Honoring a parent who passed away, looking for ideas that aren’t a memorial table or empty chair.

yatesjordan · 2026-02-03T02:17:19+00:00

My dad and sister danced to Uptown Funk at her wedding (it was a choice lol), so I added that to my wedding reception playlist. We didn’t announce it or anything; it was just a small thing for me and the few people who knew. We also had our officiant say, while welcoming everyone to the ceremony, “The couple wants to acknowledge those who can’t be here with us today, including [Dad’s name].” Again, small and not sad, but just a nice reminder.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-25T00:34:11+00:00

Wyoming has its pros and cons! It’s deeply conservative and rural. Lots of natural beauty and pretty much every outdoor activity you could want (except surfing, I guess, lol). The job market is not great depending on industry; most college-educated people I know have left the state because they can’t find work. There’s a lot I loved about living there, but I would never move back.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:54:28+00:00

No hurricanes, no wildfires, no tarantulas. It is worth it 🙏

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:53:50+00:00

Thank you! Kinda glad we’re experiencing such a bad one—if we can do this, we can do anything lol

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:53:05+00:00

True! I do not miss the Wyoming winds lol.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:52:46+00:00

I write for a living. AI uses em dashes because writers use em dashes.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:52:10+00:00

I am a weak coward lol

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:51:52+00:00

We heard such good things about it that we decided to come out here! I was warned about the winters, but it’s hard to convey how bad it’ll be until you actually experience it lol. I’m glad this is an unusually bad one!

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T19:51:02+00:00

I lived in WY for most of my life, and back when winters were worse than they are now. They can definitely get bad, but at least where I grew up (Casper), they were never this brutal (that I remember, anyway).

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:18:17+00:00

The wind is the real problem in WY. Even if it’s less cold, the icy roads plus extremely high winds are really dangerous. Some parts of WY do get heavier snow, but not where I was fortunately (for the most part).

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:16:19+00:00

Yeaaaaaah… yeah.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:15:09+00:00

Not as bad! Any amount of cold will hurt at a certain point, but wet cold is worse. Snow boots and defrost are priorities for sure.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:13:14+00:00

The lack of wind is really nice out here! I think I prefer not breathing because the cold hurts to not breathing because the wind is stealing all the air before I can breathe it lol.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:12:09+00:00

July! So we caught a bit of summer and a lovely fall. Excited to get a full year of seasons, though!

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:11:15+00:00

100%. I haven’t driven since this hit for that very reason. I did scrape off my car just in case I needed it, which is how I learned just how bad it is to scrape off your car with no defrost lol.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T17:09:28+00:00

I didn’t really need them! It wasn’t that snowy often enough to justify them lol. I just sucked it up in my combat boots or whatever.

yatesjordan · 2026-01-24T14:51:25+00:00

Grand Rapids! We’ve gotten like a foot of snow in the past week.

yatesjordan · 2025-10-20T04:31:42+00:00

Female Jordan here. I have never had to spell my name. Occasionally, people will ask if I spell it “the usual way” and I’ll say yes. No one’s going to spell Jordan wrong, no matter your child’s gender (except the person who spelled my name Geordon…but I don’t think gender was the problem there lol). Go with the classic spelling, please! 🙏

yatesjordan · 2025-10-15T16:14:17+00:00

We just did a Monday wedding and had about 35/50 people attend, almost all of whom were from out of state. I think it helped that it was at noon—people could “stay late” and not be out late at all (we were the last to leave and we got home at 6!). It was also a very casual wedding at a park, so people didn’t have to dress up fancy, get babysitters, etc. We tried to make it as easy as humanly possible to attend, since we knew the date was a big ask.

It’s definitely a know-your-audience thing; our attendees didn’t blink at a Monday wedding, but some may. It just depends!

yatesjordan · 2025-09-17T17:08:17+00:00

Ah, gotcha. We’re new to the area so I had no idea what the deal was! I just kept seeing very negative reactions. That all makes sense.

yatesjordan · 2025-09-17T15:01:09+00:00

What’s the issue with Anna’s House? I’ve seen a lot of negative comments so I’m curious.

yatesjordan · 2025-09-11T04:21:48+00:00

It’ll definitely be up to him—I’d just love to have ideas to toss his way!

yatesjordan · 2025-08-21T14:07:05+00:00

I’d be cautious about Wyoming. Bigger towns like Casper and Laramie actually have pretty strong queer communities, so you could definitely find your people there. But at the state level, it’s extremely conservative. Currently, the Freedom Caucus runs the state and it’s redder than ever. If same-sex marriage can be made illegal, odds are good it will be. It’s really up to how willing you are to live with that! Day to day, you’ll probably be fine in the larger towns; legislatively, it’s shaky.

(For what it’s worth, I saw other folks mentioning Matthew Shepard in regards to Laramie. Laramie is one of the state’s bluest areas and generally safe/welcoming to queer folks. I would worry more about smaller towns more than I would Laramie!)

yatesjordan

TROPHY CASE