did you know elvis was in the army?

phone calls with my dad now begin with: "chelsea! did you get married yet?!" "dad! no!" followed by some variation of me reminding him that he has to walk me down the aisle and also asking him for the umpteenth time if he's sure he will dance with me and him saying he will.

my favorite of his responses to that was, "oh yeah! we used to do all kinds of dancing when i was your age. fast dancing, slow dancing, pretty much any kind of dancing you can think of ..." good stuff dad, two speeds of dancing and i already have countless images of what that must have looked like flashing through my mind. laughing? who me? nooo i'm not laughing, must be phone static ...

"yeah we'd go out to bars and clubs with rock music and bands. we called it "clubbing" chelsea." no kidding dad? i haven't even heard of this phenomenon you and your buddies so cleverly referred to as "clubbing," unlike anyone else before or after you. ohhhh my dad.

if i could travel through time, i would want to hop around through my parents lives. maybe that's a boring wish considering all the options, but i would especially love to observe my parents when they were my age. would we have been friends? we are now, but i don't think we would have been when they were young.

a silly concept, but one i apparently love because i also raised the question of whether lance and i would have been friends in high school if we had known each other then. as a (formerly) very nerdy wallflower i say no, but he, the (still) popular athlete, insists we would have been friends. which i don't believe but it still makes me happy to hear so i think he's figured me out. ;-)

my dad loves lance's name. so far he doesn't remember his last name (and checks what it is every time he calls) but he always comments on what a good first name he has. this is huge progress from just calling him "that army guy" and shuddering before another, "do you know what they teach those guys in the army chelsea?" "what dad." "ohhh, drinking and smoking and playing cards and gambling and women, well ... you know what i mean." "dad you learned all of that stuff without the army." "now chelsea, i never got into gambling."

it's like who is trying to get who more riled up here, and who is more annoying? the answer to this question knows no limit because we are both pretty tricky. then he talks about how he would not have made it in the army, and asks me (again) if i knew that elvis was in the army.

because my dad loves celebrities and frankly so do i. it is what it is. soon after whitney houston died, i was standing in a checkout line with my dad and saw a magazine with her picture that reminded me to mention it. "dad did you hear about whitney houston?" "yeah, she died?" "yeah but did you hear how it happened? she overdosed on drugs and drowned in a hotel bathtub."

and this is the part that i wish i had on camera, because i can't describe the look on his face, more than you would have thought i was talking about his dearest family member as he started shaking his head and looked me in the eye and said, "oh my God." it should be noted that in earlier conversation about something he (in my opinion) should have had that kind of reaction to, he was un-phased. but the thought of whitney houston, a complete stranger, dying that way was just more than he could handle. i was crying from laughing at his dramatic reaction. which is equally weird and further proves i am his daughter - yikes.

power outage

the power went out today at work. i loved it. we sat around talking instead of staring at our computers. a few people were tweeting on their smart phones, or calling the cable company to answer concerns readers were posting on facebook about when their cable would be back. others were smoking, some disappeared.

i was talking to a columnist who has worked at the newspaper since 1968. he has stacks of yellowed newspapers around his desk and said some he saves for story ideas, but others are from big events like the race riots in 1969 and others from the evolution/creation debate that was publicized worldwide a few years ago. my mouth hung open thinking about all the news he has covered and watched unfold in that time span.

my view of the past - and i'm talking even before i existed. before i became a possibility, ha. have you watched "we bought a zoo" yet? it's cute. i love the part where he reenacts for his kids how he first saw/met their mom and says, "that was a big moment! that was the moment you two became a possibility!"

but anyway my view of the past is very nostalgic and filling with longing - i think living before modern technology forced it's way into everything would have been a simpler time to live, and more enjoyable. like the era where there was enough technology for running water and electric, but before computerized everything. that sounds like the perfect time to my mind.

in asking him questions i was a little disappointed by his answers, even though i should have been pleased. writers back then weren't any better, he said. no, their vocabularies weren't better either, but their grammar was. and chelsea, you're doing a wonderful job. we don't tell people that around here enough.

well. that wasn't what i was expecting at all. surprise.

lovely weekend, lovely mom

i had a lovely weekend. my mother's day gift to my mom was our shopping trip for wedding dresses. just kidding that wasn't my gift to her, accompanying me was more like her gift to me. it was a lot of fun trying on designer gowns and being in a room full of women (random strangers and employees) telling you that you're beautiful and have a great body.

my salesgirl seemed a bit perplexed by my vigorous head shaking and "no thanks" at her offer to get me a pair of heels to try on with all of the dresses. i quickly referred her to this blog entry. (jokes, i didn't. i rarely share my blog with anyone, which i know totally defeats the purpose.)

the first few i tried on i was really disappointed with. i thought i looked butch. don't ask me how that's possible in a wedding dress. i began to understood why women go on diets before their wedding. but don't worry, i ate a bunch of pasta before i went (while i was scarfing it down i said, "what a bride, huh mom?" ... she knows i need my energy to shop.) and we got chipotle burritos afterward. so when i say i understand why, that simply means that now i sort of vaguely understand - not that i have any intentions of changing my eating habits. or even full comprehension of girls and diets. or of brides and feeding tubes, which is disturbing and pathetic.

once i got into some really good dresses i started enjoying myself even more. there are so many beautiful gowns, i wish i had more occasions to dress up! i found "the one" and ordered it ... so now i really just want to get married already.

i'm so glad my mom and i got to shop for the dress together, and i'm so glad for my mom in general. there is no one i would rather take wedding dress shopping, or any kind of shopping. mother's day is a great reminder to thank her for everything. she is an easy person to thank because she does so very much for me and for everyone in her life. she is an extraordinary mother and woman.

i want to play this song at my wedding. carrie underwood wrote it for her mom at her own wedding. i love the part about finding the answer to her mom's prayers, because i have felt my mom's prayers my whole life and they mean the world to me. and God certainly answered whatever she prayed for my future husband, because lance is more than i ever dreamed of. thank you for everything mom - i love you!

"Mama, you taught me to do the right things.

So, now you have to let your baby fly.

You've given me everything that I will need.

To make it through this crazy thing called life.

And I know you watched me grow up,

and only want what's best for me.

And I think I found the answer to your prayers.

And he is good, so good.

He treats your little girl, like a real man should ..."

[carrie underwood]

wedding planning

being engaged is as fun as i expected it to be and then some - and the same with wedding planning. i'm remembering why i wrote in my sixth grade yearbook bio that i wanted to be a wedding planner. what a goober. clearly i watched "father of the bride" a little too much growing up.

i'm also starting to understand why everyone freaks out and gets stressed about planning a wedding. add that to the growing list of "things people always told me but i refused to believed." you know what i mean? those things that everyone tells you and then in the throes of whatever it is you wonder why no one ever warned you about it, until you remember they did and you refused to believe it.

besides not being able to set a date until we know a few more things about lance's military schedule - a legitimate obstacle, the other "obstacle" is one i have created: the paradox of chelsea.

i sometimes have really expensive taste and can quickly become enamored with beautiful and exquisite wedding things. but just as quickly i become overwhelmingly guilty and the thought pounding in my head is, "how can anyone spend that much money for ONE DAY?!"

for instance, after touring a fantastic wedding venue, i happily thought that with the military discount they were offering us it wouldn't be too terribly outrageous. blame it on my eternal optimism, blame it on my lack of even attempting to do some quick mental math before i let myself consider the venue, but when i put the numbers into my calculator, i was dismayed at the total. gag. it sent me into a wedding planning slump as i revisited the idea of eloping for the umpteenth time.

i'm weird. i know.

but i just want to get married. i'm not writing this post because it has any significance or is really of interest to anyone. i want to write it down so i remember it. things change before you know it and no matter what there is always so much to be thankful for.

before i know it, our wedding will be here and then gone. but writing about it will let me look back and laugh at thoughts that crossed and/or consumed my mind like ...

• how much is too much to spend on a wedding gown? on a wedding?
• how/when did i get this old?
• does lance really know what he's getting into? mainly: does he realize how long it could take before i am actually good at cooking?
• my family should go into a vintage wedding rental business. popular businesses like magpie vintage rentals make me laugh. everything they have to rent out i could borrow from someone in my family. we rocked vintage before it was trendy, or heck, before it was vintage. however, i'm not necessarily crazy about the vintage wedding trend.
• is there any way i can get my hair to grow faster?
• i love that lance said he loves listening to me talk about wedding stuff. and that he pretty much gives me free reign.
• an amazing photographer from seattle that i emailed just for kicks said he would waive travel fees to shoot our wedding in lancaster because he loves this area (and taking pictures here) so much. how cool is that? i'm not planning on hiring him, but it was a great reminder of how very blessed i have been to be born and raised in beautiful lancaster county.
• being engaged has me thinking a lot about heritage too, and how thankful i am for mine. i love that my family's history is deep roots in a beautiful land, and an even richer heritage of faith. it's comforting and inspiring.
• even though i'm not really an animal person, i keep thinking about having a dog in my wedding. particularly a bulldog in a bowtie. lance confirmed for the millionth time that he is the man of my dreams when he suggested we find two - a bride and groom bulldog! best idea ever, lance! he of course was joking, but i was not.