Now is the time!
M and I are getting ready to pack up the car and head for the mountains. Next time I see home, I'll have a new last name. The last year has seem interminably long, but now that the big weekend is here it feels like time has flown. Damn subjective time courses. ;)
This week has been filled with last minute details and a lot of time to process everything. I was told last night that I seem calm (Hah!), and M seems relaxed (probably true). We'll see if the same holds through the weekend.
In about two hours, most of our wedding party will either be in cars or on planes heading this way. The festivities (rehearsal) officially begin at three today, and then just keep rolling time sometime mid-morning on Sunday.
Of all the wedding planning thing we did, I am most glad that a) we started early, made core decisions early, and paid things off early and b) I took this week off. If you're thinking about getting married soon, trust me: take the week before off. Ignoring my $Company phone has been blissful this week!
Friday, November 06, 2009
Monday, November 02, 2009
This week is all wedding, all the time...
Except that I'm baking this morning, because my procrastination patterns are that predictable. I can't even tell you how many finals-week-cookies I baked in college. Now it's the last week before the wedding, and I've refined my justification techniques (if not my procrastination style): I'm making M the muffins he's been craving.
Aww. So sweet. And sooooooo not running the errands I'm supposed to get done today.
After that I'm off to meet someone for lunch, and then on to those aforementioned errands. :) In my defense, I enrolled for next year's benefits, turned in my mileage totals, and answered a couple emergency emails this morning, so it's not been all fun, games and baking.
If you need me, call the cell. I'll be busy, but around.
Except that I'm baking this morning, because my procrastination patterns are that predictable. I can't even tell you how many finals-week-cookies I baked in college. Now it's the last week before the wedding, and I've refined my justification techniques (if not my procrastination style): I'm making M the muffins he's been craving.
Aww. So sweet. And sooooooo not running the errands I'm supposed to get done today.
After that I'm off to meet someone for lunch, and then on to those aforementioned errands. :) In my defense, I enrolled for next year's benefits, turned in my mileage totals, and answered a couple emergency emails this morning, so it's not been all fun, games and baking.
If you need me, call the cell. I'll be busy, but around.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloweeny
I am actually on vacation! Can you believe it? I can't. And it's Halloween. Rock on. And soon we get a full moon. Then I hear we're throwing a wedding or a party kinda soon. Autumn is pretty awesome.
I have a few bazillion things to do, but M and I kicked off vacation time (mine, not his) with a nice dinner, a rit at the bookstore, and some sanctioned lazy time. I woke up late, hung out in the office with him for a bit, then made an oven apple pancake for brunch. We cleaned up that mess, and immediately made another -- Pork with Apricots is in the slow cooker right now -- and took inventory of the Halloween candy, to make sure we hadn't eaten too much of it over the last week and a half. Yep, there's still enough for the kiddos.
I really ought to be making lists, or checking things off them, since this is the last weekend before the wedding... but instead I'm ignoring all that and not letting anyone "should" on my holiday.
Happy New Year! Go out and turn the wheel tonight, or stay in and celebrate solitary. Just have a fun time out there, halloweenies. :)
I am actually on vacation! Can you believe it? I can't. And it's Halloween. Rock on. And soon we get a full moon. Then I hear we're throwing a wedding or a party kinda soon. Autumn is pretty awesome.
I have a few bazillion things to do, but M and I kicked off vacation time (mine, not his) with a nice dinner, a rit at the bookstore, and some sanctioned lazy time. I woke up late, hung out in the office with him for a bit, then made an oven apple pancake for brunch. We cleaned up that mess, and immediately made another -- Pork with Apricots is in the slow cooker right now -- and took inventory of the Halloween candy, to make sure we hadn't eaten too much of it over the last week and a half. Yep, there's still enough for the kiddos.
I really ought to be making lists, or checking things off them, since this is the last weekend before the wedding... but instead I'm ignoring all that and not letting anyone "should" on my holiday.
Happy New Year! Go out and turn the wheel tonight, or stay in and celebrate solitary. Just have a fun time out there, halloweenies. :)
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Maybe
So I woke up this morning, answered some emails, drank some coffee and ... realized that I feel all fluttery and unable to sit still. At ten days and counting, I think I may be actually excited about the wedding.
Or I've had too much coffee.
Or I'm just really glad that tomorrow's my last day in the field for awhile.
But maybe I'm excited about the wedding. Or terrified. But I'm voting for excited.
So I woke up this morning, answered some emails, drank some coffee and ... realized that I feel all fluttery and unable to sit still. At ten days and counting, I think I may be actually excited about the wedding.
Or I've had too much coffee.
Or I'm just really glad that tomorrow's my last day in the field for awhile.
But maybe I'm excited about the wedding. Or terrified. But I'm voting for excited.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
3
Three more days left, and only today is officially booked in. Maybe I can quietly slink off the radar for Thursday and Friday. Or maybe something mundane but local will pop up to be handled quickly and filed away. Maybe, maybe... a girl can hope.
M's got his last game night tonight for awhile. Between the wedding, honeymoon and holidays, November is looking busy on all accounts. I need to sit down and make a list of all the little things that still need to be finished off for the wedding. I have very little energy this week, due to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances, but sometimes you just don't have any choice in it. More coffee! (Which is made significantly easier by one of our wedding gifts, a coffee maker.)
I still have decisions to make, the sort of decisions other girls would have squeed and agonized over at the very beginning... first dance music, music in general for the reception, what do I want to do with my makeup, what do I want for a guest book. Blah.
And I'm procrastinating on going to work, so I should get off my ass and out the door now. Just three more work days, then I can focus on the wedding & honeymoon prep. Then it will be the big day, and the honeymoon, and ... then I'll need a new project to take up all of this extra energy. Good thing the holidays are just around the corner and we have Christmas shopping and baking to do!
Three more days left, and only today is officially booked in. Maybe I can quietly slink off the radar for Thursday and Friday. Or maybe something mundane but local will pop up to be handled quickly and filed away. Maybe, maybe... a girl can hope.
M's got his last game night tonight for awhile. Between the wedding, honeymoon and holidays, November is looking busy on all accounts. I need to sit down and make a list of all the little things that still need to be finished off for the wedding. I have very little energy this week, due to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances, but sometimes you just don't have any choice in it. More coffee! (Which is made significantly easier by one of our wedding gifts, a coffee maker.)
I still have decisions to make, the sort of decisions other girls would have squeed and agonized over at the very beginning... first dance music, music in general for the reception, what do I want to do with my makeup, what do I want for a guest book. Blah.
And I'm procrastinating on going to work, so I should get off my ass and out the door now. Just three more work days, then I can focus on the wedding & honeymoon prep. Then it will be the big day, and the honeymoon, and ... then I'll need a new project to take up all of this extra energy. Good thing the holidays are just around the corner and we have Christmas shopping and baking to do!
Monday, October 26, 2009
5
I have five more workdays, counting today, until I'm on three weeks of vacation time. This week seems fairly straight-forward, if busy... but now that I've said that, there will be airplanes involved. Just watch.
M and I have most of the wedding stuff in hand... except some glaring details like picking a first dance song, putting together a selection of stuff from our mp3 collections for background music at the reception and a few more things I haven't even considered yet. On the upside, the vendors have been paid, most of our attendant & parent gifts are wrapped, and I think I may have a fledgling list of everything-we-need-to-put-in-the-car-next-Friday. Phew.
This weekend was spent hanging out with my brother--who's in town for nearly a month!--and running some odd-ball errands. Things like "we should talk to the jeweler about how to take care of M's ring, and thank him for helping Nick a couple weeks ago with something." Also, going to Target for Halloween candy and wrapping implements. With a side of grocery shopping mixed in.
In two weeks, I'll have a new last name and an official Husband... rather than a cohabitating Fiance. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter, just that after a year (plus) of wedding planning it will be nice to finally tie the knot and get on with other projects. The house needs windows, I need to bake more and play my piano, and really... I don't want to talk to "vendors" outside of work situations for quite some time to come.
I have five more workdays, counting today, until I'm on three weeks of vacation time. This week seems fairly straight-forward, if busy... but now that I've said that, there will be airplanes involved. Just watch.
M and I have most of the wedding stuff in hand... except some glaring details like picking a first dance song, putting together a selection of stuff from our mp3 collections for background music at the reception and a few more things I haven't even considered yet. On the upside, the vendors have been paid, most of our attendant & parent gifts are wrapped, and I think I may have a fledgling list of everything-we-need-to-put-in-the-car-next-Friday. Phew.
This weekend was spent hanging out with my brother--who's in town for nearly a month!--and running some odd-ball errands. Things like "we should talk to the jeweler about how to take care of M's ring, and thank him for helping Nick a couple weeks ago with something." Also, going to Target for Halloween candy and wrapping implements. With a side of grocery shopping mixed in.
In two weeks, I'll have a new last name and an official Husband... rather than a cohabitating Fiance. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter, just that after a year (plus) of wedding planning it will be nice to finally tie the knot and get on with other projects. The house needs windows, I need to bake more and play my piano, and really... I don't want to talk to "vendors" outside of work situations for quite some time to come.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Things that are stressing me out right now...
1. "Re-organizing" the field. My job may not be going anywhere, but I may get added responsibilities and extended travel with no additional pay or title. I also get a new manager. Yay?
2. The florist can only meet on Wednesday this week. M & T nights I have flights to/from AZ. W is a workday with an indefinite ending. Th is an early demo for the National Sales Manager. Seriously? Wednesday? ... *sigh*
3. The million dollar project that lands immediately before my wedding (while I am on vacation) still does not have a local FAE assigned... nng. Also, Sales seems to be acting like my vacation doesn't exist. No matter how many times I point out I'm gone in early Nov, they keep asking to have me assigned to stuff in early Nov.
4. Open enrollment is during my vacation. HR won't let me add a spouse to my benefits until we're actually married. This means I get to enroll to meet the deadline, and then enroll AGAIN to add M (possibly missing the deadline to get him on our Dec insurance).
5. M and I have been snippy at each other and not had very much "us" time lately. The snippy will continue until "us" time resumes. Which may be after the wedding.
6. I have to change all my identity docs for travel. And the RCMP requires us to get background checks for security clearance. They're just going to have to update mine as soon as it's filed, so why can't I have an extension of one month?
7. I realized that starting joint accounts means my savings worksheet for the last three years ends this month, and we start again at (nearly) zero. For some reason, this is disappointing.
8. Someone brought swine flu to class last week. I'm feeling under the weather, but not running a fever yet. I'm teaching a customer training tomorrow. If I'm contagious, I will probably wipe out their entire lab staff.
9. I still have a tremendous amount of anxiety about being the primary (sole) income while M's in school. It's a lot of responsibility. I'm kind of worried I'll hate my job post-reorganization... but not be able to afford to change anything while M's in school.
10. The clutter. There are so many boxes in our living room that I feel twitchy just walking in the front door. Everything needs to be cleaned, vacuumed, dusted, etc etc etc. It's driving me crazy and I have another two weeks before I can really do anything about it.
10. The wedding. Different topics under this header each day, but always something. I think I need to have a good cry, and then get back to work. I am so ready to be done, married, and have no more big events to plan for awhile.
But hey, you know, other than that short list of crazy-making nonsense, life's good. Good thing I have a vacation coming up here in a couple weeks!
1. "Re-organizing" the field. My job may not be going anywhere, but I may get added responsibilities and extended travel with no additional pay or title. I also get a new manager. Yay?
2. The florist can only meet on Wednesday this week. M & T nights I have flights to/from AZ. W is a workday with an indefinite ending. Th is an early demo for the National Sales Manager. Seriously? Wednesday? ... *sigh*
3. The million dollar project that lands immediately before my wedding (while I am on vacation) still does not have a local FAE assigned... nng. Also, Sales seems to be acting like my vacation doesn't exist. No matter how many times I point out I'm gone in early Nov, they keep asking to have me assigned to stuff in early Nov.
4. Open enrollment is during my vacation. HR won't let me add a spouse to my benefits until we're actually married. This means I get to enroll to meet the deadline, and then enroll AGAIN to add M (possibly missing the deadline to get him on our Dec insurance).
5. M and I have been snippy at each other and not had very much "us" time lately. The snippy will continue until "us" time resumes. Which may be after the wedding.
6. I have to change all my identity docs for travel. And the RCMP requires us to get background checks for security clearance. They're just going to have to update mine as soon as it's filed, so why can't I have an extension of one month?
7. I realized that starting joint accounts means my savings worksheet for the last three years ends this month, and we start again at (nearly) zero. For some reason, this is disappointing.
8. Someone brought swine flu to class last week. I'm feeling under the weather, but not running a fever yet. I'm teaching a customer training tomorrow. If I'm contagious, I will probably wipe out their entire lab staff.
9. I still have a tremendous amount of anxiety about being the primary (sole) income while M's in school. It's a lot of responsibility. I'm kind of worried I'll hate my job post-reorganization... but not be able to afford to change anything while M's in school.
10. The clutter. There are so many boxes in our living room that I feel twitchy just walking in the front door. Everything needs to be cleaned, vacuumed, dusted, etc etc etc. It's driving me crazy and I have another two weeks before I can really do anything about it.
10. The wedding. Different topics under this header each day, but always something. I think I need to have a good cry, and then get back to work. I am so ready to be done, married, and have no more big events to plan for awhile.
But hey, you know, other than that short list of crazy-making nonsense, life's good. Good thing I have a vacation coming up here in a couple weeks!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Restful weekend
M and I had the community property talk with Mom on Friday night, then he came home and made ice cream. On Saturday, we ran some errands, dealt with some money matters, and ended up at the farmer's market. We picked up some fish, salad greens, veggies, olives... and came home to make ourselves a surprisingly nice dinner.
On Sunday, Lia came down and we did some quiet celebrating in lieu of a bachelorette party. The original idea just wasn't going to work out, due to everyone's schedules and budgets. We never even made it to the sending invites stage. Instead, she and I got our nails done and did some shopping and hanging out. We went to Phil's for dinner, a place M will never go, and picked up desserts to share on our way back to my place. It was a nice break.
This week I've got three days of training, a day allotted for travel, and I'm on call on Friday. I've got 5 hours to pack for my trip to San Jose... and otherwise, I just have to keep up on ze emails and learn things until Friday. Woo. :)
Three work weeks til vacation time. Yay! :)
M and I had the community property talk with Mom on Friday night, then he came home and made ice cream. On Saturday, we ran some errands, dealt with some money matters, and ended up at the farmer's market. We picked up some fish, salad greens, veggies, olives... and came home to make ourselves a surprisingly nice dinner.
On Sunday, Lia came down and we did some quiet celebrating in lieu of a bachelorette party. The original idea just wasn't going to work out, due to everyone's schedules and budgets. We never even made it to the sending invites stage. Instead, she and I got our nails done and did some shopping and hanging out. We went to Phil's for dinner, a place M will never go, and picked up desserts to share on our way back to my place. It was a nice break.
This week I've got three days of training, a day allotted for travel, and I'm on call on Friday. I've got 5 hours to pack for my trip to San Jose... and otherwise, I just have to keep up on ze emails and learn things until Friday. Woo. :)
Three work weeks til vacation time. Yay! :)
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Oh, hi there...
Work is still crazy, the wedding planning is ramping up for the last month of insanity, and I'm three weeks and one day away from my vacation time. Woo. We have a (mostly) final headcount, catering confirmed, cake settled, communication re-initiated with the florist, and most of the photographer's questionnaire filled out. The big things are paid for, my dress is altered and hanging in the closet, and we've made a stab at the first round of thank you notes...
In many ways, I'm feeling better about how it's all coming together now than I was last month. In some ways I'm overwhelmed and bordering on apathy. I'm also amazed at how much sustained energy this planning process requires and every once in awhile I wonder if there aren't facets of our life that would be better served by this intense scrutiny and attention than one day's worth of festivities.
Work continues to be vexing, and in ways I can't elaborate on just now. I'm hoping that I will feel differently about it once I've had three weeks off and a very nice vacation. It's been unusually quiet this week, and I've used the extra time to write wedding-themed emails and catch up on sleep (since I've gotten sick).
Life around here is work, school, wedding, and sometimes WoW. It's gotten so narrowly focused that I have nightmares about fixing robots in my wedding dress, or showing up to my wedding with my toolkit instead of a bouquet. Awesome. We haven't quite reached fever pitch--where I'd have to save the plane of travelers headed to our honeymoon destination by decoding an esoteric logfile and sending firmware commands over RS232 from my laptop--but it's probably coming.
WoW is great stress relief. The more people bother me about details, the more I just want to sign on and melt faces or toss around my heal-y PoM ball. Our guild recently let me take on something I was significantly under-prepared and under-geared for... and we still finished it out, eventually. That felt good. Kinda like roping all of these vendors, families, expectations, and budget lines into one big event. But without the massive emotional investment.
Also... I merged our insurance policies and changed my beneficiary statements with HR. It's terribly unromantic but sobering. I've got even more financial and legal things to sort out in the next four weeks, each one less romantic and more pragmatic than the last. It's this stuff that hits home when I think of how soon the wedding is. Not in a dreadful way but in a serious, contemplative way. Giving up this fiercely independent streak of mine is difficult work.
Work is still crazy, the wedding planning is ramping up for the last month of insanity, and I'm three weeks and one day away from my vacation time. Woo. We have a (mostly) final headcount, catering confirmed, cake settled, communication re-initiated with the florist, and most of the photographer's questionnaire filled out. The big things are paid for, my dress is altered and hanging in the closet, and we've made a stab at the first round of thank you notes...
In many ways, I'm feeling better about how it's all coming together now than I was last month. In some ways I'm overwhelmed and bordering on apathy. I'm also amazed at how much sustained energy this planning process requires and every once in awhile I wonder if there aren't facets of our life that would be better served by this intense scrutiny and attention than one day's worth of festivities.
Work continues to be vexing, and in ways I can't elaborate on just now. I'm hoping that I will feel differently about it once I've had three weeks off and a very nice vacation. It's been unusually quiet this week, and I've used the extra time to write wedding-themed emails and catch up on sleep (since I've gotten sick).
Life around here is work, school, wedding, and sometimes WoW. It's gotten so narrowly focused that I have nightmares about fixing robots in my wedding dress, or showing up to my wedding with my toolkit instead of a bouquet. Awesome. We haven't quite reached fever pitch--where I'd have to save the plane of travelers headed to our honeymoon destination by decoding an esoteric logfile and sending firmware commands over RS232 from my laptop--but it's probably coming.
WoW is great stress relief. The more people bother me about details, the more I just want to sign on and melt faces or toss around my heal-y PoM ball. Our guild recently let me take on something I was significantly under-prepared and under-geared for... and we still finished it out, eventually. That felt good. Kinda like roping all of these vendors, families, expectations, and budget lines into one big event. But without the massive emotional investment.
Also... I merged our insurance policies and changed my beneficiary statements with HR. It's terribly unromantic but sobering. I've got even more financial and legal things to sort out in the next four weeks, each one less romantic and more pragmatic than the last. It's this stuff that hits home when I think of how soon the wedding is. Not in a dreadful way but in a serious, contemplative way. Giving up this fiercely independent streak of mine is difficult work.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
RSVP
Today's our RSVP date. In theory, by this evening (or the weekend, allowing for some USPS lag) we should know how many guests will be attending the wedding. I have some undecided cousins out there, and at least one friend did not RSVP... despite making it otherwise known they'd be attending. It looks like we'll be around 80-85 people, which is small enough to make M relax a little and large enough to include most of our immediate family.
It's getting exciting again. I enjoy watching things come together. In reflection, as much as we've needed to spread wedding planning out over a year or more... it's been agonizing to be in a hurry-up-and-wait project for so long. Just five weeks and a couple days to go!
Yay! ^_^
Today's our RSVP date. In theory, by this evening (or the weekend, allowing for some USPS lag) we should know how many guests will be attending the wedding. I have some undecided cousins out there, and at least one friend did not RSVP... despite making it otherwise known they'd be attending. It looks like we'll be around 80-85 people, which is small enough to make M relax a little and large enough to include most of our immediate family.
It's getting exciting again. I enjoy watching things come together. In reflection, as much as we've needed to spread wedding planning out over a year or more... it's been agonizing to be in a hurry-up-and-wait project for so long. Just five weeks and a couple days to go!
Yay! ^_^