pictures of people

s and i were lucky to have our "core team" assembled for the wedding - on such short notice, too! my family flew in from california and s's family came from england. all together, we had my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, my best friend and her fiance, s's parents, and s's sister. i had only met my in-laws once in york; s had never met my parents. it was a huge relief that everyone got along so well!


mamasita and pop



the D family, jetlagged but happy



pop and b in battery park on a gorgeous spring day



riding the subway



action shot of s and his sister in times square



my sister and her husband flew overnight, arrived around 6 AM, and were still bright and perky for the wedding



my best friend and her fiance were on the same overnight flight, stopped at his parents' house in long island to freshen up, and got to the city clerk's office before we did! what superstars!



we are collecting photos of the three of us at each of our weddings. we have the one from my sister's wedding last september. here is the one from my wedding. my best friend's wedding is later this month.



everyone held the bouquet that mamasita hand-picked to go with my dress



a and b



she'll always be taller than me, but i'll always be older... ahem!



dad and pop, who coincidentally share the same first name, got along famously



sharing chocolate cake. not tiramisu. but we're not bitter!



the proud parents: pop, mamasita, mum and dad



i'm a D now!

rounding down

Let's step away from marital bliss for a minute and play a game. Ready?



Say you gave me a jar of jellybeans in exchange for use of my nice purple car. We agreed that you would give me another jar of jellybeans every month for about six months. I wasn't sure about the exact timing because I am planning to sell the car, and you weren't sure about the timing because your driver's license was due to expire soon and you weren't sure you could renew it in time. I also asked for jellybeans instead of money because I don't want to pay taxes - no one needs to know about our little "arrangement."



Anyhow, everything was going fine. You were driving the car (I still needed it for the first three weeks, but I sat quietly in the backseat and you barely even noticed. That's why I didn't reduce the number of jellybeans that month or contribute for the petrol.) I placed an ad for the car and people started making appointments to see it. They even opened the glove box and saw the personal items you had stored there. But all of a sudden after five months, you told me that your license was not renewed and you could not drive anymore. I was very kind and said that I would simply keep the extra jar of jellybeans instead of asking you to give me the sixth and final jar. You were sulky, but saw my point. Fair's fair.



The good news is that your license was renewed and you found a new car with a handsome driver. Then I found someone who said she would like to exchange some jellybeans for the privilege of driving my car. So I told you that I would give you back 195 jellybeans. But you wanted to know how I got that number. You cleverly figured out that I was offering 17.75 jellybeans every day for eleven days (which really should have been 18 whole jellybeans for twelve days, but who's counting? I'm being generous by offering you anything at all.) Then you told me that you thought I should give you 18 jellybeans for 16 days since you had to give up the keys a few days before she could start driving it! As if! It's not like you don't have your own car now.



Clearly, you broke our six month agreement. OK, OK, I said it would be flexible at the start, but I decided that I liked getting jellybeans every month and even got a second car, so I need your jellybeans to pay for it. It's only fair. And I am being more than fair by giving you 195 jellybeans back.

***

So, that's the end of the game. What would YOU do?

a) Accept the 195 jellybeans but grumble that I am a petty, number-challenged person who is very flexible, as long as things go my way? (I think that is very unfair of you, by the way. Remember, you put me out by losing your license in the first place.)

b) Insist on getting the full 288 jellybeans that you think you are entitled to. And probably are. I'm just so sure I'm right that I'm not about to give in. And you risk getting no jellybeans if you push me too far.

c) Write a sarcastic blog about it.

d) Fight back. Bullies like me deserve a taste of their own medicine. You're not afraid of having things get ugly in small claims court.

e) Move on, and hug the handsome driver.

f) Any or all of the above.

ode to pierre marcolini

s and i discovered pierre marcolini chocolates while we were in brussels and they are sooo special that i thought they deserved their own blog entry.



we found them again on park avenue in new york. i picked out a special box for s (and if he decides to share them with me, i won't argue!)





moreover, when you finish with your box of delicious belgian choccies, it makes a good place to store small earrings.



mmm, c'est si bon!

more from manhattan

ok, technically we're back in blighty now, but i wanted to tell you all a bit more about our trip to new york.



on monday, we went to the british consulate to apply for my spouse visa. as requested, we brought a binder full of personal information: passports, marriage certificate, financial statements, mortgage info, photos and cards to show that we have not entered into a sham marriage, letters of support from friends and family, print-outs of emails and blog entries. we discovered, however, that they only wanted the bare essentials (read: ridiculously expensive application fee) and it only took about an hour and a half from start to finish. HOORAY!

so, with a genuine spouse visa stamped in my passport (HOORAY!), we headed to the statue of liberty and ellis island.



after a rainy weekend, it was lovely to see the statue of liberty in all her dignified glory standing tall against the blue sky.



i love her foot. the gentle curve, the casual stance, breaking free from the chains of oppression, ready to stride out on her own path.



i found it particularly poignant to visit ellis island after my own battles with visas and immigration in the past few months.



we didn't have time to look up my grandma's name in the database, but we enjoyed walking through the museum.



tuesday morning we went to the top of the empire state building. everything looks so small from up there...



no signs of king kong, though.



here is a confession: i have never particularly liked new york. it is crowded, noisy, stressful, claustrophobic with all those tall buildings surrounding you. but i had a very different experience there this time. i think that living in london for the past two years has changed my perception. i am used to walking everywhere and taking the tube to get across town. i am used to weaving through the human traffic and dodging groups and tourists. london has a population of 7 million; new york has 8 million. that one million does make a difference, especially since manhattan is more condensed than london, but i didn't find it as initimidating as before.

in fact, i enjoyed noticing the patterns from above.







now that i read so many craft blogs, i was thinking in terms of quilt patterns. too bad i don't sew!

and how could i resist all the delicious treats? we stopped for cakes on bleeker street.





and i enjoyed a cupcake in central park one afternoon.







***

we are now settling into life as mr. and mrs. d (!) by rights, i should change the name of this blog, but i still like the subtle pun on FCUK using my initials.



people keep asking how it feels to be married. we are having a good time so far!

newlywed in new york!

we're still recovering from the newness of it all, so here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. more details once we have had a chance to process everything!

xo, s & b

back home in berkeley

i am back in berkeley, california visiting my family for one week. we moved into this house when i was seven years old. at that time, i thought the house was HUGE. my sister and i each had our own bedrooms.





the bathroom was SO BIG that there were two sinks in it!



we had a cavernous, dark basement that we didn't use for much more than storage.

as soon as i went to college (age seventeen), my parents remodeled the basement and turned it into a bathroom, two offices, and a family room. great party space; too bad i wasn't around to use it!

i have come and gone a lot since then - after i moved back from japan; between jobs and apartments; for visits from england.

last summer, my parents remodeled the kitchen, living room and dining room. now, they're about to tackle the bedrooms and master bathroom. so here i am, facing boxes and boxes of books, photos, memorabilia, dishes, and everything else that i left here nearly two years ago before i moved to london.









now it is all in storage until i find the heart to throw it away, donate it, or ship it to england (sorry, s! the harry potter books will make their way to our shelves someday!)

now that the heavy lifting is done, i am enjoying some quality time here...

bye, bye balham...

...hello cohabitation!

at the beginning of this blog, i introduced you to my purple palace in balham. now i have shacked up with s and become a borough of merton resident in colliers wood.

because i had some time on my hands, i decided to move gradually over the course of one week. if you, like me, are ever inspired to use transport for london as a moving company, allow me to offer some helpful tips. (please note, also, that this is definitely one of those things i would have *never* done back home, along with taking public transport to IKEA and walking anywhere as a destination and not just exercise.)

first, invest in a travelcard. it really is worth it.



next, wear suitable apparel. i find a ski jacket with pockets is ideal for easy access to my travelcard and keys, as well as coming in handy when it starts to rain.





duffle bags are great. wear one on your back and pull the other one behind you. put heavy items in the wheelie duffle bag.





appropriate footwear is essential. it is a ten minute walk to the tube from my flat in balham; and another five minutes from the tube to s's flat in colliers wood. times two for the trip back.



not pictured, but also immensely helpful, is an ipod. it drowns out the noise of the duffle bag wheels grinding down the street, and gives you implicit permission to ignore other passengers on the tube.

moving statistics:

trips from balham to colliers wood with full duffle bags: 7
trips from colliers wood to balham with empty duffle bags: 6
trips by car (thank you, j!): 2
bruises: 3
broken nails: 4
number of times i was offered help going down stairs to the tube: 0
number of trips in the rain: 1

all things considered, it was not as traumatic as it could have been, and cost much less than renting a van or calling a minicab.

our next big project is tackling some of the mess.



i am adjusting to the "floor as organizational system" and s is adjusting to having my girlie things around the flat.



it is sooo nice to be together, though, and we're already taking advantage of the short commute across the sofa to see each other.

hi honey, i'm home!