Mild Amusement

So, I recently got engaged . We're both pretty happy about this turn of events, but this now means that we have to plan a Mild Wedding. I think we've both heard a lot of the advice from people (it goes by very quickly, enjoy the day, don't worry so much about details, people will always find something to complain about), but the planning process has already yielded some laughs. We have a rough idea of what we're after, so that helps. Still, we only got engaged recently, so we're just starting our search. We've yet to nail down the major details. So, I'm going to keep those details close to the vest in case any of them have to change. I wouldn't want to promise red napkins only to be forced to put blue napkins on a table because of a logistics problem, you know? However, the one piece of information that I will divulge is one of the funniest bits. Somehow or other, I convinced the Mild Fiancée that I am allowed to put one song on the DJ's play...

I've mentioned before that things get interesting when it comes to late night dreams and work at 3AM . Like I joked about in those posts, 3AM Sam is all sorts of interesting. Well, this isn't a post about 3AM Sam being a jerk, but I have one more example of things getting all sorts of goofy when I'm up late. I should also mention that the Mild Fiancée can usually tell when I'm tired. I tend to be up pretty early, so it's not exactly hard to guess that I'm going to feel tired earlier than most folks. She's also sharp enough to notice if my eyes start to droop, and that's kind of an obvious tell. However, she can also tell just from my mannerisms. Even if she was around a corner, or if we were talking over the phone, she could probably tell you if I was tired (or annoyed). I have my tells, apparently. So, it's not like I could sneak it past her that I was starting to feel sleepy even if I wanted to try. She'll notice. Ultimately, that means th...

The Mild Fiancée and I thoroughly enjoyed our time in New York, but all good things must come to an end. Ultimately, that meant we had to fly home. Oh, and what a day it would be. Now, I'm going to tell this story differently than I usually do (you'll see why in a little bit). So, I'll start with what the intended plan was. We wanted to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and have a nice evening at home. Also, I wanted to propose to the then-Mild Girlfriend somewhere in the course of all that. I've been thinking about it for a little while, and it seemed like a good time. Alas, the best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew . Somehow, we managed to have the screwiest day of travel on precisely the day we were planning on coming back. First of all, we got waved through to the priority part of the security check, for no apparent reason. I was actually concerned that we were going to get patted down, but it was actually the opposite. They let us waltz ...

So, this particular post is going to involve a little bit of backstory. First of all, the Mild Fiancée speaks some Spanish. It wasn't her native language, but she's been around it enough where she's picked up some of it. Heck, at one point, she was fluent enough to converse with some of her students' parents. Now, the fun part of this tidbit is that Spanish comes in regional flavors ( here's a goofy video sort of explaining the differences ). If this confuses you, think about how English sounds different depending on the person speaking it. If you've been speaking English for any substantial amount of time, you can tell when someone from the UK is speaking English. If you're from the US, you can immediately spot a southern drawl or a Boston accent. It's not just that people use different words, they just sound different in some accents. Well, the same is true for Spanish. The reason that this tidbit is relevant is that the Mild Fiancée grew up aroun...

I've always had some interesting luck with cats. I don't know what it is, or why cats react to me the way they do. Still, the facts are the facts. They like to mess with me. If you don't believe me, allow me to convince you. First of all, there were  the incidents with my sister's kitten a few years ago. In case you don't feel like clicking, my sister's kitten first pounced on me in my sleep. It's not like I was playing or dangling something in front of her, since I was asleep. No, she just decided that I was a good target when I was asleep. Then, she got used to me and curled up in my lap to sleep in the middle of the day. I felt bad, so I didn't really move too much. Long story short, a little baby kitten trapped me on a couch for an afternoon. Secondly, the Mild Fiancée's (yes, there is now a mild fiancée, but that's a story for another day) family has a cat. From what I understand, that cat has always been a bit odd. When the family adop...

If you've been following any of my posts lately, there's a good chance you've heard me talk about cooking more often lately. Not surprisingly, my real-life conversations involve the same topic (I'm nothing if not consistent). The part that I especially like to point out is that I like plating the food, usually with the joke that "I get to play with the food." In some ways, this is a bit of a departure for me. I haven't traditionally spent tons of time in the kitchen, so it's not like I've had tons of opportunity to realize that I enjoy this. So, in some ways, it amuses people because it is new and different for me. Hell, I'm amused by all of this for the same basic reason. Now, by itself, that would all be just an amusing factoid. However, apparently I've mentioned that I like plating the food enough times that my siblings and their spouses all decided that my birthday gift should revolve around this. They got me precision tools in ord...

A little while back, the Mild Girlfriend and I started taking dance classes. It was just one of those things we decided to for a date night, and we've both been enjoying it quite a bit. I'm not exactly a stranger to dancing, and I even have a war story or two to tell about salsa class . Still, it's been many, many years since I've done any kind of ballroom dancing, and I was legitimately worried about rust. After all, much of the guy's part is about timing and thinking ahead to make sure things work out well. Luckily for us, we had a good instructor, and the timing started to come back after a couple of lessons. Now, these classes involved a combination of dances, so I was learning quite a bit (look, Ma, I can sort of cha cha now). In hindsight, learning the different styles all at once was actually kind of helpful; it forced me to focus on both the similarities and differences. In its own way, it taught me what was important, almost by contrast, so I was able to ...