Trivia Answer 3

For those of you who thought I never took Joe on a date, you can almost consider yourselves correct. I never intended on taking Joe to the game; he was actually my back-up date's back-up. My brother and I (also Joe) had planned to go to a BU hockey game--you know, for some brother-sister bonding time. This is how a brother and sister (in my family) meet halfway to hang out when they get older--Sporting event at my alma mater (or anything to do with Boston). You see Joe (Montano) was about to get married in T-six months. For those of you who don't know Joe and our relationship, I think he thought he was going to get charged with abandonment the day he said, "I do." So this whole hockey game plan was one of Joe's many many attempts to show me, his little sister, that there would always be time for me, "his #1." Ironically, something came up (after tickets were bought), and Joe couldn't make it. Well, I would just take Shannon, my roommate (and now co-made-of-honor), but of course the tickets were for a Saturday night and Shannon bartends, so she wasn't free. What was I to do last minute, other than ask Joe, who just moved from Michigan--I knew he'd be free if I couldn't find anyone else. Of course, I let my brother know this is what was going to go down if he really couldn't make it and he had to say ok. Quite ironic, looking back now. Little did we know, my brother was passing the torch on to Joe Faraoni. I guess even then, in the back of his head, he knew it was time to let go and let someone else take care of me.

Well, of course the kid from Michigan was free and it just so happened I had been in Boston a week prior to see some friends and dragged my friend Sarah Spencer into the BU bookstore. Just in case, I had to take Joe with me to the game, I wasn't going to let him (or us) stick out like a sore thumb at the game, so I bought him a BU t-shirt. Anywho, we get to the game, it's nice and packed with fans. Hockey's a pretty big deal in Boston--and BU--if you didn't know already.


With BU t-shirt on and all, Joe makes us look like tourists anyway. He randomly started snickering in the middle of the game and I'm thinking, "what is wrong with this kid?" So I ask him what he's laughing at and once he gets over the giggles, and the screaming guys from Southie behind us yelling to the goalie, "Go BOOMA!" Joe says (nice and loud) "I've never heard a real Boston accent before!" I almost got up and switched seats, so as not to be seen with him.

Plus One

The day after Valentine's Day is a rather large part of our love story. It's how it all started.
I remember Valentine's Day much better than I remember the night of the Robert Randolph concert. There are a few parts of the concert night that I remember very well though.

I picked Marisa up after work and during the ride to the show Marisa felt it necessary to be on her phone. I think it was her now sister in law, Ryan, if I remember correctly. It was an extremely boring ride for me. I remember wanting to turn around, leave her at home and go to the show on my own. Looking back, I probably should have.

After finding the Webster, on my own (Marisa was still on the phone) and parking atop a foot of packed snow, we made our way in to the theater, Marisa as my plus one. This is where things get hazy... Once in, we got a drink and chatted while we waited for the show to start. I left Marisa for the wolves while I photographed the first 3 songs, this is usually the case with most concerts. I remember being really in the groove, enjoying the music & getting the shots I wanted.

My three songs came and went so I headed to the bar area to find if my date had been swept away by someone else or if she liked me enough to wait around. Thankfully, she was still there, talking with everyone. She introduced me to people I didn't really care to know but she had spent the last 3 songs talking to. I thought they attended high school together or something. Nope, just strangers.

We went to the bar to get another drink and Marisa started a tab. This part I remember. She asked me not to let her forget she was leaving her card for the tab. Mental note made.

Like I said I don't remember all the details but we killed a few hours by dancing, talking and I'm not sure what else. Robert Randolph finished the night strong, I got my photos and the girl I came with was still hanging around with me. We made sure we had our stuff and we headed to the car.

On the way to the car Marisa and I had a moment. We were talking and we locked eyes (she has the most amazing green eyes!), we leaned toward one another, turned our heads a little, then the impossible happened... I fought as hard as I could but I couldn't help it. "Your credit card!" Huh? Why? Why, of all moments of the night did I have to think of Marisa's credit card being left at the bar now? It spewed out and it was too late. I was devastated. Our moment to lock lips and see if it felt right came and went as fast as "credit card" shot out of my mouth. Marisa looked at me as if I was insane, her head tilted, eyebrows curled. She turned back towards the door and as I mustered all the energy I could to tag along during my walk-of-shame, she laughed. "You really messed that one up. Not sure if you'll get another chance now. Thanks for reminding me about the card though." Not sure if she was mocking me or just trying to comfort me at that point. Regardless, I blew it.

We made our way back into the theater, picked up her card and headed for the car again retracing the shameful steps I just made, all the while replaying the moment over and over in my head... "Your credit card!" Rewind. "Your credit card!" This time the walk to the car generated no moment.


Marisa and I got lost finding our way back to the highway. Again, Marisa was on the phone. This time calling my friends from my phone. After my "moment to remember" things must have been a bit awkward and Marisa thought it a good idea to see what all my buddies were up to at about 1:30 a.m. One answered. I'm not sure Scott knew what was going on but he played along, I apologized and I took the phone away from Marisa.

Finally, we got back to her place. I dropped her off (no goodnight kiss included). This is by far one of the most embarrassing moments Marisa and I have shared but its safe to say it all panned out in the end. This one cost me points so at the end of the night, the plus one left me in the hole.

And the list gets longer...

If you haven't noticed, we have not yet had a post revealing our venue. That's because we don't have one! We had some "tie-ups"--and what Joe and I felt were run arounds--with our previously-chosen venue. While we are still considering the place (only because Michelle is willing to go to bat for us against them), we have reviewed our list and expanded it once again, opening any and all options. So if you have any ideas (or really good connections!) send them our way please! As I have stated in so many emails, we are looking for a "non-traditional" venue where our pennies (and I do mean pennies) can go to go use, rather than supporting the "wedding-factory business."

We'll be updating our long-running list here, so check back shortly if you are interested. And yes, I've inquired about every last one of them.

China

Check out our registry at Macy's!

Please note, our china looks MUCH nicer in person than on your computer screen!!! (At least better than on ours). I was a bit appalled.

Trivia Answer 2

The poll has closed!

Joe asked my brother (the oldest, Joe also) permission to marry me at.... can you believe it?? A NASCAR race! Joe and I went up to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Ryan and we all went up to Lowden for the race. While us girls were at the ol' port-a-potty, Joe took the opportunity and ran with it before we could get back!! Of course, he requested that my brother not say anything to anybody---so what does my brother do? Immeditately text Ryan (my sister-in-law) while we're in line for the loo, so she knew the whole time we were chatting and couldn't say a thing!

Holidays & Update

I'm sure all of you are completely disheveled that Joe & I forgot to put up Round 2 of our "Joe & Marisa" trivia this past Friday... so we apologize!!! We'll get one up by the end of the day.

I had to work Thanksgiving Eve til 11pm and was back there at 7am-3pm on Thanksgiving Day, while Joe was at home, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, and packing for the two of us to leave for New Hampshire as soon as I got out of work. What a good domestic husband-to-be he is, isn't he???

Here are a couple pics from our long weekend with my brother and sister-in-law...You'd think there would be more, but we were really focused on tasting a variety of beers and wines--to get ideas for the wedding of course!

As far as wedding plans go, we are just about ready to put our deposit down on the venue, so you will see those details very soon! We are working out some final kinks after talking to the owner the other day, so it should only be a matter of days. However, with the holiday festivities taking up much of our time, we didn't complete much more on the planning, so as soon as we got back to CT (well, after a nice nap), we were sure to run over to Crate and Barrel and update our poor excuse for a registry.... before Michelle could ask us about it Monday morning! And we have an appointment this week to start another. Apparently, people might want to get us stuff.

As for now, I need to go buy some essentials to get our Save-The-Dates going, but look for our trivia later today!

OH! and! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CHRIS & SARAH!! LOVE, US --->

Joe and Marisa Trivia

Marisa came up with a great idea. Joe and Marisa Trivia!

This is how it works:
We will post a question about us on Fridays and give you til Sunday morning to guess the right answer. We will put the correct answer up by Monday.

First one is up. It's easy.

Do it!

Things On Our Minds

*Finalizing Venue (don't want to mention it here quite yet, in case we jinx it!)
*Sorting out contract, which Michelle aka SuperPlanner is picking apart with us
*Giving them all our money once they tell us they will do whatever we want
*Getting someone (fabulous) to serve all you fine people your drinks!! (since we can't use our favorite bartender and co-maid of honor, Shannon)
*Pinpointing exactly what type of par-tay we want to have so everyone has a great time
*Finding the motivation and creativity to get our Save The Dates Out
*Searching for ideas for dresses (Not Joe, just me!)



Also on my mind-Wedding mishaps:
Reception Planning - The Knot

Feel free to share any helpful advice!

Update

Yesterday’s post was a pathetic excuse for a post, I know.
Marisa and I have been busy… relaxing.

The last couple of weeks for us have been a little crazy, to say the least. For those of you who don’t know, Marisa works at a home for girls who are in the custody of the state. Someone has to be at the home at all times. So, when someone calls in sick there has to be someone to cover the shift, or in Marisa’s case, shifts, plural. Between Marisa working 11 p.m. to 3 p.m. double shifts and me being out of town, lets just say we slept in real late on Saturday.

Along with Marisa’s long days and nights of work; a couple weeks ago I was in NYC at a ‘photo dork’ convention, Photo Plus Expo. I then headed down to Philadelphia for the World Series and a few Philly Cheese Steaks. “Wiz ‘wit,” is the way to go, by the way.



Anywho, we are well aware of our slacker tendencies and are back on track with planning. Keep checking back for more news.

Background on the header (if you noticed): Marisa and I went to this great place for burgers, Plan B (I know, sounds like you could find the morning-after pill there or something). It was our first time and I’m sure I could speak for both of us, we felt like we were 15 and drinking beer. We had a lot of fun and the burgers were and are phenomenal. If you know anything about Marisa, it should be that she loves sweet potato fries (and me!). Well she’s eating a sweet-po fry in her photo, go figure. Me, I’m posing with my Scuba Steve jacket on.

Fiancée vs. Fiancé

Call me clueless... but I did not know this til this evening:

A man who is engaged to be married is called his partner's fiancé; a woman similarly engaged is called her partner's fiancée. These words are pronounced identically in English; the separate feminine form exists because of the inflectional morphology of grammatical gender in French, where the term originated.

Read it on wikipedia

I know, a pathetic excuse for a blog post but wouldn't you rather read something than nothing?

The Date

After great debate and conferring with a few important people, Joe and I have settled on a date.

I guess it seems silly that we had to have so much discussion about it, cause really, what else do you have to pick, other than the time of year you want to have your wedding???

However, there was a very special day I had in mind when Joe and I even mentioned getting married in the future, a while ago...little did I know, Joe took the info and ran with it, basing his whole proposal and our engagement around that very day, without me knowing.

The tricky part, of course, is that I have two great friends also getting married around the same time and did not want to interfere with their special days or have any hurt feelings. My very first college friend Andrea is getting married two weeks prior and Kayte, who I've known since elementary school, just bumped up her date a bit and is getting married only one week after! It took me countless hours of weighing the options and the "what ifs" to come to a conclusion, which drove Joe crazy--because as he saw it, this is our ONE day to do exactly what we want to make it special and knew that having it on this date meant the world to me. He also knows that I have great friends who will also appreciate the day's importance.

For some reason, I was nervous to tell Kayte and Andrea--for the slight chance that it might negatively affect their plans or think they were not considered in our decision, which was FAR from the truth. But of course, both lovely ladies took the news gracefully and were supportive.

So after much ado, and conferencing with them and a select few other friends and family, we have finalized our date. Of course, I had to run it by my Queen of Etiquette friend, Sarah, whose mom happened to be present at the time and pretty much summed it up:

"It only happens every seven years."

"It" (being my father's birthday), coincidentally falls on a Saturday the year Joe and I plan to get married.

And so, 9.26.09 it is.

I figure if my dad can't be there to walk me down the aisle, the best birthday present I could ever give him is knowing his daughter will be taken care of for the rest of her life by the best man she could have ever dreamed to have met.

Vacation

Marisa and I just got back from our vacation. Not from wedding planning, you know, from life and work and all that stuff. It always seems to go too fast. Don't worry though, we kept up with the planning and made up our minds involving some pretty important decisions that you'll find out soon.

FYI, we went down to Orlando for my cousin Daniela's wedding. I must say, there are no dull moments with my family. Lela, as we like to call her, got married to this pretty cool Puerto Rican guy (like most of my cousins). No, really though, Rick is amazing and couldn't be a better match for Lela. I knew it from the moment I met him. Scarily, he's like a brother. I love them very much and wish them all the luck in the world with their marriage, even though I don't think they will need it.

Anywho, along with much drinking and a little relaxation, we got to really wrap our heads around this decision we made to get married and take it all in. Marisa took to the magazines pretty hard and I watched.

We stayed with my family and by doing so we could really feel the love and excitement that everyone has about our engagement. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Returning home means its time to get back to work, wedding and otherwise. The big decisions are close to being made and the little engine is beginning to gain momentum. Watch out and stay tuned.


To my family: Thank you for all the encouragement and excitement on our engagement. We are very lucky to have you in our lives. For those of you who offered services and help, you will be receiving phone calls and emails in the near future. We love you very much!


Along with that, enjoy some photos from our trip.



View the flickr set.

We love you. And no, we're not ignoring you.

Please bear with us.

If you are reading this, you are probably feeling like this blog is your #1 (or only) source of communication between yourself and us- and it might be driving you crazy cause we "haven't told you anything." But it's meant to be (not to drive you crazy, but to be your source of up to the minute news of Joe and Marisa).

We have decided to take everyone's advice in all their cards and emails: "Enjoy this special time together. It goes by fast."

How I look at it is, this is our time that is meant solely for us to enjoy and for us to share as we choose to unfold it. As crazy as it might sound to a lot of you, Joe and I really haven't gotten many chances (if any) to do something, or anything, for just us. Literally, every "vacation" Joe and I have taken together has been due to a wedding. We can proudly say that we have celebrated with all of you, ten weddings since we've been together, over half of which one or both of us was in (or photographing) and more than two thirds of we traveled out of state for. We love you all and are so happy to have been a part of each of your days. So now, we are enjoying ours.

We do understand that everyone wants and needs to know the date and place. We have some important decisions to be certain of and a couple people to run it by before we start calling the press, but as soon as things are in order, we'll let you know. We have had a lot of options to weigh before finalizing a date. Despite what we may have told anyone when put on the spot about a date or month or time of year, we've been doing a lot of thinking. We assure you, it will be special, and we will tell you ASAP.

And if you're reading this and still want a phone call, that's ok, but please remember that everyone close to us wants that phone call too and if we stayed on the phone with everyone that wants to talk to us for as long as they wanted to talk about every detail that we've addressed, we'd both have to quit our jobs, which I don't think is the wisest decision if we plan on having any funds for our wedding.

That is why we (Joe) created this blog for all of you. Because we love you and want to be able to follow us as we go through the excitement and escapades together. We don't want you to have to play phone tag with us. We want you to be able to go into work, go to "joelovesmarisa" and waste a good half an hour or so a few times a week on reading up on us, right here.

Planning 101

We’re engaged! (as if you didn’t know…) But if you were not aware or don’t even know “Joe” and “Marisa” and you are still reading this, grab a cup of coffee, a J. Walker, or simply, enjoy reading. We have quite a way to go.

After the firestorm of phone calls, emails, Facebook and MySpace posts, and congratulations cards (thank you everyone!), we knew what would follow... "So, have you set a date?"

We have an idea of a date, but we are not locked into anything quite yet. We aren't telling just anyone either. We had to tell a few people for the outsider’s standpoint and etiquette tips, but that’s about it. Don't worry we'll let you all know (right here!) as soon as we decide.

I knew that after asking the question, planning would have to take place, naturally. What I didn't know was how soon. Like, now. We sat down with our event planner (which we'll get back to later) on Tuesday and (4 days later) we are already booked for more preliminary visits for our second Saturday of being engaged, than we know what to do with. We’d have even more, but travel and timing just not feasible, so they will extend to Sunday. She kicks some serious you-know-what, by the way.

The following probably should've been be the first topic of this blog post but to those of you reading this, I'm sure budget isn't what you want to read about. Especially ours. Have we nailed one down? Of course not. Do we have money? Not really. This is the most unsure facet of the getting married process, at least to me. (Not sure if Marisa is having second thoughts of saying “yes” to this guy.) This is where a planner comes in handy (at least that’s what she told us.) They are there to keep you us on track with budget and advise as to where money may be better spent. Our biggest problem up to now is what our budget will be. But no worries here, we have our budget analyst friends punching numbers into spreadsheets as we speak. No matter what our budget, I want Marisa (and myself) to have the best wedding possible without me having to sell an organ. I would if I had to, though. However, as we thoroughly expressed to Michelle, Superwoman of event planning, “best” to us, doesn’t necessarily mean the traditional “chandelier-horse-and-buggy” type wedding that others might die for. Actually, it absolutely does not mean that at all.

There are so many things to consider and we’re only a week and a half into the engagement. The only part of this whole thing that I’m sure of, is who I get to do it with. There are times when I know there are about 127 things I would rather be doing then listen to Marisa explain this color over that or what food we should get or can’t afford, but when I realize who it is that I will be sharing the rest of my days with, I can’t help but smile.

Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff… I have asked Marisa (had to bribe her with candy) to write along with me on this blog. She should be posting soon (she even helped a little with this one!) We thought it would be fun to have anyone who wants to read what we are doing and where we are going, do so. We will be posting everything from what and where we are looking for plans, to registries and maybe even stories (definitely stories). So stay tuned and please feel free to comment, email us and/or just follow along.

Well, its now about 10 a.m. and we have a 10:30 beverage tasting. We'll let you know how it goes.

She said "Yes"

Marry Me.

Contact Us

	Marisa		Joe
	marisamontano[at]gmail.com		joseph.faraoni[at]gmail.com

Joe and Marisa Trivia

Trivia Question 1














Posted Nov. 21
Correct answer: C



Trivia Question 2

















Posted Dec. 1
Correct answer: B




Trivia Question 3















Posted Dec. 17
Correct answer: B


Trivia Question 4















Correct Answer: C

Valentine's Day

It's not when we met, but when we fell in love. Well, check that, I can't speak for her. I guess its safe to say that's when I fell in love with her.

What day is better than Valentine's Day? The day after.

What great love story doesn't involve some romantic mention of Valentine's Day? Yeah... I don't know about that either. Anywho, mine does but its in a roundabout kind of way.

When I lived in the suburbs of Detroit, the other side of 8 Mile, I used to photograph concerts for my buddy Schwegs. After being in CT for while with nothing to do I asked Schwegs if I could shoot an upcoming gig and get a plus one (an extra ticket) to boot. Schwegs being the great guy that he is hooked me up with a photo pass and the tickets to a Robert Randolph show at The Webster Theater in Hartford.

The plus one plays a key role in my love story, definitely moreso than Valentine's Day. Back to the story though. This was my chance to throw out the idea of attending a free show to Marisa. You know? Just toss out the idea that "I'm cool, I shoot concerts and it just so happens that I got an extra ticket, perhaps you would like to attend this show with me." I may or may not have taken advantage of the fact that she was drinking when I asked but put it this way, I made a real nice cast and she definitely took a bite at the bait, that's all I'm trying to say. Hook, line and sinker.

Getting to the point of asking her out wasn't as straight forward as you might think. There's more to this story than even she knows. Living in the shit hole I called my apartment, they didn't leave packages at the door because some shady character might have taken my free Robert Randolph tickets, instead they leave a note to pick them up half way across the state. I had to go to the FedEx distribution center damn-near Springfield, MA to pick up the tickets. Not only did I have to trek half-way across the state but it was snowing like mad that night. So a trip that might take 35 minutes took me roughly an hour and a half.

Once in hand, I dashed like mad to Nikita's to bring up the fact that I had an extra ticket to the concert. Like I said, she bit and she bit hard. We were set for a concert the next day.

She invited me to her place to watch a late movie with a few other folks but the best part was she wanted to ride over with me. This is where the Valentine's Day fun begins... my car was snowed in. What better way to get a car out of the snow then to have two drunks do it. Marisa doesn't know how to drive a manual transmission automobile, let alone my week-old one. I put her behind the wheel and explained that she would be mashing the gas and popping the clutch while I stood next to her pushing the open door. So we did just that.

She pinned the throttle and all I could do was cringe as I heard rev-limiter taming the engine. I told her to let off the far-left pedal, and the tires began to spin. Along with them came all the snow, in my face. We finally got the car moving but not without laughing our asses off so hard that we couldn't see straight, or could it have been that we were drinking? Whatever. We got the car to within 50 or so feet of the exit where the attendant booth was located. The car, magically, after 20 or so minutes of struggle got some amazing traction and Marisa was off to the races, with the door open, headed straight for the attendant booth and me face-first in the snow. As I screamed to shut the door, I saw it close and she squeezed the car through the curb and the booth as if she knew what she was doing. She pulled the car to a stop, I took the wheel, and we laughed uncontrollably the whole way to her place.

Back at her place, we tried to share the great moment we had with everyone and no one cared. I got a date, I had a laugh, and whether she knew it or not, I had a valentine.

The Move

I know, lame name for a blog post but what else am I going to call it? Honestly though, that's really how this whole story got started.

A long time ago, in September of 2006 I found a job posting on a website that's mainly for photo dorks, cool photo dorks, the sports ones, www.sportsshooter.com. Anyway, the job was with ESPN (read the original job posting that I saved for some reason. Oh sure, this blog). How much better could life be than working for ESPN, The Worldwide Leader in Sports? I have to move to Connecticut? What the hell is in Connecticut? Ef-it. Its between NYC and Boston. How bad could it be?

By Thanksgiving my car was on a flatbed truck, my crap was packed in boxes by guys I didn't know, and I had a small bag of clothes that were to last me a couple months. Off to CT for my dream job!

The first couple weeks were great, but boring. I knew no one and was living at the Extended Stay Deluxe, Hartford - Farmington , definitely more Farmington than Hartford. Not that Hartford is a Mecca of after-work activities or anything. It also didn't help that I moved at the beginning of Winter.


After a couple months, I moved to Middletown, CT because it was "happening". Uh, not really. Being exhausted of living in a hotel, I snagged the first apartment that was affordable, resembled a Manhattan loft and included heat and hot water. What a shit hole.

It didn't take long to find out all the awful things about the place, like single pane windows, no parking, being at a main intersection, no control over the heat and lastly, the stove not working. There were a few pluses though, like... uh... um, well, one was living above a bar. What happens when you live above a bar and your stove doesn't work? You spend a lot of time eating dinner (and drinking) at the bar downstairs.

I met some pretty cool folks at Nikita's. I found one of them a little more "cool" than the rest.

I'm pretty sure it was the second time I went down to Nikita's for dinner after eating frozen dinners for 3 or 4 days in a row and a rather large folding sign stood out in front of the place which read, "Welcome Shannon back from Florida! Deal on beer. Come in, your stove doesn't work. Dumbass!"

I went in for dinner and met Shannon, the bartender who just returned from Florida. Go figure. It wasn't too long after that when Shannon introduced me to her friend, and you guessed it, her name was Marisa. Actually her name is still Marisa, but you get the point. She may have been a bit tipsy but she was definitely taller than most and a bit on the loud side; did I mention b-e-a-utiful? There was nothing I could do to take my eyes off her. Okay, maybe it was just her butt I stared at for a while. Anyway... After Shannon's very brief introduction, I knew Marisa wanted nothing to do with me.

This is how we met. Shannon pawned me off to her friend. "This is Joe. He just moved and lives upstairs. He works for ESPN." BAM! My in, ESPN, she's totally gonna dig that. Except for the fact that there are like 4,000 employees that work for ESPN in CT, so I was just another dude that frequented the bar. Dammit.

I didn't give up though. I knew we would hang out eventually. It was only a matter of time till she saw I was special, or had money or really good looks or got free tickets to concerts. Something was bound to let me through her Violet Parr-like force field, which just so happened to block out emotion and men, at least I hoped.

Violet Parr

Vena Amoris

I did it today. I bought a ring.

It's now only a matter of time before I "pop" the question. I wasn't nervous either. I assumed I would be. Heart pounding, sweaty palms, sweaty pits, but nothing. I think that's a good sign. Especially for the guy I bought it from, so he wouldn't have to ask if I needed paper towel or if I was alright.

I have been in the market but not too seriously. Just sort of browsing and asking the questions. It probably could have gotten more serious sooner than it did but every time I walked into a jewelery store I felt like there was pressure and the salespeople just creeped me out. I finally settled on a place near where I live called Lux Bond & Green. I really liked who I dealt with, his name is Art. I just felt comfortable. He explained things and made it seem like I wasn't a pain in the ass.

There is a bit of a story behind the jeweler I picked. It might be lame but a story nonetheless. See, Marisa and I lived in a place called Middletown and every time we took Route 9 anywhere, as we passed through a place called New Britain, there was this big billboard that was always changing with new jewelery from Lux Bond & Green. The stuff was always extremely outrageous and we would laugh and giggle as we passed by. Well, okay we didn't giggle but we always talked about it and how obscene it was. Yup, I picked that place, the obscene, outrageous, make-you-giggle one, and I liked it.

I am keeping this from Marisa for obvious reasons as I would like this to be a surprise. So, if you know two folks in Connecticut named Joe and Marisa, keep your dang mouth shut. I have an idea when I'm going to do it. It will be special for the two of us but I won't give too much info now.

Anyway, stay tuned for more. I have a lot planned for this little piece of blog heaven.