We're back!

It’s almost six in the morning on Monday and I’ve put this off long enough. I thought I’d be saying something like, “I felt I needed to write this before I returned to my normal life,” but the truth is, I’m not – we’re not going back. I do need to write this while it’s fresh in my memory, though. There is some validity to that.

Ghost is here with me. He’s my White German Shepherd, btw, and one big baby who needs a lot of love from his master who’s been absent a week. Ghost is laying at my feet now. He seems a lot calmer after spending a week with my dad. (thank you, dad!) I feel a lot calmer after spending a week exploring with my wife.

There are a lot of stories I have to tell about our wedding; there’s the 12am-3am bolo toss my best man Jason and I did on the morning of the wedding to get that drapery up over the event. There’s all the work and love and friends that worked so hard at making it happen. We were overwhelmed by gifts of time and labor and money and stuff and food and all the myriad everything that went into our wedding day. There was how awesome everyone looked and all that they had to say – for some things, like Aaron Klinefelter’s homily, there’s a transcript I’ll be able to get. For many others, their words were as ephemeral as the last warm day of summer we had for the celebration. There was the drag queen, the decorations, my dad crying, my mom, Beck’s mom and dad and my grandma crying, there was me crying (!) and the wonderful food and wine and the gifts…there is so much to say about the wedding! So many stories that will reach your ears an so many that won’t. The honeymoon – The five breakdowns and kind strangers on the road, god’s presence along the way, my brother and sister-in-law’s place in Mississippi and the cop who thought we were trafficking crystal meth, our neice and nephew, the long, sometimes crabby drive to Cumberland Island, Julie Gross’s awesome tent we borrowed, the deserted beach and the armadillo (and dozens of other animals we saw) the dinner on the island and our new friends from northern GA. The trip to the Okeefenokee Swamp and our guide, Omar, the big hotel room and how great the hot tub felt after camping in the wilderness, the dinner at Bogden’s (sp?) Creek in St Mary’s, the headlight that went out and the hitchhikers we picked up, the barnstorming plane and the abandoned slave houses in Georgia. The drive home at 4am! (so tired) Ghost’s tail and wiggling butt when he saw us come up the drive and breakfast with Kenny Oster on his 36th birthday after we snoozed a little while.

Ahem.

These things are all parts of the story we’ll slowly be telling you over the course of (I imagine) the next few weeks. But what I really want to tell you about now is the feeling, the emotion, the spiritual closeness to my wife and god that I felt in the last week. That’s the thing, more precious than the memories, that I want to hold onto. I want to keep a little fragment of these blessings bottled away in a mason jar like the sand I took from the island. I want it to remind me in hard times that I and we are loved in infinite ways beyond description.

I shook with exhaustion and emotional overload when I stood up there with Becky on that day. Since then, god removed the cause, but not the symptom. I’m still shaking in awe on this morning. And Ghost, Tony and Angel (dog and two cats) are glad we’re home.

Steve Novotni
October 4, 2004

Dig it: See our wedding LIVE VIDEO RIGHT NOW!!!!

See our wedding live right now in one of two ways:

lower quality, now download
1) go to http://www.webcamnow.com
- Click on "VIEW WEBCAMS" - its the top left link
- A pop up window opens...
- Click of "Friends and Family - general area"
- Click on "beckysteve" from the available cams.

better quality, but you need yahoo i messenger
- satr up yahoo im and find us online "xraymagazine" is our name.
- ask to chat and someone will hook you up

Steve

Five days to go

Almost there and we have a ton to do.

WEB CAMS AND LIVE FOOTAGE SATURDAY
I'm working to overcome some technical problems I've had with getting my cam to work with our server. The fallback plan will be having folks connect to our cam using Yahoo Messenger - not ideal since someone will have to be on hand to accept the connection and since you'll have to have YahooIM to see the wedding.

Please give me some feedback on this idea. We're working on making it all a go with just the web site.

ICE
Would anyone be willing to pick up ice on the day of the wedding?

WEATHER
It looks like all will be clear on Saturday for the wedding. Thumbs up!

Steve

Tennessee Tuxedo

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with my tuxedo rental experience.

The place we went to advertises $69 tuxes. I've seen them for less, butthey said they were quick and that's what I needed. (johnny come lately)

I went with the double breasted mafia style outfit pictured here:

img src="http://www.saxonuniform.com/tux/tuxpix/DBTUX.jpg" width=85 height=200 border="1">

Then they tell us the shoes are $20 extra. Okay. That's a lot for 3 days worth of shoes, but I guess I'll have to deal with it. Then I'm told $8 to ship the tux to the shop (!) and $3 to insure it (!!) This means my $69 tux is now $105! I would have walked if not for a few things:

- Kenny Oster, Jim (Beck's dad) and Joe (Beck's brother) were all with me.
- I need a tux in 11 days

I have to say I feel a bit screwed by deceptive tactics on the part of this store. Oh well, what can I say, we needed the suits - quickly.

This reminds me a little of how Beck and I were screwed with by Home Depot last year. See, we were buying our first home and I said I wanted an appliance we had never had - a dishwasher. There was a particular GE portable at HD for about $300 - this is a pretty good deal for a portable. I tell the guy that we'll take it and he says it'll be three weeks and $90 for delivery.

I can understand this, they need to have stock in the store, but I tell him to call me when it gets in and I'll pick it up. I don't need delivery.

"Oh, it'll still cost $90," he says. "That's the fee to deliver the unit from our store in Lexington."

I insist that I don't need it delivered and he insists that the delivery fee is not optional. Whether I pick it up or they drop it at my door there's still a $90 fee for them to stock their own store (!!!) Then the guy tells me there's no way I can fit the dishwasher in my car when I know that I can.

12 days and counting

This has been a very busy week!

The plans for the wedding are still coming together, though Beck and I are feeling the heat. Here's some stuff we've completed:

- I've got my ring. It's 100 years old and from Prague. It was my Great Grandfathers and my Grandma gave it to me. I had it resized and I'm picking it up today. We'll try and post pictures of our rings this week.

- Becky and Laura have drafted a day of the wedding schedule for Becky. I heard a bit of it and it's rather complex. Mine is less so. Get my hair fized up, dress and be there. I may be missing something, though...

- 9.11 illustrated is done. 8 films, 40+ people attended. It went pretty well and I think it beat the hell out of just lighting candles for the victims. FYI - I highly recommend the Naudet brothers' film 9/11. It was shot on the scene of WTC 2 in the lobby after the first plane hit. It's the best coverage you'll see of the event. Outfoxed, chronicling the lies and misdeeds of Fox news, was pretty damn good to.

- I built a fence for our dog, Ghost. It's chain link and I put in one side and a gate. I used no concrete and tied in the panels to neighboring fences. The fence was free via http://www.communitypress.com classifieds. I took it down from a person's house in 45 minutes ( 72 feet! But I had a lot of energy to burn) Put it up in a total of about 6 hours. The gate was something I had to purchase. Total cost was $60. Not bad!

- I quit my job at Saab. Last day is Oct. 9. I am officially looking and in the market for something. Let me know if you know of anything. (I need a job when I get back!)

- Becky and I have put together a checklist of all the stuff we've got left to do. We also made a list of what we have to pack for the honeymoon. We did this over breakfast - long and lazy - at Sugar'n'Spice on Reading Rd., which I highly recommend.

More later.

Steve

Three weeks and counting

A short 21 days 'til the big day. Here's some updates:

WEDDING NEWS
Becky's Bachelorette party was last night, Friday, Sept. 3. About 15 of her friends showed up. Beck's friend Laura Bosse had a fun time embarrassing her. I'll let Beck tell you about the details, but I'll tell you it was both raunchy and sweet (from what I hear) I gave Laura a bunch of personal info to use against Beck and there was a game where everyone shared a memory about Becky. She said she was really touched by the nice things people had to say. I know she felt and feels really loved. I just heard about all this stuff, btw, I was chased out of the house and ended up sleeping on the couch at the Brown House (that's the old rectory across the street where many friends live.

NOTABLE LOVED ONES OF THE DAY
Laura Bosse - for all the care, energy and time she put into making the Bachelorette party a success. I know she spent probably 8-10 hours to make that happen. Thanks, Laura!

John Wayne Klink, Steve's Dad - Dad's been really helpful and caring and has been a great person to complain to when we've been in the thick of all the madness that is planning a wedding. Dad also had two pets, his dogs, die recently. He really loved those animals. Please keep him in your prayers and thoughts.

OTHER NEWS
Steve's project, 911i, is a go!
See the day we'll never forget through a prism of different viewpoints. Nine films and two performance pieces make up 911 Illustrated, scheduled for Saturday, September 11 at the Mockbee Gallery on Central Parkway at Brighton - directions at http://www.themockbee.org

The films run from 1pm to 1:30am

Admission is a suggested $3.00 donation to the Independent Media Network. Full event details at http://www.indynet.org

Honeymoon Getaway

Kickin'. I found a honeymoon getaway that is:

1)Remote - we can get away from all technology and people
2)Warm - Weather in the 50's to mid 80's
3)Breathtakingly beautiful - Wow.
4)Cheap - Once we get ourselves there, we're talking about $300 for the week including food.

This picture is from somebody else's vacation there. I'm keeping this a secret from Becky 'til we get there. (I've told her it's a secret and she's on her honor not to peek.)

So here's the links if you want to know more -
DON'T TELL BECKY! AND BECKY, DON'T LOOK!

What we're doing

The main page for this thing

A really nice description of this place.

Someone else's photos of this thing

Steve

From the Life of Brian. You really should see this sometime.

Sychronicity

Okay, so today I'm talking with Gina Gartner, Independent Media Network Committee Member, and she says okay to the changed date of the ime and 911i.

I spoke with Chris Daniel of the Mockbee prior to my conversation with Gina and he told me two dates were available - the weekend of Saturday the 23rd or Saturday the 30th - Halloween. I said, "Yeah, the 23rd, then. The 30th would just be inappropriate for a 911 themed event."

Later, Gina said to me that was too bad. Her group, The League of Pissed Off Voters, really wanted to do a voter drive on that weekend - also the last weekend before the election. But what about the bad taste thing, I said. What would we have, the Twin Towers of Fear Haunted House?? But then again, what if we changed the theme. Maybe, yeah...

Dig it: Hamilton County, seat of the Repub. stronghold (stranglehold) core of conservative support. So goes Ohio, so goes the election. Last weekend before the election.. 911 Illustrated. The Independent Media Expo. Not in flow for 9/11, but damn, what we could do on 10/30...

From Star Trek Next Gen, Episode 19, Yesterday's Enterprise:

Picard bites the bullet and wisely sides with Guinan:

Picard: "....The war is going very badly for the Federation, far worse than is generally known. Starfleet Command believes that defeat is inevitable. Within six months we may have no choice but to surrender."

Garrett: "Are you saying that all this maybe a result of our arrival here?!"

Picard: "One more ship will make no difference in the here and now, but twenty two years ago one ship could've stopped this war before it started." 

Hell yes. Let's break the back of those NeoCons.

- Cap'n Steve

Something had to give

Well, it was all a little too much for me. As you'll read, I've asked the team of local media folks I've been working with to postpone our annual events, 9.11 Illustrated and the Independent Media Expo. You can read about these at http://www.indynet.org

Sometimes you have to make tough choices.

- Steve

August 30, 2004,
Dear ime2004 Committee Members,

Six months ago when we first began planning 9.11 Illustrated and the Independent Media Expo, September 11 seemed like the ideal day for the events. It was historically significant, far enough in the future for the planning to be imaginable and, of personal importance to me, was to be two months * after * my wedding, ensuring me that there would be no conflict between these events ; one close to my heart and the other a part of my professional vision for the media projects I have made central to my life’s work.

Things changed in mid-July when our wedding date was pushed back to Sept. 25. Suffice to say that there were time conflicts with the usage of the reception space, minister availability and other issues that made that date the best fit for us in order for us to be married this year. This was very important to me and my fiancé, despite the obvious conflict with 911i and the ime.

Things have proven more difficult than I believed and I have found that I am being overwhelmed by the combination of projects and personal issues I am facing. On this day, 12 days before the Expo is supposed to start, we only have eight of 16 films we planned to show, the speakers able to make the Expo are fewer than expected – at this point no one from CityBeat, the Herald and a number of other outlets have confirmed that they can come – and our band lineup for the Saturday night show is questionable. I also feel that promotion for the event – key to getting folks to come – has been soft.

What I’m saying is that, rather than run with the event as planned and have it fail on a number of levels, I think we should push it back to the end of October. I believe the Mockbee (location of the event) has a weekend open before the election (though I’ve CC’d Carissa and Chris of the Mockbee)this letter to find out) and if they do I think it would be wise to take more time and make this event the best it can be.Also, as we have already promoted the events and CityBeat ran a promotional on the weekend in their current CityLights section, I think it would be wise to move forward with a truncated film event using the films we have in hand – online at http://www.indynet.org

We could show the films on Saturday afternoon through the night as a simple and dignified memorial.I apologize for the poor timing on my part. I have tried and am still doing my best to make this something we can all be proud of and an event that will inspire others to do good works. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.

Sincerely,Stephen Novotni, IMN Coordinator

An Eventful Wedding-Planning Weekend

As much fun as we've had this weekend doing everything imaginable "wedding," we're about ready for a break from planning this whole getting hitched thing! The weekend began with a dinner meeting at our home Friday night to discuss details of the wedding ceremony. The ceremony will be participatory in nature, involving close friends and family. Steve and I are in the process of deciding on which songs to include for both the ceremony and reception. We are also ironing out the details on the sequence of events as well as the content therein.

Steve and I are feeling a lot more relaxed about wedding-planning due to the generous support of our family and local church community, who are helping out with all aspects of the event. We are very grateful to everyone who is stepping up, as your input has been very much needed and appreciated!

The rest of our weekend involved mattress shopping with Steve's mom and grandma, who ended up buying us a very nice mattress and box spring set from Value City Furniture. I also went with Laura Bosse, Sarah Carothers and Carol Novotni to Target on a couple of occasions to update our gift registry. It's a lot of fun to scan things with that gun and not have to worry about paying for anything! I would recommend Target as a great store for anyone getting married or having a baby shower.

Steve and I are making the remaining invitations tomorrow and will be sending them out soon. We have a lot more wedding stuff to do, but are making definite headway. What a fun and exhausing wedding-planning weekend!

-Becky

Commenting on these posts

My mom told me that it's a little hard to comment on the posts on this site - FYI - you do not have to register with Blogspot - just post anonymously - We'd love to get your feedback!

Steve

Online video and pictures

We're hoping to put a live Webcam feed from the wedding on this site on the day of.

I think, since our friend Kenny O's room overlooks the courtyard where we're having the wedding and reception, his window would be a good spot to have the cam. (we have to be connected to a computer too, of course)

OK, so this Saturday we're having as many folks from the wedding party as possible come over for dinner - so if that's you, please come! All of you should know that when we resume "normal life" after we get married, we'll resume our Saturday night potluck dinners. Over the past year we've had several dozen people come and it's been a great way to get to know everyone better and keep up with old friends.

- Steve

Cool pictures of Becky at her first live performance in six years - The Bands Against Bush show, Aug. 20 at the Southgate House in NKY.

http://gallery.hookahheads.com/gallery/album804

-Steve

One month 'til our wedding

We've just thirty days now until we'll get to see all of you and there's a lot to do!

We just met with Adam Diamond and Laura Opfer - old friends and an old married couple we know ;) They helped us plan the ceremony and it's going to be really cool. This is a very difficult process, but we're working though it, and it is really a lot of fun, too.

- Steve