Wedding updates

So, since it seems like all I've been doing lately is wedding planning (really, who cares about school?) I thought I would give an update. And maybe a school update too since, you know, it's moderately important.

So, wedding update:

I bought my wedding dress and picked out the bridesmaid dresses, Brian picked out his tux and the groomsmen's, and we're working on our wedding registries (finished one, working on the other two). We've also booked a car to take us from the wedding and the reception, sent out save-the-dates, and are working on booking our honeymoon (in Charleston).

Next up: Figuring out the music for the ceremony (Brian's choir, the Vox Clara Schola [I think that's what it's called, anyway] is going to be doing all the music), picking out invitations, and buying our wedding rings. I also have a dress fitting in a few weeks.

Whew! Things are moving fast (only a little more than 4 months now), and it seems to be getting more real by the second. I'm alternately excited and terrified. Brian's set to hear from grad schools in mid-March so that's not doing much to remedy the situation. BUT, hopefully by April 1 we will know something about where we'll be moving.

A short update on school (because that's all I can stand), here are the classes I'm taking this semester:

• Disability Policy (interesting, but most of what we're learning I know already and it's not a long enough class to get into new things)
• Evaluation (it has a longer title, but i'm not interested in learning it)
• Grant writing (which has so far proved to be VERY useful)
• Financial management of nonprofits
• Facilitative leadership (iffy, b/c we're using a model the professor's husband developed).

I'm tired just looking at the list.

As we rocket towards June, I'll try to keep updating...maybe I'll even add a "days to graduation" calendar..

2009 in review

Similar to last year, I thought I would review my favorite books/movies of 2009 (I also admit to needing a more positive post after the last one).

So, first up: books.

Series I've gotten into this year:

• Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery series. These are a much more lighthearted take on Darcy and Elizabeth than Rebecca Ann Collins' Pemberly Chronicles, and despite being slightly predictable, they're a fun easy read.
• Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series. Amelia is possibly one of my favorite literary characters ever, if only because this series put "Good Gad!" in my vocabulary.
• The Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series. This is the basis for the HBO show True Blood, and the best way I can describe it is Twilight, except for adults and with good writing. And no cheesy romance. Or teenage angst.
• The Mistress of the Art of Death series. History + mystery=a good book for me.

Other good books I chanced upon this year:

• Books by Georgette Heyer (so far I've read The Convenient Marriage, Black Sheep, and Cotillion. ) They were written in the 1920s and set in the 1820s, and are funny without being cheesy.
• Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. This was good British chick lit.
  
• Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. This is heaven for an English major. Or, former English major.
  
• My Sister's Keeper. Despite the ending being really sad, it was very fitting--not to mention fantastic.

As for movies, I haven't seen too many this year, but a few stand out:

• Julie & Julia. This made my favorite books last year, and the movie definitely lived up to its name. Meryl Streep is fabulous as Julia Child, and the Amy Adams sections reminds me of many, many times when I've been cooking and freaked out when I get overheated and things aren't working out the way I wanted.
• It's Complicated. Yet another Meryl movie, this one nailed divorce right on its complicated head (cheers for a movie that recognizes how hard divorce can be on kids). AND it's funny. A winner.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I think this is my favorite Harry Potter movie. Funny teenage love angst, combined with fighting Voldemort, made for an excellent movie.
• Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian. Amy Adams's Amelia Earheart was the key in this movie. I also liked that the sculptures and pictures came to life too.
• Star Trek. Brian drug me to this, but I ended up liking it--action + space should equal Battlestar Galactica...but, it turned out, can equal this too.
  

Reflections on 2009

The more I think about it, the more I realize that 2009 was a decidedly mixed year. From Brian's dad's heart attack (a year from today!), to being made supervisor at summer camp, to moving to Cary (Brian and I are living in the same town for the first time in 6 years!) to struggling to maintain my (conservative) identity at school, to wedding planning, it's been up and down constantly.

Recently I've also come to realize that caring for my parent's medical ailments doesn't start when I'm 40--it starts now. From buying my dad diabetic cookbooks for Christmas (yes, I really did) to nagging him to not buy/eat sugary stuff, to taking my mom to colonoscopy appointments and consulting with the doctor afterwards--we're all growing older. That never really hit me until this year. The bursitis in my hip started flaring up, as did my dad's--and the spectre of hip replacements dances on the horizon like a nasty, unwanted sugarplum.

With only 5 months and 3 days left until the wedding, and about 4 months left until I graduate, lose my insurance, and become seriously unemployed (at least now I can put "student" as my occupation), it's going to be a year for big changes. I'm excited about graduating--I've never wanted to go back to school less and I am SERIOUSLY tired of being "the intern"--but terrified of finding my first real job, moving somewhere as yet unknown (but hopefully not for too much longer!) and setting up a married life when I'm so used to this one.

If you pray, add me in. I'll need it.

2 1/2 weeks til freedom

....from this semester at least.

I have to say, I will be GLAD it is over, really more glad than I can ever remember being. Between my community theory class where I regularly spar with the teacher over her beliefs and choice of guest speakers, my intense nonprofit law class, and my excellent-opportunity-but-overwhelming-workload internship (not to mention my inability to find a job and time to do it in), I need a break. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I was hoping to make it to Thanksgiving without losing it. Well, I was close...SO close...but it didn't happen. I managed to burst into tears in the middle of a large (and important) meeting at my internship, when they told me I had to go back to the office by myself for most of the day, while everyone else went out to lunch and then home early.

The next 2 weeks will be just as crazy as the last few...2 conferences, 2 finals, a final presentation and paper, an RFA to write, a family reunion, not to mention wedding dress shopping and going to see the Nutcracker..

Needless to say, I'll be glad for a break. But it keeps hitting me, at random moments, that this is the last year I'll really be doing these things, coming back to school after a holiday, buying textbooks, even living in NC...it's a little over 6 months before Brian and I get married, but things are already going fast. We'll likely be moving to Florida, DC, or Chicago (depending on where he gets into grad school), so next year, if we even make it back for Thanksgiving, will more than likely involve a plane flight and (hopefully!!!) going back to some sort of job on Monday. It's strange to think that, as many years as I've been trucking back and forth from New Bern and the Triangle (this makes 6), it will soon all be over. I'm not sure yet whether I'm happy, or utterly, utterly miserable about that yet. Stay tuned.

Marathon

I realized I haven't posted in a while...but my excuse is that I have been running a marathon.

If you know me at all, you'll know that this is not an actual marathon (I never run, both because I have bad knees and because I find running boring), but a work-related one.

All my assignments have ended up in the end of the semester, including what will probably be a 30+ page paper (it's currently 20 and I'm still working), a terrifying law exam, and lots of marketing & fundraising reading and papers. Not to mention all the work I have for my internship--a 3-day long Council meeting, 2 conferences, one workshop, my mid-year evaluation, and writing an RFA, which is really a big deal and is thus terrifying.

Not to mention wedding stuff...we finally got our engagement pictures made (but haven't seen them yet), and I have a host of things to do before the New Year, including finalizing the guest list, sending out save-the-dates, reserving a block of hotel rooms for people coming in out of town, finding a (preferably antique) car to take us from the church to the reception, and, of course, buying a wedding dress.

Whew.

I'm positive I'm going to fall flat on my face, but hopefully I'll manage to accomplish all this before that happens. It's looking unlikely at this point...just in the past 2 days, I fell asleep while reading and also while sitting up.

I am currently accepting assistance in the form of tasty food.

Peeves

Today, Brian is out of town so I am treating myself to several things I've been wanting to do: Go to the library (I haven't been in nearly 2 months and I am seriously running out of things to read), eat at a cheap Thai place I like (soup and an entree for $6!), and watch one (maybe 2) of my favorite girly movies.

But first, I just have to rant about 2 things.

1.) People assuming I am 15. I am not. I have crow's feet around my eyes, people. These are not the crow's feet of a 15 year old.

Also, it is not appropriate to approach me, someone you've never met, and ask me, a.) if i'm a student (why does this matter? People can be students at any age), b.) when I stress that I am a GRADUATE student, feel the need to comment on how young I look (example from this past weekend..."you look like a young'un!") b/c NO, you're not the first person to ever tell me that, and no, I don't appreciate it. People don't walk up to you and say you look old. But you do. and c.) expect me to smile and thank you. I'm not going to thank you. I may appreciate it when I'm 40, but not if it means you can't respect me professionally and as a person. Also, you're weird for feeling the burning need to ask if I am fifteen. What's it to you?

Also, lately I've had people asking if my nose is real. WHAT? Of course it is. But apparently it's what people are asking for when they get a nose job now. That is just strange. Yes , my nose is real (my dad and grandma have the exact same nose, so I can prove it), but if it wasn't, don't you think that would make me feel pretty self-conscious about my fake nose?

2.) Comprehensive sex-ed in schools.

Everybody at school takes it for granted that we all want this. But I don't. Not only do I think it's creepy/inappropriate to discuss sex with children, I think it's the wrong answer to teen pregnancy. Should there be less teen pregnancy? Well, probably...but abortion/using contraception is not the answer.

Instead of asking how we can help children have sex, we should be asking WHY ON EARTH 13-year-olds want to have sex in the first place. I'm not completely naive (I did go to a pretty poor public middle school, after all...I started having pregnant girls in my class in 6th grade), I know they have sex. But is it because they really want to, or because our society has created an environment where everything is sexualized, including children? Are they having sex because they feel like they have to to be normal?

I vividly remember a boyfriend I had when I was about 15 telling me we needed to have sex b/c normal couples did. Thank goodness I had enough common sense to tell him this was crazy, but I know not every girl does. Shouldn't we be telling kids that it's ok NOT to have sex, instead of stressing that they should, and use protection while doing it? Shouldn't we be telling them it's ok to still act like kids BECAUSE THEY ARE, instead of turning them into adults at 12 when they're emotionally unready for the consequences?

I am 24 years old, and I've never had sex. I'm positive I'm not the only person on this planet capable of that decision. Is it hard? Yes. Sometimes I do wish I could be like the gang on Sex and the City...but then I think about how emotionally screwed up Carrie Bradshaw is. I mean, really...she has to use clothes and shoes to feel good about herself. Is this the message we're sending our teenagers?

Comprehensive sex ed is not the answer. Letting kids know it's ok not to have to be sexual is. Some kids may still choose to...but there are others who are sitting in that class, feeling awkward b/c their boyfriend is pressuring them and they're being told it's ok for him to do that as long as he brings a condom. And they need to be supported in saying no. It is ok to say no at 13. It is ok to say no at 24. Sex is not the answer, and I don't want my kids, if I have any, to be told that it is. And I don't want to pay for a public school system that does it to other people's kids, my niece for example. As someone I know says, "That's not right". And it isn't.

Wedding planning updates

So, having just finished a 5-page paper on group dynamics and theory which I started approximately 4 1/2 hours ago (there was lots of office watching and dealing with cake tasting leftovers in between), I thought I would provide an update on our wedding plans. Anything to avoid school at this point, really.

We had florist appointments and cake tastings this week, and I'm feeling positive about our overall progress thus far.

A recap:

Wedding: June 5th
Ceremony: Sacred Heart Cathedral, Raleigh
Reception: Sister's Garden
Photographer: Aperature Aficionado (Holly & Andrew Wagner)
Reception band: The Boilermakers (swing)
Flowers: Kelly Odum (we picked dark pink, blue/green, and coral as the main flower colors)
Cake: Cinda's Creative Cakes

The cake process was really awesome...she had us look through her albums and mark any features we liked, and then did a sketch while we talked, so we came away what our wedding cake will most likely look like. Plus we had three 10-inch cakes to eat at the end. I'll post a scan of the design if I get a copy.

Next up: Finalizing our invitation list and buying invitations. It does seem like it's getting more real as things move along!