it's been too long...but not too much longer:




in 1 month, 3 weeks, and 4 days, i will be a married woman. WOW. that is insane.

speaking of married-stuff, Kim and Kit threw us our first wedding shower in Georgia on August 19th--a Pub Party at the Windsor Building! complete with funny beers, "English" grub, and nothing but Brits on the iPod. Much fun was had, but sadly, we took something like 4 pictures (we were having such a good time that we forgot to get out the camera and take any), and i can't even seem to find them now. the next day, Kim, Kit, and myself went to David's Bridal to pick up our dresses, and mine is kinda big in the boobs and waist area. considering Kim didn't have to pour me into the damn thing, i would say it was a major accomplishment. so, anyhoo, i go in for the first fitting September 21. let's see how much more weight i can lose before then.

in other wedding-related news, one of our groomsmen backed out, Ben replaced him, we think we got his wedding ring (but we're not sure because we haven't gotten a phone call--grr)...we've still got a ton to do it seems, but i have no doubt we'll get it done. or "git-r-dun," as Ben would say.

speaking of Ben, the week before last, we took a trip for a "romantic" weekend getaway to Chattavegas. he wanted to show me several things, namely the Tennessee Aquarium, Ruby Falls, and Rock City. while we were in the area, we made the 2-hour drive to Lynchberg to visit the Jack Daniel's distillery. here are some photos of our trip:

( cut for size )

so, what else...

we're trying to deal with the aftermath of the official moving-over of my stuff after the house sold, which entails sorting out yard sale stuff. that's right...another yard sale. we'd like to have it before the wedding, obviously, but still aren't sure when.

i've been dreaming about England a lot lately. the other night i dreamed i stayed in a hostel much like the one i stayed in the last time i dreamed about England, which, coincidentally, reminds me a lot of the hostel i stayed in the last time i was actually in England. the strange thing is, there are never any men around when i dream about England...at least any men that i would know. in this past dream, i got there a day early, and i was waiting on Kim, Kit, and my mom to arrive. i was trying to find Robert Anderson's phone number, but couldn't, so i went grocery shopping instead. i guess that's my brain's way of wondering how he's doing and what he's been up to.

anyhoo. enough of this mega-entry for now. i need to get some work done. fo' sho'.

So, this post is about a week overdue....oops.

( The Proposal )
( The Ring )

Ben and I grabbed a bite at Ted's, which has become one of those places I will never say 'no' to, and took in a movie. This movie was not just any movie. No, sir. This was the holdover from my birthday 3 weeks ago. The movie i just had to see. The movie that was going to get him off the hook for promising to take me to all of those other girlie movies I wanted to see over the course of nearly a year and which he never took me to see. I'm stubborn, so Brokeback Mountain it was. My reaction to Brokeback Mountain can be summed up by some of the snippets of reviews on www.rottentomatoes.com:

• "Because 'Brokeback Mountain' has made such a profound impact on so many viewers, I almost feel guilty that I can't rave about it."--Betty Jo Tucker, REELTALK MOVIE REVIEWS



• "If the filmmakers weren't trying so hard to deny the characters' failings, Brokeback Mountain might have lived up to its immense reputation."--Jeffrey Westhoff, NORTHWEST HERALD (CRYSTAL LAKE, IL)



• "An unconventional love story that doesn't match its hype."--John Wirt, ADVOCATE (BATON ROUGE, LA)



• "This is one of the best serious films about homosexuality ever made, but though it's sad and sobering it's still only a rough draft of a great movie."--Kyle Smith, NEW YORK POST



• "a monotonous and often inadvertently campy romance that rivals The Hours as the most overrated movie of the decade"--Jon Niccum, LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD



• "I never became emotionally involved in their story"--Sean McBride, SEAN THE MOVIE GUY



• "I love gay people and I love a lot of gay movies - just not this one."--Kevin N. Laforest, MONTREAL FILM JOURNAL



• "And no, they do not eat any pudding."--Jimmy O, FILM SNOBS

...and so, there it is. For the record, I didn't shed a single tear. What's wrong with me? Did I miss that one special moment of the movie that would have done it for me when I got up to pee? I just don't get it...

So, anyhoo. We're holding off on celebrating V-Day for real until Friday (post-payday for both of us). True to form, it wasn't a particularly spectacular day...Mom and John closed on the house, which I'll probably get into later, as it kind of bothered me a whole lot more than I expected it would. It's kind of fitting that my dog Booger is buried in the backyard of that house...Booger who was put to sleep on Valentine's Day in 2000. :/ Now that I think about it, Valentine's Day kind of...well, sucks.

baaaaaaaaaah.

dislocating a knee sucks.
dislocating a knee while drunk at a kickass party sucks even more.

but i think what sucks even more than that is trying to walk or stand with said knee, swollen to 5 times its normal size, the morning after said kickass party and not being hungover at all. i mean, if i feel like ass or hurt in any way, i want it to be because i drank myself into a stupor, not because my knee decided that 1:00 a.m., when i'm having a wonderful time, was a good time to dislodge for the first time in...a couple of years.

so, that said, i doubt we'll be making it to Dunwoody today. :/ sorry guys. i was really looking forward to it, but the whole 'not being able to walk or sit or stand' thing might get in the way...

edit: in case i forgot to mention it, because it has been brought to my attention that i did, ben won the drinking contest when i forfeited due to falling over and dislocating my knee (though in reverse order). i think serious bodily injury is an automatic forfeit in cases such as that. so, official score:

ben: 2
maggie: 2

anyhoo, as winner, he won the prize of all prizes: ownership rights to "our" iPod which he bought. that lucky, lucky bastard. had i not fallen over, i totally would have caught up and beat him.

...yeah. probably not.

so, in the pre-"4th-of-july-party" drinking contest, i came out ahead. go figure. so, in the category of drinknng contests, i guess that brings the total score to:

ben: 1
maggie: 2

that's right...i won. again. and to think it all started where it first started...chili's in hiram. the poor thing is already passed out. i had at least another couple of beers in me before i gave in (*to clarify: meaning that i could have kept drinking, but i chose not to). at least there was no puking or falling down the porch this time. that's always a plus (for me, at least. he can't say the same...i only seem to throw up or endanger myself when flerly is around to take care of me).

wooooooot! i'm the winner! and what do winners get?

that's right. breakfast, made to order by the loser...and probably my ass handed to me during tomorrow night's drinking contest, for which tonight was serving as "training." at least i can say i'm a good coach.

oh, winners also get two new tires and an alignment for $266.84...because when they have a flat (and by "flat", i mean "a gash in the side of the tire"), and Tires Plus doesn't carry the brand of tire currently on said winner's car, and said winner's car's front passenger-side tire is also looking sketchy, they recommend that you replace not one tire, but two. and get an alignment, which turned out to be highly necessary. and then they tell you that your wheel is bent, which is always fun to look forward to paying $1,240,578.54 to fix, even though said winner's car is 500 years old and has 4,500,324,567 miles on it.

so, i guess in the grand scheme of things, i didn't really come out ahead...

but at least i won the drinking contest. hahahahhaaaaaa. success!

*quote not from a movie, but from a TV show...since we're apparently doing this whole "quoting" thing now, thanks to squatting_jedi

so...tomorrow, i will have had my LiveJ/LJournal for 4 years, which hardly seems possible. that means that andrew is rapidly approaching 27 (hahahhaaa! no more making fun of me for being older...for a while at least), that vonda and roper will be celebrating their 4th wedding anniversary in July, and that I will have been living here for 4 years in september (after deciding on the drive home from a detour to see andrew after the V/R wedding extravaganza that i was moving to atlanta two months later). wow.

...and things just keep getting more 'wow.'

the most recent 'wow'-worthy thing happened last night. ben's parents came over with the truck and trailer, and we (though 99.9% of it was done by the menfolk) packed up all of the bigger yard sale items to take over to ben's. i was making one last walk through the house to make sure nothing big had been left behind, and it hit me: i am actually doing this. we are actually doing this. this sudden realization was prompted by the sight of my dining room, bare except for the stack of empty boxes waiting to be filled with things i'm keeping, and my china cabinet:

( pictures behind the cut )