2016 Year of Death?

I know, I know. It's not over!! Gah!

I'm very sad about Carrie Fisher passing. I love her!! And I think I'm even sadder because I realize now I love her more than I thought I did.  I guess that's how death works. Or is that how life works?

I am curious about 2016 being the "year of celebrity death". Is it possible we are just reaching the age when the stars we love pass? I'm not sure and really, it doesn't help anyone feel better, but I looked at the numbers.

I used Wikipedia to find famous American or British deaths (I'm not very familiar with other countries' celebrities or notable people) of 2005, 2014, and 2016. If I heard of the name, I marked them as "known." My findings are that 2016 was a bad year to be a musician and that I only knew 6 more notable people who passed this year vs. 2014.

Take it for what you will.

BORED

It's dead in my office. DEAD. There's plenty I could be doing, but I'm not doing any of it. I don't know why I have a successful career. I am the worst procrastinator. I am horrible at hitting deadlines, so I make sure I don't have any deadlines. It's sort of ridiculous. I'm sloooooowly cleaning out my inbox. There's 300 emails in there, which is a lot for me. I typically use my inbox as my to do list, so I rarely have more than 50. I am email OCD, but since the wedding I've let it get (relatively) out of hand.

We're off to Pittsburgh Thursday night! I'm excited to see my in-laws. I wish they were local. I'm sort of burnt out from plans and travels, so it would be great if we didn't have to drive so far. Luckily we don't have to go further! Last trip we drove halfway and stayed at a hotel. I like breaking it up a bit. Then we're not exhausted the day we get there. It's really only a six hour drive, but since I can't eat fast food and I pee a lot, it ends up being about a nine hour trip. Oops.

I was going to make this my year end review post, but I think I'll wait. This is my "I'm bored at work and there's no one to IM and even though the internet has LITERALLY millions of things to read I don't feel like reading anything especially because a lot of it will be about Trump and he and his supporters can go fuck themselves so instead I will write about nothing and will challenge myself to make this the longest sentence I have ever written but now that I just wrote that I am bored by the challenge and shall stop" post.

I'm rarely bored. I always find something to keep me occupied. Not today though, apparently.

This is going to be a very long day.

What now?

The past month has been a whirlwind of emotions. The wedding prep, the wedding itself, being married, losing a friend, and now the election.

I can't stop crying. I can never stop crying, but now these are tears for my country.

I am white, I am straight, I am both agnostic and polytheistic (if that makes sense). I am terrified for non-whites, for LGBTQ, for anyone not Christian. I am scared they are going to be more abused than ever now that the president condones hatred, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, the list goes on and on.

I am in the upper middle class. I have no problem paying more taxes to help people survive. I am scared that things will get worse for the less fortunate.

As a 38 year old woman, I am worried for my reproductive health and rights. What happens if I get pregnant at 42 while on Klonopin? It's a class D drug, which means there is a high chance of birth defects. While I hope I never have to be faced with the decision to abort, I can't believe I may not have the choice.

For the middle of the country who feels ignored, I do not understand your logic. You supposedly want small government, you want to dismantle welfare programs, you think people should take personal responsibility for their life choices. If you're homeless, get a job! If you're poor, get a better job! If you're a single parent scraping to get by, you shouldn't have had kids! Why aren't you looking into the mirror and saying the same thing to yourself?  Your coal mining job went away, well then, why did you go into that industry?  Why didn't you go to college and get a white collar job?  Not so easy, is it? The reality is, you want the government to help YOU, but no one else.

I do not want to be friends with a Trump supporter. This is beyond regular Republican vs. Democrat ideals. This is giving power to those who will use it for hate, for violence, and for shame. I am not open-minded or tolerant of those who selfishly voted for this man for their own personal gain. You may not identify as a racist or sexist or anything-ist, but you sure as fuck are okay with it and that means I don't want you in my life. Before the internet and social media, I wouldn't befriend you, so why pretend I have to accept you now?

I am at a loss. I don't know what to do, how to help, how to protect the Muslims in my neighborhood, or any of my minority and gay friends. Do I run for office? If this piece of shit can win, maybe a bipolar woman with a sordid past can?  Do I quit my cushy job and work for non-profits? Do I take self-defense courses to ward off the pussy grabbing?  Do I get my tubes tied so I don't have to worry about my reproductive rights? Do I bother trying to change the mind of those who don't share my values? Do I open up my home to people living in fear in red states? How do I handle my relationship with my in-laws who most likely voted for him? How do I go to work in a female-dominated industry, but male-dominated senior management, where all of my white and rich bosses were joking and laughing like nothing happened because to them, nothing did happen? How do I explain to my well-meaning white, straight male friends that posting "The people have spoken." or "Better luck in 2020." or "Stay positive." shows how privileged they are?  How how how??

Last night I got really drunk for the first time in two years. It wasn't the best idea as I feel like shit today and I shouldn't be drinking on my meds at all, but I needed to be fucked up for a bit.

My head is out of the sand, my eyes are open, my life is changed forever. Now I need to figure out what to do with it.

It's My Wedding Day!

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

It's my wedding day!

I'M GETTING MARRIED! WHAT THE FUCK? HOLY SHIT!

I'm on the train to go get my hair done, then go to Spags' apartment to get ready.

This is crazy. It's here so quickly. That was the point, but I can't believe it's October 20th already.

I don't know what to say. I don't know what to think. I'm on the verge of tears and a big post-coffee dump.

I just want everyone to have fun. I want to have fun. I want MD to have fun. FUN MOTHERFUCKERS! MOTHER-FUN-KERS!

This is crazy. I'm so excited.

Three Days to Monego!

Wootie woot!! In the home stretch now!

The weekend was good. Well, sort of.  On Saturday my mood swings were on overdrive, so that kind of sucked. I was happy, excited, cranky, irritable, overwhelmed, calm, cheerful, sad, and HUNGRY. All I did was eat.

MD and I went to Crazy Ass that night. I looked up at the sky and it was a full moon!! No wonder I felt so off! (Juniper is going to groan reading that sentence.)

Yesterday I felt much better. I walked around all day, watched the Giants pull out a win, and had a lovely dinner date with MD.  We went to the restaurant we ate at the night we got engaged. Fun fact: we got engaged eleven weeks ago. Ha ha!!

I'm working from home today, which is good because I'm moody again. Lots of little things keep popping up - more people are coming, some aren't coming (thank god I don't have assigned seating, that must be a nightmare), questions, and what have you. Nothing crazy, but I feel a bit overwhelmed. I just told Bakes that I'm going to mentally picture myself in catcher's gear, so that I can field all the fastballs, curveballs, and wild pitches flung at me over the next few days.

My to do list is super short:

1. Tonight is dinner with my mom and her best friend who I haven't seen in years.

2. Tomorrow I'm dropping off everything at Houston Hall

3. Clean the apartment because MD's brother, sister, and her boyfriend are staying here while we're at the hotel.

4. Pack for hotel and pack a separate bag for the Wedding Day.

5. Practice make-up because I'm too cheap to hire anyone and the only trial I did made me look like a hooker clown.

6. Try try try to enjoy this week! It'll be over before I know it!

Vodka soda splash of cran, hold the vodka.

I don't know the last time I had a drink. I mean, the first last time. The last time I had a drink was Monday at a dinner with my friends who were in town for comic-con and won't be back for the wedding.

I slowed the drinking down a bit in 2014, the year of mental illness hell. In 2015 I believe I had five drinks - two glasses of wine on Christmas, three on New Year's Eve.  This year I've drank more - a glass of wine on Valentine's Day, a couple of glasses of sangria on my birthday, a glass of sangria in California, two glasses of sangria on the day we got engaged, a couple of glasses of wine...obviously there's a pattern. For some reason I believe drinking sangria and wine are okay. They're fruit, right?  I'd say maybe once every couple of months I have a glass, although I have been drinking a bit more the past few weeks to take the edge off.

You know what else takes the edge off? Weed. It's great. I don't smoke often, but I am stoned now and feel mighty fiiiiiine...

My favorite alcoholic drink pre-wino '16 was vodka and soda with a splash of cranberry. Now all I drink is water, coffee, and seltzer with cran.

For the past hour I've tried to get myself off the couch to go get seltzer.  Braless and pajamaed, the odds were pretty low I'd go anywhere. I texted MD to see if he'd leave the bar and bring me some:

          ME: Can you bring me seltzer? I don't want to get up.

         [one minute passes]

          ME: Don't ignore me.

          MD: Haha! No!

          ME: Now I gotta put a bra and pants on. Thanks Obama!

          [one minute passes]

          ME: I'll give you a hundred dollars.

          MD: NO.

          [two minutes pass]

          ME: Can you bring me seltzer?

I FINALLY put on some jeans (no bra) and went to the store. I bought two 20 oz plastic bottles.

I kid you not, it took me 7 minutes to open one of those suckers. I twisted and twisted until my hand stung. I was going to use my teeth and thought, "I'm getting married, I don't want to crack any!" Then I used a knife and thought, "I'm getting married, I can't cut myself!" Then I tried tongs, but there was no grip. I twisted again and still couldn't open either of them.

So then I used my teeth...






and I'm fine. Nothing happened. Cap came right off.

My drink has sat on the table for the 20 or so minutes I've been writing. I forgot all about it.

Weed.

Six Days to Monego!

I picked up my dress Wednesday night and had a little meltdown. The back looked really baggy for some reason. I brought it home anyway because I didn't want to deal with another round of alterations this close to the wedding.

I cried to my parents and they were amazing. They came right over yesterday morning (I worked from home) and fixed it. Apparently one of my EIGHT layers of tulle was bunched up inside, so now it looks perfect.

Four of those layers were of this big puffy slip I was pressured into buying. I totally fell for the upsell. I already ditched the corset because THEY ARE AWFUL and now I ditched the slip, too!! I feel SO much better with none of that shit underneath. Unfortunately my gut sticks out now, but I like to think of it as "a pot" a la this scene in Pulp Fiction:



Last night Juniper helped me put the favors together. They're perfect! I won't say what they are in case anyone still reads this shiz.

Today after lunch I went to Century 21 to buy some pearl earrings. I'm not really a pearl girl - necklaces maybe, snootch - but the hairclip I bought has some pearl in it, so I thought it might look nice.

I totally had a mini-anxiety attack. I'm on so many meds now that I don't usually go full blown. ACK ACK ACK ACK. I'm getting married in six days! ACK!

MD has stayed out late every night this week and probably will next week, too. I'm trying not to take it as a personal blow off, but really dude?  He's only been going out twice a week for months, but ever since we got engaged he's been out all of the time.  I know that's his way of blowing off steam and stress, but I'm annoyed. Blerg.

I don't have any plans this weekend and I can't tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe having too much time on my hands will make me go mental. Maybe I should go drinking with Cuba Gooding Jr. until 3am one night. (That was MD's Wednesday, not kidding.) Maybe I should be wasted from now until Thursday! Fuck it, I'll be wasted from now until eternity!! E-TER-NI-TY.

BLAH. (I just said that out loud while sitting in my open-floor plan cubicle. Oops.)

Kicking Ass and Taking Names

Before we got engaged I referred to us as "The Monegos", which comes from combining both of our real last names. I started using that on our Christmas cards once we moved in together.

When we got engaged I decided to stay Thighs McGee rather than changing my name to Thighs Donkey. Who is this Thighs Donkey chick? What is she like? What is her deal?  Am I still me? If I am still me, why change my name?

It was only this past Sunday when I had a change of heart. All of a sudden I liked the idea of being "The Donkeys". I felt like I wanted to be a family with one name, but at the same time I still don't know if I want to be Thighs Donkey. I guess I could still call us "The Donkeys", but that might get confusing. "The Monegos" are confusing too though. UGH. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

Thankfully I don't have to make this major decision now. Yes, changing my name is a way bigger decision than marrying MD.

I've spent almost 40 years trying to figure out who Thighs McGee is, 10 of those years I've shared on this blog. Why the fuck would I change my identity now? Would I have to spend another 40 years figuring out who Thighs Donkey is??

We got our marriage license on September 6th, our SIX YEAR meetiversary. I signed it McGee, so it's too late to change it now. I'm glad because I have a feeling I will regret it. 

It's a shame women change their name right away, unless they are absolutely sure they want to change it. Stress and emotions are so high right now that I seriously can't imagine making that lifelong decision and dealing with all of the paperwork that goes with it.

So instead I got three names - Thighs McGee, The Donkeys when we're with his family, and The Monegos as our return address name.

Done and done.

MD's Surprise Visit 2012

I did write about it.

http://thighsighs.blogspot.com/2012/12/apocalypse-wow.html

Eight Days to Monego!

You know the hardest part about getting married?

It's not MD's nerves (and boy, is he nervous). It's not my nerves or mania (well, more on that later). It's not the commitment, although strangely enough I'm having dreams where I'm hooking up with randos. It's not the planning or the money or any of the normal stuff.

No, for me, the hardest part about getting married is the love.

I've never felt this loved in my entire life.

I fell in love with MD pretty quickly. It took him about a year later to fall in love with me. I'm not exactly sure when I was fully able to accept his love.  I think it might have been December 2012. I probably wrote about it. We broke up "FOR GOOD" on Election Day. Stuff happened, then one day right before Christmas I left my apartment to buy Rippie a gift. MD was standing at my door. He missed his flight and couldn't get another one until the next day. When he left the airport, all he could think about was me, so he came right over. It is the only time he's ever surprised me.

We didn't officially get back together that night because he still was dragging his feet on his divorce, but I think it was then that I realized how much he loved me and truly accepted it.

This summer I came to terms with the fact that my parents love me.

And now, with 130 people coming to my wedding and 50 others who wish they could be there, and the amazing well wishes from people I didn't invite, I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that my friends love me, too.

Isn't it ridiculous I am unaware of this?  I mean, I love my friends more than anything. Of course they love me back! It's just that I never really consciously thought about it.

I AM LOVED.

Holy shit.

What is this life???

Nine days to Monego!

I'M MARRYING MATT DONKEY!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!

Our big day is October 20th. We're going to City Hall with our families around 1pm, having lunch at Spring Street Natural after, then heading to Houston Hall for a reception at 6pm.  

IT IS FUCKING CRAAAAAAAZZZZYYYY!! 

I mean, I'M GETTING MARRIED. I never thought I'd get married. Well, I WANTED to, but I never thought I'd find love. I never thought MD and I would get our shit together. I never thought MD would ask. It's amazing and scary and exciting and nauseating.

MD finally came around a few months ago. He asked my dad for my hand on July 26th. The anticipation of him asking me drove me nuts, so on July 31st we argued and he proposed to shut me up. How romantic.

Actually it was perfect. I came home from brunch and the movies. MD was supposed to talk to his family about when they could come for our wedding, but he didn't. I was like what the hell you were supposed to talk to them blah blah blah. He kept saying, "Well I wanted to talk to you first." I was like, talk to me about what blah blah blah.

Then he said, "HOLD ON." and came back with a box. Oh shit!! I cried, he cried, and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was classic us.

Now he doesn't remember saying this, but he 100% said, "Let's get married before the end of the year because I don't want this over my head next year."  Again, romantic.

August and September were too soon, November weekends were bad because of the NYC marathon (not that we're running - HAHAHAHA - but it would be a shit show for people to travel), the election (which I don't know if we'll feel like celebrating), then we're in Italy for two weeks. December was too holiday-y, so that left October.

By August 4th we had visited and booked Houston Hall for Thursday the 20th. I love, love, LOVE HH. It's a beautiful space and I can't wait to party there.

August 19th I bought a dress.

August 25th we went to Pittsburgh and I had a Sister Day with MD's sister and sister-in-law. Now I have two sisters! (Three if you count Rippie's girlfriend!)

Mid-September I had two wonderful bridal showers with family and friends.

There's been lots of stuff in between that I can't remember, which is why I'm writing about the next nine days. I don't want to forget any of this!!

I'M GETTING MARRIED MOTHER FUCKERS!!