Life Update

First of all, I had an awkward moment on the way home on the bus today. This guy I was sitting near commented on an article I was reading about AFI about 3/4 of the way through the trip. We talked briefly about it and our opinions about it and then an awkward silence descended. He was looking at me (peering at me, really) and I told him that I was going to continue to read the article. This wasn't the most polite thing I could have said but I did mostly because I didn't know what else to say! I don't know what to do when the other person is just peering at me in an awkward silence. Grr...

Ben's parents (Peter and Susanne), sister and her boyfriend (Lindsay and Jeff) were here since last tuesday. It was super fun! They all stayed in our house, which worked out really well, and it was lots of fun. I worked Tuesday - Friday for the most part, Saturday was the wedding and reception, and sunday we shopped and hung out at the relatives' houses.

The wedding was AMAZING! It was so hot (for here) that it was ridiculous - 37 C! The wedding was held in an old, United Church downtown so it was beautiful with a huge organ, lots of wood pannelling and absolutely no airconditioning. The decorations were amazing. Jason made 2 huge white flower arrangements and there were candlesticks from the Chintz boutique. It was a fairly short and simple ceremony - simple, effective, beautiful, and emotional! Later that day, we went to the reception in a beautiful hall somewhere on the west end of Edmonton. It was HOT - no air conditioning, again, but we could move outside and it was ok. The reception was beautiful - Jason decorated the whole thing, Dorothy (Ben's paternal grandmother) made the cake, and his aunt Marsha and Jason decorated it. The food was good, and the speeches were very emotional - I basically bawled through them all!

I got my tattoo on Wednesday afternoon. I was so nervous I thought I would die. I could barely concentrate on work and I could barely eat - which is unusual! Bear and I spent about 45 minutes preparing it - it had to be resized and placed on my arm in the proper location. I spent 2 hours being tattoed - it was the most painful experience of my life - and I had a few painful accidents when I was a kid. It was worth it though, in the end. I learned some deep breathing excercises - which are useful for the underside of your arm! I went into mild shock though, and afterwards I felt like I had been run over with a semi truck, repeatedly. I went home, sat on the couch, ate sushi, sat on the couch...

On Thursday I was still feeling crappy so I only worked 1/2 day - I went to campus, came home and took off the bandaid! It felt so good to get it off. It was too hot to have one on. It looked awesome, but I was quite bruised on the underside of the arm. The bruises hurt more than the tattoo!

I'm much better now - way less bruising and the tattoo seems to be healing really well - it's really itchy some of the time though! It looks awesome, and I love it more every minute!

Ben was accepted into the Canadian Armed Forces as an Electrical and Mechanical Engineer (EME- even though he is a materials engineer)! He found out yesterday! It's really exciting but he doesn't know when he'll be going to BOTC (basic officer training camp) or how much his salary will be - we'll find out those details later in the week!

Whew...what a week - now I'm off to eat super tasty Ethiopian food and to get ready for the family reunion!

TTFN!