what's important

Yes, there's a lot to do. Yes, I occasionally freak out. Yes, sometimes I am still surprised that we're getting married. Period. Let alone in a matter of a few short weeks.

But, really, I know that I'll get everything done (with help) and whatever doesn't get done won't get noticed anyway. And I know that everything will turn out well. People will come. They'll have fun. Things will be pretty and memorable and a little quirky and us. And the day will fly by all too quickly.

So what's really important about all of it? That our people are there. That the ones who can't be there--whether they're on bed rest in Florida or were lost years ago--are there in spirit. That my bridesmaid who had a freakin' heart attack on Friday is there. That The Fiance's Grandma makes it. And that at the end of the day, in front of all those people, we'll be married.

(Also? For the record, God, Mother Nature, etc? It would be swell if we could avoid any hurricanes. Thank you. Good night.)

huh

So I just noticed that the little ticker over there? The one that's counting down time left till the wedding? Has switched to measuring in days. All on it's own. That's a little freaky of it.

Yep, 26 days. Less than a month. With the help of some nice ladies, we had a very productive craft-o-rama on Saturday. I got a few more things done on Sunday. And I packed up multiple projects to work on while I'm on the road this week.

We got The Fiance's ring. Yea! And got mine appraised. Finally!

Got my shopping mostly done. Was given the ok on the two dresses I bought--one for the shower on Saturday and one for the rehearsal.

Still haven't heard from the baker. Perhaps I'll give her a call...

I'm not terribly freaked out about the very few days left. Given the LIST, I probably should be. I'm just going to force all you people to help me. Please? Pretty please?

just a quick brain dump

As Katie mentioned in the Comments, it does seem like a total footrace to the end regarding all this wedding stuff... I'd love to write this lengthy post with real sentences and paragraphs but all I can hammer out is bulleted lists.

• I'm back home. Yea! I briefly thought I'd get to come home a day early next week but no dice. Instead, I'm going to someone else's site (which means less travel but more work for me). Whatever. If I can load up the car (since I'm driving this time), I can craft in hotels! Um, is it bad that that won't be a first for me?
• The Fiance's ring is in! We'll pick it up (hopefully) either today or tomorrow.
• One of the bridesmaids and her flower girl daughter are coming up today. We're trying to avert a flower girl dress crisis and get shoes.
• Have a craft-o-rama planned for Saturday. I actually have a long list but feel like I need to do some prep work for it so that I can maximize the use of my slave labor friends and soon-to-be family. Where's my SIL's grandmother? I'm starting to need the Granny Sweatshop they had going for her and my brother's wedding...
• I have a small shopping To Do list for today. I figure shopping is easy and it would make me feel better to have more marked off the list.
• Speaking of shopping, I bought two dresses in California. (Something you can do on the road.) One may be a rehearsal dress. That would be awesome. I'm actually tired of dress shopping. And can I say, why is it harder to find a normal dress than a freakin' wedding dress?
• I'm concerned about our baker. I emailed her with some questions earlier this week and haven't heard back...
• There has been progress on song choices and the tentative program.
• I turned my To Do list into a Google document so The Fiance can feel free to mark things off. Sending emails back and forth has made me lose track of things.

There's really just so much to do. Some of it can be delegated but some can't. Some are just decisions that need to be made. Some is trying to figure out to whom to delegate. I repeat the geez o' man from the last post. Tomorrow it's four weeks to go. Somebody get me a drink.

how many of you...

would like to kill some time? Go here.

Apparently, there are 70,308 people in the U.S. with my first name.
Statistically, it is the 656th most popular first name.
Shockingly, >99.9% are female.

There are 1,253 people in the U.S. with my last name.
Statistically, it is the 22,507th most popular last name.

There are 1 or fewer people in the U.S. with my name. I'm betting on one.

Oh, you know you want to do it. It takes 5 seconds. Then you can put in other people's names to waste a significant amount of time.

(I was going through draft posts and came across this one, which was good since I'm at a total blank when it comes to writing right now. I'm pretty much only thinking about the wedding and doing wedding-related tasks. With 33 days left, I'm a flood of different emotions. Maybe I'll be able to get them out on virtual paper soon.)

time keeps tickin'

Holy moly, people. And suddenly it's a week from my last post. Here's the run down:

• You know how I had that crappy travel day last Monday? I totally made up for it the next day when I flew to San Diego. First class. Also first class coming back on Tuesday. And that means I had but one night in my super posh suite in the hotel. Upgrades all around.
• We had a nice little outing with the Houston work folks on Friday. I ate ice cream and chatted with some ladies I rarely see. Too bad not everyone could make it.
• I had my first bridal shower on Saturday. It was really nice. Mostly family. We got some nice things, ate great (and pretty) food, and some lovely homemade favors were given to our guests. I also had a cute dress and got a hair cut that morning so that I could take advantage of someone else fixing my hair. And it wasn't so bad opening gifts in front of all those people. I guess I haven't done that since a birthday party in about 2nd grade.
• Last Saturday we also (finally!) found a wedding band that The Fiance is happy with. I'm happy with it, too. It should be in by early next week if not sooner. It will be very nice once it's part of his daily ensemble.
• We have several cantaloupes on the vines. And one tiny baby watermelon. And also one tiny ear of corn. Very exciting! It's been so hot here, I'm just glad things aren't dying. You know, except for the grass.
• Also a few new plants of the flowering variety. I'll have to take pictures (if I went out now I'd probably get sunburned).
• Lots of wedding crafting has taken place in the last week. I even had some help from The Fiance and Maid o' Honor.
• My new study for work officially started on Monday. Good times... Also? Mondays are bad for travel. Flight was delayed because our plane was broken.
• We have Friday off. Yea!
• And Saturday we're having a party for the 4th. No local fireworks but hopefully the nearby cities will at least shoot theirs.
• Then I'm mostly out of town for two weeks starting Sunday. Don't these people realize it's hard to bring craft stuff on the plane? Then another shower, a weekend off, a girls' bachelorette weekend, and then the wedding. Geez o' man. 38 days to go. That makes me want to throw up a little bit.

10 things--chicago (+ wrigley field)

I don't want you to think that Chicago was all bad. It really wasn't. It was my first time there outside of the airport. I would definitely like to visit again.

1. Getting picked up and dropped off at the airport. Yea!


2. A late dinner outside of a little bar on Thursday night.


3. The absolutely fantastic B&B. It's a great brownstone in a nice neighborhood. On the inside it's very sleek and IKEA. In addition to the rooms, there was a nice living room area and a kitchen that was open to everyone. You didn't have folks doting on you...groceries just magically appeared in the kitchen and you could help yourself. You could even cook if you wanted to.


4. It was also nice chatting with some of the folks who were staying in the B&B--including rhythm gymnasts and Canadians.


5. Really good thunderstorms. And actually being inside during a few of them. Ahhh, cuddling.


6. I kind of like figuring out the mass transit systems in different cities. This stuff stressed me out a lot more the first few times I had to do it but now it's kind of fun.


7. Interesting mass transit experiences: Seeing a middle aged man on the subway carrying, among other things, two batons. Like the kind I twirled in high school. Oh, why didn't I ask him why he was carrying them? Also? Random live music on one of the platforms.


8. The oh-so-good food that was available (I'll try not to dwell on the fact that my digestive system wouldn't let me eat all that I wanted to.)


9. Hanging with the future in-laws. Seeing the FSIL's milestone. Hearing lots of stories about little Fiance and FSIL. Awww...


10. Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. I love seeing it. Oak Park is the area in which he lived while in Chicago with his wife and family. He built several houses for families and they are still occupied. I mean, really. "Hi, I live in a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright." Crazy. He ended up taking a mistress from one of those houses and they seemed to have an interesting life together for many years until hers ended tragically. Read "Loving Frank." It's technically fiction but is pieced together from what facts are known. Don't say I didn't warn you about the ending. But, really, this is the kind of history I love. The kind you can stand in front of and touch. Kind of like...


11. Wrigley Field. (I know, a #11!)

+++++

Wrigley Field. It's kind of a big one (as in important, historical).

Oh, my. Well, you've already heard that it was a bit of a struggle to even make it through all the storms and flooding to get there. And that our jeans and shoes and socks were soaked. And that it wasn't raining AT ALL once we arrived.

We still had about an hour of rain delay before the game actually started. The Fiance scored a Cubs cap (while I wore his Astros one). And then we got some snacks. He got Buffalo fries--fries with blue cheese crumbles and wing sauce. YUM. And I got a dog with cheese and grilled onions. Man, those onions were good; the whole place smelled like them when you walked in. Before we left, we also got a helmet ice cream for the road. It was quite refreshing as the day had warmed up nicely. And now I have multiple tiny helmets from various stadiums.

Our seats were pretty high near-ish the foul pole on the 1st base line. Hey, tickets are harder to come by there. But we had a good view and weren't crowded with folks. It was funny how most of the fans must have waited out the rain delay in the nearby bars. Once the game was on, the place filled up quickly.

And I have to confess, due to our brief stay in Chicago and that I was shockingly sunburned about 5 seconds after the sun came out and that we were dressed for the previously cooler weather, we left at the 7th inning stretch. The Cubs were down by 6. They came back to beat the Indians by 1 in the 10th. Oh, well. It was nice to see the ivy and all the adjacent rooftop game-watching places.

happy blogoversary to me

Ah, how quickly 3 years passes...