Not going to lie, September was a pretty great month.
Well, I bet you've been wondering, "What's up in the life of Joe? That guy blogged every day for a whole year, then suddenly stopped, and now my life is in shambles because I just can't keep up with the intricate details of his awesome life like I used to..." Well, fear not, dear friends, because here is another update.
For starters, every time I try to write an update now, I feel very much out of the habit. My writing feels forced, and the humor just isn't there. Maybe it was never there and I'm just now realizing that. Thanks for telling me. Just kidding.
Anyway. Let's see. September was a busy month. Rachelle and I had something going on pretty much every weekend in September. Over Labor Day Weekend, two of our friends from community group, Dan Sims and Rachel Richards, got married. It was a good time. I was asked to run sound for their wedding, which meant hauling an SUV full of sound equipment and a keyboard, but I enjoyed being able to serve my friends in this way. Rachelle came with me and we had a lot of fun.
We dieted for most of September, and our first "meal off" (our diet allows us one meal off per week and one day off per week, where we can eat whatever we want, pretty much) was at the wedding rehearsal dinner at Golden Corral the night before the wedding. I think it might have been a mistake for me, at the end of the first week of my diet, to go to a buffet place on my meal off. Just saying. I had so much food that at one point I was convinced my body was going to split into two and there'd be two Joe's. I already have a twin though... I wonder if that would make me a triplet. I should look into this in case it actually happens sometime.
On the day of the wedding, I dressed in my usual all-black production garb. It's what I do. I bought a new black shirt (I found black shirts at Wal-mart that actually fit me) for the occasion. It came with an insert in the collar to keep it in the proper shape while in the packaging, which I found I could turn around and make myself look like a priest.
That brought me a lot of personal amusement as I walked around Rachelle's apartment while she was getting ready, responding to all of her questions with, "Yes, my child" I tried to make her call me Father Joseph but she wouldn't go for it.
Rachelle's dad and step-mom visited Southside Fellowship on that Sunday over Labor Day weekend while they were in town. I was able to come say hi to all of them for about a minute before I had to run back into the control room to run things for the morning. Ah, the life of a media director. We were able to eat dinner with them that night at her aunt and uncle's house in Greenville though, so that was nice.
The following weekend, we drove to Albermarle, North Carolina, to celebrate her cousin AJ's daughter Juliette's 1st birthday. On the way there, we stopped by the IKEA store to pick up a gift card for her step-mom for her birthday. Seriously, I could spend all day in that store. They have everything including the kitchen sink. Just imagine if a store like that combined with a Wal-Mart. I would probably be at the front of the line to inquire about renting out a section of the camping department so I could live there.
Rachelle and I took a bunch of good pictures at the birthday party. It was a lot of fun. The theme of the party included lots of ducks. Lots. of. Ducks.




The following weekend, we went to Charleston to spend the weekend with Rachelle's dad and step-mom at their house. We arrived at their house that Friday evening just in time for a late dinner, and then spent the rest of the evening just relaxing. On Saturday, Rachelle and I got up early and set out to explore downtown Charleston to take some pictures and check out the market (for those that don't know, there is an area in downtown Charleston on Market Street where there are a lot of vendors selling various handmade things and items). We were wanting to take some creative pictures while we were there, but found a lot of the people in the market were adamant about not having their picture (or pictures of their wares) taken, so that hindered our creativity some, but we were still able to take some good pictures.
We also took some pictures around downtown Charleston a bit too.
I spent most of the day with my mind focused on Saturday evening. I had made plans prior to coming to Charleston to meet with Rachelle's dad to talk about "some important things in my relationship with Rachelle". You probably know what I'm talking about. I spent most of the time at dinner that night nervously wringing my hands underneath the table while talking to her dad. The funny thing was that at the booth we were sitting at, my side was broken or something, and I was sitting so much lower than him that I was practically looking up to him and my chin could have rested on the table.
The dinner went well. On that Sunday morning, we all went to Seacoast Church, where Rachelle's dad and step-mom go to church. I really enjoyed the service. The pastor spoke from Acts 2 and then they had a "spontaneous" baptism and it was a really touching moment for me to see so many people choose to get baptized and proclaim their salvation publicly.
The following weekend was pretty much the only weekend where Rachelle and I did not have a bunch of plans. We had been wanting to go apple picking at SkyTop Orchard for awhile and had thought about doing that, but it was raining pretty badly on that Saturday morning so we decided not to go. Instead, we just spent most of the day just relaxing at Rachelle's apartment, going to lunch, and enjoying the day. I had ordered a new lens for my DSLR (it's a 50mm prime lens that goes down to f1.4... in other words, really narrow depth of field and really awesome in general) and spent a lot of the day just taking pictures inside the apartment.
Later that afternoon, I recommended we try to go to downtown Greenville to take some more pictures. So, we headed downtown with our cameras and an umbrella, because it was still raining. And, I had something else with me in my pocket as well. Wink.
We headed down to the Liberty Bridge in Falls Park, where we stood on that bridge for almost an hour, just talking about some of the facets of our dating relationship over the last few months. Rachelle and I spent a lot of time in downtown Greenville together before we were even officially "dating".
After a while, I handed the umbrella to Rachelle and set my camera bag on the bridge. Just moments later, I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. Many tears of joy were shed, and we enjoyed a special moment there on the bridge together in the rain. Along with some other random people on the bridge, who thought it was so romantic. She said "yes!" in case you were wondering.
We decided to get out of the rain for awhile. We started walking back toward the parking garage and stopped to take a few photos of ourselves to celebrate and relive the moment.
When we got back to the car, we both pretty much immediately pulled out our cell phones and started calling and texting our family and friends to share the good news of our engagement. We decided to go to Copper River Grill to celebrate. I had told Rachelle that I loved her for the first time in the parking lot of that restaurant, so we thought that would be a poignant place to have our celebratory dinner for our engagement.
We spent almost an hour just sitting in the parking lot calling and talking to our friends, still sharing our news. When we were finally done with phone calls, we went inside the restaurant to eat, only to find out that they had a 40 minute wait. So, we made a reservation and then went to Barnes & Noble to check out wedding planners. Getting a head start on things, you know.
We ate a ton of food at dinner, but it felt good to celebrate. It was pretty much the end of our diet game, so it was justified. I ate so much food. A lot of rolls, salad, chicken, alfredo... lots of goodness.
The next day was a lot of fun going to church and sharing the news, but most everyone that we didn't call had found out via our Twitter and Facebook status updates. My friends Rex and Catie were in town over the weekend so they took us out to lunch to celebrate, which was fun.
I took Rachelle to get her nails done that Sunday afternoon before going to our community group so that she could show off her ring and enjoy having pretty nails too.
So, that was pretty much September. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty great month.
October is going great so far. We have been planning out wedding stuff like crazy. I am participating in Tietober again this year, although almost no one is really noticing or commenting much this time around, which I can only presume is because I am not blogging about it every day. It's getting pretty popular on Twitter though and people are enjoying seeing what ties I wear each day, and I am hearing more and more reports of people participating in Tietober to some degree. I think most people are just not willing to wear a tie for every day of the month like I am.
I got a new PDA phone this week. I've had the Motorola Q for over two years. I wouldn't say I "loved" that phone, but I definitely got used to it and started to enjoy its interface and conveniences. I was driving to the church on Wednesday and thinking to myself, "This phone isn't that bad, I'll probably keep using it for awhile before upgrading, even though it's old". Then, literally 2 minutes later, I spilled my water bottle all over it and it didn't work anymore. So, I drove to the Verizon store and got a Blackberry phone. I later took apart my Q phone and let it dry out some and I separated the parts that were shorting out so that I could turn it back on and get some data off of the phone. I'm such a nerd. I was able to get all of my contacts and pictures and video off of the phone though, so, go me. I did break some of the case getting the phone apart though, so, it's not really usable anymore, I guess. Although it still works as good as it ever did.
Anyway, that's about it. I'm not sure I really enjoy posting long entries spanning entire month(s) of my life, but it's all I really have time for these days. And for now, I'm ok with that. The rest of October (Tietober!) is going to be really busy. Rachelle and I are traveling to Montana this weekend and will return next Friday. Please don't steal stuff at my house while I'm gone. If you take my lawn mower, at least cut the grass before you take it. I would hate to make Tim have to cut it by hand with a pair of scissors again, but, it might not be too bad, it is cooling off a bit around here.
Later,
Joe


