> get lamp

pervy snape fancier says:
you wanna elaborate on that?
i mean, the contents of the bottles [received today from lizzydear -- thank you!]

Stygian says:
I figured I'd make you suffer til you got home and saw them

pervy snape fancier says:
oh
jerk

Stygian says:
no, there is a raspberry wine..

pervy snape fancier says:
aw, man
you were supposed to say "yup"

Stygian says:
two things from "Fitzpatrick", a wine and a port, I think.

pervy snape fancier says:
never heard of it

Stygian says:
and then a bottle of 15 year glenmorangie

pervy snape fancier says:
...
good gravy!

Stygian says:
that's what I said

pervy snape fancier says:
well, sauce

Stygian says:
lol

pervy snape fancier says:
lol. "sauce", get it?

Stygian says:
I see what you did there

enotsola and I got married this past Sunday, the_misha doing the deed and tiggrrl and child in attendance. (And my mother, of course.) Then we went out for dinner including my aunt and foxgrrl, and afterwards went back home for cake and mead. Pictures contingent upon foxgrrl, who was snapping madly as usual, getting them to me at some point.

I should really put some pants on since I need to go drop off the certificate at the Clerk Recorder's and get certified copies, because I'm sure we'll need one for immigration purposes.

So far from various family members we have netted ummm a lot of money (and one slightly useless gift card from Nordstrom -- what on earth do we need from there?). But what it's realistically going to go for is the horrendous application/biometrics fee that's attached to an "application to adjust status to permanent resident" ($1030 or something like that, I forget exactly without looking).

Oh, and yes, I am going to change my name to his (and ditch 7 letters out of a long last name, yay), but that hasn't happened yet. That's not an instant thing (and in fact there's apparently no time limit, either); there's a lot of paperwork to be filed. And I'm not clear on whether it will muddy or have no effect on the immigration proceedings: "Hey, who's this Lisa __B___? You said you were going to marry a Lisa ___A____"... So while in one sense I am now "Mrs Lisa B" I am still going by "Miss Lisa A" for practical purposes at the moment.

I went to the dentist today, which meant forced small talk with the hygienist. I don't mind small talk per se, but in half an hour's time you wind up having to re-establish the basics every time, and my life is just slightly odd enough that I spend all that time correcting assumptions about my life rather than actually getting on with the, er, "meat" of the meaningless chatter.

"So are you on lunch?"
Assumes that I work an 8-5 job like most people (I work 12:30-9). I schedule all my appointments before work whenever possible.

"So how's your spring break?"
Assumes that this is spring break for me, which I guess it might be for semestered types, but De Anza is on quarters, which means spring break was two weeks ago.

"Where are you guys going to get married?"
Assumes we're going someplace unusual, which we're not.

"So it's just going to be at your guys's house?"
Um, sure, we'll run with that. Not that we have one, but it's easier than explaining further.

"What's your dress like?"
Assumes I have one at all, which I don't.

"So what is your fiance doing for work?"
Displays ignorance of the immigration system, i.e. assumes that as soon as he came in, he was legal, which is not true, because of the visa type he had. (Even if he'd had the type that confers immediate status, there would still be paperwork to do before he could actually start looking for work. H1B = job visa is something else again, but then you're not supposed to get married on that one! Oh INS/USCIS/DHS, never change.) I should not / do not expect people to know these details if they have not tangled with them, but it really gets annoying having to explain things over and over again.

"So are you having kids right away?"
Assumes either of us wanted any, which we don't.

"Where are you going on the honeymoon?"
Assumes that we are going to take off somewhere right afterwards, which my work schedule rather prevents. If we have such a celebratory trip it's going to be far enough distanced from the "wedding" (i.e., at least 3 1/2 months apart, because there are no more school breaks until the end of August) that it could hardly be called a "honeymoon".

...And by that time it's time for the dentist to come in and do the exam.

But I guess I should count my blessings: at least they've stopped asking me how I am doing in school. :P

This evening I got what seemed to be a random comment on one of the photos I had uploaded to flickr to provide some under-my-control material for me to write about for the flickr workshop. "Nicely composed", it says. Errr, uh, thanks? It was just one of a variety of random crap I had sitting around.

In the event, it turned out not to be random, but a comment from my immediate supervisor. I had requested the library staff to comment, tag, and make notes on the pictures in that account so I would see what notifications I got. So this didn't actually come out of nowhere, but still. He has a fancy Digital Rebel-type setup himself, and is generally a serious hobbyist rather than an idle one. So "nicely composed" means something, at least. :)

Good job I figured that out who it was before I replied to the comment with "this was some half-assed stuff for a project at work". Not that he would have been offended by the language, and I think he would have understood the meaning of "oh! this is all just fodder for the workshop instructions" and not mistaken it as "lol the project is stupid" (although I have put in pushing 60 hours on Round Two and my brain has melted multiple times). But yeah, still kinda not appropriate, even if you have known your boss for almost 13 years and he says things like "Do you drive a silver Toyota with an MST3K bumper sticker? Yeah? Bummer. I thought maybe there was someone else cool working here, but if it's you, we knew that."

When I said that the wedding was going to be "informal and probably in a park", he asked, "can I drive you up the aisle on my motorcycle?"

"Er...WHAT?"

"It's not informal if the bride's not on a motorcycle."

(I still declined, though. Actually, I think what I said was "Yeah, um. I think I'm gonna go with no.")

enotsola and I were tentatively planning for May 3rd, but my mother has shot that down as being Beltane (in the SCA Kingdom of the West sense) and if the person who is fighting for her at March Crown (March 22) should win, she HAS to be there to be crowned queen. (which is O.o all in itself) This is a bummer because the 3rd sat well with both of us "feeling" wise, but yeah. We're not sure whether forward to the 10th or back to April 26th is better. Right now I'm leaning for back because we can't apply for an employment authorization until we have applied to adjust status to permanent resident, which we have to complete the marriage first to be able to do, so the sooner the better on getting him employed and us out of my parents' house. ^_-

Turns out also that the marriage license is only the first part and we do have to have some kind of ceremony, although California is loose about who can perform a marriage. You can have a clergyperson or judge do it, pay an the extra fee to have the county clerk's office do it (but you have to have an appointment and it's something crazy like Tues - Fri, 10 AM to 4 PM only) or pay a different extra fee to deputize some friend or relative of choice to be a "solemnizer" (who has to show up and apply for this -- I assume they are sworn in, given forms, stuff like that).

Um. We don't have anyone in mind for that. We are not having a church wedding, ugh. I'm not thrilled by the idea of the civil ceremony schedule because we really would prefer a weekend. Any of you local doods out there (still) ordained?

(*grumbles at the eligibility language that says "The couple must be an unmarried man and an unmarried woman"*)