deflated

well, this weekend turned out to be a bit of a bummer. on friday, it was discovered that the color we had chosen for the bridesmaids’ dresses has been discontinued. i made the forty-five-minute trek out to house of brides to look at a couple of other color swatches (not wanting to trust the color on my computer screen), and found nothing that would have looked good on all the girls. not to mention the fact that the store didn’t have a single dress in the actual color i thought might work, so i had no way of knowing what it looked like, other than the one-inch-square piece of fabric nestled in with twenty others.

so we nixed the dress. and any future contact with house of brides. they were terribly disorganized and made me very uneasy. fortunately, they will refund payment to the three girls who had paid up front last week. whew.

as my mom said as we were on our way home, i found my dress much too easily for this to go as smoothly as it did. something had to go wrong. and if this is the worst thing to happen in the wedding-planning process, then we’re doing okay.

to add to the dress debacle, the apartment that david and i saw was not at all what we (or at least, i) had expected. while the rooms were fairly spacious, the kitchen and the bathroom were not, and the appliances were either older than dirt or didn’t really fit in the room (the refrigerator hung over the door frame by a good inch or two). in addition, the counter space was limited and the cabinets were to shallow to fit any dishes we will own. oh, and the floors in almost every room were uneven. weird.

the laundry facilities were severely lacking and the fact that the apartment was on the third floor became less doable in our eyes after we saw what we’d be trudging up to on a daily basis. so even though it was insanely affordable, we quickly saw why, and we will call the landlady this week to say, “thank you, but no thank you.” more apartments will open up as spring nears, and since david’s lease isn’t up until may first and i can stay in my apartment until june, there’s no rush.

on the upside, i enjoyed a yummy, retro brunch at kitsch'n river north with audrey, kjersten, melissa, and joanna yesterday morning. we had mimosas and a variety of delicious dishes, and it was good to catch up on the goings-on in everyone’s lives.

an hour after getting back from house of brides, david and i ventured out to take part in a retirement party for our dear friend nancy, who is a member of our church and sings with us in the choir. we had a delicious sit-down dinner at tre kronor, and it was nice to sit and talk with people i usually only see at church or at choir rehearsal (there was an overwhelming number of altos in attendance!). that's nancy up there, taking pictures of her guests, methinks as a way of avoiding being in any pictures herself!

following that celebration, we made our way out to schaumburg to share in helen’s birthday celebration. a little cake, a little coffee, a little poker for skittles (david and i watched) . . . it was a fun night and a nice way to end an otherwise disappointing day. happy birthday, helen!