A long, hard year
In the past year, we have grown a beautiful garden, pickled and jammed and canned, celebrated M's senior project (Honors!), his graduation (High Honors!), and just this past Friday he accepted a job offer as a Software Engineer at a company in RB. We have made new friends, and lost some old, weathered any number of storms -- metaphorical or real -- and most recently survived the 2014 May fires.
It has been a busy year.
I haven't found time to write mostly because I haven't found time to clear my head enough to write. Yet here we are: M is graduated, celebrated and gainfully employed. What an amazing and crazy journey.
Showing posts with label M School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M School. Show all posts
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Monday, February 20, 2012
Spring
I had great plans to write all about Thanksgiving, and our recipes, and our family fun, but then time passed too quickly and all my plans got away from me. Thanksgiving was wonderful. There was a requisite turkey-related mishap, but it was very small and didn't impinge on the holiday. We had an abundance of cheesecake and just enough leftovers. We liked the turkey thing enough that we made another for Christmas, and then learned that a turkey for just the two of us is way, way too much bird.
We're still using up the frozen turkey stock, eight cups to go.
Christmas was lovely. Instead of a mountain of presents from my grandparents, we got exactly what I'd hoped for: hand stitched ornaments for our tree. Little things to treasure, and pass down, and celebrate. It's worth more to me than a bunch of stuff.
We have an abundance of stuff.
My mom spent a lot of this winter telling me about the mountain of stuff at her mother in law's, which my mother and her husband are sorting through and fighting with E's sister about. It sounds terrible. Stacks of old, unopened toothpaste. A lifetime supply of Tums. I don't remember the specifics, and the truth is that they don't even matter -- there's just too much stuff. Too. Much. Stuff.
In some sort of reflexive reaction to these stories, M and I made a stab at organizing the garage room this weekend. It is going to take many, many weekends for us to really get a handle on that space, but we're started now and that's very important. The bad part is that we're trying to get the space organized so we can put more stuff in that room and less in the rest of the house (which ultimately leads to more stuff everywhere, I'm pretty sure).
This is the closest to Spring Cleaning I get, people.
Outside of the Stuff Wars, we're doing okay. We sort of mid-review on a lot of different levels. We're two-thirds done with our taxes, reviewing our investments and savings plan, waiting to see what my raise is going to be and how last year's bonus will pay out -- February seems to be when I clean house financially, if not literally. M's rounded the half-way mark on school, and that's sitting better with everyone. We've earmarked a few house projects for this year, and bought our plane tickets for this summer's vacation.
I've also had a few unsubtle reminders to keep in perspective how much seemingly little things can affect other people for the positive. Sometimes we downplay the effect we have on other people's lives, or miss acknowledging it entirely. It seems to be an object lesson at the moment, one the Universe has on repeat.
On outside matters, our tiny garden has started looking like Spring. There are lettuces peeking up and the Apricot's in bloom. M bought a lawnmower with some of the Christmas money, and keeps hacking at the palm trees in his spare time.
I wax in and out of love with my job. Right now I am very much in a holding pattern, waiting to transition into the next stage of my life once M graduates and our opportunities free up again. I don't know if this job will be part of that next great adventure, but it's still integral to our Now. Part of this great journey is finding reasons to love it until we don't need it any more, and that's easier some days than others.
I had great plans to write all about Thanksgiving, and our recipes, and our family fun, but then time passed too quickly and all my plans got away from me. Thanksgiving was wonderful. There was a requisite turkey-related mishap, but it was very small and didn't impinge on the holiday. We had an abundance of cheesecake and just enough leftovers. We liked the turkey thing enough that we made another for Christmas, and then learned that a turkey for just the two of us is way, way too much bird.
We're still using up the frozen turkey stock, eight cups to go.
Christmas was lovely. Instead of a mountain of presents from my grandparents, we got exactly what I'd hoped for: hand stitched ornaments for our tree. Little things to treasure, and pass down, and celebrate. It's worth more to me than a bunch of stuff.
We have an abundance of stuff.
My mom spent a lot of this winter telling me about the mountain of stuff at her mother in law's, which my mother and her husband are sorting through and fighting with E's sister about. It sounds terrible. Stacks of old, unopened toothpaste. A lifetime supply of Tums. I don't remember the specifics, and the truth is that they don't even matter -- there's just too much stuff. Too. Much. Stuff.
In some sort of reflexive reaction to these stories, M and I made a stab at organizing the garage room this weekend. It is going to take many, many weekends for us to really get a handle on that space, but we're started now and that's very important. The bad part is that we're trying to get the space organized so we can put more stuff in that room and less in the rest of the house (which ultimately leads to more stuff everywhere, I'm pretty sure).
This is the closest to Spring Cleaning I get, people.
Outside of the Stuff Wars, we're doing okay. We sort of mid-review on a lot of different levels. We're two-thirds done with our taxes, reviewing our investments and savings plan, waiting to see what my raise is going to be and how last year's bonus will pay out -- February seems to be when I clean house financially, if not literally. M's rounded the half-way mark on school, and that's sitting better with everyone. We've earmarked a few house projects for this year, and bought our plane tickets for this summer's vacation.
I've also had a few unsubtle reminders to keep in perspective how much seemingly little things can affect other people for the positive. Sometimes we downplay the effect we have on other people's lives, or miss acknowledging it entirely. It seems to be an object lesson at the moment, one the Universe has on repeat.
On outside matters, our tiny garden has started looking like Spring. There are lettuces peeking up and the Apricot's in bloom. M bought a lawnmower with some of the Christmas money, and keeps hacking at the palm trees in his spare time.
I wax in and out of love with my job. Right now I am very much in a holding pattern, waiting to transition into the next stage of my life once M graduates and our opportunities free up again. I don't know if this job will be part of that next great adventure, but it's still integral to our Now. Part of this great journey is finding reasons to love it until we don't need it any more, and that's easier some days than others.
Friday, October 14, 2011
October
It's no big secret that we had a difficult Summer, and that that Summer is bleeding into a tense-yet-resolving Autumn. M's school situation took longer than we'd hoped to sort itself out and instead of joining the flock of undergrads at UCSD this year, he's working through his CS program at National.
A lot has changed at UCSD since I graduated, and not all of it for the better. After watching the admissions process from the outside, I think I'm happier that M's at a school that addressed his goals directly, offered him a clear path to graduation, structures their coursework for people with real lives and other commitments and genuinely seems to want to see him succeed. I can't say that about UCSD. That disappoints me sorely. When the alumni letter arrived, asking for donations, I almost wrote Chancellor Fox a pointed letter instead.
Ultimately, I refrained.
We go through phases, at home, of trying desperately to become more organized. And failing miserably at it after making one or two valiant stabs at progress. I cleaned out a corner of the office today. I found the other half of my desk -- it's disorientingly empty right now, and yet "messy" by any one else's standards. I had enough space last night to procrastinate by playing with watercolors while M was in class.
It's occurring to me, maybe for the first time, that the things I take for granted in their solidity and ability to endure actually require maintenance. A solid wood door, for instance. Growing up with just enough abundance to lose touch with the idea of things that last for generations, I think many people my age have to hard-reboot some part of their brains when it comes to home ownership. I now have things that I have personally bought and owned for fifteen or more years. Some of them are in great shape. Others have started to wear.
We chipped one of the green bowls in the dishwasher the other day.
The front door looks remarkably better after an hour of work and some elbow grease. (Though I doubt anyone but me will notice. And M, because I pointedly instructed him to notice.) ... (And also my mom, because she reads this, and she'll feel compelled to comment in hopes that I will actually do more pride-of-ownership home repairs if given sufficient positive reinforcement.)
I feel like some of the cobwebs in my head are starting to loosen up, unbind, let go. Restarting a sewing project -- bright colors, bold patterns -- and clearing out some of the unnecessary, unfortunate background noise is helping. I'm learning to balance the fact that I married M, and I love him, with my refusal to adopt his almost ascetic way of interfacing with the world. In my life there's bright colors, rich textures, adventurous foods, deep and thought-provoking conversation, good music, craft beers or nice wines, and a lot less digital-anything. Rather than waiting for him to want any of these things, maybe it's okay for me to just go enjoy them and hope he comes along now and again.
I've been angry, sad, frustrated, indifferent, passive aggressive, plain old aggressive -- you name it -- for the last several months. Maybe it's because I don't really believe there's any challenge out there that determination, ingenuity and hard work won't fix. Which doesn't really jive with the economic-jobs-wall st.-politico scenario of the times. I have a solid job, we make our ends meet, we've refinanced into an even more affordable house payment, we have more stuff and food and opportunity than we really need but I'm just not one of those people for whom sufficiency is enough. For the last couple years we haven't really had a mission statement. It is depressing to be an Architect without anything to build.
So I've decided I'm just going to build stuff. Sometimes it'll be great. Other times we'll throw it away and ... never speak of it again. But if I don't have projects, milestones, things to conquer or achieve, then I'm unhappy. Even if I have to change paths multiple times, or delve into things I don't know yet -- especially if I have to recalculate, rethink, rework, improve -- I'd rather be working on something than sitting idle.
Blame it on my parents. One's a perfectionist and the other has to know everything about everything. I've struggled through figuring out that sometimes good enough is just that, but I can't shake the need to know-and-understand just about anything that comes to my attention. And maybe that's okay. Maybe it's also a little unrealistic to expect that other people want to know everything about everything and spend their web hours working toward just that. Maybe I should give my husband a break for not exhibiting this borderline-madness/voracity for new things and new topics and new experiences. Because, hey, somebody in this household needs to know how to slow things down now and then.
Right?
PS: I'm doing M's C++ homework on the weekends, after he's already finished with it. This way I can finally actually learn to program. But I don't benefit from getting to attend lectures and my grasp of algorithms is really rudimentary, so I'll fall behind fairly quickly. For now, though, it's great fun.
It's no big secret that we had a difficult Summer, and that that Summer is bleeding into a tense-yet-resolving Autumn. M's school situation took longer than we'd hoped to sort itself out and instead of joining the flock of undergrads at UCSD this year, he's working through his CS program at National.
A lot has changed at UCSD since I graduated, and not all of it for the better. After watching the admissions process from the outside, I think I'm happier that M's at a school that addressed his goals directly, offered him a clear path to graduation, structures their coursework for people with real lives and other commitments and genuinely seems to want to see him succeed. I can't say that about UCSD. That disappoints me sorely. When the alumni letter arrived, asking for donations, I almost wrote Chancellor Fox a pointed letter instead.
Ultimately, I refrained.
We go through phases, at home, of trying desperately to become more organized. And failing miserably at it after making one or two valiant stabs at progress. I cleaned out a corner of the office today. I found the other half of my desk -- it's disorientingly empty right now, and yet "messy" by any one else's standards. I had enough space last night to procrastinate by playing with watercolors while M was in class.
It's occurring to me, maybe for the first time, that the things I take for granted in their solidity and ability to endure actually require maintenance. A solid wood door, for instance. Growing up with just enough abundance to lose touch with the idea of things that last for generations, I think many people my age have to hard-reboot some part of their brains when it comes to home ownership. I now have things that I have personally bought and owned for fifteen or more years. Some of them are in great shape. Others have started to wear.
We chipped one of the green bowls in the dishwasher the other day.
The front door looks remarkably better after an hour of work and some elbow grease. (Though I doubt anyone but me will notice. And M, because I pointedly instructed him to notice.) ... (And also my mom, because she reads this, and she'll feel compelled to comment in hopes that I will actually do more pride-of-ownership home repairs if given sufficient positive reinforcement.)
I feel like some of the cobwebs in my head are starting to loosen up, unbind, let go. Restarting a sewing project -- bright colors, bold patterns -- and clearing out some of the unnecessary, unfortunate background noise is helping. I'm learning to balance the fact that I married M, and I love him, with my refusal to adopt his almost ascetic way of interfacing with the world. In my life there's bright colors, rich textures, adventurous foods, deep and thought-provoking conversation, good music, craft beers or nice wines, and a lot less digital-anything. Rather than waiting for him to want any of these things, maybe it's okay for me to just go enjoy them and hope he comes along now and again.
I've been angry, sad, frustrated, indifferent, passive aggressive, plain old aggressive -- you name it -- for the last several months. Maybe it's because I don't really believe there's any challenge out there that determination, ingenuity and hard work won't fix. Which doesn't really jive with the economic-jobs-wall st.-politico scenario of the times. I have a solid job, we make our ends meet, we've refinanced into an even more affordable house payment, we have more stuff and food and opportunity than we really need but I'm just not one of those people for whom sufficiency is enough. For the last couple years we haven't really had a mission statement. It is depressing to be an Architect without anything to build.
So I've decided I'm just going to build stuff. Sometimes it'll be great. Other times we'll throw it away and ... never speak of it again. But if I don't have projects, milestones, things to conquer or achieve, then I'm unhappy. Even if I have to change paths multiple times, or delve into things I don't know yet -- especially if I have to recalculate, rethink, rework, improve -- I'd rather be working on something than sitting idle.
Blame it on my parents. One's a perfectionist and the other has to know everything about everything. I've struggled through figuring out that sometimes good enough is just that, but I can't shake the need to know-and-understand just about anything that comes to my attention. And maybe that's okay. Maybe it's also a little unrealistic to expect that other people want to know everything about everything and spend their web hours working toward just that. Maybe I should give my husband a break for not exhibiting this borderline-madness/voracity for new things and new topics and new experiences. Because, hey, somebody in this household needs to know how to slow things down now and then.
Right?
PS: I'm doing M's C++ homework on the weekends, after he's already finished with it. This way I can finally actually learn to program. But I don't benefit from getting to attend lectures and my grasp of algorithms is really rudimentary, so I'll fall behind fairly quickly. For now, though, it's great fun.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
January, January
Month of resolutions. I try not to make resolutions as much as I make plans. Plans are fluid and accept that life and priorities change with experience and additional information. Examples of this year's goals*:
1. Return to a lifestyle of financial awareness and active saving. Having reviewed our budget, I propose we attempt to save an additional $200/month over what is going directly to the 401K and whatever our investments are earning. Bonuses will continue to go directly to savings, unless otherwise earmarked. From savings, we can talk to the financial planner about broader and more expansive goals. (Yes. M & I have a financial planner. It's called "recognizing your boundaries" and not wanting to shove everything under my mattress.)
2. Trend toward smaller portions and healthier foods. M and I enjoy cooking and eating, but there's no reason we can't go back to having a reasonable amount of leftovers to tide him over through the week while I'm away.
3. Travel. This summer's goal is Scotland & Ireland. I want to go see Scott soon. M needs to get some stamps in his passport, and my new one is going to feel so empty.
4. Make peace with my job. 2010 was extremely frustrating, with the re-org and a new management structure to get used to, and a shifted region, and new responsibilities. My 2009 review was somewhat bitter, as I felt that my shortfalls reflected and resulted from my team structure as much as myself. I've had a year to fix those performance points, and hopefully my 2010 review will look a lot better. Still hoping for Sr. Engineer -- still expecting it not to go through. If I'm going to stick this out until M graduates, I need to find a way to focus on the parts of my job that I love. (Easier said than done when one is staring down two consecutive working weekends.)
5. Continue to make measurable progress on the house. (Oh, sub-lists, you are endless here.)
6. In the same vein of creative a sustainable financial plan, and reining in our unhealthier food choices, we've agreed to look into a cleaning person for a couple times a month. I can keep up with laundry, and M does dishes, but we can't really do the deep cleaning necessary to keep a house clean while I'm working this crazy job. There's also a serious amount of apathy towards housework in both of us.
7. Visit The Outside (tm) more. The quest to get out of the office more renews!
* Disclaimer: By no means an exhaustive list.
Month of resolutions. I try not to make resolutions as much as I make plans. Plans are fluid and accept that life and priorities change with experience and additional information. Examples of this year's goals*:
1. Return to a lifestyle of financial awareness and active saving. Having reviewed our budget, I propose we attempt to save an additional $200/month over what is going directly to the 401K and whatever our investments are earning. Bonuses will continue to go directly to savings, unless otherwise earmarked. From savings, we can talk to the financial planner about broader and more expansive goals. (Yes. M & I have a financial planner. It's called "recognizing your boundaries" and not wanting to shove everything under my mattress.)
2. Trend toward smaller portions and healthier foods. M and I enjoy cooking and eating, but there's no reason we can't go back to having a reasonable amount of leftovers to tide him over through the week while I'm away.
3. Travel. This summer's goal is Scotland & Ireland. I want to go see Scott soon. M needs to get some stamps in his passport, and my new one is going to feel so empty.
4. Make peace with my job. 2010 was extremely frustrating, with the re-org and a new management structure to get used to, and a shifted region, and new responsibilities. My 2009 review was somewhat bitter, as I felt that my shortfalls reflected and resulted from my team structure as much as myself. I've had a year to fix those performance points, and hopefully my 2010 review will look a lot better. Still hoping for Sr. Engineer -- still expecting it not to go through. If I'm going to stick this out until M graduates, I need to find a way to focus on the parts of my job that I love. (Easier said than done when one is staring down two consecutive working weekends.)
5. Continue to make measurable progress on the house. (Oh, sub-lists, you are endless here.)
6. In the same vein of creative a sustainable financial plan, and reining in our unhealthier food choices, we've agreed to look into a cleaning person for a couple times a month. I can keep up with laundry, and M does dishes, but we can't really do the deep cleaning necessary to keep a house clean while I'm working this crazy job. There's also a serious amount of apathy towards housework in both of us.
7. Visit The Outside (tm) more. The quest to get out of the office more renews!
* Disclaimer: By no means an exhaustive list.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
And then some grown up things...
It is more fun to write about kitchen witchery and traveling than it is to write about the grown up things we need to get done. I've noticed that M and I tend to get more done in the Winter than the Summer, but that may just be because we have a firmer grasp on our finances and planning and what not at the very beginning and end of the year, rather than somewhere in the middle. It's pretty arbitrary, but sometimes I like to try and find meaning in it.
My new driver's license came right after Christmas. Since then we have:
PHEW! If we keep this up, we may whittle down the to-do list this year faster than it grows back. (Hahaha... but I can hope.) M is quietly awaiting his UC transfer acceptance, and goes back to school on the 24th. We're both headed to ALA for booth setup the following weekend, and then he gets to play in the desert while I'm at Sales & Service the first weekend in February.
It's a busy start to the year, but it already seems calmer and more productive that 2010. Woo!
It is more fun to write about kitchen witchery and traveling than it is to write about the grown up things we need to get done. I've noticed that M and I tend to get more done in the Winter than the Summer, but that may just be because we have a firmer grasp on our finances and planning and what not at the very beginning and end of the year, rather than somewhere in the middle. It's pretty arbitrary, but sometimes I like to try and find meaning in it.
My new driver's license came right after Christmas. Since then we have:
- Changed my name with my employer
- Changed my name with the bank
- Changed my name with half a dozen customer sites requiring internal background/security checks
- Changed my name with about half the airline and hotel loyalty programs I use
- Downloaded and filled out the forms to change my passport (just need pictures, and to send it in!)
- Opened our joint savings
- Transferred the "savings" we have put away together into the new account to disambiguate pre- and post- marriage funds
- Reviewed our household budget and made some goals for saving for 2011
- Finally made a follow up appointment with our financial planner...
- Talked to my dad about something we've been collectively putting off since July
- REPLACED THE WATER HEATER
- Taken the old tv and an old monitor to the Recycling center for proper disposal
- Gotten rid of the door desk and 80% of what lived on top of it
- Moved a bookshelf into the office
- Framed and hung the posters we bought for the office in 2008
- Accepted some of our personal limitations and agreed that finding a house cleaner and gardener (each 1x - 2x a month) is better than NOT taking care of our home and yard and always feeling guilty about it
PHEW! If we keep this up, we may whittle down the to-do list this year faster than it grows back. (Hahaha... but I can hope.) M is quietly awaiting his UC transfer acceptance, and goes back to school on the 24th. We're both headed to ALA for booth setup the following weekend, and then he gets to play in the desert while I'm at Sales & Service the first weekend in February.
It's a busy start to the year, but it already seems calmer and more productive that 2010. Woo!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Around the house...
Well, we're back from Hawaii, and ended up jumping right back into the swing of things. I've been busy with work, trying to knock out end of the year revenue recognition and odd jobs that no one else can tackle (I don't actually believe I'm the only one who can do them... I think everyone else just waited for me to get back from vacation so they'd have somebody to dump them on). We're still re-organizing, and the re-org chart is tied up in red tape, so I still don't know what my job description or title will be when the dust settles. Fun times.
M's got finals next week, but he's technically finished two of his three classes already. Due to the inclement weather (and Murphy's Law), we may be acquiring a new/used/different vehicle soonish. No, we don't need suggestions, advice, or opinions on what to get. We're ambivalent enough already, and fully capable of doing our own research & comparison shopping.
We finally got a bedframe to go with the new mattress from February, so our bed no longer slides off the rails at annoyingly small hours of the morning. We replaced the oldest windows in the house with nice retro-fit ones, in time to get the tax rebate and before the worst cold of the year hit. It's been just over 24 hours since they went in, and the temperature in the house is infinitely more stable than before. Also, they look far less ghetto than the old ones.
It has been a frighteningly expensive year, and it's not over yet. Hopefully we'll get a nice end of the year bonus to offset the initial auto expenses, and a nice Tax Return, too. If we end up owing the government money at this point, I'll probably cry.
We have yet to start our Christmas shopping or bake any cookies. Happy Holidays? Well, I'll have time for all of that when I get off work on the 23rd. BUSY, busy, busy! That's how we roll.
~K & M
Well, we're back from Hawaii, and ended up jumping right back into the swing of things. I've been busy with work, trying to knock out end of the year revenue recognition and odd jobs that no one else can tackle (I don't actually believe I'm the only one who can do them... I think everyone else just waited for me to get back from vacation so they'd have somebody to dump them on). We're still re-organizing, and the re-org chart is tied up in red tape, so I still don't know what my job description or title will be when the dust settles. Fun times.
M's got finals next week, but he's technically finished two of his three classes already. Due to the inclement weather (and Murphy's Law), we may be acquiring a new/used/different vehicle soonish. No, we don't need suggestions, advice, or opinions on what to get. We're ambivalent enough already, and fully capable of doing our own research & comparison shopping.
We finally got a bedframe to go with the new mattress from February, so our bed no longer slides off the rails at annoyingly small hours of the morning. We replaced the oldest windows in the house with nice retro-fit ones, in time to get the tax rebate and before the worst cold of the year hit. It's been just over 24 hours since they went in, and the temperature in the house is infinitely more stable than before. Also, they look far less ghetto than the old ones.
It has been a frighteningly expensive year, and it's not over yet. Hopefully we'll get a nice end of the year bonus to offset the initial auto expenses, and a nice Tax Return, too. If we end up owing the government money at this point, I'll probably cry.
We have yet to start our Christmas shopping or bake any cookies. Happy Holidays? Well, I'll have time for all of that when I get off work on the 23rd. BUSY, busy, busy! That's how we roll.
~K & M
Monday, August 24, 2009
10
There are ten more weekends between now and our wedding (not including the wedding). Ten weekends, in which to have people come visit, make favors, get my dress altered (find shoes so I can get my dress altered), have the traditional gatherings and parties, pay down the remaining costs, etc etc etc etc. Twenty-one non-working days (because of Labor Day).
Excuse me while I quietly freak out.
Also, a certain sub-section of my family has decided to be epically asinine about our wedding. Too bad there's no punitive invitation-retraction etiquette. M's family, on the other hand, is collectively excited and supportive and coming from all over the place to visit. (The majority of my family is awesome, too, but the stark contrast between the Crazies and Everbody Else is almost painful.)
I may have over-estimated the value of being generous in including my (obnoxious) extended family, and M may have under-estimated how willing his relatives are to travel great distances and hang out in the mountains to visit with one another, eat cake, and, you know, see us get married.
Most of the wedding ceremony is written, and now I have to go find/make stuff for the ceremony. RSVP cards are rolling in, and some of our favorite (non-obnoxious) people have decided to come. All in all the good certainly outweighs the bad.
AND... M started school today. More or less. Except that his car decided it needed a new distributor on his way to school, so he picked up his Trig assignments and will sort English out on Wednesday.
Never a dull day in our world. Then again, I am home on a week night so it certainly could have been worse.
Ten weekends. Crazy. But that also means ten weeks until I'm on three weeks of vacation. Awesome. And another til I'm married. Double awesome. And if work asks me to come back from my honeymoon early to deal with the next million dollar system I think I may dig deep down to my inner two-year-old and have a tantrum with HR worthy of an extra early bedtime.
Oh yeah. Ten weeks and I maybe kinda might have to go to Europe between now and my wedding. HAHAYOU'RESOFUNNYSALESGUY, No.
Kthnx bai.
><
There are ten more weekends between now and our wedding (not including the wedding). Ten weekends, in which to have people come visit, make favors, get my dress altered (find shoes so I can get my dress altered), have the traditional gatherings and parties, pay down the remaining costs, etc etc etc etc. Twenty-one non-working days (because of Labor Day).
Excuse me while I quietly freak out.
Also, a certain sub-section of my family has decided to be epically asinine about our wedding. Too bad there's no punitive invitation-retraction etiquette. M's family, on the other hand, is collectively excited and supportive and coming from all over the place to visit. (The majority of my family is awesome, too, but the stark contrast between the Crazies and Everbody Else is almost painful.)
I may have over-estimated the value of being generous in including my (obnoxious) extended family, and M may have under-estimated how willing his relatives are to travel great distances and hang out in the mountains to visit with one another, eat cake, and, you know, see us get married.
Most of the wedding ceremony is written, and now I have to go find/make stuff for the ceremony. RSVP cards are rolling in, and some of our favorite (non-obnoxious) people have decided to come. All in all the good certainly outweighs the bad.
AND... M started school today. More or less. Except that his car decided it needed a new distributor on his way to school, so he picked up his Trig assignments and will sort English out on Wednesday.
Never a dull day in our world. Then again, I am home on a week night so it certainly could have been worse.
Ten weekends. Crazy. But that also means ten weeks until I'm on three weeks of vacation. Awesome. And another til I'm married. Double awesome. And if work asks me to come back from my honeymoon early to deal with the next million dollar system I think I may dig deep down to my inner two-year-old and have a tantrum with HR worthy of an extra early bedtime.
Oh yeah. Ten weeks and I maybe kinda might have to go to Europe between now and my wedding. HAHAYOU'RESOFUNNYSALESGUY, No.
Kthnx bai.
><