Bridal Party 101: Nolen Deibert, Brides-Man Extrodinaire

Three for Three people...this may just last :-)
So I don't know about you, but whenever I go to a wedding I tend to wonder about the bridal party. Who are they? Where did they come from? Why in the world would they agree to wear matching outfits all day? I intend to shed some light on these important questions by profiling all of our attendants over the coming months.

He's quite excited...about everything!

The inaugural profile is of the most unique member of our bridal party, the Brides-Man. I'm generally not one to buck tradition, but the entire wedding situation didn't feel right without one of my best friends and biggest supporters standing up there with me. While JP is also good friends with Nolen, over the years he has become one of my nearest and dearest, despite the fact that he's been living half a world away in Asia for the past two and a half years. Will some people be like WTH is a dude doing on the brides side...possibly. Do we care...not in the slightest.

A Shot from the Early Years demonstrates we don't care about appearing normal at all

Nolen and I met in the infamous Regan Hall in August of 2004 when we both started college at CUA. We bonded one weekend when we were among the few students who chose not to go on the Freshman Retreat. History was made that weekend and we were pretty much inseparable for the next four years or so (minus summer and when Nolen studied abroad in Belgium). We braved USG, the Honors Environmental Science track, Pryz food, and finally entering the real world together during our time at CUA. Nolen was one of the brave souls that made a go of it in DC for the first year after college, but in order to gain valuable international experience so he can be an important diplomat someday, he moved to Korea and then China in early 2010. LUCKY FOR ME, he's headed back to the good old US of A for a couple of years to go to grad school...and help me pull this wedding off!

All three of us are INAPPROPRIATELY VERY close

So for your enjoyment...here are Nolen's answers to the best probing questions I could muster:

Interests: Filling out surveys about myself, Moving around Asia, Speaking Chinese at inappropriate moments to people who don't understand me

Favorite color: Light Urple (JW: It is very possible he meant purple...I chose to keep it like this for artistic reasons)

Note: This is definitely NOT warm milk with a little honey in Nolen's cup

When did you first know you'd have to show up at our wedding: Wait, I actually have to show up? This is going to be problematic...

Favorite Cocktail to get you in the Party Mood: A nice glass of warm milk with a little honey in it. (JW: This is absolute crap and he will pay for the answer he gave here...)

This sums up JP and Nolen's relationship fairly well

What is your favorite wedding movie/pop culture wedding moment: The marriage of the Sea Captain to his wooden mermaid on The Simpsons. (Or if we're getting sentimental, when gay marriage was legalized in DC)

Is there a song you can't wait to shake your grove thang to at the reception: Well, it's not MY grove thang that will be shaking (JW: doubtful...), but I am SERIOUSLY excited for Baby Got Back. Jill knows why...

This has got to be the only normal, attractive shot of us taken...EVER

If you could skip any normal wedding tradition...what would it be: Ugh the dollar shot dance or whatever. And the chicken dance. Oh and if you write your own vows I WILL LEAVE SO HELP ME

Chicken or Fish: Chicken, but only if it has been killed by being drowned in the ocean. SEA DEATHS FOR ALL THE CHICKEN.

The Dynamic Duo is more awkward awesome than pretty much anyone else

Any last thoughts you'd like the public to know: So since the rest of this has been fairly ridiculous, let's get real for a minute here. Jill and JP have been like mom and dad to me for the last couple of years. I've been traipsing all over the world, but it's been pretty excellent to know that Jill would be there for my 3am/3pm drunk chats, or that JP would be there for my "OH CRAP WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE" crises. So when they asked me to be in their wedding, it was a no-brainer. I'm so happy that they are making this commitment to each other, and so proud to be part of it. Congrats, Jill and JP!

Climbing Mountains... but tripping over molehills

Greetings Internets...I'm gonna eek in a small post before the month of April is out!!

I want to throw out a quick Thank You for something I like to call "The Baby Crazy!!" Between my roommate from college being the first of my friends to give birth to a baby girl at the end of February to JP's cousins popping out kids right and left this last week, I've contracted a LARGE case of "The Baby Crazy." To those of you I speak to regularly, THANK YOU FOR DEALING WITH THIS...ESPECIALLY JP!! Also, a big thank you to all the new parents who've put up with my "Baby Crazy!" April brought a whole mess of negative happenings into my world and all the baby updates have really kept me positive and believing that the world is more awesome than crappy. In case you were wondering..

FACT: Even though I love kids, I'm SOOO not ready for one
FACT: I am NOT preggo nor do I have any plans to become so in the next half decade at LEAST

Now enjoy some pictures of cute babies for a minute!!

Leila!

Clara!

Brody!

MOVING ON!

So I've noticed that living with a boy has had an odd effect on me in the sense that I seem to be able to accomplish large tasks but now completely fail at small ones. Case in point: I was walking into grad school today and realized wow...a year ago I never actually thought I would BE here let alone be completing my first semester here. However, the ONE PROBLEM HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT was put off until literally the very last minute today. Did I have time to do it? Of course...but Wii and Netflix, and Dean, and watching American Pickers with JP seemed so much more pressing at the time. I've managed to train myself to run 3 miles in the past month and a half, but walking to work (like maybe a 20 minute walk...maybe) TOTALLY ELUDES ME. I can't tell you how many times in the past month I've hopped on the bus and worried about all the passengers judging me when I hope off three stops later. WHAT IS THIS PHENOMENON??? I used to be a productive, driven person!! I have all these ideas...but no execution!! I have time...but no focus. As I'm writing this...I literally am losing focus because the guy in front of me has a VERY shiny watch on that keeps catching the light. Or maybe its because there's this man in the front of the room rambling on about multiple regression models (read: how to prove anything with statistics)...you know...BECAUSE I'M IN CLASS RIGHT NOW. That's right, I started writing this blog because I lost focus in class and now I'm losing focus on my distraction activity.

I am a mess...I promise after my vacation I will post more...I won't promise the posts will make much sense though.

Love,
Jill-ron

Man Gripes: Catholicism gone Wild

So its Monday night, I've just gone grocery shopping and I either need to

a.) do my stats homework (which consists of a measly 3 problems)

b.) laundry (as I only have maybe 3 more clean pairs of underoos)

c.) vacuum

d.) update my calendar

INSTEAD I'M GOING TO BLOG AND THEN WATCH X-FILES!!!!!

Really I found this picture and it gave me some inspiration to write a Man Gripes blog I've had floating around my head for a while. So without further nonsense I present for your entertainment:

YOU KNOW YOU'RE TOO CATHOLIC WHEN...YOU MAKE YOUR CAT FOLLOW CHURCH TEACHINGS!!!

So on Ash Wednesday this year I came back from class to find a weirdly sweaty pacing man in my living room. Don't worry...it was JP, but he'd been FASTING all day in order to properly observe Catholic teachings. I could write a whole OTHER Man Gripes blog about the weird contradictions and general strangeness that is JP's system of beliefs, but I won't...tonight.

Anyways, he looked like a huge crazed wreck like he usually does when he attempts to fast. He was hunched over, pacing and muttering to himself in the living room when I got home and frankly I was a little unsettled. Clearly, I tried to get him to eat (something modest... I know the rules of fasting in the Catholic Church call for one small meal on fasting days) as I was sure he hadn't eaten anything all day long and probably was going to pass out. As he was munching on some sort of small snack-meal, we discussed our days like you do when you live with a boy.

It was at this point that the cat came in and started meowing like he normally does because he's an attention whore.The strange part was that JP completely LOST it and started yelling some craziness about how Dean needed to stop being mad at him because it wasn't his fault the church makes us fast. Slowly, I put two and two together. The cat is yelling at us as if he's hungry...JP claims the cat is mad at him...there's zero leftover food in the cat bowl. I cut JP off mid rant,

Me: JP...did you feed the cat tonight?!!???

JP: Ummm that depends on your definition of "feed"

Me: ARE YOU FORCING OUR CAT TO FAST WITH YOU???

JP: No no no, of course not. That would be ridiculous!

Me: So why is he yowling like a demon...a demon that hasn't been fed?

JP: Well, I fed him less...otherwise there wouldn't be enough for Friday.

I want to point out that we have PLENTY of cat food between my future mother-in-law loading us down with extras and Targets 30 for $10 deals. This last statement JP put out there made no sense until I examined the contents of the cat food cabinet.

There was tons of chicken fillets

tons of beef cutlets

tons of turkey and gravy dinner

and only 2 cans of generic "white" bottom feeding fish they make into cat food

Thats right everyone. Dean is not allowed to eat meat on Fridays...because he's a Catholic kitty. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried people. We'll be taking him to confession during Lent where he can tell the priest about coughing up a hairball in JP's shoe. He'll be making his first communion any day now. JP claims to have baptized him with a squirt gun. I'm marrying a crazy cat-man.

We definitely made sure to stock up on tuna cat food tonight at the grocery store to ensure the continued safety of Dean's immortal soul.

God help me,

Jill

I'm BACK Fools!!!!!!!

Oh look everyone, I'm not dead...AGAIN!!!! If you've been reading my facebook posts recently (and lets not kid ourselves...there are no mysterious Internet fans out there reading this that I don't know on facebook) you'll know that I've been studying for the GMAT and JP has been mysteriously missing. Well readers, I have a confession to make...JP is actually a Russian Spy and has been detained by those mysterious men in black that you see on the X-Files...or Fringe...or other conspiracy based shows. About a month ago they came, zip tied his hands, and led him away to a place that I can only assume will lead to him being unofficially "disappeared." I tried to fight them off and get my man back...but the GMAT needed to be studied for and I'm only a 5'2", somewhat flabby, not skilled in fighting, girlfriend.

Is your bullshit meter going off yet??

Ok ok fine...here's what really happened. JP got a temporary job for a few months in Florida and doesn't want the details all over the net. He has this silly misconception that having all details of your life in a public forum on the Internet is a BAD thing. Clearly we do not share the same aspirations to become Internet famous. If you'd like to know more about his activities...you get in touch with him and stop bugging me! I'll never tell!!! Quit shining that bright light in my face!!!

Meanwhile, other than losing my mind and trying desperately to keep my life from descending into utter chaos, I've taken the GMAT, gotten a 620 (woohoo!!), kept the Dean Monster alive, traveled to New York City, and completely ignored this blog. NEVER FEAR THOUGH! I have a plan that will hopefully keep me updating more frequently! I'm not going to tell you about it though because

a.) you'll know exactly when I'm going to post...and that will ruin the surprise

b.) you'll know exactly when I'm going to post...and if I don't you'll throw it in my face (bastards!!!!)

c.) its a lot more fun for me this way

I will give you a little sneak peak of things to come....things I miss about living with a boy, reports of my various adventures, the first of many wedding planning entries, a special new feature that has nothing to do with what this blog is supposed to be about, and possibly a video of me playing with the cat. STAY TUNED FRIENDS FOR ALL THE FUN AND EXCITEMENT!!!!!

Love you Friends,

Jillron