Mike and Music

My oh-so-sweet-and-thoughtful husband suggested yesterday that we pack a picnic lunch today, Sunday, and head out for a drive in the country.  Even though he has a bit of a cold, we got in the car (minus the lunches, turns out we were out of bread) and headed east, driving through the Cleveland National Forest.  We went up Mt. Laguna and past Lake Cuyamaca, and saw all sorts of beautiful autumnal foliage and great fall light.  Mike and I stopped at several campgrounds and wandered around, making me think that maybe it’d be fun to go camping sometime.  Once it’s warmer, of course!  We had lunch at a little restaurant with a view of the lake and then headed home, stopping at some outlets but being good and not spending any money.  Total count: just over 120 miles driven, about 5 hours spent together, and all-in-all a lovely day of togetherness!

Mike and I have a lot to be thankful for.  It’s been a really wonderful, amazing year, and hopefully we’ll have many more like it.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Okay, so nothing definite has come to me yet in my job hunt.  It’s only been two weeks, and it’s the holidays (not to mention one of the most scary economic times we’ve seen), so it’s not like there are a lot of openings out there for people to be offering me jobs left and right.  That said, though, I’ve been lucky enough to have people contact me about openings they have heard about, and it’s a really wonderful feeling.  I am so thankful to my network, which is full of people who look out for me and who keep my spirits up.  You never realize how much of your self-worth is tied up in your job until you don’t have one.

I try to spend a little bit of time each day looking for jobs or doing job-related things.  If I post my resume on one website or apply for one job or talk to one contact, I’m happy.  As I have been searching, I’ve seen things that might interest other people, and I email them a link or call to let them know of the opening.  So far, I have referred five people to five (different) openings, and it feels really good to be able to help.  If all of us who were laid off do that for each other, soon we’ll all have great jobs.  It’s part of the whole “pay it forward” way of thinking, I guess, and I don’t think the value of doing so can be underestimated.

Did I mention there was dancing at the wedding?

Curtis, Mary Ellen, Mike and I have a wedding tradition: The Worm.

Mike’s mom requested The Chicken Dance.  So we did it.

Finally, there’s this dancing picture.  My mom and my brother.  Dancing to “Careless Whisper.”  Yup.  Totally crazy.

Things started out pretty calmly.  People mingled and ate, and were merry.  Nothing too surprising about that!

My college friends (from left, Kristina, May, Scott, Mary Ellen, and Curtis)…

And high school friends (Anita and Maureen)…

Made nice with our new friends, and with Mike’s friends from college (Elree, Emily, the groom, and Amanda)…

And some of Mike’s friends from work (Marcella, who did our flowers, and her husband Tony, and our wonderful videographer Scott)…

Mike’s coworker Juan and his wife Gloria were also there with us, looking foxy.

I was lucky enough to have friends there from all of my past (and current) jobs, too.

These are my Disneyland friends– Michael and his wife Erin, Gerard, and Evan.

And these are school district and City friends (from left– Rich, Jeff, Peri Lynn, Erika, Steven, Jo Anne and her husband Greg).

Lots of pictures today, folks.  Might as well dive right into it.

We had a big entrance.  First Way and Jake came in.

Then Neeru and Michael (I love the expression on his face).

Followed by Ruch and Elree.

…And then it was our turn!

After the grand entrance, everyone headed back outside for the toasts.  Elree was up first.  His toast was a bit off the cuff, but it was very sweet.

Ruch gave her toast next, and she was prepared with a script.

Finally, we all raised our glasses for a final toast.  This is one of my favorite pictures, because it captures everyone– family members, the wedding party, and all our special guests.

Okay, I’m totally off my posting schedule.  Things have been hectic!  But tonight I’m trying to get back on track and the following pictures are “ambiance” pictures, to give you an idea of how things were set up.  More tomorrow– I hope!

We gave out jars of honey as favors.  Mike and I bought 10 gallons of honey for an apiary in Vista and jarred it all ourselves.  It was actually relatively easy, and the feedback was uniformly positive.

The tables on the Berkeley are surrounded on either side by the old, carved wooden ferry boat benches.  The benches have been lovingly restored, and it’s a cool look.

We had many long discussions about our cake, and I finally agreed to Mike’s request that we go with Costco carrot cake.  It was a good decision!  The cake was delicious, and extremely affordable.

Another one of the things Mike really wanted, and which I finally gave in to, was his desire for custom M&Ms.  Obviously our initials are M and M, so there’s that, but also, the candy is just yummy.  Ours were in blue and brown, our wedding colors, and some had a picture of me in my veil, others of Mike in his tux, and there were also M&Ms with our name and with the date of our wedding.

This is one of the bartenders and Jim, the Maritime Museum wedding coordinator, pouring champagne in preparation for the toasts.  Note the blue and silver “tree” sculptures, which we ran all over town buying after Christmas last year so we could use them as wedding decorations.

Were it not for this picture, and for people telling me they saw it, I wouldn’t have known that the caterer really took care of our tray passed hors d’oeuvres.  I never saw anyone passing them, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to grab anything off of any of the trays!

One of our invitations, designed and printed by Mike and ribbon lovingly tied by me!

Last but not least for today: one of the gorgeous stained glass windows that flank the entire reception area.

Almost all of the city’s executives were laid off this week, and I was among them.  I’ve been told I have until the end of December, but we’ll see what happens.  If anyone knows of any communications/public relations/ethics/management positions out there, let me know!

I’m fairly upbeat about the whole thing.  I’m very qualified and am confident that I’ll be able to find a new job soon, even in this market.  Also, while it’s definitely been hard adjusting to the news, I can’t complain too much.  I had an indication this was coming, and Mike and I are in good shape for weathering this storm.  There are some people out there with kids to support, with mortgages they’re already sturggling to afford, with tons of debt., etc., who will be impacted by the layoffs.  Compared to them, I’m actually very lucky.

So stay tuned for tales from the job search process!

Now that I’m back in San Diego, it’s time to resume posting pictures from the wedding.  Finally– the reason there are any pictures at all.  The ceremony was very short, but it was lovely, and we were tremendously lucky and honored to have the Mayor of San Diego perform it.

Without any further ado…

The officiant and the fellas, filing onto the deck where the ceremony was held.

A view of the ceremony from the deck above us.

“You may now kiss the bride!”

After the ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. W!

Mike, signing the ol’ certificate of marriage.  It’s official now, baby!

I can’t believe it!  Barack Obama is the president-elect!  My goodness!

Mike and I went downtown to watch the returns come in.  We started at the Yard House (because of their delicious happy hour and plethora of HD TVs), then moved to the House of Blues, where the Dems were gathered.  We sat next to an older gentleman who was a regular at the bar, and all night, cheered when states were called for Obama and shared drinks and talked politics.  At 7:59 and 50 seconds Pacific Standard Time, we counted down the seconds until the West Coast polls closed.  Then, just after 8 p.m., CNN called the election for Obama.  There was a rush of jubilation, with people cheering and clapping and even crying.  I sat, almost shell shocked, and Mike whooped and hollered (the gin and tonics probably helped with that).  We grabbed Obama stickers from someone passing them out and affixed them to ourselves, and the laughed as one of the bartenders shook a bottle of champagne and sprayed it around like a played on a championship winning sports team.

It was perfect.

We watched McCain give his concession speech, and then waited for obama to give his speech.  The entire bar was silent during the speeches, except for occasional cheers.  There was no where else I would have rather been.

After that, we went to Golden Hall and did a quick loop to check out the local scene.  Unfortunately, at the point we were there, Proposition 8 was winning, a further reminder that the fight for civil rights doesn’t end with the election of a (half-) black president.  I only hope that when I wake up tomorrow, I’ll find that a majority of citizens had the good sense to realize that gay marriage is no threat to heterosexual marriage, and no threat to children.  Here’s keeping my fingers crossed.