
Beat My Head Against the Wall - Black Flag

I was an angry youth. This is my favorite Black Flag record. They were getting real dark. Cynical. I once put the song "I Love You" off of this record (My War) on a mixed tape for a girl I was dating in high school. It really creeped her out.

colleen: I want to hear it. * Listens* Yeah - that's a restraining order waiting to happen, dude. Did you put it on the tape as a joke?
rodrigo: She was rightfully creeped out. The joke was, here's a mixtape full of potentially sentimental, definitely 'heart-on-sleeve' songs; and to end it all, the punchline is a song that is absolutely terrifying. I do like the song - it's a dark tune. The guy's losing his mind, going to some scary places.

colleen
Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes

This song was the hook that baited me to first buy this album (Fleet Foxes). I love the harmonies so much, and how old-timey so much of their subject matter seems to be at first listen - it's a lot like Midlake in that way. Except Midlake actually does sing about old-timey stuff like mountaineers and raising barns. Fleet Foxes just sounds old-timey, but Robin Pecknold is really just singing about his family. When he's not raising baby birds in his beard. And now that I've listened to the album another, oh... 500 times, I'd say that "Blue Ridge Mountains" is currently my favorite track.

#4
rodrigo
Good Times - Sam Cooke

I have a lot of favorite Sam Cooke songs - this is one of them. "Come on and let the good times roll. We gon' stay here till we soothe our souls... if it take all night long." Such a great lyric. So simple. Sometimes you need to stay longer than all night to soothe your soul. That's how we wound up together.

colleen: And doesn't the xylophone marimba in this song remind you of the cartoon skeleton playing his own ribs?
rodrigo: It does. I'll think of it as one of those clever musical metaphors that Sam Cooke managed to work into his songs: even the guy with neither dermis nor epidermis can get down and make the best of the situation. Play his ribs, join the party.

colleen
I Can't Really Talk About It - El Perro del Mar

Because she is Swedish and has a bit of an accent, I thought for about six months that she was actually saying " I Can Really Talk About It," which really changes the dynamic of the song. Like - " I could go on and on about it, girl!" instead of the correct "It's too hard for me to talk about it right now," or maybe "the person that I'm mad at is in the room right now, so I can't really talk about it." Either way, she has a really unique way of capturing the sound of Motown girl groups, making it sound a bit more depressing (probably because of the lack of light in the wintertime in Scandinavia) but also sugary.

rodrigo: Because she repeats "I Can't Really Talk About It" over and over in the song, it's funny to think of it being heard as "I CAN Really Talk About It." As if she's threatening to actually talk about it, without ever actually saying anything about it, or ever getting to it.

#5
rodrigo
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

This is a brilliant song. This is one of the Beatles songs that's been covered with the least degree of success, I think. Aretha Franklin did an okay job. I think Irma Thomas did a version that's kinda wack. It's very hard to improve upon this original, let alone reinterpret something so singular.

colleen: Well said, Palma. Well said.

colleen
The Big Guns - Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins

The tussle over "alt-country cred" aside, I really enjoy this record. I think Jenny Lewis has a nice songwriting style that gets overshadowed a bit in all of the Rilo Kiley pomp. This album seems simpler, but still heavy on narrative, and those Watson Twins are phenomenal. This song's guitar and drum sounds have definitely been done before, but I think Lewis takes inventive risks with her lyrics. However, I do not really enjoy the cover of the Traveling Wilburys' song "Handle With Care." Sorry, Conor Oberst. You O'Whine too much.

rodrigo: Do you like Jenny Lewis more for having had a small role on a Golden Girls episode?
colleen: There are no small roles - only small actors. And since she was seven or eight at the time, she was pretty small. Especially standing next to Bea Arthur. R.I.P.

Volcanoes are awesome (the true story of how we came to be betrothed)

Colleen and Rodrigo were engaged on December 25th, 2008, at Parque Nacional Conguillío, Chile. The proposal involved a cherry-flavored ring-pop, a lava field, and a disposable camera. They decided to interview each other (via gmail chat) in order to tell this story.

CB: Are we gonna do this thing, or what?
RP: What?
CB: No - let's do this. First question.
RP: OK. Did you have any expectations of how the day would unfold on the morning of December 25, 2008?
CB: Nope - I expected only to go to a park and see some volcanoes and some trees that look like weird q-tips.

Question for you: how long did it take you to find a cherry-flavored ring pop (my engagement ring of choice, which was delicious by the way), and where did you find the chosen ring?

RP: The ring pop was surprisingly difficult to track down. I started looking for it when I returned home from a tour in May - I thought a specialty candy store here in Chicago might carry it. They only had wacky fruit fusion and tropical twist flavors, no cherry. I started hunting around 7-11s in Chicago. No luck. I finally found a cherry-flavored ring pop at a truck stop we always pass through when we visit Michigan. Hiding it from you while you purchased water bottles was a little tricky. By this time it was early October, but the ring had to be the right flavor.

I know this, but others may not: why the ring-pop, and why cherry?

CB: Well, rings (of the jewel-and-metal variety) aren't really for me. I never wear them, and having anything of genuine value on my person at all times would make me a nervous wreck. And I adore candy. Adore as in - if I could build a house out of candy and just lean over and bite the wall from time to time, I would be blissfully happy (and probably toothless). And since my favorite flavor of everything is cherry - pies, popsicles, ring pops, etc. - it had to be cherry flavor. Thanks for going through all that trouble - you are very sneaky! I had no idea you had a cherry ring pop while in my presence at the Flying J! Usually, I can smell candy from twenty yards...

So, let's get down to the nitty-gritty: the "big day". Was it driving you nuts having to wait all day until we arrived at the lava field in Conguillío where you wanted to propose? And - were your palms all sweaty??

RP: I was mostly excited. I got a little nervous when we got a little lost near the park. You would think, a volcano, drive towards it, it's hard to miss. I got more nervous when we kept stopping and especially when my aunt took us on a wild hunt of abandoned cabañas in the woods. The sun was creeping downward and we hadn't made it to a particular lava field--that's where I planned to propose. I was racing against time, the fact that neither my aunts nor cousins that were part of the trip knew of my plans, and the fact that I only had a vague idea of where this particular lava field was. That’s what made my palms sweat.

Prior to the big moment - what was your impression of Conguillío? Of our little detours and the dust?

CB: Ah, the dust... I was filthy by the end of the day! Having the windows open while driving along a series of dirt roads might not have been the best idea... But I thought Conguillío was beautiful (if a bit hard to pronounce - con-ghee-YEE-o). Volcán Llaima was so majestic and lovely, and the forests and lakes and streams were beautiful. And groping along an unkempt trail in search of some cabañas that your aunt remembered from her childhood was a hoot. Although for about five minutes there, I was certain we were lost, and I was trying to figure out how "S.O.S." would translate into Spanish...

Ok, ok - back to the big moment. Did you have it all planned out, how you were going to propose? I liked how you basically just showed me the ring, no questions, no "down on one knee." Was that the original plan, or were you just at a loss for words?

RP: The only things that I was certain about were that it had to be the lava field on the east side of Volcán Llaima, by the lake (ensuring that you wouldn't be able to escape), that I would have the ring-pop, and you would have the camera (ensuring photo documentation). No speech, and I’m glad because I did get totally tongue-tied when we got out on all that solid lava.

Was what was your frame of mind by that time of day? I know it had been quite long and we were covered in lava dust, snow-covered peaks, pristine lakes, and bizarre trees aside.

CB: By the time of the proposal, I was exhausted. We had circled the park for hours, and I was ready for a shower and then bed. I actually felt a little out of my mind. By the time we got to "the" lava field, I was able to admire it from inside the car and felt pretty okay about that - the idea of actually getting out of the car made my soul hurt. But you were strangely insistent that we get out of the car and take some pictures from atop the strange moonscape. If my brain hadn't been numb with sun and dust, I would've come up with a better excuse, but as it were, I drew a blank. So we got out of the car, climbed up a small slope of lava rock (where I almost fell and pumiced my face off), and you threw a marriage proposal at me. I went from somewhat grouchy to very happy in less than a minute!

So... were you worried I would turn you down?

RP: Well, since we had chatted about getting married many times before, not really. But to be honest, in that moment, the possibility of any non-yes answer was intimidating. I think that added to my timid tongue. The exchange was more along the lines of you asking me to turn around for the photo, me holding the ring-pop for the photo, you asking me if I was serious. I think I said, "yes" first! Anyways, I think after some tears and kisses, I asked "so... will you?" and here we are.

What was the reaction of the people that went along on our trip? That is, my cousin Mauricio, his wife Priscilla, his mom (and my aunt) Maria Elvira, my Aunt Maria Iliana, and her husband José?

CB: Mauricio and Priscilla didn't believe us. They kept asking us "en serio?" Once we finally convinced them that we were, in fact, serious, they jumped out of the car and gave us hugs. Then everyone got out of the other car to see what all of the hubbub was about. I believe your aunt, Maria Iliana, asked very excitedly whether I was pregnant, but seemed just as happy to find out that instead we would be getting married. We all jumped around a bit, and took some pictures, then decided to get back in our respective cars and head back to Temuco once we remembered how tired we were. The rest of the ride home, whenever Priscilla caught me licking my ring pop, she would say, "don't eat your ring!" Jokingly, of course. But I couldn't help myself - it was so delicious!

Did you wake up in the middle of that night in a cold sweat, lamenting your terrible, terrible mistake? Or were you pretty much as happy as I was?

RP: I wake up most nights in a cold sweat lamenting my mistakes, but this particular decision was a source of calm. Wedding planning aside, I’m excited and happy to get hitched. Can I still call you my 'super buddy' after October 3rd?

CB: You got it! Can I still call you "Rodrigo," or will you finally reveal to me your true identity once we are legally wed?

RP: Well, a little mystery should keep our marriage exciting.

wait, that's what I look like... now!

let the hilarity ensue.

and I want to find a way to be friends with Sarah Haskins - check out her Target Women: Jewelry. I got an ab workout from laughing.

Sarah Haskins = my new exercise.

xoxo
colleen

from refusal to reluctance to... let's party!

so, most who know me know that marriage wasn't really on the agenda.

I made a decision in high school (based on what, I still haven't figured out) that marriage wasn't for me, and stuck with it. despite the examples of loving marriages in my life; despite the fact that in college, I met a dude who (symbolically) checked off the many deal-breaker standards on my list; despite the fact that apparently, it goes against all of the estrogen in my body to not want to marry and have the wedding of my dreams - I just couldn't reconcile the idea in my mind.

meanwhile, the aforementioned dude - you may know him as rodrigo - and I started to build a life together. we supported each other, graduated school, moved to a new city. it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I was part of an "us," but once I did, I stood back, appreciated this amazing man in my life, and started to ponder the notion of marriage.

it started this way: after attending the weddings of friends and family, we would inevitably discuss elements of the ceremony, of the party, of the music, of the decorations, etc. in order to defend my anti-marriage stance, I would frame hypotheticals this way: "I don't want to get married, but when we get married, we should definitely play lots of Motown at our reception."

then it became this: "when we get married, way, way in the future, we should have cupcakes instead of cake."

and then I realized: marriage is not turning over one's independence. marriage is not suddenly transforming into someone you don't want to be. for rodrigo and me, marriage is basically telling everyone:

this great thing that we have, that we've had for a while now - we're making it official. and more importantly, we're making it official and then celebrating, surrounded by the friends and family that supported us throughout our lives, and made us realize how lucky we are.

although, we'll have to find different wording for the invitations, I'm sure, because that's a bit wordy...

so, who's ready to party??

xoxo
colleen