Saying farewell to the lovely view outside my office

Would you pardon my violation based on my plea?

City of Chicago
Department of Revenue
P.O. Box 88290
Chicago, IL 60680-1290

April 20, 2010

Dear City of Chicago,

I am writing in regards to a street cleaning parking ticket I received on Thursday, April 15, 2010.

I apologize for the inconvenience my car must have caused the street cleaner that day. I did not leave it there for the purpose of being an inconvenience. I wish to be pardoned from this street cleaning violation as I believe I do not deserve it. I simply did not see any signs posted for street cleaning.

I am getting married this week, and my mind is in my various locations right now. I leave early for work and come home late everyday before the sun rises and sets, and must have missed them in the darkness The day of street cleaning, I had taken work off to complete a few wedding items, and left the house late that morning right as the street cleaner went past my car, as well as the ticket issuer. I would greatly appreciate being pardoned from this ticket.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, or follow-up of any kind.

Thank you very much,

Angelica Wachlin

FYI: The plea has been edited for blogging appropriate purposes. And as much as I'm going to miss Chicago, I'm not going miss the city's ridiculous parking tickets they love to hand as if it were candy. Boo City of Chicago ticket issuers!

Tap Dancing Award

All that hard work in Tap 101 at BYU-I really paid off.

Tiffany, Amanda and I won an award at our branch's variety show for our dance titled, "The Evolution of Dance". We danced to "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolph. Amanda and I tapped, Tiff was on pointe, there was about 10 seconds of ribbon dancing and then we finished it off with a little hip hop - whad up.

This dance might have just been the pinnacle of my single life. I can marry Matt happily now without any regrets.

You can check out the dance here.

Dear Roommates,

If you have been wondering where our dishes and utensils went, please do not be concerned. They were in my desk drawer at work. What's that you say? For weeks? Yes, about that...Sometimes I don't check my desk drawers. But, to make restitution, I'm bringing them all back in this Target bag to their true home.

P.S. Amanda - thank you for bringing home the 5 spoons that were in your own desk drawer and purse. Shermeka - thank you for being an example to us all of how not hoard dishes and utensils.

Embarassing

Always an embarassing moment when you spit your gum across your vice president's desk during a recap of your proposal for the agency-wide internal newsletter.

On a more positive note. My cute supervisor at work gave me this cute card along with a wonderful little wedding present. She's adorable.

Wedding plans are coming along. I'm just ecstatic to marry Matt. I wish I could just fill you in on what a wonderful man he is and how funny and kind he is and how he makes me smile every day. I could tell you story after story. A picture says a thousand words. And this just might say it all.

So back to wedding plans. Did I mention we're getting married April 24th in the Salt Lake City Temple? Yeah! I feel so blessed and lucky because everything is coming together and we have received so much help! Compliments of my in-laws, we have a beautiful reception hall, compliments of my good roommate Shermeka, we have a great photographer who is so personable and fun to work with, compliments of my good friend Angela, my flowers should be so pretty. Um, I absolutely love my dress and I can't wait for you guys to see our invitations, compliments of my wonderful professional designer friend, Chrissy. Compliments of my mom and best roommate and friend, Amanda, the invitations will get to you.

I really crush Matt a lot. I think he's handsome. Don't you?

Long Distance

Matt is in Houston and I am here in Chicago. Just for the interim.

Tonight I was in the home of a couple friend of mine. They've been married for 10 years. I was asking them about their relationship. During their story, the husband pulled out four big binders of love letters they had written back and forth during the six year courtship, most of which had been done long distance.

On my drive home, I reflected on Matt and I. We may not be great love letter writers, but we sure love using modern technology to bond us together during these months apart. Two examples of this.

Two: I sent Matt this picture in a text message today during work. My work girlfriends walked into my office carrying these after lunch and insisted I tie them behind my swivel chair. I think they're just as excited about Matt's and my engagement as we are. Look at those awesome balloons!!

One: We Skype almost every night. Yesterday Matt was making funny faces into the Skype camera, so I grabbed a few shots. I decided to post one of his most serious ones.

So basically long distance is treating us real well.

No paper binders for the kids though. Thank goodness for blogs.

the 2009 nba playoffs are what i owe my happiness to

i love being engaged.
as i'm sure you've been able to tell
i'm so excited to be marrying matt.
i feel like i was a little hush, hush with us at first
so here is a little bit about our beginnings.

one might say our entire relationship was founded on the 2009 nba playoffs.
we were at a friend's b-day party last june and i said the orlando magic would win and matt said he bet the laker's would win.
i believe that the laker's are one of america's greatest vices and i told him this.
he said, "well let's bet on it. winner gets a night on the town in chicago."
as anyone watching the playoffs last june can atest, i lost. by a long shot.
so i had to pay up. we planned the night on the town for that saturday.
in the middle of the week, matt calls me up and says, "i actually want to take you out for a night on the town."
of course, i had been secretly hoping for the reversal of events, so i said a definitive, "yes."
we ended up talking for four hours that night on the phone. it was great. and not something normal for me, as the phone is not one of my most favorite things in the world
and than on the date, we went to dinner at vivo and talked for hours and hours.

and then the rest is history.

three things that are so great about matt:
1. he is a james taylor fan
2. he can dance like no one else can (seriously. come to our utah reception to find out)
3. he has the most fantastic laugh, accompanied by the best sense of humor
4. and he's so handsome

(i realize that's four, oh well)

p.s. remember how we took our engagement pictures in the middle of february when it was 30 degrees out and i was wearing a thin dress with no jacket? yeah about that. i've been sick for a week and a half with a cold. but oh were those pictures and the time with matt and nikki worth it! i love them. thanks again nikki.