the ten year engagement ends

B & I were legally married on Wednesday, February, 4, 2009 - the anniversary of our first kiss. It was a private ceremony held at the LA County court house. There were no witnesses as we took advantage of the confidential (aka rock star) marriage license. The record is sealed. It takes a court order to get a copy of the marriage certificate. It should save us from unsolicited mail.

We arrived a half hour early, as instructed. We had to pay the fee for the copies of the certificate plus the ceremony fee. We were then told to wait in the waiting area. That was the saddest part of the day. Lots of pregnant women getting married. People in jeans and t-shirts. It just felt like people didn't really take this seriously.

Our appointment was at 1:30pm. We were called in at about 1:40pm. We had to go around to the chapel, and be let in. The wait seems forever. Ironically my cell phone rang. I didn't answer it. Turned out to be a wrong number from Chicago.

Once inside, things happened pretty quickly, although it also felt like time stood still. The officiant said we were the sweetest couple she married this year.

I think we broke every rule. We made our own rules. There really aren't any rules.

B ordered a ring while his family was still here. Since they extended their stay there really wasn't much choice in the matter. As it turned out, the ring arrived the morning of the wedding. It meant we got the grand tour of LA county. We drove across the San Gabriel Valley to Pasadena to pick it up, and then out to Norwalk for the ceremony. From there we headed to the Westside.

Neither of us had eaten more than a cup of tea and a couple of bites of baked goodies from Bakesale Betty, so first order of business (after switching shoes) was to find something to eat. It was after 2pm, so we headed northwest and tried to figure something out. I remember talk of a Jewish Deli in Culver City that had been there over 40 years. I thought it was called the Rock 'n Rye. Google correctly routed us to the Roll n' Rye. The food was plentiful and delicious. I had a chicken salad sandwich on sourdough and B got the cheese blitzes. The homemade pickles were to die for. Learned that they were a family recipe.

Next it was off to the W in Westwood. Gigi* at the front desk noticed the note B put in the reservation (that it was our wedding night), and upgraded us to the WOW Suite. Oh my! WOW!! It had a living room, a separate study, along with a separate bedroom and bath. We had views of UCLA and the pool. You could actually see clear to the ocean. The weather in LA on Wednesday was 80F. Can't believe we left our swimsuits back at the house. Oh well. Next time.

We had dinner at a lovely place in Santa Monica. We got their early so stopped at RiteAide to get some cough syrup for me. I am still sick. Somehow the staff at the restaurant thought it was our anniversary. They sent over a plate of cookies with a candle. We didn't correct them. Technically it was the anniversary of our first kiss (that links to the story if you missed it).

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* She was also the first person to officially call me Mrs. Go aloud when she called to check on how we liked the room.



on the night stand :: The Impossible Advantage

got the whole world in my hands

The short version is that shortly after 6pm on Sunday we walked out of the Apple Store with two new iPhones. Yay!

I wish I could say it was easy. After our disappointing trip to the AT&T store on Friday, we didn't venture out on Saturday. B had called around and all indications were we would have come up empty handed.

On Sunday we headed over to the library. The Newport Beach Library recently upgraded its system, but in the process our books were due on weird dates. After checking out more books, we decided to grab a bite to eat at Lee's Sandwiches. After a late lunch B brought up the topic of the iPhone. Should we try the AT&T Stores in the OC?

I told him to call before we went searching aimlessly. He did, and learned that the AT&T Stores were sold out in the greater LA/Orange County area. It was suggested that we try the Apple Store. Apparently they could now handle current AT&T customers, even if they were looking to upgrade a current phone.

A call to the store in Fashion Island revealed that while they had iPhones in stock, they were closing within the hour, and had closed the line. Bummer.

On a whim we decided to just drive over to South Coast. They were still letting people in line. We were told it would take about an hour, but we got inside within 20 minutes.

It didn't matter what you wanted at the Apple Store, you had to wait in line. This upset a few people. Apparently at one point there were two lines (one for iPhone and one for everything else), but people lied. Crazy.

The really great thing was that once you entered the store, you had your own personal shopper. We basically told Matt what we wanted and he got it for us. So far, everything was going great!

The Apple Store no longer has cash registers. Instead they have a device slightly larger than a cell phone that can scan bar codes and swipe credit cards. The three bar codes necessary for the first iPhone were scanned and then we ran into a problem. B had interned at Motorola three summers ago. As such, he was given a discount at AT&T. This caused a problem. The solution seemed simple enough - dial 611 and get AT&T to take the discount off the account.

B managed to get through and the customer service rep claimed to have taken the discount off his account. Apparently not so.

Matt tried again, but the code was still blocking him from completing the transaction. He went and got the store's iPhone and called AT&T himself. He entered our phone number and pushed several menu buttons only to reach a recording telling him to call back later.

This is when we all stood there realizing we were not going to be able to buy the iPhones. Despite being loyal Apple customers and AT&T customers with money in hand, we were going to be turned away despite jumping over all these hoops. I didn't even mention that technically B works for Apple's second largest corporate customer. I was dreading having to deal with B all night.

But Matt didn't let us down. He was scheduled to end his shift at 6pm, and told us he would try AT&T again before that. In the meantime, he let us browse the store. We looked at cases and almost bought something called the Rockstar. It allows you and four friends to listen to your iPod together. We then moved over to software and Matt found us again. He managed to get AT&T on the line.

B answered the questions and we kept AT&T on the line until Matt was sure that the hold was lifted. In a few minutes we were a few hundred dollars poorer and on our way! Tomorrow I'll be sending off a glowing letter to Matt's boss. He really went above and beyond and saved our weekend.

I am still getting used to it. Our new plan with extra minutes won't begin until August. Our overage last month cost us just shy of $100. We need to be extra careful for the next 25 days. Too bad Skype doesn't work on the iPhone. That would be awesome.

on the night stand :: Her Last Death