i can’t believe it’s february already. january flew by in a flash. around here, it’s a flash of cold. it’s not snowed all that much recently in chicago. just enough to dust the ground, really. most of it is lake effects snow, which for us tends to produce big fluffy flurries (since we’re not on the leeward shore of lake michigan). however, it’s been damn cold here. as i type this, it’s 11 degrees, with a windchill of -1. or as they call it these days, the ‘feel like’ temperature. well, then, i say they shouldn’t report the 11 degrees. they should simply say it’ll be -1. the facts mean nothing when it’s cold. it’s beating a dead horse at that point. we only really care about the human experience. if we’re told it’s -1, we’ll know it’s really cold. don’t waste our time with useless banter about the measured temperature. what’s it gonna feel like today? that’s all we wanna know.

such is life in the wintertime. we’re certainly not hibernating, though. we’ve been busy creatures. honeymoon plans have progressed quickly as of late, as we’ve finalized flights, a few hotels, and the cruise.

since we’ll be spending our honeymoon in italy and the mediterranean, we’ll have to learn some italian. bonnie sent us several books on italy and the language. i was delighted to discover that it’ll be easy for me to pick up italian. my knowledge of spanish makes it easier. i had a tougher time with french, even though there are a lot of cognates. italian, though, is a lot closer to spanish than french is. so many of the basic phrases, i’ve found, are almost exactly the same! i should pick it up in no time. in fact, i think learning italian will actually refresh my spanish. whereas nicole felt more comfortable with french than i did, i’ll definitely have the edge this time.

we also met our wedding coordinator over the weekend at the venue.

besides sheila, our friend mike also tagged along, who once again threatened to sue us if we posted his picture online.

we can’t figure out why. we think he’s adorable.

anyway, we all gave our input on the ceremony spot, furniture arrangement, etc. the coordinator, lauren, gave her advice as well. both lauren and nicole took notes. nicole seemed to get the answers she was looking for. a lot of good ideas were thrown in. thinking about it now, i, for one, feel much more comfortable that we actually have a framework to build upon for the event. of course, a lot of details remain to work out, but it’s still a bit too early to nail everything down. for the moment, i was satisfied that we had a strong visual cue for the arrangement of the space along with a clearer timetable for the progression of moments. all of my own questions were answered before i could ask them. being in the business, both nicole and mike easily asked questions i wouldn’t have thought to ask. as a result, it was a relatively productive meeting (compared to previous encounters).

nicole has spent quite some time rethinking the bridesmaids dresses. she wants more coordination between everyone in the wedding party, instead of individual colors. now, that doesn’t mean they’ll all be in identical afwul pink dresses or anything. she’s jazzier than that. theme and variation seems to be what she’s going for, and that’s what jazz is all about. anyway, final decisions will be made soon, for the sake of those that need to know.

looks like we’re only hosting sheila for another month. she’s waiting to secure an apartment a few blocks away. when sheila goes, so do the couch and chaise. as nicole put it, those pieces are good for single people, but don’t really allow a lot of people to sit in front of the tv. we actually found a sectional that will seat more people. it has plenty of space for comfortable cuddling, and also features arms on the sides for my benefit. i like leaning on a good couch arm when i sit. so we’re pretty excited about our new living room arrival. i’m sure there will be a pic or two forthcoming.

in our free time, while nicole has been going to a personal trainer at the gym to inflict severe muscle pain every few days, i’ve begun to concentrate on a few things i’ve been wanting to do: reading, writing, collaborating on a screenplay treatment, trading music, and learning some programming skills (or rather, i begin that tonight). now that the holidays are over, we’ve both felt urges to pursue some of the things that are important to us.

here’s a bit of news in the Completely Useless Information category…i recently reorganized my visible cd collection. mainly this project (which took about 8 hours over three days to complete) consisted of me putting the stacks upon stacks of cd’s back into their cases, and then reorganizing them to incorporate the small percentage of additional cd’s i pulled out of storage.

if it were up to nicole, the cases might be tossed in the trash and i’d have about a zillion books of cd’s stuffed somewhere in the bottom of a basement closet. ha! just kidding. the thing is, i like the physical aesthetic of seeing my library of cd’s on a shelf. it pleases me. i wish i had room for them all!

previously, i had hundreds of cd’s stacked up on top of each other in several piles hidden behind their empty cases. it was an old habit of abject laziness i’d had for years, and i finally grew sick of it. i was sick of looking for cd’s through the stacks, i was sick of cd’s getting scratched up, and i don’t need them out all the time, since i now have the ipod. in the old days, my cd choices would change daily, so it sort of made sense to have piles. i usually picked several at a time, based on my whims. that can be a pain if they’re all in the cases and i’m trying to get out the door. usually, though, the piles would get too big to be of any help before too long, defeating the purpose. these days, with a few hundred albums on my ipod, i pull out only a few cd’s a week. those can easily be returned to their case afterwards. the shelves are neater, they’ll suffer less damage, and i can find something if i want it. imagine that. actually, the project and the results have had a zen-like effect on me. clearing some clutter always helps, eh?

so, v-day is coming up. good ol’ saint valentine, the patron saint of greeting cards and the scourge of single people. yes, i’ve planned something. she’ll be happy. especially when i serenade her with a ukelele. that reminds me, i should probably get a ukelele. and learn how to play it. ah, i have plenty of time. i mean, i have, like, y’know, two whole weeks.

two days after v-day, we’re off to nyc! new york city, natch. it’s my first time there (most of my travelling with nicole has been to places i’ve never been before, which works out well for me) and i can’t wait. we’ll get to see lori, and nicki’s old boss katie. and i’ll finally get to walk the streets of the most no-nonsense city in the world. excellent.

i want to do some of the obvious things one does when visiting nyc. other than that, i don’t think we’ve made much of a schedule. it’s crazy, we’ve not had much time to work it all out. we’ve been seizing the day so much, or planning for august, or figuring what the hell we’re gonna do for the superbowl, that we’ve given only a little thought to what we’ll do in nyc. eh, i’m sure we’ll figure it out soon enough.

i’ll end this post with a picture of us, for no particular reason.