I managed to order my wedding dress today and pick bridesmaid dresses out with my mom and little sister. These are major victories because all 3 of us went shopping for dresses and no one died or cried and we all are happy with the choices. There was some minor squabbling and my mom is as always a tiny bit embarrasssing but it all worked out.
Ice cream helped.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Back to the Beginning...
I realized that maybe my posts thus far have been confusing a bit so I'm going to try and explain the various aspects of my life...I also edited the previous post slightly as I realized I had made a consistency error. It should make more sense now.
The various aspects of my life: my Sweetheart, school, work, CLUB, planning a wedding, my crazy family, and a large great group of friends.
Sweetheart--I live with him and have been with him for just about 4 years now. He is my best friend and I can't wait to marry him in January. I am responsible for feeding him and he does the dishes--this is our major agreement for life. I love to cook and HATE dishes. We met at college when he started the year after I did and started dating 7 months later after getting to be friends as a result of each of us being members of CLUB. We've been together ever since. We have a good fighting relationship--meaning that we fight a fair amount but know how to recover from a fight and resolve it at this point. My family love him and I can't wait to marry him.
School--I am currently getting my doctorate. I am in my second year of graduate school and have 2 more to go after this one is over. I can't wait to have a job and be in the real world...after being in school for this long it has gotten old. Though I have made some good friends at school. Spring break was not long enough but thankfully we leave next week for a conference in North Carolina.
Work--I work as a graduate assistant for one of the professors so I basically do whatever he doesn't want to do. I have worked for him for a year and a half and really don't enjoy working for him but it pays for school and gives me a small salary so I'm ok with it.
CLUB--is the organization Sweetheart and I met through. It is a national co-ed community service organization that we were heavily involved with in undergrad. A large number of our friends are a result of our involvement with CLUB. We are still involved (heavily) as alumni volunteers. I was elected by the undergraduate students to help about 7 schools worth of chapters. So, we travel around our area a lot visiting school, hanging out with undergrads, yelling at them when the don't do what they are supposed to and rewarding/celebrating with them when they do an awesome job. I really enjoyed the service I did with this organization as an undergrad and really love helping current students fo great service for their communities.
planning a wedding---sweetheart and I are getting married in my hometown in January. We've been engaged for 2 years and are still not prepared for the actual having a wedding. We're fine with the being married part. I'm finding planning this wedding in a different state somewhat stressful with money concerns and with being busy with everything else I'm doing. All I really want it to be married and to have a big party but it seems like stuff keeps getting out of hand.
my crazy family---I have my parents and little sister that live in a different state. I am extremely close with my mom. My whole extended family all still live within 10 miles of each other. They've never left. My moving 2 hours away is a huge deal but I had to get out of there. I didn't really want to live in a place where everyone knows everything about me. Until recently, my dad's mom lived at my parents' house and they recently moved back after my dad was transferred out of state for a couple years. My grandma dislikes my mom so much she immediately moved to a nursing home after they moved back.
A large great group of friends--you'll get to know them and their exploits as this goes on. See the previous post for a description about how I know the most important friends in my life.
Hope this clears some things up and I'm going to work on posting more regularly. I really am still trying to find my voice for this and how I want this blog to go. I appreciate the patience of anyone who is reading this.
The various aspects of my life: my Sweetheart, school, work, CLUB, planning a wedding, my crazy family, and a large great group of friends.
Sweetheart--I live with him and have been with him for just about 4 years now. He is my best friend and I can't wait to marry him in January. I am responsible for feeding him and he does the dishes--this is our major agreement for life. I love to cook and HATE dishes. We met at college when he started the year after I did and started dating 7 months later after getting to be friends as a result of each of us being members of CLUB. We've been together ever since. We have a good fighting relationship--meaning that we fight a fair amount but know how to recover from a fight and resolve it at this point. My family love him and I can't wait to marry him.
School--I am currently getting my doctorate. I am in my second year of graduate school and have 2 more to go after this one is over. I can't wait to have a job and be in the real world...after being in school for this long it has gotten old. Though I have made some good friends at school. Spring break was not long enough but thankfully we leave next week for a conference in North Carolina.
Work--I work as a graduate assistant for one of the professors so I basically do whatever he doesn't want to do. I have worked for him for a year and a half and really don't enjoy working for him but it pays for school and gives me a small salary so I'm ok with it.
CLUB--is the organization Sweetheart and I met through. It is a national co-ed community service organization that we were heavily involved with in undergrad. A large number of our friends are a result of our involvement with CLUB. We are still involved (heavily) as alumni volunteers. I was elected by the undergraduate students to help about 7 schools worth of chapters. So, we travel around our area a lot visiting school, hanging out with undergrads, yelling at them when the don't do what they are supposed to and rewarding/celebrating with them when they do an awesome job. I really enjoyed the service I did with this organization as an undergrad and really love helping current students fo great service for their communities.
planning a wedding---sweetheart and I are getting married in my hometown in January. We've been engaged for 2 years and are still not prepared for the actual having a wedding. We're fine with the being married part. I'm finding planning this wedding in a different state somewhat stressful with money concerns and with being busy with everything else I'm doing. All I really want it to be married and to have a big party but it seems like stuff keeps getting out of hand.
my crazy family---I have my parents and little sister that live in a different state. I am extremely close with my mom. My whole extended family all still live within 10 miles of each other. They've never left. My moving 2 hours away is a huge deal but I had to get out of there. I didn't really want to live in a place where everyone knows everything about me. Until recently, my dad's mom lived at my parents' house and they recently moved back after my dad was transferred out of state for a couple years. My grandma dislikes my mom so much she immediately moved to a nursing home after they moved back.
A large great group of friends--you'll get to know them and their exploits as this goes on. See the previous post for a description about how I know the most important friends in my life.
Hope this clears some things up and I'm going to work on posting more regularly. I really am still trying to find my voice for this and how I want this blog to go. I appreciate the patience of anyone who is reading this.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Characters
So...in order to keep this straight for myself and because I thought it might help if anyone is reading this....here is a list of the names I have made for all my friends that either have appeared or will appear in this blog.
Blog Characters:
Sweetheart = my fiancée, best friend, boyfriend of the past 4 years
Steph = my best friend, freshman year roommate, that lives way to far away
Jennie = college friend and onetime roommate who I have a rocky relationship with
Ashley = friend from CLUB who I often travel with and have over for dinner
Callie = CLUB friend who I love to go out with
Leslie = my annoying little sister
Star = a bridesmaid in my wedding and a grad school friend
Amanda = another close friend from grad school who lives a block away
Amy = my best friend from age two
Ken and Jackie = sweetheart’s best man and his wife, our friends through CLUB
More to be added later. When I add I will update.
Flashback to October 2004
still procrastinating...or procrastinating again...not sure i want to sleep tonight...or am going to...
It was a fun weekend. It has not been a fun week so I will talk about my weekend.
I was on duty this weekend so I only really had fun during the day because I was monitoring other people's fun in the evenings. Though rounds were uneventful as one of the more exciting things was seeing a cat and Jeff being eaten by the elevator.
Friday I went to the powder puff football game which was fun...guys in skirts are always amusing. Plus the Jr class is awesome.
Saturday I went shopping with Jennie and Steph. Which resulted in the 3 of us getting matching t-shirts for halloween that have a skeleton on the front and say "shake your booo-ty" hehehe. we were amused (colin wasn't so much amused). Then Sarah and I finally found an Olive garden and got dinner and then shared a blizzard at DQ...aka we were trying to make ourselves sick since we had eaten lunch at the mall not long before this.
Sunday was Sweetheart's surprise birthday party. This was fun because he actually seemed to enjoy it. This shocked me since he had repeatedly said no party, no fun, no doing anything about his birthday. He kept telling me it wasn't a big deal but since I come from the school of my college friends for whom everything is a big deal. We couldn't not have the party. Major props to my partner in crime for helping me pull this off and being a good distraction even when sweetheart drives and tries to foil our plans. Thanks also to Jennie, Steph, and misc. other college friends for helping me with last minute decorating.
This post is amusing mostly because it talks about Sweetheart's first birthday party EVER. Not first surprise party. First ever birthday party. Further explaining why I just don't get his parents. To this day, sweetheart still doesn't understand why my family, my friend, and I all make a big deal out of his or anyone's birthday for that matter. He doesn't get why they are important or fun. They are the day you celebrate and are grateful that this amazing person (whoever it is) is in the world, it part of your life, is someone you love. I love birthdays! I particularly love my birthday and making plans for it and having a good time on it.
Note to self...at some point describe all the weird things my college friends and I did for birthdays in college.
so crazy
My life has been so crazy lately that I actually haven't manage to update this at all...despite the fact that I intended too. My school and work schedules have been crazy and I had a conference over the weekend and an out of town class for school yesterday. Needless to say I have traveled all around my state in about 4 days. Plus, while sweetheart and I were at the CLUB conference this weekend, his car broke down and is still where we left it HOPEFULLY getting fixed. I am hoping we can pick it up this weekend and that we can get it back so I can stop getting my friends from school to drive me to class and work.
I also don't really remember or want to go into the fight from the previous post but I will give you this update...his parents still don't know when we are getting married. Less than 11 months away. I really really wish he would just suck it up and tell them.
I have the worst cold right now. All I want to do is crawl in a big fort of blankets and never move. Unfortunately, I have a test and a paper Monday, neither of which I have worked on due to all the traveling. So pretty much I will be studying for 3 days meaning that I'll probably post a decent amount since I love to procrastinate while studying.
Amusing thought of the weekend: I love the "pizza fairy" when I am drinking. The story of the pizza fairy started back in april when I was out with a big group of my girls. I had more to drink than usual and ended up not really remembering the walk back to my friend Callie's house. I do remember Ashley leaving sweetheart the best viocemail about how I was drunk. I remember Callie and Ashley crying at the bar about two separate things. I remember being upstairs in Callie's room changing while our very shy guy friend Steve slept on the floor. I remember eating pizza and falling asleep. Other than that I am clueless. I do not remember pizza being ordered or arriving, though apparently I talked a lot about this pizza fairy and they now tease me about this anytime we drink together...really it is just a great excuse to order pizza after we've been out.
So...I think I'm gonna maybe go back through some old things and post later.
I also don't really remember or want to go into the fight from the previous post but I will give you this update...his parents still don't know when we are getting married. Less than 11 months away. I really really wish he would just suck it up and tell them.
I have the worst cold right now. All I want to do is crawl in a big fort of blankets and never move. Unfortunately, I have a test and a paper Monday, neither of which I have worked on due to all the traveling. So pretty much I will be studying for 3 days meaning that I'll probably post a decent amount since I love to procrastinate while studying.
Amusing thought of the weekend: I love the "pizza fairy" when I am drinking. The story of the pizza fairy started back in april when I was out with a big group of my girls. I had more to drink than usual and ended up not really remembering the walk back to my friend Callie's house. I do remember Ashley leaving sweetheart the best viocemail about how I was drunk. I remember Callie and Ashley crying at the bar about two separate things. I remember being upstairs in Callie's room changing while our very shy guy friend Steve slept on the floor. I remember eating pizza and falling asleep. Other than that I am clueless. I do not remember pizza being ordered or arriving, though apparently I talked a lot about this pizza fairy and they now tease me about this anytime we drink together...really it is just a great excuse to order pizza after we've been out.
So...I think I'm gonna maybe go back through some old things and post later.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
24 and fighting about the future in-laws
So..I turned 24 this week. 24 seems really adult. My mom mentioned to me on the phone today that 24 scares her because in her head it is much more adult than 23. I've now been out of undergrad for over a year, will be getting married this year, and really am building a life of my own. And apparently me being an adult scares her because it means she might be old.
Other than that the big event this week is the biggest fight I've had with my sweetheart in a long time. We have always had what I call a good fighting relationship. We fight on a somewhat regular basis, to varying degrees, but at this point we've learned to recover from them and make up afterwards. It always freaks me out when my friends tell me they NEVER fight with their significant other since recovering from a fight is a necessary couple skill.
Anyway, so we were riding home from the city and were discussing how Sweetheart needs to tell his parents our wedding date. We set a wedding date 6 months ago and they still don't know...but then again it was 9 months after we got engaged when he told them that.
Let me back up now and explain Sweetheart's relationship with his parents and their relationship with me. Sweetheart has seen his parents maybe 4 or5 times in the 4 years we have been together. Ever since we started dating, he has spent holidays with my family. His family isn't into togetherness or holidays...something I totally don't understand coming from a large extended family that all live within 10 miles of my grandmother. His parents have never said anything or seemed to care that their only child doesn't come home. He doesn't send his parents birthday presents and this was the first year he has EVER sent his parents a christmas present and then only because I insisted. He loves his mom and tries to do right by her but he respects his dad and appreciates the sacrifices he has made to make my sweetheart's life better but his dad has been genuinely awful with him over the years. His dad is a grmpy English man--very the stereotypical grumpy English man--and is hyper critical of his wonderful son, who went to a good school, got good grades, got a job after graduation. Yeah--he didn't pick the career his dad wanted, and he's not perfect. But he sure is a good kid and doesn't deserve the crap his dad has given him and I don't know the half of it since he doesn't like to get into it. It is the one thing that ever really makes him cry is talking about his dad. rips my heart out every time.
His parents' relationship with me isn't much better. They have met me 3 times in 4 years. The first time we had been dating for a year and they were driving through the city while moving across the country and stopped to see Sweetheart. They took us out to a nice Italian dinner. His dad didn't really talk to me. His mom mostly talked to me about whether or not I could cook. The second time I met them was a year and a half later. I went the summer after I graduated from undergrad to their house to spend 10 days with them. His dad is only home during weekends so I didn't talk to him much. His mom asked my some questions and tried to get to know me better but we never really connected. I found out later that his mom thinks I'm nice and that his dad's primary opinion was that I'm not pretty enough for his son. After that, I have met them once more at Sweetheart's graduation this past May. That has been the most pleasant meeting to date mostly because his mom and I are getting more comfortable with each other (slightly) and his dad basically does not acknowledge that I am present at all.
Needless to say, I'm not super fond of his parents. I think his mom is nice but hasn't really tried very hard to get to know her future daughter-in-law. I really do my best not to care what his dad thinks of me. I'm way to proud to admit that him saying I'm not pretty enough gets to me. I mostly don't like his dad because of how he has effected his son. I really hate what he has done to someone who deserves better.
I think maybe that is enough for now...I'll get back to the fight later...tomorrow maybe.
Other than that the big event this week is the biggest fight I've had with my sweetheart in a long time. We have always had what I call a good fighting relationship. We fight on a somewhat regular basis, to varying degrees, but at this point we've learned to recover from them and make up afterwards. It always freaks me out when my friends tell me they NEVER fight with their significant other since recovering from a fight is a necessary couple skill.
Anyway, so we were riding home from the city and were discussing how Sweetheart needs to tell his parents our wedding date. We set a wedding date 6 months ago and they still don't know...but then again it was 9 months after we got engaged when he told them that.
Let me back up now and explain Sweetheart's relationship with his parents and their relationship with me. Sweetheart has seen his parents maybe 4 or5 times in the 4 years we have been together. Ever since we started dating, he has spent holidays with my family. His family isn't into togetherness or holidays...something I totally don't understand coming from a large extended family that all live within 10 miles of my grandmother. His parents have never said anything or seemed to care that their only child doesn't come home. He doesn't send his parents birthday presents and this was the first year he has EVER sent his parents a christmas present and then only because I insisted. He loves his mom and tries to do right by her but he respects his dad and appreciates the sacrifices he has made to make my sweetheart's life better but his dad has been genuinely awful with him over the years. His dad is a grmpy English man--very the stereotypical grumpy English man--and is hyper critical of his wonderful son, who went to a good school, got good grades, got a job after graduation. Yeah--he didn't pick the career his dad wanted, and he's not perfect. But he sure is a good kid and doesn't deserve the crap his dad has given him and I don't know the half of it since he doesn't like to get into it. It is the one thing that ever really makes him cry is talking about his dad. rips my heart out every time.
His parents' relationship with me isn't much better. They have met me 3 times in 4 years. The first time we had been dating for a year and they were driving through the city while moving across the country and stopped to see Sweetheart. They took us out to a nice Italian dinner. His dad didn't really talk to me. His mom mostly talked to me about whether or not I could cook. The second time I met them was a year and a half later. I went the summer after I graduated from undergrad to their house to spend 10 days with them. His dad is only home during weekends so I didn't talk to him much. His mom asked my some questions and tried to get to know me better but we never really connected. I found out later that his mom thinks I'm nice and that his dad's primary opinion was that I'm not pretty enough for his son. After that, I have met them once more at Sweetheart's graduation this past May. That has been the most pleasant meeting to date mostly because his mom and I are getting more comfortable with each other (slightly) and his dad basically does not acknowledge that I am present at all.
Needless to say, I'm not super fond of his parents. I think his mom is nice but hasn't really tried very hard to get to know her future daughter-in-law. I really do my best not to care what his dad thinks of me. I'm way to proud to admit that him saying I'm not pretty enough gets to me. I mostly don't like his dad because of how he has effected his son. I really hate what he has done to someone who deserves better.
I think maybe that is enough for now...I'll get back to the fight later...tomorrow maybe.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Flashback to November 2004
Anyone who knows me and my sweetheart (as my significant other will be referred to from here on out), knows full well that we fight pretty much all the time. Sometimes its serious and real but most of the time its out of fun and pure silliness...and our intense love of driving each other nuts. None of this is really any different from when we were just friends. We loved to harrass each other just as much when we were friends. No one thought that would change. Its probably not capable of chaning. Its really the way we intereact and talk to each other and most of the time the fighting is really all in good fun.
Especially since mostly we seem to fight for real over IM. (we go to Dork School...definitely) And if you've ever encountered me after a fight you know how bad they can be. Fighting with him sucks and it hurts. But in the end, we always end up better than before somehow. We figure stuff out when we fight that we never talk about otherwise because we are so busy protecting the other person from our honest complaints or thoughts about the relationship. Its really funny to think that is has been almost eight months. Seems like we've been dating forever and like we just started dating yesterday at the same time.
My Sweetheart is meeting my whole family this weekend. He's coming home for Thanksgiving. So if you're a friend from home and you want to see me and maybe meet him over break, I'll be home Wednesday around dinner time. Give me a call on my cell phone or whatever and we can make some plans. The only plans I have are dinner Thursday and random shopping with mom.
I'm excited about him meeting my family and amused because he seems to have no fear....they'll be interesting stories after this weekend I'm sure. hehehe. (He should have more fear)
This old entry amuses me because it indicates a lot of important things about my relationship. Him meeting my parents was totally huge for me. My mom is my absolute best friend. Every time someone tells me that I am just like her I think it is the best compliment even when Dad's family means it as an insult. He's the only boyfriend I ever brought home more than twice. It also hints to the fact that my sweetheart and I were pretty good friends for about a year before we ever starting dating and that we met in college...a very dorky college. Needless to say, his meeting with my family went VERY well. They all love him, even more now than they did them. My mom even claims he is her favorite child...this is funny but also drives me nuts. I've put up with their special breed of crazy for 24 years...he's only put up with it for less than 4.
Especially since mostly we seem to fight for real over IM. (we go to Dork School...definitely) And if you've ever encountered me after a fight you know how bad they can be. Fighting with him sucks and it hurts. But in the end, we always end up better than before somehow. We figure stuff out when we fight that we never talk about otherwise because we are so busy protecting the other person from our honest complaints or thoughts about the relationship. Its really funny to think that is has been almost eight months. Seems like we've been dating forever and like we just started dating yesterday at the same time.
My Sweetheart is meeting my whole family this weekend. He's coming home for Thanksgiving. So if you're a friend from home and you want to see me and maybe meet him over break, I'll be home Wednesday around dinner time. Give me a call on my cell phone or whatever and we can make some plans. The only plans I have are dinner Thursday and random shopping with mom.
I'm excited about him meeting my family and amused because he seems to have no fear....they'll be interesting stories after this weekend I'm sure. hehehe. (He should have more fear)
This old entry amuses me because it indicates a lot of important things about my relationship. Him meeting my parents was totally huge for me. My mom is my absolute best friend. Every time someone tells me that I am just like her I think it is the best compliment even when Dad's family means it as an insult. He's the only boyfriend I ever brought home more than twice. It also hints to the fact that my sweetheart and I were pretty good friends for about a year before we ever starting dating and that we met in college...a very dorky college. Needless to say, his meeting with my family went VERY well. They all love him, even more now than they did them. My mom even claims he is her favorite child...this is funny but also drives me nuts. I've put up with their special breed of crazy for 24 years...he's only put up with it for less than 4.
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