Werewolves, Lovies, and Pumpkins

Oz: [eating Animal Crackers]Oh, look, monkey. And he has a little hat, and little pants. The monkey's the only cookie animal that gets to wear clothes, you know that? . . . So I'm wonderin', do the other cookie animals feel sorta ripped? Like is the hippo goin', "Hey man, where are my pants? I have my hippo dignity." And, you know, the monkey's just, "I mock you with my monkey pants!" And then there's a big coup in the zoo.  
Willow: The monkey is French?
Oz: All monkeys are French. You didn't know that?
--Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2 Episode 10

I was bored one afternoon, went to hulu, and discovered Buffy.
I remember the commercials for it when I was a kid, I was totally confused, sort of grossed out. Oh yeah, and there were people in lame costumes.I mean, seriously, blue demons? Come on, who's scared of giant smurfs?
So, started watching the show a couple days ago, it actually wasn't too bad for a teenage vamp show (at lesat the vamps don't sparkle . . . ).
Then Seth Green walked in, and I was hooked . . . at least to the one season hulu possesses.
Is it bizarre that while other girls were drooling over Angel, Spike, and Edward Cullen, a small red-headed nerd gives me the fan-girly giggles? Not a crush, honest . . . it's just adorable. Like kittens . . . but kittens with a taciturn sense of humor.
No, I don't even understand it. Seriously.
Yeah, I'm a sucker for sweet, quirky, nerdy musicians. This is why I married one . . . and at least mine is taller than me. Oh, and Chris is real. That's pretty key.

 In four days, my sis-in-law celebrates her 2nd anniversary. Congrats Julie and Ryan!

It's sort of a weird story, really . . . I'll give you the nutshell-version:

• 1988 -- I turn 1, and Ryan is born. Our mom's are pals, so they start having baby-play dates. And the playdates continued . . . until we were all too old to have "playdates" and instead we just hung out. Ryan's parents liked to plan our wedding; we just gagged at the thought.. They'd picked out our first dance song to be "You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins from Disney's "Tarzan." Yup.
• 2001 -- Julie and I meet at a high school bowling party. We get put on the same team because everyone else had already paired up . . . and it turned out we both loved Star Wars. Welcome to the beginning of best-friend-dom.  We used to joke about my marrying her cousin, Joe, and my brother, Matt, marrying her younger sister, Mel, so we could all be related.
•  2002 -- I meet Chris, Julie's older brother, and boy, oh boy, was he a cutie!
• 2003 -- My parents throw me a surprise LOTR party (yes, I was a super-nerd . . . still am) for my 16th birthday, and Ryan and Julie meet for the first time.
• 2005 -- Ryan and Julie meet again at a youth group outing to the Wet-n-Wild water park. I leave for college, and, after which, Ryan and Julie start hanging out all the time. A month and a half later, they're going out. 
• 2006 -- to everyone's shock and awe, including mine, Chris confesses a long-time crush on me, and we start going out. This creates some drama between we two couples, but, in the end, everyone's happy.
• 2008 -- Ryan and Julie get engaged in February and married the following November.
• 2009 -- Chris and I get engaged in March and married in October. The impossible happened: Ryan and I were in two weddings together, though no one danced to Tarzan and Ryan and I were not marrying each other . . . but we were officially related, which was bizarre. Oh, and Julie and I were finally sisters, which made us laugh because we never really thought it would happen.

And that's the weird almost cute story about how I became related to people I never expected. It's been an interesting but, in the end, a really fun ride. 

Oh, and, as promised, pics from Julie's and my pumpkin-carving "party."

Everyone (Matt, Lydia, Julie, and Chris) with their finished works of art

Lydia's undead cat pumpkin, dedicated to Julie's old cat, Cuddles, that for really-real looks like a zombie

My brother, Matt's, tribute to a sci-fi epic

Chris's half of our pumpkin: one of his favorite characters, Chewbacca.

My half of the pumpkin. I was going to cover it in cool swirls so it looked like a fun lantern, but Chris surprised us with his presence (we thought he was going to work late that night), and wanted to carve a pumpkin, so I gave me the other half of mine. Ah, the sacrifices of marriage :]

And now it's off to Halloween weekend . . . which means cleaning, washing my car for the first time in ages (hopefully >.<), grading papers, and entering grades . . . whoop-de-do . . . Oh, and we'll go putt-putt golfing with my fam. I AM super excited about that ^_^


What about you? Random fan-girl-ness? Crazy love/friend stories? Plans for Halloween?