We are at the point in our engagement where we are beginning to have showers and receive wedding gifts. I believe showers originated from friends of the bride thinking they can save her sanity by giving gifts. Never the less it is fun to receive lots of free thing that you have actually chosen and will be useful to you.
I arrived home last week to a large box on my front step, addressed to me, shipped from Williams Sonoma. I was very tempted to open it but did have the self restraint to wait until Coby came over so we could open our first wedding gift together.
Opening the box we find two beautifully wrapped boxes with a card (no name on the envelope) taped to one of the boxes. "Best wishes, Dan and Ruth".
me: "Do you know a Dan and Ruth?"
Coby: "No, do you know a Dan and Ruth?"
me: "no"
Mind you there are quite a few people on our invite list that we don't know, i.e. friends of our parents. Assuming Dan and Ruth fell into said category we proceeded to open the gifts. A beautiful teek grill set in a very nice storage case and a 12 qt. Al-Clad cooker. NICE!
Then we call our parent and find out that no one knows a Dan and Ruth. We inspect the invoice and find that Dan and Ruth live in Snowmass, CO.
Truthfully my first thought was "I have to return my first wedding gift!". Then it was "we can't keep someone else's gift!", if that's not a set-up for bad karma I don't know what is. So we call Williams Sonoma who tell us that according to their information the gift was from Dan and Ruth to us and to enjoy. Still feeling uneasy about the situation, and with the possibility that Dan and Ruth are on Oprah's new show and just sending out random gifts with their $500,000 Coby calls information and gets their number. We can't have Oprah thinking we are dishonest. He leaves a message but we have not heard back from them.
In any case they will be receiving a thank you note.

A list of things to do and a list of excuses for not going to kickboxing 1. go to Davids Bridal
2. go to Hobbily Lobbily
3. go to Payless
4. go to Office Depot
5. go to Micheals
6. go home
7. pick up clutter
8. clean bathrooms
9. separate 6 loads of laundry did NONE this weekend
10. wash 6 loads of laundry did NONE this weekend
11. fold 6 loads of laundry did NONE this weekend
12. put away 6 loads of laundry did NONE this weekend
13. address and stamp a few more invites
14. empty dishwasher
15. sweep
16. vacuum floor and furniture
17. pay bills
18. have internal stuggle concerning nonattendance of kickboxing class
19. change out lightbulbs to "energysaving" light bulbs
20. attempt to fix bedroom ceiling fan light for the 4th time ---still in the dark
21. watch anthony bourdain, he'll be in jamaica
22. empty all trash cans and organize recycling bin
23. sleep

I admit it, in the past I have felt like somewhat of a voyeur, or a nosy neighbor if you will. Looking at friends'/family's/acquaintance’s/stranger's blogs. Just curious as to what other people are up to and how they live their life. I like to think of it as a self-study in anthropology and culture. It's funny because you can run in to someone you haven't seen ina while or call an old friend and talk about the basic topics of life, work, family, relationships, the old days, friends-but never really get to the subtopics of life-what you cooked for dinner, how many days until your vacation, where you found a bargain on a really great pair of jeans-which I tend to think are of equal importance. It's where all the good stuff is. Where things change from "I'm doing well" "Work is really great", "Oh, myparents are fine", to "It only took 15 mins and 3 ingredients", "12 weeks and counting", and "Dillards is having a sale". Which conversation would you rather have? So...

I will try my best to keep you (friends/family/acquaintances/strangers) updated on the subtopics of our lives with a hopes that when we meet again our conversations will be that of the latter.
Good Day!