Maligayang Pasko
That is Merry Christmas in Tagalog for those who do not know. I'm happy to have Rich in my life to share this holiday. Tonight we are going to his church over at Holy Child and St. Martin in Daly City for services. I'm not sure what we are doing after- going to his sister in law's aunt's place to see the girls Khloe and Karissa open their gifts or go over to Most Holy Redeemer for services.
I got Rich's present- a Scrabble set. I figured that we should have some more quality time together and this would do it since both of us like Scrabble. Before Rich got into online poker, he used to play online Scrabble a lot. I'm not sure what he got me. It doesn't matter. He's my present that I get to have every day of the year for many years.
Tomorrow we plan to get up, make breakfast, have lunch with his folks, see a movie and go out for Chinese food for dinner. The next day, we head down to So Cal to see family and friends. Hopefully the wedding dress showing will go well on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
White Wedding
Well, the last time I was here, I was telling you about mine and RIch's impending move to the City from his place in Oakland and my shared flat in San Francisco. We didn't get to move into the house but we managed to get into the in-law unit that is part of the house.
I moved out of my flat at the end of February and stayed with RIch until we were ready to move into our new digs. I have to tell you it wasn't quite ready when we first moved in. The kitchen and living room floors were being replaced so for awhile, our stuff was in storage and our bedroom. We managed to get the floors done due to the diligent work of our friend Jay who is also our landlord. He and his wife Lil and their son Rowan live in the upstairs part of the house. Jay is one of RIch's closest friends from church so that is how I got to know him and his family.
As you can see by the title of this posting, there is a wedding impending- mine. Rich proposed to me in October of this year at the finish line of the Nike Women's marathon. Here's the posting from our soon to be up wedding website about how he proposed:
Every October since they met in March 2007, Richard and Edna would participate in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. Richard would run the full 26.2 miles while Edna would opt for the 13.1 miles in the half marathon. Both of them are avid runners.
For the Nike Women's Marathon in 2009, Edna sat out on that year's half marathon while Richard participated in the full marathon. Their friends happened to know the race organizers so Edna was able to get a full access pass to any part of the marathon, both at the starting line and finish line. That was great for Edna since she planned to cheer Richard at the finish line.
Richard told Edna to look out for their friends since they would finish faster than him. Once Edna spotted one of Richard's friends, Janette, Edna saw Janette in tears. Janette told Edna that she was going to collapse from running so fast. Concerned, Edna insisted that Janette see someone in the medical tent. After a short visit to in the medical tent, Janette insisted that Edna go out to the finish line. Perplexed, Edna followed orders.
Once she saw Richard was about a few hundred yards from the finish line, Edna ran out to run in with Richard together in the finish line. Both tired from the sprint, Edna hugged Richard. Next thing she knew, Richard was down on one knee with a box in his hand. Once he opened the box, Edna couldn't help but scream and yell, "I'm going to get married! I'm going to get married!"
Pretty cool huh?
Now I'm juggling the end of completing my paralegal program while wedding planning. We started right away, laying out a budget and looking at websites like theknot.com and a few other alternative wedding websites. I already had my wedding planner bought back in the beginning of 2008. I bought it around the time that my brother Ed and his wife Jing were planning their wedding. It's called "The Anti Bride Wedding Planner". I happened to gravitate around this one since I have to admit that I'm not really girly and frilly. I haven't really dreamed of what my wedding would be like. I'd have some idea from going to all the Filipino weddings I've attended in the past with my family but I wasn't dead set on where to have it back then.
Rich and I are planning to have it here in San Francisco. We have yet to find a venue that will fit 250 people. I'm getting married in Rich's church since if we were to have a church wedding in my faith (he's Episcopalian while I am Catholic), he would not be able to receive communion unless he were to convert to Catholicism which is something I don't want to force him to do. I haven't told Ma or Pop about the getting married in the Episcopalian part or maybe I did, I'm not sure. I figured they wouldn't mind since Episcopalian is close to the Catholic church. They share almost identical ceremonies, celebrate the same holy holidays and have identical sacraments. The only difference is that in the Catholic church, the priest is celibate while in the Episcopalian faith, the priest can either be married or a woman. Episcopalians usually rally around social justice issues like the Catholic church but on the issues of being pro-choice and gay rights, the Catholic church draws the line and frowns heavily on those issues while Episcopalians are for gay rights and gay marriage and they don't condemn people who are pro-choice. . Since I am for gay rights and pro-choice, I tend to gravitate towards Episcopalian in that sense even though I'm still Catholic to the core. I still go to Mass and celebrate holy days and participate in the sacraments of communion during Mass and the occasional confession. Sometimes I join Rich at a service at his church and his church's social events. He occasionally goes to Mass with me, usually when we are out of town visiting my family down in Southern California. When we have children, we'll decide what to do in terms of their faith formation. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
My friend Sarah has been instrumental in helping me plan since she used to work in the bridal industry a few years ago. Sarah is someone I met at my work when I was at the Gap a few years back. We've both moved on from that place and lived our respective lives but kept in touch and occasionally met up for dinner. She's up in Sacramento right now, looking for work as a pastry chef and looking to move back to the City once she gets a job, She was a student at San Francisco State University when I first met her. Incidentally that's where I am doing my paralegal program. Sarah's totally my Girl Friday in terms of my wedding. I would tell her ideas and details here and there and she would send me tweets or e-mails. She went with me to one of the shops I was looking at to get a gown and we surprisingly found one that would fit the bill. I know it's early in the game to do this but it was on sale and I got a coupon from David's Bridal (the Wal-Mart of bridal as it is known) from a wedding expo so it practically lowered the price so much that it was totally under budget. Score!
Now trying to convince Ma to put down her credit card (Ma and Pop are funding a good majority of the wedding while RIch and I save up) but that hasn't been easy. We got into a fight about it when I called her last Monday. I hung up, angry and seething and a little sad. I really want Ma to be part of this part of my life and I want her to share my joy in this. So instead of hanging my head in defeat (the sale and the coupon have an expiration date), Rich and I are going down to Southern California after Christmas and I'm going to take her to the David's Bridal shop over in Redlands which is near my family's place and show her the dress and convince her to get it. I know her concerns are that if I shot up in weight again before the wedding and it's so far away from the date we planned (we picked April 30, 2011 as our date). She doesn't understand that it takes time to order the gown, months even and then it takes time to do the alterations. Also, it's a good deal...why pass it up?
Rich and I decided on day so far in advanced for several reasons. One, we want a spring wedding since that is the time when it's not as expensive as it is during the months of June, July and August. I've always liked sweet pea blossoms which is the flower I want at my wedding and spring is the time that it is abundant. Also, since I am finishing up school this coming spring, it would be a really big juggle to finish school and plan a wedding.
So there it is. All that stuff that has happened so far in terms of planning for our wedding. Stay tuned for future updates.
