In case my last post was tl;dr for too many of you (it's worth it tho), I will sum up the weekend with these two pictures, taken by Chris:

( not for the faint of heart )

How do you sum up 4-5 days of chaos/virtual insanity in one entry? I'm going to let my Tweets 'splain sum up and/or keep me on track. I'll fill in some blanks as well.

Thursday
( tweets )

1-2.Flew down to Atlanta with Robby and Ed and Kaylea were on the same flight so we spent the rest of the day with them. Matt, Heather, Chris and Bethany were driving down from IN. We stood in line for registration for an hour and a half, which I'm not entirely sure was worth the $50 that we saved on our tickets.

4-6. We had dinner/drinks at High Velocity, the sports bar in our hotel, where they had created a bunch of drinks specifically for Dragon*Con: The Hulk, C3PO, Axe Murderer, The Death Star, The Dark Knight, etc. THEN WHILE WE WERE THERE, I SAW RAY PARK. If you're wondering why it doesn't show up on my Twitter, it's because I WAS TOO BUSY FREAKING OUT. I didn't talk to him or get a picture or anything because all I can do is giggle and flail. Plus, he was there with Daniel Logan and I don't care about him/want his picture. One of these years I will strap on my balls and talk to him, but it just didn't happen yet. The other reason I loved Atlanta is the everyone was So Damn Nice.

7. Matt made me try on his BSG costume because apparently I look like Starbuck. But **SPOILER** Matt is bigger than me, so they didn't fit.

Friday
( tweets )

4-5. James Marsters was our first panel. He was SO MUCH FUN. He is funny and approachable and adorable and I want to be friends with him. He did a Shakespeare piece for us.

6. Adam West was just himself, which is an egotistical dirty old man. but it was SO much fun--and also slightly awkward from time to time. We were dressed as Henchmen for that panel.

7. Robby and I went to a panel that was supposed to be about the power of myths. It was awful-- just terrible. The woman running it was determined to only talk about herself so that it felt like you were just listening in on a dinner table conversation. Plus a couple of the panelists kind of hijacked every question. We left early.

8-9. A panel about Season 8 of Buffy--one of the artists and the editor was there which made it worthwhile, but I didn't like the woman running the panel one bit. She clearly thinks very highly of herself to the point where she didn't even entertain questions/comments that went outside of or against any of her own opinions or ideas. Then she brought up twincest and I was done with her.

13. We headed over to where Joel, Frank and that other guy were talking and then they screened a Cinematic Titanic episode. It was PACKED full but so fun to hear Joel again! We ended up leaving early so we could go find the Buffy Singalong though.

17. We went over the hotel where the Buffy thing was and happened into a party where your first drink was free! Whee!
from then on, I was drunk. We went several different rooms/bars and I stayed up until about 4. Good times.

Saturday
( tweets )

1-3. When Rob and I woke up that morning, we were NOT doing well. Rob especially--I didn't even get him out of the room until about 2:30 that afternoon. We ended up not going to any of the panels that we had scheduled for because we couldn't even walk down to the dealers room without needing to rest every 2 minutes.

4. As soon as I saw this guy I got a surge of energy and excitement. FTW.

9. I was so sick and tired of seeing women not wearing bras. JUST PUT ONE ONE. IT'S NOT THAT TOUGH.

We went to a BSG party that night which started out decidedly lame. Once they started playing some better music, Chris and I were able to dance like fools (with Richard Hatch!) and have a good time. Everyone but Chris decided to leave not much later and then they were all disappointed because a bunch of people from the cast were there and Chris had a great time and got awesome pics. I'm not a BSG fan so I didn't really mind. I was happy to be in bed at that point.

Sunday
( tweets )

1. Tamora Pierce is one of my favorite authors and because we had missed the Q&A with her on Saturday, I was determined to get to the reading. It was so much fun to hear her read--you get such a better taste of the characters. And she doesn't look anything like I pictured her, but she's just adorable. And she has cool tattoos. :)

2. When Robby and I had lunch in the food court, there was a man with two of his kids who were clearly British. At one point, he turned to Rob and said "We're obviously from out of town, but is this the usual dress code for this area?" It was so cute! So Rob started explaining Dragon*Con and then we all tried to explain was sci-fi was to his young daughter. Turned out they were on their way back from Disneyworld, but had a 7 hour layover in Atlanta. They were going to go to an aquarium, but he said they might not have to anymore!

3. That girl from the Buffy panel that I mentioned previously? Was wearing a TEAM JACOB t-shirt which of course just caused a handful of people to talk about the books and I wanted to pull my hair out. But seriously, if you're going to like Twilight, don't be on Team Jacob.

Before I get to #7, I should tell you that we suited up as the Channel 4 news team. We did a couple of laps on the lobby floors to get pictures, which was successful because of Chris/Brick. He had a plastic grenade and would randomly run around the room holding it out and screaming. It was fanTAStic.

7. We went up to a Rebel Legion Drink What You Got party and I sat down with some randoms who were playing Werewolf. I met this girl named Becca who was so cute: she had this great long red hair, an Astonishing X-Men tshirt on and a great hat. So I told Robby I was going to have the girl equivilant of a bromance with her. Honestly, you should just go to Chris's set from Saturday because there are some fantastic pictures from that RL Party. He got so many fantastic shots.

And I am going to choose to not mention the middle of the night door pounding because I'm still annoyed about it.

On Monday we got up and went right to the airport and were home by 2. Robby and I spent the rest of the day picking up Winston and then watching S3 of Lost, doing some reading and just generally being sluggish. Today it's muggy and rainy outside so I imagine there will be a lot more of the same, with some laundry thrown in there. Maybe some ho hos.

That took me almost 2 hours to write. damn.

( I hung out with Thor on Saturday: )

The reason I was watching Thor was because Dave and Karin were packing. I don't think I've mentioned it here--Dave got a job in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He got a year long internship or residency (I forget which they call it) as a hospital chaplain. He is really excited about it, and I'm SUPER excited for him. Of course I don't like that they are moving, but it's only about 2 hours away. Plus, they are keeping the house in Coon Rapids, so I know they will be back for weekends and what not. It's been so wonderful having them live closer these past couple years. And both Dave and Karin have been such an inCREDible support when it comes to wedding decisions that it's going to be tough to not have them physically around. Luckily my brother appears to be getting over his phone hatred, and I always know I can call Karin. But Dave actually drove over to Wisconsin on Sunday and Karin and the boys will be going later this week.

The other thing that I probably haven't mentioned is that Robby and I are going to Dragon*Con and we're leaving on Thursday. Yes Matt, I know I haven't posted my schedule yet--I swear you'll get that later today. So this means a couple things: I'm quite busy this week (when not at work), my 3 day work week will be crazy slow, Hofmann is incapable of talking about anything else, I need to go buy a wig, I'm going to be out of the STATE when the RNC is in full swing (woo hoo!), zero wedding decisions will be made this week and I'll pretty much be ignoring Facebook and LiveJournal while gone. You can expect a MASSIVE amount of Twitter use, though. And Flickr, obv.

oh AND! Robby and I started a wedding blog: jannaandrob.blogspot: for all your wedding needs, and by needs I mean your curiosity needs because seriously this is way more than you probably need to know but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Dear Woman Driving the White Toyota Rav 4:

Yesterday evening, I had finished unloading my groceries into my car when I decided to make it my personal mission to put un-corralled carts away when I saw them. From where I was standing, I could see 3 carts just abandoned in spaces. I made the choice to commit a random act of kindness and put the stray carts away. The cart corral was across the aisle and about 5 or 6 cars down from where I was parked. This location will be referred to as Not That Far Away from here on out.

While wheeling in cart #2 to the corral, I passed by you carting your purchases to your shiny car. You were parked two cars down from me, placing you 2 car lengths closer to Not That Far Away. Lucky you! You had that many fewer steps to take when putting your own cart away.

I was heading towards carts 3 and 4 when I realized that they weren't just stashed in a random spot, but someone (two someones, in fact) had decided that those spaces with signs like this one and covered in blue paint means PLACE YOUR EMPTY CARTS HERE-NO ONE REALLY NEEDS THESE SPOTS ANYWAY. This really raised my blood pressure because, really? Not That Far Away is just that... NOT THAT FAR AWAY. Not only has it become SUCH A TERRIFYING HASSLE that we can't be bothered to bring our carts to the appropriate location, but we've decided that the next best spot is the one where individuals who will most likely need assistance exiting and entering the car will be parking. Who made that decision? I'd like to meet them.

Lady In The Toyota, you are probably wondering what all of this has to do with you. Let me tell you. While I was placing carts 3 and 4 together for my ease of pushing, you were directly behind me and looked at me as though I should be taking your cart too. I kept to my business, but not before seeing you glance over to the Cart Corral/Not That Far Away. I walked over with my carts, happy to be helping out the Target employees as well as helping people from scratching their own cars on the big red scary plastic. I had every faith that Lady In The Toyota would follow me to Not That Far Away.

My faith was misplaced.

When I turned around, you were hoisting yourself into your tall car, having left your cart behind in the place where I had literally just removed two carts not 30 seconds before. Oh but you know that! You were there! That's right. Unfortunately, you have no respect for others. You were too busy getting on with your ugly* life as quickly as possible. Did you mistake me for a Target employee, despite the fact that I was not wearing a red shirt with khakis, a name tag or a reflective vest?

It was everything I could do to keep from yelling out at you, placing my hands on my hips and tapping my toe until you PUT YOUR TOYS AWAY OR NO DINNER FOR YOU. Instead, I walked over to your cart, looked at your ugly* face through your tinted windows and said loudly, "Don't worry! I'll put your cart away for you."

I didn't stick around to see if you had heard, but I hope you did. I hope it nagged you on your entire drive home, possibly into the evening. I hope you saw the look of annoyance on my face and you possibly shared your encounter with your friends, most likely calling me rude and/or a bitch. Most of all, I hope you were able to recognize the fact that I was simply trying to do something nice for someone else. Possibly even you, on another day. I am hoping that you, on another day, will remember to do something nice for someone else.

No Love At All,
Janna

*I am not calling you ugly because of your physical appearance; I try not to judge people on that. I am calling you and your life ugly because of what is inside you: smut, oil, and a bog of stench

Robby and I had a wedding-tastic weekend. Sunday to be more accurate. We managed to narrow down our catering choices from 5 to 2. And the only reason that it's not down to 1 is because we haven't received all the information we need from one place. Apparently people do a LOT of buffets at the Caves. But that's not gonna happen at our wedding. Partially because plated dinners are better (in our opinion WHICH IS RIGHT) and because it just won't work with almost 250 people there. So that was the quickest way for a caterer to be out of the running. Right now the top runner is D'Amico which I am PUMPED about. It's gonna be delicious.

After that we went down to the MOA and started up our first registry! EEE! We had a blast and worked with this great woman named Senia. She even gave us chocolates and water. I think we were there for almost 3 hours, but it didn't feel like it at all. If you're curious, you can find our registry at macys.com or they will all end up being linked to at our wedding website.

Speaking of wedding website... the one that we have (through theknot is cheesy and boring and i just don't really like it. So I've been considering making a wedding specific blog/site (blog most likely, since I don't want to pay for a host). Feedback? Would you want to read a blog with a bunch of wedding details? (I wouldn't write about them here).

Also yesterday, I purchased the Offbeat Bride book which I'm really enjoying already. We also had a talk about my dad giving me away at the ceremony. Personally, I HATE the idea of my dad GIVING me away. It's archaic and kind of insulting. Like I'm unable to be a whole complete person unless I've got a man to take care of me. Yesterday I brought up the idea of Robby and I walking down the aisle together, holding hands. The wedding is supposed to be the start of our relationship together, we should start out that way! We both really like the idea of that. On Friday, Robby and I are having my parents over to have another budget talk and bring up things like this. I have to admit, I am not looking forward to telling my dad this--I think it could be really hard on him. And if it is, I'm going to ask BOTH of my parents to walk me down the aisle. Of course, I will also make my mother sign a BLOOD OATH that she won't cry while she does it.

ALSO: while driving home from the MOA, we had a brief discussion about recessional songs. Robby suggested Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours by Stevie Wonder, which we then wanted to listen to, so the iPod came out. As I was waiting for him to find the Ss, he put on Rob Base's It Takes Two. So now that's on the list too.

I am really disappointed that HBP has been moved to NEXT SUMMER, but the gloriousness that is this picture, kind of makes up for it:

found at hbpmoviepics

Right now, I feel like I have nothing to do this weekend. In a good way. But it's really not true. I need to go wig shopping, 70s clothes shopping, work out at least twice, look at my schedule for DragonCon, get together with friends for an alternate Saturday night party that was canceled, do laundry, and probably other stuff that I'm forgetting. Oh, watching Olympics. They've eaten my brain.

Last night Robby and I went over to Abby and Dan's for dinner. So I meet Robby and we drive over to their house. Just walk right up to the gate, let ourselves in and I was just about to walk right into the house when someone who is NOT Dan came to the door and said "Hello?" That's when I remember THEY MOVED. LIKE A YEAR AGO. So I just immediately apologize, tell him we're at the wrong house and we turn around to leave. It was a good thing that he came to the door, because otherwise I'm pretty sure I would've lost an arm--they had a HUGE German Shepard who was barking at us. I didn't think anything of it because Abby and Dan have a dog too. Anyway-we get to the right house and Dan is asking for details. Turns out the guys who live in that house are COPS. So yeah--that could've been awesome. HI. I'M WALKING INTO A COPS HOUSE.

So that was cool.

Some of you may have already seen this, but belenen posted it and... I just can't get enough of it. It's so touching and wonderful and fantastic. (Feel free to watch without the volume because the Whitney Houston makes it über-cheesy)



Of course, now I want a wild cat of my very own.

It's one of those days where I have a boatload to do, but I can't bring myself to actually start any of it. Which is great for all of you, because DUH, that means you get a post from me. And seriously, that's the best part of your day.

I had a quite uneventful weekend, which was on purpose. I was feeling sickly all week with this crazy uncomfortable and painful bloating with sharp pain in my abdomen (hence the No Pants Night^TM) and it all burst upon me on Thursday evening, leaving me awake through most of the night and therefore didn't go in to work on Friday and spent the majority of the weekend laying around wearing elastic waisted clothes.

Saturday I went down to Savage for Julie's baby shower, which was more fun than I was expecting--just because showers can oftentimes be kinda long and lame and full of small talk with people that you don't know. And I am just awful at small talk, so I don't like them. But, I had forgotten that my friend Laura (from high school) was going to be there and I don't think I've seen her since Julie's wedding (6 years ago). And then Katrina and Ang both showed up! So I ignored all my stomach pain and was able to catch up with Laura and talk to my girls. The funny part was that mom and I were over half way to Julie's (it's not close!) when I realized I'd forgotten to put on my engagement ring. OOPS. And then when I told Katrina, she said "Well that's the only reason I came today!" But I could satisfy them with pictures of my dress.

The majority of the rest of the weekend consisted of reading/finishing Nineteen Minutes (loved it) and watching Olympics. I love watching gymnastics, but MAN I'd like to punch the commentators in the bracket.

I've mentioned this before, but my tolerance for rudeness, stupidity and bullshit is really close to just disappearing. Companied with this is my desire to be slightly passive aggressive and rebel like a teenager.

For example:
When I see a Facebook status talking about TEH EVILS of yoga, or the emergent church, or hookah... I want to change my status to:

Janna Bergstrom is drinking whiskey, smoking hookah, getting more tattoos, doing yoga, getting a psychic reading, researching Universalist churches, sleeping in on Sunday, helping to plan a lesbian wedding, befriending sexual predators, believing hell is empty, moving in with her boyfriend, setting up her gay friends, and not growing out her hair for her wedding. AND GUESS WHAT. STILL A CHRISTIAN.

And then just leaving that as my status for the rest of my life.

Click to see the individual pics, which are blurry b/c i just took them with my macbook