Title courtesy of Weezer off of their self-titled album, the one with the green cover, commonly referred to as the Green Album. There's also the Blue Album (their first) and the Red Album (their latest).

I really wish I was on an island in the sun right about now, but soon enough I'll be on a cruise ship, so it all works out, eventually. I've just been overly tired lately. I haven't been having trouble sleeping, I just don't think I'm getting enough of it, which is never fun. Last week was kind of rough, what with Pearl Jam, and having to get up at like 4:45 to go to Staten Island for work.

Speaking of Pearl Jam. In a word, awesome. They never disappoint or put on a crappy show. So once again, I tip my hat to Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron for putting on one hell of a show, and also to the crowd at Madison Square Garden for being so damn good. A bad crowd can kill a show, if you ask me, but that definitely didn't happen. Amazing. Even though Missy was not the biggest fan or really knew too much of their songs, she loved it and thought they kicked ass as well. So its all good!

Not much going on in the wedding department at the moment. We're waiting on getting all of the responses back in. The deadline is Thursday, which marks officially one month until the wedding. Once we get all the responses we can start working on table assignments, which I hope goes smoothly. I'd hate for that to be a problem, but I don't think it will be. Really, all I'm responsible for is seating my people, and my list isn't that big. I'm sure my parents can figure theirs out, along with her parents. Missy and I might have to mingle some of our friends, but that's OK, I'm sure they'll all get along without a problem.

That's about it really. I'm jealous that Missy has her whole summer off. Last summer she taught summer school at least, and she worked four days a week, but now she has the whole summer off, to help finish up wedding plans I guess, but I can't see that taking up a ton of time. It'd be nice to have a summer off, and after visiting her classroom the other day, she definitely deserves it. Seeing a class full of second graders and trying to manage them on a day to day basis is something that I could never handle! I don't know how she does it. She must have the patience of a saint. The kids were cute though, they asked really stupid questions, like since I'm tall, I must live in a big house, or I must lift weights. Stuff like that. It was cute though.

Alright, I'm out. Back to work.

Like I need to say who that title is by? C'mon. As if you don't know me by now. Its funny, one of Missy's friends e-mailed me a list of about eight questions or so because they want to play like a Newlywed Game type thing at her bridal shower. One of the questions was "What is Matt's favorite band?" She wanted me to put my serious answer, two alternates, and one joke. As a joke I put Metallica because I know Missy hates them with a passion. My alternates were Stone Temple Pilots and The White Stripes, two bands Missy has heard me talking about plenty! And of course my answer was Pearl Jam, followed by the statement that if she got that one wrong, the wedding was off. If she doesn't that know that, she doesn't know me at all, and I can't marry her. I can't even tell if I'm being serious or sarcastic here. Its a tough call.

Well, its been a long few months of waiting, but the day has finally arrived. Nope, not the wedding. We have to wait until the beginning of August for that one. I'm talking about Missy and I going to see Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden tonight. The greatest arena in the world, playing host to the greatest American rock band, ever. I will argue that statement until my dying day! I can't wait. Its going to be awesome. Strike that, its going to be amazing, and it better be! I was a little worried about even getting to go to this show. For one thing, Missy has been on a no concert ticket kick lately. See my previous entries on STP, and the fact that I'm taking my little brother to see Nine Inch Nails in late August. But, I told her almost a year ago, that if Pearl Jam were to ever tour around here, ever, that we'd be going. No if, and, or buts about it. We're going. Convincing her to go was easy, it was getting the tickets that was a pain in the ass. The day they went on sale I was out of the office at a customer, so no access to the Internet. I trusted my friend Seth to get me tickets. I gave him my Pearl Jam fan club, the Ten Club, login ID and password, my credit card info, everything. He managed to snag a pair of tickets for himself, but then got shut out of getting them for me. I was going to have to resort to the regular Ticketmaster on sale date, which I was going to have to trust to my little brother, because again, I was going to be out of the office at a customer that time of day. Thankfully, Pearl Jam setup a Ticketmaster pre-sale through the fan club (usually the pre-sale for fan club members happens through Pearl Jam's website) and I managed to get a pair for that one. Whew!

So that's where I'll be tonight. I'm expecting to have my ass rocked off for a solid three hours. Anything less and I'll be highly disappointed!

Nothing else new to report really. I'm just really excited for tonight. And I just hope Missy knows that this is my favorite band ever. I would really hate to have to call off the wedding for this. =)

Title courtesy of one of the great Canadian rock bands of all time, Our Lady Peace.

The weekend was pretty relaxing and stress free, I must admit. Playing Rock Band with my co-worker never came to be, so instead I played the real thing a little more than usual. I took the free Saturday (Missy was at a Bridal Shower) to restring three guitars, which desperately needed it, play some XBox 360 with Mark, and just generally do nothing, which always feels good.

My guitar lesson went well on Saturday. I was told my rhythm was improving, which is always a good thing to hear. Although the current song we've been working on, Pearl Jam's "Yellow Ledbetter" is going to get put on the back burner for awhile. I need to work on the chord structures, changing them quickly and efficiently and most importantly, making the strings ring clearly. Dead notes sound bad. Trust me on that. I also came up with a new list of 20 or so songs that I want to learn, work on, or just get better on. I think next week, in honor of going to see STP soon, I'm going to learn Plush. Classic.

In wedding news, we had a meeting with our florist yesterday. He wanted to show us the prototype of what our centerpieces will look like. And they look like this:

Pretty, huh? I thought so. Missy loved it, so I guess that's all that really mattered. We didn't want to do high centerpieces so that people didn't have to lean around things in order to talk to people across the table. We hated that at other weddings, so we made sure they were low.

That's about it. I'm sure there's more to tell, but I can't think of anything right now. All I know is that I'm seeing Pearl Jam tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. When that occurs, all is right with the world!

Title courtesy of The Offspring, who are supposedly back in a big way with a new album that is supposed to be really good. Who knew?

Anyway, Missy and I, as a couple, our self esteem took a huge hit yesterday. For the first time since we sent out the wedding invitations back around Memorial Day, we did not receive at least one response card in the mail. Not a one. We knew this day would come, just not so soon. You try to prepare yourself for the shock of it, but there really is no way to fully brace yourself for the harsh impact of getting dissed so bad.

In case you couldn't tell, that's sarcasm. But it is a little disconcerting. By my count, out of the 170 invitations we sent out, 62 have not been responded to, that's about 36%, and the response deadline is fast approaching, July 3. That's less than two weeks away. Hell, the wedding is only 43 days away too! That's some craziness coming right at ya if you ask me. At the moment the guest list is at 181 people. We guaranteed the catering hall 250. I hope we hit it. I'm sure we will. I know a lot of people that said they are coming who just haven't sent the response card in yet. So time will tell. And after next weekthe badgering of people can begin in earnest.

Plans for the weekend? Relaxing. I have a guitar lesson in like an hour and a half, then a hair cut after that. Then I may go hang out with one of my new co-workers that lives in the area and play a little Rock Band. Missy has a bridal shower to go to today, so I kind of have a day to myself. Tomorrow night we're meeting with our florist for something, not sure what, and that's really all there's doing this weekend. I need a break, I need my honeymoon to get here!

Title courtesy of Velvet Revolver. Damn shame Scott Weiland left, because they rocked, but I can't say I'm too disappointed, considering Stone Temple Pilots reunited and are touring this summer. Oh yeah, I'm going! Three days after my wedding no less! Right before the honeymoon! Missy wasn't too thrilled, but the, "It's Stone Temple Pilots!" that I kept repeating to her didn't seem to go too far. Oh well. In the end, I won. (Although in reality, I probably lost. But I'm a guy. I'm going to a concert that my soon to be wife objected to me going. I know I'm losing the war in the end, but at least I won that battle!)

So, for the past two weeks I've been using up my free personal training sessions at my gym. I got one for free during my two week trial last summer, which left me sore for days, and I used one of my four back in April or May, which also left me sore for days. So I was a little hesitant to use another one of my four free last week, but kind of had the feeling that I should do a little more to kick this fitness thing into high gear with less than two months before the wedding. I didn't get the guy I worked with the first two times, Dave, instead I got Dan, who I see at the gym all the time, and I figured, what the hell, why not? So the first training session went pretty good, and I was thoroughly exhausted and sore by the end of it, especially in my quads. They were sore from Tuesday to Sunday, that's how bad it was. The shocking thing is, with all the spinning I've been doing, you'd think my quads would be stronger, but I guess I'm not working all the muscles in my legs.

Anyway, so after the first session I immediately made a follow up for this week, and I had it last night. In between last Tuesday and yesterday I had tried to add more weight training type exercises into my gym time. I did a little on Thursday before my meeting at the catering hall, did a lot on Sunday morning before taking a spin class, and did about 20 minutes of it after an elliptical ride on Monday. I just need to get a good 40-50 minutes in three times a week and I think I'll be fine. So I had another killer session with Dan yesterday, and shockingly, I'm not that sore this morning, despite doing a lot of the same exercises, especially the leg stuff. It hurt a little going up and down the stairs, but nothing as bad as last week. So I have another appointment next Thursday, which will be the last of my four free ones, but I bought another five, which should get me to the wedding at a pace of one training session a week. I may have to double up one week, but that's OK.

But I'm feeling really good about it all. The scale is showing progress, slowly but surely. I'm going to try as hard as I can to hit the goals that I want in the next month and a half. Actually, I think its like, an hour under 46 days to go. Crazy, huh?

So that's about it. Everything else is good. I think all the drama has passed. Missy was still a little upset, but with a new week, she's making a fresh start of it. We didn't spend Father's Day together, and I think that upset her a lot, but after everything that happened last week, I just really wanted to spend my Father's Day with my dad, not hers. You know?

Alright, enough for now. Back to work!

Title courtesy of The Raconteurs. Amazing band. Jack White can do no wrong in my book. Missy and I saw them in the city about two weeks ago and they were amazing!

Anyway, so hopefully the drama will be put to rest. I can only hope. Missy talked to her mom last night and her mom was very surprised that my mom felt that way, since my mom never let on about it. In my mom's defense, she didn't want to make waves or stir up trouble, so she kept it all in. Not the best way to handle it, but to each their own. So Missy's mom assured mine that even though the shower is booked and the invitations are made (not sent, but made, more on that in a sec) that there is still plenty to do and she would love my mom's help. I still my mom is pissed as all hell though.

We did manage to get through our appointment with the catering hall last night without any trouble. We also managed to pick out a rough outline of the menu too. We need to finalize it in the next week and let them know what we want. Its a pain though, picking ten passed hot and cold hors d'œuvre's, 8 stations, one steak, one chicken and one fish dish. Dessert is taken care of, and thats going to rock! They make this little molten chocolate cakes with a warm gooey center. Amazing. So we'll figure it all out and get it all back to them soon.

OK, so the invitations. My mom has been waiting on these for months so she can invite her friends and whatnot to the bridal shower. She's been asking Missy's mom for awhile what the hold up has been, and all I heard was there was a glitch, but they were forthcoming. So at the meeting last night Missy's mom hands mine a big manila envelope, containing the invitations. Once we finally got home we took a look, and let me tell you, I think they're cheesy and fugly as hell. It's basically a photo-mosaic of about four pictures of Missy at various ages, on a standard 4X6 piece of photo paper, with text written on it about a surprise shower, when and where and who and how to RSVP. My mom basically said she's going to have to include a note in each invitation explaining who its for, because there is no last name, no mention of parents names, other than her moms. I don't know how to describe it, other than lame looking. But that's just me. Hell, we printed up nicer invitations to our night before the wedding dinner for family, bridal party and out of town guests in like twenty minutes and it looked nicer, in my opinion. I said to Missy when we were done making those that it was easy and took no time whatsoever. She agreed, and then I said, "I don't know what's taking your mom so long with the shower invitations then!" She got pissed, needless to say.

Alright, well that's enough for now. Hopefully everything will be OK. I know if I ask my mom she'll lie and says she's OK. I'll have to get the straight poop from my dad.

Time to head for work. Adios people!

Title courtesy of Everclear. Whatever happened to them? They were good.

Anyway, so as the title implies, things aren't going well at the moment. Yep, we tried to avoid it. We got close, but it was bound to happen. Wedding Drama. Big time.

Disclaimer: This is only one side of the story. I have no idea the reasoning that goes on in the other side.

A little background for you. My mom had been trying to get in touch with Missy's mom for months, but never seemed to get anywhere. After a half dozen or so attempts, my mom gave up. This was back in April. Then, she finally gets a call from Missy's mom that the shower is booked, and she gave her the date. So, that upset my mom greatly as she really wanted to be involved in planning the shower. It still upsets my mom greatly, so much so that she rarely passes up an opportunity to tell anyone just how much it upsets her greatly. Oh, and to top it all off, the shower is the same weekend as my bachelor party, something that could've been avoided in my eyes if her mom just asked someone if the date was OK before booking it. So now I've had to lie to Missy anytime she asks if I'm coming to the shower, because I can't tell her no, because she'll ask why, and I'll have to tell her, thus ruining the surprise of the shower.

OK, so back on topic. Her mom seizes control of planning the shower, enlisting the help of her future daughter-in-law. It is now a month away from the shower, and invitations haven't even gone out yet. I'm told that's bad form.My mom is getting more and more frustrated, because she hasn't been able to invite anyone. She's told all of her friends and family when it is so they can block the date out, but still, no official invitation has gone out. Case in point, my sister-in-law got invited to a baby shower the same day. Had she not known ahead of time what the date of the bridal shower was, she would've gone to the baby shower. Then, when she got the bridal shower invite, which it seems like hell might freeze over before she does, she'd have to decline because she had a prior commitment. And she's in the bridal party, so it wouldn't be good that she didn't show. So, this is all frustrating my mom to no end. If she needed help, my mom would've been more than happy to help her out, but since no call never came, and everytime my mom asked she was assured it was being taken care of. Yet still, no progress.

So its been pissing my mom off, and she never hesitates to let anyone know that it upsets her. Everyone except the person that she should tell, Missy's mom, because she doesn't want to make waves. Except her simple act of complaining annoys the hell out of me. So I keep dropping hints to Missy that her mom is dropping the ball. I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it. It culminated last night, in a big way.

We were on our way to the gym and she was asking about Father's Day. Her mom invited my family over for Father's Day, but my mom declined, stating that she'd rather stay at home and have my brother and sister-in-law come over. Missy was upset at that and thought it was wrong of my mom to do that and essentially force Missy and myself to choose where to spend the day. I came back and said, its wrong of your mom to plan your shower without ever consulting or including my mom. So it all spiraled out of control. Missy was crying, saying she wanted to cancel her shower. She even called her house to tell her mom that, but she wasn't home and her dad tried her best to calm her down. Of course Missy was defending her mom, and I was defending mine. And of course I don't know what the other side of the story is, and I'm definitely dying to find out. In the end, Missy is going to talk to her mom today, and I've told my mom to expect a phone call from her mom to talk about this very issue.

What would've been nice, is if they could've resolved all of this like adults, instead of keeping it all bottled inside. I know my mom is no saint in all of this, and like I said, I don't know her mom's side of the story. So we'll see what happens. The interesting thing is, we're all meeting tonight, Missy and myself, and all four of our parents, at the catering hall to start finalizing things like the menu for the wedding. That should be fun, and awkward.

Missy's theory on her mom's behavior is this. Her mom has been asking her constantly about my sister-in-laws shower, and if my mom paid half. My mom did pay half, because the mother of the bride included my mom in all of the planning of it, but Missy didn't know that. Since her mom wasn't sure if my mom was paying half, and she never received a call from my mom offering to pay half, she was on her own to plan and pay for it, so she never included my mom. This is despite the fact that on the day after we got engaged my dad told her dad that he'd gladly pay for half of the wedding, and I would think that would include the shower.

So that's the story in a nutshell, fun, right?

Title courtesy of the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan.

So Dallas was a ton of fun. Sort of. It was cool to go away and do work, instead of going away for training. The only downside was I miscalculated how long it would take me to do everything. I guessed three days, when it really took only two. So I had a lot of time to kill once I was done with all of my work. I headed to a mall, saw a movie, and relaxed at my motel a lot. But it was cool, and hot at the same time! It was hitting close to 100 according to my trusty Saturn rental cars temperature sensor. Damn. I couldn't deal with that everyday, that's for sure.

My flight got in late last night and I didn't get to bed until around 2 AM, then I was up way too early, and I'm hurting today. I got out of my customer today early, so I'm at Missy's relaxing before tonight. Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot, I'm going to see Eric Clapton tonight! How awesome is that? Slowhand! I can't wait. He's one guy I've been dying to see for awhile, so hopefully it won't disappoint.

That is all for now. Peace.