Amanda Takes Off...

"Oh, I love this song!" I say, turning up the radio. I sing along.

You make it easy,
as easy as one, two, (one, two, three, four)
There's only one thing t[w]o do, three words fo[u]r you~
I love you!

"See? It's a play on words! We must play it at the wedding!"

Good Man stares at me. "But isn't that sort of...cheesy?

"Which is exactly why we need to play it at the wedding!"

(Apparently there are only straight people in Chicago?)

Me: Hi, I have a marriage license question.

Woman at the Circuit County Clerk's Office: Um-hmm?

Me: My fiancé is a foreign national. Do we need to bring proof that he's in the country legally when we apply for the license?

Woman at the Circuit County Clerk's Office: Nope, just a passport or some sort of photo ID. He can be in the country illegally and you can still marry him.

Dear Korean Lady at the Korean Bookstore in the Korean Part of Town,

When you don't have a book that you said you had over the phone, please do not waste 20 minutes pretending to look for it in the store. This is not Korea. You do not need to save face. You are wasting my time.

Additionally, when my fiancé asks you if we can order it, please do not say yes, then proceed to tell us that we should order it from another bookstore online, one which is more expensive. That makes no sense. Either order it for us or tell us to order it from your chain's website. See above, re: this is not Korea, quit saving face.

Finally, yes I know the book is in Korean. You may have noticed that we are in...a Korean bookstore!

Love,
The Not-Customer Who Would Actually Like to Buy Something From You

Dear Mother and Father and Johnny and Ashley and Your Two Kids and Mom and George,

You are all awesome. Three-way conference video chatting was tonight so you could all meet was neat. But George, why didn't you have any questions for Good Man?

Love,
Confused

Dear Good Man,

Please help me interpret things into Korean when we are all chatting because it is very hard for me to do it alone. Even though I mostly did an awesome job (except for when I ordered my mother to learn Korean).

Love,
차아

Dear Father,

Thank you for almost making me cry when you said you're happy to have me as a daughter-in-law. I really wish we lived closer together.

Love,
Almost Daughter-in-Law

Dear Principal,

Please let me take a personal day next Friday so we can do our thing.

Love,
Your Favorite New Hire

I have read the following article four times and I still end up laughing until tears are in my eyes over a few sentences.

The Super Cow That Was Struck by Lightning and Survived
(A Very Motivating Article)

There are some classic Korean sentences in here.

소가 벼락을 맞으면 어떻게 될까?

What happens to a cow when it's struck by lightning?

I'm sure you're curious. What does happen to a cow when it's struck by lightning?

보통은 산채로 통구이가 될 가능성이 높다.

Usually there is a high possibility that it will be roasted through.

Best. Korean. Sentence. Ever.

After mentioning Harry Potter (해리포터) and figuring out why Super 소 (Cow) survived, the article ends with this gem.

하지만 보통 소가 벼락에 맞는다면, 죽을 확률이 더 높다.

But usually when a cow is hit by lighting, there is a high probability that it will die.

Now. How in Super Cow kimchi can I manage to fit these sentences into my conversations with Mother? Hmm... I'm working on it...

So last Monday, Good Man and I had our engagement photo session. I haven't written about it because I wanted to see the photos first. We got the proofs today.

The weather was supposed to be nice, so we decided to go down to the Mall. The weather was not very nice though; it was rather cold. So we decided to head into the Asian Art Museum (actually called the Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery).

Good Man and I were both rather uncomfortable at first. Kissing each other in public? OK. Kissing each other in public while someone is taking photos of you? A little odd.

I'm glad we wore our casual outfits first, because by the time we got to the formal outfit ones, we were more relaxed.

If I Had Bling, It Would Show Here

Good Man and I laughed our way through most of the photos. Jeremy, our photographer (warning: automatic music at the link), tried to do those "woman's head on man's chest, eyes closed, left hand showing" photos, but I'm smirking in nearly every one of them.

"OK, now go at him like a cat."
Apparently I am a laughing cat.

I really like our photographer, who was open to my posing ideas, and who got into some conversation about Nikons overexposing with me (while poor Good Man stood there, freezing—sorry, Good Man).

He does wedding photography as a second job, and his prices are reasonable for this area. He's also not smarmy in that "ooooh, this day is so important, you are sooooo special" way that wedding vendors can be. Ick. And he handled my irrational mood yesterday well.

Dictator Good Man?

I pointed out that we both have engagement rings (yes, I do love that, and I think it's hot as hell that he wears an engagement ring) and he got this shot.

Double Engagement Rings

Very happy with our photos, happy we got to practice kissing and loosening up in front of the camera. And now Sister can work on our invitations and announcements! We have the wording done, but since she's a graphic designer, she offered to do the fronts of the photos.

Side: although the photos are marked 아만다, that's only because they're on my website. All copyright belongs to our photographer.

(Side to the ladies: bra tape. I can highly recommend this brand. It kept the green sweater from showing parts of my underwear I don't wish to be seen, and it kept the ribbing on Heather from riding up. Completely worth the $5 or so I invested in it months ago. Very satisfied with it.)