If they said they'd make the decision this week... and it's Friday at 7:24 pm... I'm guessing they won't call... and that means I didn't get the job. :*(

Sigh. Siiiiiiigh. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Crossing my fingers... why won't they call??? And yet, while they don't call, there's still hope....

From what I gather, the #1 reason people quit WoW is because it ends up taking over their lives. I'm trying really hard not to let it, but it's hard when the gnome attains level 60 last night and you feel left behind and you wanna catch up but you don't want to just grind your way to 60....

List of things to do is too great to fathom, but at the moment WoW shouldn't be on that list... except that I really want to sell those swords cuz we have 4 levels to earn 500 more gold so I can buy an epic mount, and the other things on that to-do list are boring or overwhelming, and WoW is so easy to wrap your head around.

Meanwhile, it seems the only artistic things I can do at my internship is light Photoshop work. Sigh....

I wanna talk about someone, and I don't think that someone reads this blog, and I also don't think I'll be running into this someone since it's this someone's last day here.

I delivered some paperwork for "Rita" for her new job as a receptionist (she said "assistant" so that means receptionist / administrative assistant, she said the job duties will be similiar to here, so basically, receptionist) and because I'm a nosy little fart, I took a peek at her paperwork. The reason she took this job was because she'd be getting paid a lot more than she was here. Well, it seemed so, since it'd be in the low 40's. Anyway, also saw her birthdate, and I didn't realize she's older than she looks. She's in the early 30's... barely. I asked her how'd she feel about working at a boring finance company, and she shrugged and said she wanted to save up money so she could go do what she really wanted to do. I asked her what she wanted to do. She said something in the creative field, preferrably fashion. But to get in the fashion world, especially as a non-designer, would require moving up the ranks from grunt-work (much like what I'm doing now) . So I was thinking in the car, I don't know how long she's been a receptionist, but she's been at it for about ten years since graduating college (I assume). And I'm thinking, even if she works at this new place for just a few years to save up money, she'd be near forty before she could begin as a lowly fashion assistant! I don't know how the fashion industry works, but I know age makes a bigger perception in fashion than most other industries, and I would think starting in your late 30's would be a really big drawback. (Unless she saved up every penny and only worked for two more years as a receptionist, and then she'd be in her mid-30's.)

Anyway, I was thinking, it's not like she's trying to start a second career (well, technically, I guess she is, but it's not like she doesn't know what she wants to do, or else she's tried one path and is going to try another). It's more like, she settled for whatever job would pay her the most and put her "passion" on hold. And there's nothing wrong with that. I told an SAT student once that a lot of the career advice out there is: find what you like to do and get someone to pay you for it. But that only works sometimes. I mean, how many people will pay you to play WoW? Well, I suppose you could be a gold farmer, but that's not really playing, it's still work, and besides, it's not honest work. I don't know if it's officially illegal, but you get the idea.

Anyway, the advice I gave him was: Find out what you like to do, and figure out the best way to do as much of it as you can. If you can get paid to do it, great. Otherwise, you'll have to find a job that will let you have enough time and money and energy to do the thing you like to do.

I was making this observation because in terms of Rita, it seems like she would rather have money and comfort than pursuing her "dream." And there's nothing wrong with that, except that if this dream was important enough to her, then instead of spending the last ten years (and the next five) being a receptionist, she should just go and try to be a fashion assistant, while she's still young enough to endure the lack of money and grunt work. I look at my fellow interns here, and we're all young (actually, I think I am the oldest... bleh) and we're all hoping that by the time we're 30, we'll be doing what we want to be doing.

But I'm talking out of my ass, so if anyone has anything to chime in, please do so. I'm sure the gnome will get on my case about how my "pursuit of my dream" is putting us in the poorhouse. Yes, it's been hard, it's been a tough sacrifice, but having worked "a real job" that I hated, I have to keep trying. And I've been fortunate that I've had the chance to "not get a real job" because there are so many out there where that is not an option.

So yes, you can now call me... "Mrs. the Gnome."

This past weekend was a blur and definitely too short.

To recap, on Friday we went to pick up the gnome's tux (and he wouldn't let me see him in it, though if I had, then maybe I would've told him he needed to get a smaller size since all that working out shrank him a bit), got two gigantic bobas, and drove on to Las Vegas. We had sent out our itineraries to all our guests, so we had to stick to it for the most part. After we checked in, we went to the Marriage License Bureau (which is its own building with around 10 windows, all of them busy when we arrived!) and got our marriage license, and then headed to Harrah's for buffet dinner with Bleusky and our roommates. Harrahs is a pretty good buffet, but we went there for lunch last time, so we didn't realize that their dinners were rather expensive. Overpriced, was our opinion. We then hung out our suite (with a jacuzzi!) with Bleusky's traveling companions, our roommates, and some bottles of hard apple cider. Mmmm....

Of course, this being the night before our wedding, we were very chaste... well, "chaste"... oh who are we kidding. But what were we going to do, get separate rooms for the night?

Saturday morning was hectic. We decided to stay at the Luxor for the most part and had breakfast buffet there, joined by my family. It was Whateley's stepmother's idea that we have a "family breakfast" on the morning of the wedding, but they ended up walking around and eating at the MGM. Which, if you think about it, is just a crosswalk and a tram stop away from Luxor, so I don't know why they couldn't just go a little farther. Whateley has theories but I won't list them here. I had to cut out of the breakfast early so I could make it to my hair/make-up appointment. I looked bee-yoo-tee-fool. But it's one of those, well-I-better-for-all-the-money-I-spent-on-it-deals. To put into perspective, the cost of hair and make-up (including tip) was three times what I spent on the dress.

BTW, a note about my dress. I looked damn hot. It was a beautiful dress, with a full skirt and flower detailing, and it was a prom dress. Not only that, I got it at an outlet store, so it was last year's prom dress. (Which might explain why it didn't sell since it looked too much like a wedding dress.) Anyway, the cost of the dress is less than the cost of a rental.

The wedding ceremony was short. REALLY short. There's a reason why I told people to come early, cuz truly it would be one of those blink-and-you'll-miss-it ceremonies. If I had known about the photo package upsell (more on that later) then I wouldn't have upgraded the photos and I would've upgraded the length of the chapel time. Oh well.

Afterwards, we milled around, took pictures, and pretty much everyone headed for the reception while I went back to Bleusky's room to take off my borrowed contacts. Yes, borrowed contacts. Well, it's been years since I've worn contacts, and the soft ones I had had been sitting in the same solution for 3 or 4 years. I was prepared to walk down the aisle with fuzzy vision when Bleusky's friend checked my glasses and said that hers was similar. And darned if they weren't. I was able to see and only get slightly nauseous by the time I took them off. Of course, being nervous about the wedding didn't help.

I tried not to stress out. Weddings can be stressfull enough on their own, so I really tried to keep things simple by having it in Vegas. But I really should've taken my family's lateness into account. They arrived literally five minutes before we had to assemble to walk. And my parents had the flowers. Ugh. And then when my mom got there, the bouquet my aunt made was smaller than the one from Luxor. So I ended up using the one from Luxor. And my dad sat down. Sigh. He's done it once before. We had to call him out to make sure he could walk me down the aisle. What can I say? I looked hot, I was all ready, and I was pacing like mad in the room. It was overwhelming.

I almost broke down during the ceremony, but kept my cool. They hadn't asked us what kind of ceremony we wanted, so they went with the default, which is a civil one. I would've like a slightly more religious one... but it was still nice. So that's the lesson here, I guess. You gotta tell them what you want, and not wait for them to ask.

But we had a good minister. Whateley and I watched some webcam broadcasts of random Vegas weddings, and there were boring ones and obnoxious ones, and ours was very well-spoken and nice.

And our reception totally pwned. The food was really good (too bad I didn't get to finish my plate before the ninja waiters took it away... really, both Bleusky and the bestman were on the watch to make sure this didn't happen), there was plenty of margaritas, and even though there were little snags, all in all, it was great. And our cake rocked. Mmm mmm. Marble with bavarian creme. Mmmmm. We had the leftovers over the next two nights.

That night, I changed into a tank top that looked like my dress, wore the garter over my jeans, kept my veil on, and we went to Quark's Bar at the Star Trek experience at the Hilton. A Klingon woman came by. She was cool. We had 1.5 Borg Spheres. That's a total of 15 shots of alcohol. Between the two of us. It was a fun night. I hope my relatives did too.

Speaking of, dang Koreans and their never-RSVP-ness! We expected 46, when we arrived at the restaurant, there was no table for us! There was a six-seat table meant for the bridal party, and I guess the coordinator didn't bother to tell them that. But... you would think that the people there would think... now where's the bride and groom gonna sit?

Anyway, the total number actually ended up being 50 because a few of my relatives that I didn't expect showed up. When we arrived, we had to kick Whateley's family off the six-seat table and they ended up splitting up and scattering. They had to bring in more chairs, and the only reason 50 people could fit was that Whateley's siblings left early and two of our guests came really really late. Sigh. They say you gotta plan for this... but with it being Vegas and all, I figured they would tell somebody they were coming so that they could coordinate hanging out and hotels and such. Either that, or no one bothered to tell me! I really should've put someone in charge of keeping track of my relatives and put someone else in charge of making sure all the other details got taken care of (like seating for us and such). As it was, I didn't even know that they had a guitarist to come and sing for us. Which was nice. My great-aunt loved singing along with "La Bamba." I can see now why people hire wedding coordinators. Besides arranging the wedding, it's nice to have someone who's official job is to make sure things flow smoothly. But the whole point of a cheap Vegas wedding is no wedding coordinator!

Whateley and I didn't get to relax until we finally went to the Trek bar. He also said that he's glad I won't be stressing out about the wedding anymore. What can I say? I didn't like having to keep track of everything. Whateley didn't understand why I'd get so stressed. But there's a reason why the term "bride-zilla" was coined. Anyway, I was lucky in that there was very little planning involved. But it was a bitch dealing with invitations, RSVPs, confirming details, keeping track of gifts, etc. And I really forgot what a bitch it was dealing with the timeliness of 48 other people, including my habitually-late family.

The next morning, we had brunch at the Flamingo, and it ended up being with a couple of friends who were staying there and Whateley's relatives from Minnesota. We had a good time, and I ate a lot of lox. Mmmmmmmmmmm. We stayed so late that we forgot we had an appointment to look at photos at the chapel. We went there, apologized profusely, and then scheduled an appointment for the next day.

Afterwards, we returned Whateley's tux (there's a Men's Wearhouse there), looked through an EB Games, and then went to take a nap.

We saw Blue Man Group that night, and it was a really good show! Odd, eclectic, and really hard to describe. It's part comedy, part rock and techno, and part performance art. And it's really, really smart.

On Monday, we made sure we made it to the photo meeting at the chapel. More on that later. Then we had Luxor buffet (2-for-1 deal for our suite package), then we wandered around the Strip. We always could never make it past Treasure Island, so this time we parked at the Flamingo and walked north from there. There was a fancy mall we wandered around in, and we even went in search of boba. There was one tea place that had them but ran out. I don't think boba is popular in Vegas, which is weird considering all their Asian visitors. We wandered around the Wynn... and that's a really fancy hotel. Gorgeous. Perhaps a bit too fancy. They have cool sinks. It's actually one big sink (think tilted slab of stone).

BTW, we ended each night with a soak in the jacuzzi of our suite. That was so nice.

We finally checked out Tuesday morning, and we ate at the buffet at Caesar's. It was a bit pricey and there wasn't much selection (they didn't have the massive buffets of the newer hotels), but the food they did have was really good. I had two pieces of hanging skirt steak. I'm not even sure what that is, but it was good.

We got back in good time and dropped off our photos at Costco. (We had a bunch of disposable cameras at each table at the reception.) There was a photo that involved me, a fancy Wynn urinal, and... well, me pretending to be one of those Asian men (who don't just open their fly... if you catch my drift) and that photo was on the top of the pile. I don't think it was suppose to be there. Well... I'm married now, so I guess if the Costco picture guy wants to take a look... well... it's Whateley's problem, not mine. And I'm guessing he doesn't have a problem.

Yeah... we are so made for each other. He suggest something crazy that involves photographic evidence, and I just agree to do it. They don't make that into movies.

The next day, we went over to Whateley's step-grandmother's house and showed her pictures and the video. The video ended with a commercial for the photographers that was as long as the ceremony. I'll be editing that out.

Regarding the photos, we found out why the wedding package was so cheap. For one thing, all the pictures were taken digitally. And secondly, we didn't own the rights to them.

Sucks.

So if we wanted the original digital files, we had to buy the CD, which is basically the rights. And that was pricey. They tried to squeeze us for as much as they could (and gave us a discount on stuff if we'd just purchase other things... let's just say that the total price of the photos was more than the wedding package... which if I had known, I wouldn't have ordered the enlargments to begin with). Anyway, we bought the CD and I'll be Photoshop-ing like crazy to make Whateley not whine about his looks, and they tried to sell us a bad i-Tunes slideshow, and we declined. I think we're going to digitize the video of our ceremony, make a slideshow, and create a way better DVD of our wedding.

Anyway, that means that if you guys would like one of those official photos, we can totally... e-mail you the file and you can make your own damn print.

Okay, so that's my wedding weekend recap. Long entry, I know, but please feel free to add your own comments and share your experiences. And at least acknowledge that 1) the Borg Sphere is one yummy drink, and 2) I looked damn hot that day.

The Day's almost here!

So the gnome and I won't be available for the next few days while we take care of our nuptuals and whatnot. I doubt we'll have internet, so if you absolutely need to contact us, call us. But don't call us... if you know what I mean. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hubba hubba, a-oooooooooh, *pant *pant)

Meanwhile, if you'd like to leave a comment wishing us luck and all that, please do so!

Islands is dead to me!

Let be back up, so at my wonderful new job at a company I cannot say publicly because they don't want me to. I could insert some cute joke which would allude to where I work, but that maybe asking for trouble as I know they check stuff like this. So for now I will just say that I work at Mooby's. Anyhoo so on my team at Mooby's a guy got promoted to um... head fry chief or something and basically it means I would not be working with him anymore. Now I haven't been there long, however this guy has a strange kinda out there sense of humor that I do... although his is a little more snarky. So we go to "Islands" the burger restraint chain for his last day.

Now when we get there we have this waiter who takes our order. Not really a fan of "Islands" burgers anyway I order a taco, after I order he goes. "Would you like guacamole or sour cream with that?" Now maybe I am a sucker for not reading the menu correctly but since he put it like that I automatically assumed it just came with it. But when I get the check, and look at the menu again, sour cream or guacamole costs $1.95..... ONE DOLLAR AND NINETY FIVE FREAKING CENTS for a little stupid side scoop of Guacamole! Seriously people it was about the size of a golf ball. As I said maybe I am a sucker for not reading more carefully, however the way this stupid jackhole waiter presented the sour cream and guacamole to us it SOUNDED as if it came with the stupid tacos which already cost $8.00. So if that is the kind of business Islands wants to do, they can just go ahead and do it without me!

So now Islands is dead to me, and I encourage you to not eat there as well, because they are a bunch of stupid jackholes!