365 Days

365 days from now, I will become Mrs. Renee N. Valentine. Just saying that gives me goose bumps. This ride is going to be amazing and I'm glad you are going to be there with me. Every night, before we fall asleep, I find myself thinking, I can't wait to be married to J. It's something that we both have been wanting so bad and it's finally coming to a head. 365 days to go.

After looking at the place where we will become husband and wife yesterday, it made it even more real in my mind than before. It's going to be beautiful. Now that the wedding/reception location is out of the way, we now have to find the caterer. That's the next big obstacle but it shouldn't be that bad. I'm not going to go high budget for the food because I'm not going to remember the food 50 years from now. Oh but the food will be good, I'm just not serving up steak and lobster.

So the search for caterers begins. What helps is that I'm limited to a certain number of caterers so it doesn't seem overwhelming. The best part will be tasting. Bring it on!

Found a Wedding/Reception Site!

I found a wedding/reception site! I can't believe I found one so early and I'm glad it's within my budget. I haven't put the deposit down but I do have the place on hold. It's the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts and it's perfect for me. We plan to have the wedding on the balcony lobby overlooking the Ohio River and move into Todd Hall for the reception.

J and I are going to take a look at it today. We are both giddy with excitement. I guess looking at stuff for the wedding makes the whole process seem that much more real. I'm glad I'm taking this journey with him. I'll let you know how much I love it when I get back. I'm super excited!

Husband and Wife Gamers

This story was taken from the website GameSetWatch. It doesn't really remind me of J and I but I think it's funny all the same.

The Game Anthropologist: The Gaming Family Habit

['The Game Anthropologist' is Michael Walbridge's regular GameSetWatch column looking at gaming communities and subcultures. This week he explores the impact gaming decisions have on marriage.]

My wife, Amanda, will spend two weekdays and a weekend playing a new release that's coming out; she even wanted to preorder it and get it at midnight. I am not as excited about this as she is. In fact, for a while I was dreading it. This is because she wants the new World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and I had become converted to Warhammer Online.

My friend Bill (real name), a friend of mine since I was 10, had leveled up in World of Warcraft while I was in college. I got a review copy of Warhammer Online. "Tell me how it is," he says. "It looks pretty cool." My first verdict was "I don't know", and my second was "I'm not sure but I'm guessing Amanda won't be into it since it's more PVP-oriented".

He comes over to my house to play it for a while. He is not so sure either. I spend a lot more time with it, analyzing it with intent to not only write about it but to give an accurate report to my childhood friend and my wife. Are we going to go over to it?

Amanda has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, so I have an insurmountable wave of comfort to topple. Not only does she only want to play one game and wants to stick with what is familiar, she likes repetition. She likes to purchase cloth and then have her character make bandages for ten minutes, knit (IRL), then sell all the bandages to an NPC for a profit.

She likes to repeatedly warm her hands over animals and hit rocks with a pick. She likes to kill the same things and do the exact same scripted moves, even if not the most healthy, over and over again. And she really, really likes leveling characters. She has leveled four paladins extensively, though only one to the highest level.

Meanwhile, Bill just purchased a computer to start playing World of Warcraft again, and he's just got married in the summer. He exudes that "I'm on a budget aura" that one must learn to use when a newlywed; it's clear to me that it had better be worth fifty bucks. But Amanda's not going to move, and he isn't either.

I had quit Warcraft anyway; Warhammer or no, I wasn't interested in going back. The embarrassing truth is that I ragequit from a guild I never wanted to be in over a dispute with a leader. I did it in public; it was the guild Amanda was in. She later found out my accusations against said leader are true. "But raiding is so much fun," she tells me. She stays. It's somewhat awkward. I enjoy my freedom; she goes raiding, I can play whatever I want!

A few weeks later she tells me she didn't think I really meant I was quitting. In a wistful, "I wish you'd buy me flowers" or "you never ______ anymore" kind of tone. Oh God. "It's so awkward playing with Bill without you," she says. Bill had tried to convert his wife; I had told him "I think she's just trying it to make you happy;" if we're all going to start over as alliance instead, she'd better really mean it. I don't want to do all this for her when she doesn't mean it."

"Oh yeah, she means it," he says with newlywed zest. I can tell he is deceived. I sigh. To insist, to really press the truth on him would be cruel.

Recap: I leveled a character to level 70 for the sake of Bill's wife who never wanted to play in the first place, and joined a guild I didn't want to join. Then he slows down his playing time, my guild leader is a jerk and my wife keeps playing with them, and I find out I like Warhammer better, quit Warcraft, and neither of them want to join me. They also want me to come back.

I am bitter.

I persist in playing Warhammer; I like the guild. They are intelligent, affable, down-to-earth. It's very easy to introduce yourself to others in the ventrilo server there; most guilds I've been in have Ventrilo servers that are as awkward as a blind date set up by an oblivious friend's girlfriend.

I have other games I'm interested in playing, other sights to see. I certainly couldn't have gone back to Amanda and Bill's guild, and if I had gone to a new one that would have meant I'd be on a different raiding schedule.

But for the launch of the new Warcraft expansion, my wife and friend want me to come back. I ignore this for a while.

"I really didn't think you meant it," she says a few more times. At least one of these times, she is making the effort to not cry.

Later, not during one of these episodes, I tell her I'll play WoW at launch with her; I also tell her she can get it at midnight and she gets excited. "Okay, make sure to reserve it for us!" she squeals.

She gets so excited her hands start to spasm and her laugh cascades out of her with such strength her eyes narrow and she keeps alternating her weight from leg to leg. She calls the game by her own name for it. "I'm so excited for Hate Town! Hate Town Hate Town Hate Town Hate Town!"

As the weight of this commitment settles on me, I am given one of those brief moments where I learn why I never consider it a big deal that I have baby pink sheets, baby pink blankets, and pillow cases on my bed. Or a New Kids on the Block concert to go to. It is ironic that in what is usually a solitary and meaningless activity, I was given a choice where I could make it anything but.

I Have Three STDs

Well I do in a way.  In order from right to left is Chlamydia, Herpes, and Syphilis.  Aren't they just the cutest things!  My sister works for the CDC in Atlanta and bought them for me there.  Hmmm maybe I shouldn't show my future daughter these when I teach her about safe sex.  She might think that STDs are good to get lol.

Official Fan Girl

I just got done telling my fiance that I have become the unthinkable. I am now a Fan Girl. And a Blizzard Fan Girl no less.

Fanboy (n.)

1. A person who is completely loyal to a game or company regardless of if they suck or not. 2. A pathetic insult often used by fanboys themselves to try and put down people who don't like whatever it is they like. 3. See fool or SEGA. "If you don't worship SEGA and send them all your money and pay $500 for the copy of Panzer Dragon I'm selling on ebay then your obviously a Sony fanboy even though I've never heard you mention a single thing about Sony the entire five minutes I've known you." Said the SEGA Fanboy. "Yeah but the SNES didn't have Blast Processing" Said the Sega fanboy. "FF7 sucks" Said the SEGA Saturn fanboy.

Hmmmm I would classify myself as definition number one. Luckily for me Blizzard doesn't suck. But I will defend them to my grave because they have brought so much to me. Not only fun, but a fiance. But I digress.

I spent much of my vacation spending time with J and playing the video game. Every time I turned around in WoW, there was something that made me giggle like I was four years old and bounce up and down in my chair like I was five years old. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. More than I really thought I would. All that I wanted, was for J and I to have fun together, doing something we both enjoyed. That's what I wanted and that's what I got.

So if you talk smack about blizzard, I will come and get you. Don't test me!

I am no looking forward to Thanksgiving. I am so excited because J gets to meet the rest of my family. They will love him and everything will be great. I am so excited because life is falling right into place.

Awesome Vacation!

My vacation is going as well as I could have ever hoped.  Mama Mia was AMAZING!   I never thought I would like ABBA songs....well I found out that I like the broadway versions anyway.  If you ever have an opportunity to go see it, I suggest you go.  I only knew the songs somewhat but I found myself wanting to sing along.  So I had a blast!  If it ever comes again, I'm going.

Standing in line waiting for Lich King made me realize how unaddicted to this game I am.  People all around me were talking about the game and the way they talked about it made me realize that their whole lives were WoW.  I just like to get on and play with my friends.  But everybody else was talking about PvP, loot, statistics.  It was way too much for me and I had to go out in the car and take a break.  I am SO glad that my guild isn't like that. :)

So after playing my game a bit I made chili and grilled cheese for J.  If you have never had chili and grilled cheese together, OMG.  It's awesome :)  Try it, you'll love it!

Also some disappointing news but I'm trying not to let it affect me.  Anthony Hamilton and Angie Stone are coming in concert.  Normally I would be thrilled since these are two of my favorite artists, but they are coming Thanksgiving night, and I'll be in South Carolina.  I'm sooooooo disappointed but I would rather be with my family.  Plus they will get to meet J!  So what you will have to do for me is find a way to make it to the show and enjoy it for me.  I don't care if you don't like them...do it anyway so I can feel that somebody I know is enjoying them lol.  So I'll have to catch Anthony and Angie on the flip side.  Signing off for now, I'm all clean and scrubbed and ready for a trip to Northrend :)

Lindsay Lohan Has Lost Her Mind

Lindsay Lohan referred to Barack Obama as "colored". What is her problem? You would think she lived in some po dunk back country town. I hope SOMEBODY schools her on this. Article is below.

NEW YORK – Lindsay Lohan referred to President-elect Barack Obama as the country's "first colored president" in an interview on "Access Hollywood." Describing her experience on Election Day, Lohan said: "It was really exciting. It's an amazing feeling. It's our first colored president." A spokeswoman for Lohan didn't immediately return messages left Wednesday.

Interviewer Maria Menounos didn't question the 22-year-old actress on her use of the term. "Access Hollywood" also didn't cite her remark in its online story, but did post an "extended interview" video on its Web site that included the remark.

Lohan blogged about her support of Obama during the presidential campaign.