What The Bleep?

What the bleep? And no, I don't mean 'What The Bleep' as in that movie starring Marlee Matlin about quantum mechanics. I mean, what the (insert preferred obscenity here) was I thinking when I recycled all of our custom-made wedding wine labels?

I accidentally recycled them weeks ago, but last night as I drifted off to sleep it finally hit me. It hit me like a glass of warm zinfandel hits my recoiling tastebuds, or a bad burrito hits your stomach a few minutes after being consumed. I grimaced and shot up in bed.

"Noooooo," I cried. "I didn't! Did I?"

Nick stirred beside me mumbling his annoyance for being woken up.

I jumped up and frantically searched all the places I might have moved them- to no avail. I did. All of my beautiful, victorian-inspired, custom wine labels were gone. Forever.

It happened a few weeks ago when my friends Lisa and Steve were over at our apartment watching movies and making mimosas. As we headed to the store to buy orange juice and champagne I decided to take out our overflowing recycling and enlisted the help of Lisa to carry the boxes.

"Why do you have a Babies-R-Us box," she asked as we lugged everything downstairs.

"Oh, it was for a baby shower," I answered, then went into detail about how I ordered tons of Uof O swag for their baby because they are huge Ducks fans... which led into a story about hating to drink beer at their house because their bottle opener plays the Ducks Theme Song every time you use it... and the next thing I knew our recycling was in the bin and we were picking out movie candy at the store.

Last night I remembered that day and it occurred to me- why did I have that box anyway? The baby shower was months ago. Why hadn't I recycled it before?

Because I was using it to store wedding stuff. Mainly, my beloved wedding wine labels. The ones that I spent hours searching for and customizing.

What the bleep indeed.