I moved into a new apartment over the weekend. It's great... so much bigger than the old place, and NO BUGS (except the flies I accidentally let in). It has a washer/dryer and a dishwasher. I am trying to decipher the washer/dryer. No instruction manual that I can find, and it's covered in weird hieroglyphics. The machines at laundromats are always so easy to understand! This one has pictures of science beakers and sheep heads and what looks like a cloud sitting on an open book (Steven informed me that it's meant to be a cotton plant--who knew??)I think I found a manual on the internet for the washer, and now I'm pretty sure I have to go buy powder detergent instead of the liquid I always use. Blah. I just bought a new bottle, too. No luck finding a dryer manual... guess I'll just have to wing it with that one. Hopefully no clothes will be destroyed in the process.
Another con: the shower. Actually, kind of the whole bathroom. The toilet is the complete opposite of "low flow". It's like Niagara Falls in a porcelain bowl for a solid minute every time you flush. The sink is itty bitty, and pretty short. And the shower... oh, the shower. I can touch the shower head with my nose. Not by standing on my toes or tipping my head up, but just straight on--nose touching the shower head. Also, apparently all the water pressure is caught up in the toilet because the shower is like the gentlest of spring rains... not effective for rinsing hair, particularly when one must bend over backwards or do incredible yoga moves to be under the flow of water. I may have to invest in one of those plastic shower stools/seats for handicapped people just so I don't throw out my back one morning. Geeze.
I sound like I hate my new place, and that's not true. I'm just exhausted, because moving was a 3 day process. I only got to move in on Monday morning, so I had less than 24 hours to get settled before heading back to work... and then work has been batshit crazy all week long. I have explained pool passes until my throat is dry and hoarse. One coworker was gone today and the other has Thursday/Friday off, so that means even MORE work for me to do, on top of handing all customers and phone calls.... I think more and more about that poor headless chicken running around, and sympathize.
But... I have an awesome, awesome fiance. He helped me pack up my old apartment, and found a trailer I could use to move my things. He and I packed up the trailer in less than 2 hours all by ourselves. He put up with me living at his place for the weekend, he helped me clean my old apartment (even though cleaning sucks and nobody likes doing it), he arranged help for Monday morning so that the trailer was unloaded in a record 30 minutes!! and then helped me set up everything... he even came over yesterday and re-lit the pilot light for my oven, even though he has been feeling sick and could easily have stayed in bed. He called my new landlord for me to ask a question because I'm chicken and hate calling people about anything. He came by work today to see me, just because he was nearby.
I cheated and showed him photos of me in my wedding dress last week and he cried. He loves it. He put my mind totally at ease, because I've been nitpicking and worrying about whether I made the right choice. He made birds for our cake topper and they are awesome! He's been helping brainstorm music for the wedding... I love him so much. I can't wait until we live together and I don't have to even drive across town to see him. He is going to be such an awesome husband. I just hope I can be as good to him as he is to me!
I'm being sappy and gushy and nauseating, so I'll quit now, and go to bed.
I thought it was kind of weird to be doing the counseling/getting to know a pastor who wouldn't be performing the ceremony, but apparently Lutheran weddings are very cut-and-dried. Not a lot of chatting about the couple. Which kind of sucks, but oh well. What matters is that we get married, not whether the pastor makes charming anecdotes. As long as he doesn't launch into a 30 minute sermon on the evils of fornication, I will be happy.
We met with a potential caterer a couple of weekends ago and I came away feeling depressed. If we have the minimum number of people come and if we go with the most affordable package, our catering would still come in $200 over budget--and that's BEFORE taxes and the 18% gratuity. Ugh. I don't really know what we're going to do. This is the cheapest option we've found. We pretty much don't have money for the reception. Nothing for table linens or centerpieces. We'll have to really cut back in other areas to have extra money for that stuff. I keep thinking of more things we need to fit into the budget... and the budget does not grow proportionally! ;)
Enough of the depressing.... on to the fun stuff.
1. Hairstyles! My inspiration board
Hairstyle Inspirations made using Polyvore
2. Cake!
We did place a deposit on the cake.
4 tiers
Bottom tier: Spice cake with cream cheese filling
2nd tier: White cake with buttercream
3rd tier: Chocolate cake with dark chocolate filling
Top tier: Marble cake
All frosted with buttercream.
Will look like the pictures in the top row, but the tiers are "petal" shaped, not round.
4. Flowers!
White flowers, NO green flowers, featuring white amaryllis along with roses, hydrangea, etc.
6. The Save-the-Dates themselves... we're stamping and heat embossing them. It's taking a while. I've been lazy.
7. My green wedding shoes!So much for NaBloPoMo. I forgot this little thing where I essentially am not home for 2-3 days of the week, so I hit the first weekend and out the window it went. Ah well.
I am greatly annoyed with my neighbor. I don't know which one. They probably are not home. If they WERE home, they would hear the incessant chirping of their low-battery smoke alarm, and would do something about it. Remove the battery or replace it, for example. You know. Like normal people. I am subjected to this incessant chirping and it is making me angry. How can you sleep when you hear "chirp!" "chirp!" every 30 seconds?
I am recognizing here, publicly, that I have a fear. A big, secret fear. (Is it publicly if you're announcing it on a blog that nobody reads?) My fear is: pregnancy. I doubt I have full out tocophobia, but I still fear the possibility of getting pregnant. When asked about future children, my mind doesn't go to "how many" but instead to "if." The TV show "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" is like a huge nightmare. It scares the bejeebus out of me. I think (hope?) that once I am married then at some point the maternal instinct will kick in, my biological clock will begin ticking, and I will one day be ready and willing to become a baby maker. At this stage of life, though, a baby is not in the equation. Sure, I've got a ring on my finger, but the vows have not been said. 13 months until the vows are said. After that we can start talking babies.
Maybe I am more scared right now because of being engaged. Like, here I am planning for a huge life event. The idea that it could be interrupted by another huge life event is scary. I'd rather do things in a certain order, one at a time, sequentially. Not overlapping or juxtaposed.
Steven is SO excited about getting married. I can see it in the way he looks at me. Sometimes we'll be somewhere, like out at dinner, and he'll reach across the table and grab my hand and say, "Will you marry me?" like he just can't wrap his head around the fact that I already said yes. Or he wants to re-live the moment. Like, instead of "pinch me", it's "will you marry me?" A little reminder that it's really real.
I believe he will be that excited one day when we are going to have children. He will look at me with those bright shining eyes as he contemplates the fact that I am carrying his child--OUR child--and that we are going to be parents. I can imagine it. I can smile at it. And I can also pray, fervently, that it is far in the future. I am on The Pill. We are careful. But the old adage of "nothing is 100% guaranteed but abstinance..." still taunts the secret, scaredy-cat parts of my brain.
I bought a wedding dress. I keep thinking about things I need to shape up (upper body definitely!) before I wear it. It sucks when you love something in person but in photos you have doubts. It's so much easier to ignore your flaws in person than when they're immortalized.
So, here's the list. Wedding stuff!
1. Me in my dress.
2. The official dress page. I didn't get/am not getting that jacket.
3. Cute cake toppers, like this one from Etsy.I'm writing a little earlier tonight so maybe I'll be coherent! Writing when you can barely keep your eyes open isn't the greatest plan ever.
I have to say that I have an awesome sister. She is completely thrilled about my wedding and is doing all sorts of research to help me plan. I think it must be easier when you aren't the bride--although she pretty much single-handedly planned her own wedding, so part of this must just be her nature. :) She knows the answers to most of my questions--or is willing to find out. She's another one of those people who isn't afraid to write an email, pick up the phone, and contact whoever she needs to get information. I get next Wednesday (Veteran's Day) off from work and am going back to my hometown where the wedding will be. My sister is setting up appointments all day long to help narrow down reception sites, churches, etc. Plus we'll get to have lunch with my mom.
My sister has already sent me dozens of emails with tips and suggestions and links for my wedding. She's actually putting together a spreadsheet with information about different reception sites, so I can compare at a glance. Have I mentioned that my sister is a-may-zing? Heck yes. I've already told her "thank you" and how much I appreciate her help about 299834 times... I'm betting there'll be a few million more before this is through!
If I keep leaving this blog thing until the end of the night, I'm going to start falling asleep before I get around to it!
I continue to waffle between feeling like the wedding is 14 months away--no rush! and feeling like I need to nail things down NOW NOW NOW. Ugh. The stress, I do not like it!
Someone brought in the most adorable little 6 week old beagle puppy at work today. It had on a little winter coat with a hood---afreakingdorable. Seriously, who makes that stuff?
I really am nodding off, so I'll end with some gratuitous cute Frenchie action, courtesy of the French Bulldog Rescue Network website and blog.
I love the internet. I am the kind of person who, when faced with a question, will Google first. I am 10x more likely to search a company's website for information than I am to pick up the phone and call.
Sometimes, though, the internet fails me.
I don't understand why companies/businesses/vendors go to all the trouble of making a website, displaying their wares, showing off their services... but won't give a hint as to what they charge. Honestly, even if it's a ballpark figure--give me something to go on. If I have a budget of $1000 and you, bare minimum, charge $3000, save yourself and me some time and put that info out there for people to find. I appreciate that when a customer calls for information you have the chance to sell them on the merits of your service and why it's worth $3000 or what have you. Still, though---a budget is a budget, and if you're not in my budget, I don't want to waste the time. And honestly? If you insist that I "call for pricing", chances are... I won't. Now you don't even get the chance to try.
Also, in this age of streaming video, why do certain major broadcasting companies choose not to put full episodes on their websites? Really, CBS? My favorite shows are on CBS, but I don't want to be a slave to my television 3 nights a week. It'd be nice to be able to catch up on Criminal Minds or NCIS at my convenience. But considering that both of those shows are CBS shows---please, can there be some sort of crossover episode? Or better yet, just put Garcia and Abby in a room together and see what sort of magic happens. Oooh! Or Garcia and McGee should totally hook up. That would be awesome. Even just one little episode of sweet nerdy flirtation. *sigh* A girl can always dream... right?
The time change sucks, as usual... It was pitch black when I got off of work tonight. At 6pm! SIX! Really??!!?? Ugh.
Top televison loves, without pictures because I'm too tired:
1. NCIS. It had to grow on me, but I love Tony's puns, Ziva's precise grammar and culture confusion, McGee's goofiness, Ducky's endearing nature, Abby's goth/nerd glamour, and of course that subtle Gibbs smile that he only reveals when no one is watching.
2. Glee! A new favorite, but the songs get stuck in my head. Someone had a great video clip of the cast singing the national anthem at the World Series on Facebook today. It was delicious.
3. Criminal Minds. I'm not so avid--I rarely sit down to watch this one on TV (hence my current frustration), but I love the relationship between Garcia and Morgan. Morgan is just straight up eye candy. Spencer Reid is so adorable, too. I like that there isn't really a focus on forensics for this one.
4. Grey's Anatomy. I haven't been glued to my TV this season, or the tail end of last, but I always surf the internet and try to keep up on what's happening at Seattle Grace. A bit of a guilty pleasure.
Yeah, it's National Blog Posting Month (there's a website but I don't feel like linking at the moment.) Maybe I can kick-start this new endeavor of mine.
Speaking of new endeavors, the engagement happened! Steven didn't keep it simple, but it was sweet and, though I got a little stressed out at the time, I was able to laugh about it soon thereafter. I'm thrilled to be starting a new stage of life with my love.
My sister and I went wedding dress shopping yesterday. It's probably premature--we set the wedding date for 1/1/11, so there are 14 months until the big day. It was nice to do some of the "fun" stuff though. All other wedding planning/thought has been aimed at nailing down locations and scoping photographers. I was getting kind of stressed out by it all last week.
Trying on dresses was fun. Not as much fun was looking at the photos later. My goal for the next 14 months is to lose some weight. My self-image was not helped by Halloween... Steven helped me throw together an outfit. I bought a corset when we went to the Renaissance Festival a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have anything to go with it. We pieced together some things from my closet. I wound up being a gypsy to Steven's pirate. The corset is pretty, but I feel like I get squeezed out the top and bottom of it. We went to a house party hosted by one of Steven's friends, and I'm pretty sure I was one of the only girls there not in a mini skirt or sporting some sort of revealing lingerie. Oh well... Steven was happy with how I looked.
He shaved off his pirate beard. It's strange how used to it I became in 2 months. He looks so much younger without it--kind of baby faced. I think he kind of regrets taking it off, too. He went back to the goatee he had before, but was talking already about maybe growing back the larger beard, but keeping it more neatly trimmed (rather than the unruly pirate length.) I hope he's not just doing it for my sake. I don't deal with changes well. I love him, and I love him no matter what kind of facial hair he has, but it was strange to look at a face so suddenly changed.
Things I'm liking today.... just a couple, because I have a headache.
2. Super lacy, detailed wedding gowns like this one---Allure Couture #8488.