Something old, something new, something borrowed, something green?

Would you wear green to your wedding? Oscar de la Renta included this piece in his Spring 2011 bridal collection. I love the skirt (the top not so much).


You know I would =)

The year that was...

Well there it is. 2008 is gone and we're welcoming 2009 with open arms and the promise of change. But before we get too ahead of ourselves let us look back on what was promised to be an historic year.

January


It seems like it was only yesterday that Mariana came to visit. January was an up and down month. A month filled with family, fun, and heartbreak. Or maybe just...car break. My car was broken into on New Years Day, not a great start to 2008.



February


2008 was the much-anticipated election year, and February was when the election debates really started to heat up. I stirred up some controversy with friends and family by supporting Ron Paul, but other than that February was a relatively quiet month. Boyan started working at Newegg at the beginning of the month, and we enjoyed each other's company at lunch.



March

March was the month we said goodbye to Bill Dotta. I can't say again how loved this man was. He is missed by many and forgotten by none.

We also said goodbye to Stephanie. She moved cross-country to tackle the Big Apple.

I made owesome cupcakes and read...a lot.

Oh, and I found this amazing animated food fight.



April
April slugged by. Boyan celebrated his 25th birthday on the 18th. We had a bunch of Elysee people over and it was a lot of fun.


May
In May a bunch of us girls traveled down to Temecula for a weekend of drinking and spa-ing for Ruth's Bachelorette Party!




June
June was a very happy month. On June 8th Boyan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary, and at the end of the month I left the god-forsaken offices of Newegg for the bright and shiny offices of Demand Media by the sea. It would mark the beginning of a daily 80 mile commute, but it was well worth it to get far away from the People's Republic of NE. Boyan and I invested in a little scooter, so Boyan could get to and from work without me and we looked towards July as a month that would start a new chapter in our lives.

July

July went by quickly and painlessly. Boyan and I adjusted to our new schedules and we wished a Happy Birthday to Mom, George and Grandma. I prepared for my trip to Chicago in August and decided that I would cut off all my hair!

August


I had a blast visiting Chicago for the short amount of time I was there. Ruth was a beautiful bride, and it was fun having all us girls together!



August was the month that I begun reading Twilight. Enough said.

August was also the month that I had to bid goodbye to my dear friend and fellow bibliophile Emily. It was a very very sad time indeed.

September
In September was I blessed enough to stumble upon Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. My appetite for books was as voracious as ever and I continued my spree by reading a total of six books in September alone.

October
The month began in Las Vegas. Or rather, I began my month in Las Vegas for Stephanie's Bachelorette Party. We did what people do in Vegas, and generally had a good time.


I slipped into my 24th year of living rather quietly without fuss or frenzy. The friends that matter called me to wish me a happy one, those who forgot quite simply forgot and that's fine.

I decided to take some initiative with my writing and started taking a class at UCLA extension.

And finally I said goodbye to the rest of my hair. Dawning a new shorter do a la Michelle Williams.

Boyan and I went to New York to visit my dear friend Janea and her boyfriend Jon and we had a wonderful time despite New York being "filthy" as Boyan would call it. We walked more than six miles not including miles tracked inside museums, shops and the like in one day, but we had a blast.







October was also the month that Stephanie got married!




November
I went to Louisiana to visit Emily and it was owesome!


We ate Benoits, and didn't care when we got powdered sugar all over everything.


We saw the Twilight Movie. Then bitched for the rest of the weekend about how god-awful it was.


We went to a plantation and desecrated the Slaves quarters.


I rang a really old bell...I don't think I was supposed to...EMILY MADE ME I SWEAR!


We went to Pat O's in New Orleans and got way drunk off of one Hurricane.

When I got back, I followed Britta's lead and cast my life as a movie.


December
December was a great month. My short story, "The Second Time" was published in The Broadkill Review! I couldn't be happier. I finished my class and got ready for the holidays. Britta was up from San Diego so she accompanied me to my Holiday Party.



And finally the year came full circle on December 30th, when my car was broken into again. Instead of stealing my iPod, they stole my CD's and attempted to steal my stereo but failed. I'm grateful that they didn't break my windows again, but I'm starting to wonder if these thieves really like my taste in music or are just incredibly stupid. Either way, Boyan and I aren't going to stick around to find out.

2008 was a good year as I predicted it would be. Ups and downs and small achievements here and there. I lost about 25 pounds since the beginning of the year, got a new job, got published! And, not to brag but just for my own personal satisfaction, here is a list of all the books I read from January to December:

A Wrinkle in Time (re-read) Madeleine L'Engle
The Secret Garden (re-read) Frances Hodgson Burnett
I Wanted to Write Kenneth Roberts
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much Donna Andrews
Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice
Old Man's War John Scalzi
Murder Melts in Your Mouth Nancy Martin
The Vampire Lestat Anne Rice
The Ghost Brigades John Scalzi
The Queen of the Damned Anne Rice
Xenocide Orson Scott Card
Children of the Mind Orson Scott Card
The Last Colony John Scalzi
Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein
Middlemarch George Eliot
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose Lauren Willig
Twilight (x3) Stephenie Meyer
Marked (re-read) Kristin Cast and PC Cast
Betrayed (re-read) Kristin Cast and PC Cast
Chosen (re-read) Kristin Cast and PC Cast
New Moon (x2) Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse (x2) Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn (x2) Stephenie Meyer
The Gunslinger Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three Stephen King
The Host: A Novel Stephenie Meyer
Hunger Games Suzanne Collins
Battle Royale Koushun Takami
Untamed Kristin Cast and PC Cast
Uglies Scott Westerfeld
Pretties Scott Westerfeld
Specials Scott Westerfeld
Extras Scott Westerfeld
Revolutionary Road Richard Yates
On Writing Stephen King

That's a whopping 35 for those of you keeping count. And thats not including the books I read more than once (which would bring it up to 40, an average of 3.5 books every month. That's about a book a week!).

2008 was a very successful year. I only hope 2009 is bigger and brighter.

Oh! And one last note. I just want to say...Happy Birthday Joanish! Happy 25th! And congrats on Law School, I'll be seeing you soon in San Diego. Love you.

Coming soon

New job details, Ruth and Louis's wedding, Chicago trip and United Airlines vendetta, my new hair cut and the Stephenie Meyer Twilight series.

This is a post about shopping

Ruth's wedding is coming up, and I won't lie to you and tell you that I'm going to go pick some old dress out of my closet for the occasion. I will fully admit to my obsession with dresses.

I have more dresses hanging in my closet than anything else (with the exception of coats...more on that later), but I have decided to take this opportunity to buy something new, something fun, something beautiful. To be honest, I'll probably end up with something more like this, because Boyan and I are saving up to buy this...but, anyways I'm sure there will be more posts like this to come. Let me know which dress you like best.

In no particular order:

Your Dream Wedding

I've been writing Quixotic postings lately haven't I? Oh well...here is another one.

Everyone has a dream wedding. Even if you are married and had a fantastic time at your reception, in the back of your mind since you were young you had an idea of how the perfect evening would go for you. I thought I would share mine.

I'm a big fan of banquet tables and small parties, open spaces and live music. For the reception I'd like a big table, kind of like what they do at the Endless Feast.



I'd also like it to be at night. Lots of small lights would sparkle in the trees around the dinner table. There would be hanging candles, crystals and flowers in them as well.



I'd want good food and dancing. Friends and Family. It sounds perfect.

I've already had two weddings, but I'd love to have a third for my friends and family in the U.S. who couldn't make it to Bulgaria last year. So, maybe sometime in the future. We'll see...

How do you picture your perfect wedding?

To the moon and back again

So much has happened in the last month! New job, new apartment, new In-Laws, new everything!

Let's start at the beginning.

August 26th came quicker than we expected, before you knew it Boyan and I were packing our bags, hoping in our car and beginning our journey to a magical land called Bulgaria.

I was ready to let my perceptions of the place and people I had heard so much about collide with reality and to form new opinions of my newly adopted country land and family.

Mom, George, Boyan and I got up at the ripe hour of 4am to be driven to LAX . The cabby was late picking us up, and we never imagined how long the lines at the airport would be at 7am on Sunday. After checking our bags (I hesitantly allowed the woman at the Delta desk check my wedding dress only after promising her a painful death if it got lost) we headed down the corridor outside the terminal and about 100 yards down the sidewalk to get to the back of the line. After waiting an hour we got bumped to the front of the line (our flight was leaving in 30 minutes) to go through security check-in.

Before we had left the house we had packed and repacked everything and as a result, the 200 dollar bottle of brandy my parents had purchased for Boyan's father was placed (safely we thought) in Boyan's carry-on. We quickly learned the error of our ways when while going through the x-ray scanner, Boyan's bag was commandeered by one of the security officials and we were informed that the bottle would have to be confiscated because it was more than 2 ounces of liquid. Duh. I had packed all my liquids in small carry-on size containers and placed them in my zip top plastic bag but had not even thought of that rule applying to the liquor. I got upset, starting whining, bargaining, yelling and finally telling the man to take it and that he was "going to drink it later anyways." He wasn't too happy with me--he made us wait longer so he could check the bottle for explosives and told me he was offended. Fucktard.

So we finally make it on the plane (we were the LAST people on) and I'm sobbing and pissed. I don't think I've ever been more upset or more emotional (in public no less) in my life. Not a great way to start a vacation. The man sitting behind me offers me a percocet (asshole), I refuse as nicely as I can in my state and try to sleep.

We get into Atlanta and our flight is delayed 2 hours (which was fine, our layover in Milan was supposed to be 6 hours) due to a rainstorm. Once we do get on the plane we realize our seats have been upgraded to first class, and I enjoy my trip across the pond sipping champagne, watching Hot Fuzz and eating butternut squash ravioli (yum!) and gazing at the alps thousands of miles below me.

16 hours later we arrive in Bulgaria. The airport in Sofia is very clean, very new and relatively empty—a stark contrast from the 60's retro, Asian toileted Milan hell hole we had spent the last four hours in. I go through the passport check relatively easy. The lady who checked my passport didn't speak English very well so she kept her answers at the minimum. The one question she did ask me was, "Why are you visiting Bulgaria?" to which I answered without thinking, "To get married." A quick pang of panic hit me as I thought, 'SHIT! What if she thinks I'm some sort of mail order bride! ' thankfully she either didn't understand me or…well she probably didn’t understand me so I walked through to the baggage claim and waiting for our luggage to come out…and waited…and waited.

George and Boyan's bags came out with no problem. Soon after I see my suitcase but eventually the conveyor belt stops and my mother's luggage and the garment bag holding my wedding dress are nowhere to be seen. Immediately I think of the woman at the Delta counter whose murder I will have to cover up when I get home (turns out it's not her fault, Alitalia is notorious for losing luggage) we fill out some paperwork, make it through customs checks to find a smiling batch of Syarovs waiting for us on the other side.

The minute we are outside everyone lights up (a trend that would continue throughout the trip) and we stand in a circle exchanging pleasantries, trying to understand each other and finally hop into the party bus Boyan's father had rented for the occasion. It would be four long hours until we made it to Sliven, the moderately sized mountain town which had at one time produced great military Generals and most recently produced one great husband. Once we did get there it was dark, and we were tired. It had been 42 hours since we had left my parents door in Newport and we were ready to crash. Instead we found a meal fit for kings prepared for us. Boyan's father poured us small glasses of Rakia which was strong but smelled sweet and went down smooth and we sat around the table laughing and inhaling second hand smoke. We finally made it to bed and prepared ourselves for our first day in Bulgaria.

Week One: Baptism and Wedding Madness!
We arrived in Bulgaria on Monday and I was baptized on Wednesday. In order to have our wedding in the church I had to be baptized and logged into the registries for the Orthodox Church, so Boyan's and my family headed over to the church so I could get some water poured on my head. The ceremony lasted 45 minutes and the church was sweltering. I don’t know if it was because I was a foreigner and the priest wanted to give me the full treatment, but Mariana (boyan's mother) said it was the longest baptism she's ever been to. I left the church a little more blessed than I had entered and spent the rest of my week running around Sliven picking up things for the wedding. Flowers and jewelry and oh yea! Britta and Ruth! Britta and Ruth arrived on the Friday before the wedding (they had lost Britta's bag as well, gypsy Romanian airline) and had very little time to acclimate themselves to Bulgarian culture, which was evident when Boyan's father gave Britta a glass of Rakia, and like the good little drinker she is she took that as "Take a shot! Take a shot!" and downed the whole thing, to her dismay, in one gulp. Oh well, let's continue.

The day of the wedding came at last, as I was shuttled around to get my nails done, my hair did and finally to my parents hotel room to get ready. I spent most of the time lying around, stealing cigarettes from George (weddings are stressful!) and eating greasy ham sandwiches. Britta came up and started on my makeup which I think turned out fantastic thanks to her fine artistry and my Shuemura lashes. I slipped myself into my dress and had all the necessary items: Something old, the earrings I wore were a 200 year old pair that had been smuggled out of Ukraine by Boyan's family who were nobility during the revolution. Something new, my dress of course! Something borrowed, Britta's friendship necklace and Something blue, my shoes! I also had a tuppence in my shoe which my mom had kept from our trip to England two years ago.



I was ready just in time for Uncle Itzo to come up and fetch us down to the lobby where the entire wedding party was waiting for me to make my appearance. I later told Boyan the scene had reminded me of the scene in Goodfellas after Jimmy is arrested for the first time.

We made it to the church, which was not cooler in the later day as the grandma's who kept up the property told us it would be. Boyan was sweating from every pore, and the candles we had to hold throughout the ceremony did not make it any better. Interesting facts about Bulgarian weddings: 1. Every couple has to be sponsored by a married couple who are unrelated and baptized in the church. 2. Bulgarian's wear their wedding rings on the right ring finger. 3. There are no recitation of vows.

All of these facts made the wedding relatively easy for me because, unlike my baptism, I would not be made to repeat anything in my hack sawed Bulgarian. Now, comparative to the first time I got married in the courthouse, I was much calmer and much more relaxed this time around. I was more excited about how the ceremony would be conducted (I'm a sucker for tradition…TRADITION!!!) and concerned for the amount of sweat coming out of Boyan's face (no one wants greasy wedding photos). The wedding was pretty quick, only about 25 minutes long. We exited the church and met the wedding attendees in the courtyard. 10 minutes of well-wishing ensued until the rain which had been threatening us since the morning began to fall—just in time to ruin what was supposed to be our outdoor reception. It did not rain for the remainder of our stay in Bulgaria.

We were crammed into a little room along with a balloon arch and heart (funny note, the Bulgarian word for balloon is 'baloni' pronounced like bologna!). The night after that was a haze of Bulgarian folk dances, loud incessant Chalga (pronounced Chowga) which is a mix of Bulgarian folk music and techno (picture me pulling out hair—yelling at 4 foot DJ) while watching Mariana's best friend from high school Zdravka, attempt to not fall out of her dress (God bless that woman). There was a fire works ceremony (we had all huddled out in the ran to see it), I threw the bouquet and went home, tired, happy and just a bit tipsy.

For more pictures you can visit my flickr album here, or get another account of the wedding (with again more pictures) on Britta's blog here.

Week Two and Three: The countryside and an appearance by the Black Sea
The rest of my time in Bulgaria was spent relaxing, eating lots and lots of food (everything there is SO TASTY I ate pounds of food and lost 5 pounds!) and visiting different towns.

Our first foray outside of Sliven was for a short day trip to Jeravna, Kotel and Medven. Jeravna is a small village that is protected by UNESCO and therefore preserved as a historical cultural site. All of the houses are brilliantly done (the architecture is from the medieval period) with stone and dark wood. People actually still live there and the community thrives on tourism and farming.







Kotel and Medven were next and these small towns didn't have much to document. We by chance ran into Boyan's father's employee who took our wedding photos (he was on vacation in Kotel at the time, its a very small town).

Our next big trip was to Bourgas and Nessebar. Both cities are on the black sea and ripe with tourism as well. The streets were so congested--it looked like Venice Beach had exploded in Bulgaria. But amongst all the knock-off watches and fake perfumes there were old houses, Byzantine churches and forts used to fight off the turks.

We didn't stay very long, there were more things to see and of course more shopping to do! I forgot to mention how cheap clothes and shoes can be over there. I was happier than a pig in...well you know.





The rest of our trip was uneventful but beautiful. We spent a lot of time relaxing--sitting at home with Mariana, watching T.V. and eating Shopska Salad. I am so excited to go back again and visit my new family. I plan on uploading more pictures once flickr gets it's act together and realizes how lame it is to put limits on free accounts (screw those people) and Picasa realizes they don't have to upload my entire photo library (get it together google). Until then, here are some more pictures just for fun.