Average Jane

Average Jane's Anniversary

Fourteen years ago today, my husband-to-be and I (along with far too many family members) attended an important event here:

It's the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. Yes, that's where I got married, wearing my mother's old dress and a veil I made from items I bought at a craft store (although you couldn't tell at all).

Look how happy I was - and it wasn't just because I was a size 5 and still had a discernable waist!

We still look happy in this photo taken back at the Mirage, but that's only because we're having our picture taken. By then, the beautiful shoes I'd bought to go with the dress were killing my feet, my blood sugar had long since crashed, and I was feeling Bridezilla-ish long before anyone had even coined the term.

Fortunately, that was a temporary situation. Fourteen years later we're still best friends, looking forward to our traditional anniversary steak dinner at J. Gilbert's and planning fun things to do next year for our 15th anniversary.

My husband stopped reading my blog a long time ago, but I'll still say it, "Happy Anniversary, honey!

Average Jane Shows the Rest of the Picture

The little scribbly cartoon of me that I've used as the symbol for this blog was drawn sometime around 1994 when I was working at a printing company with a great group of women. We were all English majors who had been hired to proofread and typeset custom printed invitation and announcement cards.

One thing you wouldn't know about the sketch is that I wasn't the only one in the drawing. I ran across my copy of the whole page, which depicts everyone on our shift at the time except for the cartoonist who drew it:

For the first time, meet Valorie, me, Christy and Kristine.

Valorie still comes over from time to time for game nights and other get-togethers. Christy has lived in Indianapolis for many years and I'm overdue to visit. I haven't seen Kristine since we worked together, but she was always a lot of fun.

My favorite thing about these cartoons is how much they capture the essence of each person. Thanks, Cari, for your spur-of-the-moment drawing that's become such a great memory.