Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

The bridal shower was tonight, and, well, yeah.  It was fun but a little embarrassing. You’d think it’d be corny games like “pin the tail on the husband” or something…  well.. no.  Let’s just say it was a “celebration of fertility” and leave it at that.

I’m glad none of the younger girls were invited.  They did not need to see that.  I did not need to see that.

But all the clothes stayed on and it was all in good fun, so there’s that. Anathema takes her impending marriage seriously.  And a few of her friends probably would have jumped at the chance to start, well…  licking things that should stay unlicked.

Usually the bride-to-be would go home with lots of gag gifts, but…  no one actually brought any “gag gift” she didn’t already have.  Streamer, hello?  But she says she could always use spares because she might wear them out with Joe…

Poor Joe.  It’s a good thing he’s in shape.  I don’t think less fit men would survive this.  Haha.

There was talk about having a “hen party” but we all decided against it.  There’s just too much to do, and the bridal shower was enough.

Joe’s off having a bachelor party.  Anathema told him “Have fun, but no strippers“, and he was actually a bit offended, because he doesn’t really like that kind of thing in the first place.  I guess it’s going to be a boring bachelor party as they go, but I guess they headed off to main event or something and are spending the evening bowling and competing with each other at silly arcade games.  Didn’t think he had it in him, but hey.  It works.

He wasn’t too offended, though.  That is a stereotypical thing to do.  But he is in the military and could get in some trouble if things get out of hand, and everyone knows better.  He did say if some woman buys him a drink he won’t refuse, but then he’ll drink it, tell her thanks, and move on.

Anathema understood.  Hey, free drinks.  Lord knows she’s had her share.

Joe’s actually pretty blunt and straightforward.  That’s a cool thing about him.  He’s the type who will come home, tell her exactly who hit on him, how, what he said, and her reaction when she realized he’s taken.  Anathema accepts that.  She trusts him enough to know that he’s not going to cheat on her.  She has a lot of hang-ups, but that’s not one.  Besides… I think she’d probably just consider it cosmic justice if he did.

That’s sad, really.

We actually had one or two otaku come up and offer money to go to the reception.  We refused, but told them we’d put the videos of the idols doing their dancy thing up after it’s over.  They seemed disappointed.  So Sabby said that if they are outside at a very specific time, she might be able to at least arrange a couple of autographs.  They seemed a lot happier.

Speaking of the idols, they are practicing so hard.  The costumes are done so they’re practicing in those, and you should see them when they get going.  The garage is a little cramped but they’re making do.  Crystal’s band is also coming over for a while in the evenings to practice too.  It’s a full house, but that’s pretty cool.

They asked if they could bring some of their friends over, and Anathema said no, it’s friends and family only.  But they get to eat some of the pastries that Baker is working really hard on, and they seem to think that’s a fair trade for how new the band is.

They had to come up with a name again, no one liked “Crystal’s Rocking Rockers” or the longer version, so they chose “Crystal Refractions”.  I actually love that name, it’s really beautiful, and it fits them.  I don’t know how long they’re going to keep it, but they seem happy with it.

Anyway…  maybe more storms tonight.  Last night was LOUD and Marie was really nervous (so was Liz, aww). So I’m going to bed.

Love you all!!! ❤️

From the creator:

Keeping this one PG rated was hard.  Just think about how Anathema used to be as cat-girl, dial it back by about half, add in some, well, “adult novelties” and a few friends who haven’t really dialed it back, and you’ll come pretty close.  But it worked out.

Anathema is a difficult character to write, and cat-girl was even more difficult, because she was so amazingly uninhibited.  It was kind of difficult to keep that dialed back because she, well…  wanted to run around mostly (if not entirely at points) naked and “be with” pretty much anything that moved.  I’m kind of glad she changed.  She’s actually easier to write now because I don’t have to actively hold her back.

Yes, the booms were loud.  The cat got nervous, and I was lucky to get the small amount of sleep I did.  Sigh.  I don’t live in Round Rock anymore, but I’m close enough that my weather is (often) their weather.