Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice

This year's theme: vegetarian

Main dish:
Wild rice stuffed squash

Sides:
Quinoa skillet bread
Vegetarian stuffing
Mixed greens with apples, carrots, and pickled beets
Baked asparagus with balsamic butter sauce
Mashed potatoes

Dessert:
Apple galette

Tomato Soup - To be made Thursday afternoon
- Ingredients purchased

Salad - To be made Thursday morning
- Need to buy ingredients tonight
- Need to cut bread for croutons tonight

Maple and Bacon Brussel Sprouts - To be made Thursday morning
- Ingredients purchased

Mashed Potatoes - To be made Thursday morning
- Ingredients purchased

Apple Cranberry Chutney - To be made Wednesday
- Ingredients purchased

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Ice Cream - To be completed Tuesday night/Wednesday morning
- Batter has been prepared and is cooling in fridge
- Peanut butter cups have been chopped and are in freezer
- Ice cream machine bowl is in freezer

Rainbow cheesecake - To be made Wednesday
- Ingredients purchased
- Must leave cream cheese out before bed tonight to soften

One of my friends is getting married in PA in Sept. I had wanted to go on a little weekend vacation that month to celebrate my anniversary, so I'm going to combine my plans and turn the wedding trip into a slightly longer anniversary trip. Yay!

I started making a map of all the interesting things I could do in PA. Now I'm thinking maybe I should extend the trip a bit more. :P I should be sensible though. The state isn't going anywhere and I can always return. PA isn't that far.

Originally I was thinking a day at Hershey Park, but it'll be late Sept and potentially cold. I recall the park having some fun water rides and I'd hate to have to skip them out of fear of being chilly.

So I think Philly would be the better destination. Plenty of stuff to do, plus it's a very walkable city and there's public transit. And it's historical! I tend to enjoy american revolution history. (Which makes me super annoyed with teabaggers who have made the american revolution lame.)

Many Philly options:
- Philadelphia Zoo
- Mutter Museum
- National Constitution Center, Independence Hall, and Liberty Bell Center
- Adventure Aquarium (technically not in philly, but really close by)

So I think the plan will be:

Friday - Leisurely drive up to Scranton. Potential stop at Gettysburg if we need to stretch our legs.

Saturday - Wedding festivities!

Sunday - Leisurely drive to Philly. Check into hotel and enjoy the sights.

Monday - Potential morning touristing in Philly. Leisurely drive back home.

Williamsburg is only about 3 hours away by car, so it would be a good place to go for a short vacation. Plus I enjoy historical things, which that area has a lot of.

Things to do:
- Colonial Williamsburg
- Busch Gardens
- Water Country USA
- Jamestown Settlement
- Magiquest

Previous plans:
1 Japan
2 New Orleans
3 Mediterranean Cruise
4 & 5 Disneyland & Vegas

Things I want to do on a cruise to the Mediteranean:

- Visit Pompeii
- Ben wants to see Venice
- See the Colosseum and the Roman Forum
- Eat weird French ice cream

People who have made trips to japan!

How did you go about planning it? What resources did you use?

How long did you stay? Anything you consider a must see/do?

Things I want to do:
- Eat ramen
- Visit a ryokan with a hot spring or baths
- Go to Disney Sea
- Shop in Akibahara and Shibuya (and pet Hachiko!)
- Ride on a bullet train
- Buy a good luck charm from a shrine

Short post because I am super sleepy.

Woke up early to pack and panic. Noname thought she was coming with us and was very sad when I left her home.

Flew to NY without any problems. Got slightly lost in JFK airport until we figured out you need to take the train to get to the rental cars.

Got my "one bad thing" for the trip out of the way by forgetting my backpack full of electronics and important papers on a bench at the car rental bus stop. The shuttle driver went back and actually found it!!! I made sure to mention to as many people who seemed to be in charge that the shuttle person was my hero. Hopefully they give her something nice for saving the day.

After we got our rental car, we checked into the hotel. I am surprised by how nice the room is. This was one of the cheaper hotels we could find. We have a king sized bed, a couch with foot cushions, a mini fridge, a microwave, free internet, and free breakfast. And it's near all the stuff we have to deal with on this trip. I should make ben handle the hotel on all our trips.

I grabbed a quick lunch then raced down to meet up with ally and get my makeup trial done. Tara was there too! I was glad cause she helped me be less indecisive. Ally did a good job of making sure the make up didn't feel too massively heavy on my face. I was definitely aware of it there all afternoon, but it wasn't suffocating my skin.

I got to wear my makeup to my engagement photo session which was right after. I hope it looks good in the pictures.

Our photographer took us to a beach my parents often go to. He took many many pictures, but seemed to be having a lot of fun. He took one of my must-have pictures right at the beginning without me asking, so that pleased me.

It was a lot easier for me to smile naturally than I expected. Probably because ben was with me. I hope our pictures come out nice.

Then to test the waters of the angry mother, I called about my dress. She wants to come to the fitting tomorrow (doom!) so she's going to bring it. She fed us an awkward dinner instead. I ate corn.

I think I need sleep now. This entry was not as short as I had planned. I need to rest for another long stressful day!

It had been a week and my mother was still holding my invitations hostage. I was forced to call her to find out why she hadn't sent me my stupid cards and if I needed to settle this nonsense by going out and buying new cards.

She proceeded to scream at me about how she had raised me better than this (obviously not) and she was going to be so embarrassed in front of all her friends (not my problem) and I was acting so childish (I wasn't the one screaming over cards) and that I should stop throwing it in her face that I'm paying for the wedding (I wouldn't have to if she didn't keep trying to take control).

I refused to argue with a crazy lady so I sat there silently. (I was crying, but that's a Pavlovian response from my childhood.)

Eventually she got too angry to even scream at me (one of her highly sophisticated arguments was that I should do what she says cause she gave birth to me. My response: That was your mistake.), and handed over the phone to my dad.

My dad and I had a decent argument. He saw my side and I saw his. We compromised that mom would print the language I like on the cards to my guests, and print something more neutral (that I still get to write) for my mother's guests.

Cause honestly, the language was not a big deal. The guests are going to look at the cards for 30 seconds at most. The big issue is that my mother insults me at every turn and thinks this wedding is hers.

Dad and I agreed that the parents' names should not be on the cards because ben and I are paying for the wedding. Fair is fair.

My parents were also upset that ben and I wanted to stay at a hotel rather than at their house. Mom was angry cause she thought it was just because ben and I wanted to be in the same room and we were throwing our bad behavior in her face.

But I explained to dad that mom makes me crazy and I NEED a place I can go at the end of the day to get away from her. I cannot handle that much time with her. I pointed out that getting away from her will make it a lot easier for me to put up with her during the day and I will be able to be more pleasant around her. So he agreed that my argument made sense and would not fight with me about that.

Dad is going to tell my mom about the compromise we reached. Cause I still don't want to talk to her. I absolutely cannot stand that woman. After this wedding, I never want to speak to her ever again.

After the call ben had to hug me while I finished crying. Once I calmed down, we ordered plane, hotel, and car stuff for our trip. I think if I had known how horrible my mom was going to be (I expected her to be bad, but not THIS bad), I would have eloped. I don't need this stress.

LJ was down all morning. Inconvenient. I was actually worried that they lost my journal completely because I could access everyone's journal but mine. Luckily it was not that tragic.

Work was slow and I had no lj, so I got some wedding stuff done. Finally chose a limo company to go with. Am getting charged twice as much as I wanted to pay, but half what they wanted to charge me. We're stuck with a boring white limo. Maybe we can stick a banner or something to it to make it fun.

Also worked on invitation wording. The language my mom wanted was too old fashioned and sappy. I cut all the sap out, modernized the remaining language a bit, and threw in some song lyrics to make it "pretty" again. Still not totally satisfied, but I'm sure once ben has a chance to look it over, we will have it settled and done with.

I have a list of officiants to call, but I don't know what to say when they pick up. It is terrifying me. I'm normally bad at phones, but most of the time I can write a script to help me through it. I don't know where to start for this. Should I call them honorable so and so? What if they shouldn't be called that? Then I messed up. Would mr be ok? Would someone who should be honorable be offended by mr? Gah! Too hard! And that's just the opening line!