location, location, location

As of yesterday, M and I have been engaged for 2 months - that went by so quickly! We put off doing any heavy lifting until after his birthday in early January, but for the last month we have been doing a lot of work trying to figure out where we want to do this thang.

At first, our options were spread all over the east coast - Maine, Boston area, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Carolinas. Well, we quickly ruled out New England and Virginia and the Carolinas, as the thought of doing all the planning from afar basically gave me a panic attack. Obviously, MD would be convenient and NJ would be possible since we have my parents there and it is only a few hours away, easily doable for weekend trips.

Last weekend, we took a trip to NJ to check out a few places. We went to my camp, as well as the Red Mill in Clinton, Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, Razberry's, and my not so secret favorite, the Prallsville Mill. We really like the historic options, but the Mill would mean a tent and renting *everything*, which would be really difficult to do from afar. The Prallsville Mill was beautiful and I still love it, but when I tried to make an appointment to see the inside, the management told me they weren't showing it because there was a non-profit group having an event there. When we drove by, there was no one there! They didn't offer to send info or talk about anything, and that just left me wary. If they aren't responsive at this point in the process, I would not like working with them once they have our deposit. The other options seemed OK, but not amazing and no less expensive than what we could do in Annapolis, so it just doesn't seem like it makes sense.

The one option we are leaving on the table is my camp. Of course, I love my camp. I haven't been back in forever, and it was so good to pull in, see the place where I spent so many of my formative summers. The caretaker couple that was there when I worked there met us and showed us the new rec hall and we caught up about old friends and current lives. Of course, I loved being back, but what I didn't really expect is that M would fall in love as well. He was more taken with it than I thought and for that reason among mine, we are leaving camp on the table until we get a better idea of costs and break things down a lot more, like how we will get elderly folks around, etc.

We have also been pursuing out options in Annapolis. Annapolis is a natural place to have the wedding, since that is where M and I go to church. We love our church and it would be a beautiful place to have our ceremony, but the difficulty we are having right now is where to have the reception. There are a few options, but they all have a drawback. First, though we need to decide on which state to have it in! We are having a strategy meeting tomorrow, so hopefully we will start making a few more decisions!

Dress stress

Hiya! I know there is at least one person who will read this on their RSS feed. Hi, Clare!

So even though we don't have a date, venue, firm guest list, photographer, caterer, or even know what state we want to get married in, I am already having a really specific terror. If you know me at all, you can probably guess what it is...

Yup, the DRESS! DUM DUM DUM! In case M ever reads this, I don't want to talk about it in detail. But I am not even really thinking about specifics here. Mostly, I am talking about my fear of the whole process.

I am not the kind of person that enjoys shopping. I am very frugal and hate spending so much money on badly constructed clothes. Recently, my work pants were literally falling apart before I finally motivated myself to go shopping. I also just do not like trying on clothes in general. I have about 20 minutes before I get so mentally and physically exhausted that I want to lay down on the floor of the dressing room and take a nap.

There is also the matter of the traumatic experience I had while buying a bridesmaid's dress for my friend B's wedding. We were at a small bridal boutique - I had come all the way from Minnesota to NJ specifically to be fitted for it. Our attendant pulled the sample (which was several sizes too small, of course) and clipped it to kinda fit on me. Then she proceeded to make a few comments about how difficult it was to fit me in the thing and 'irregular' sizes. Then she took my measurements and wrote them down. Once I was in my clothes again, we sat down to put in the order. It was a separate top and skirt, but you had to order all the same size (kind of defeats the purpose of separates, right?). The way my measurements were, she suggested that I order a size several sizes larger than what my other measurements would suggest, and about 5  or more sizes bigger than my street size. Of course, they charged me an extra 40$ for that on top of an already pricey dress.

Fast forward to when the dress came in and I got it, the same weekend as B's shower. I 'tried' it on. And by that I mean that I threw it up in the air and let it billow over me like a parachute. It was TERRIBLE. It was so huge that it literally didn't look like clothes, it looked like a tent. It was so bad. I took it back to Minnesota and found a great seamstress. She literally had to take apart every seam in the entire dress and also to add a center seam in the middle of the bodice to make it look right at all. I had two fittings for it. When she was done, it looked much better, and she handed me a grocery bag stuffed with all the extra fabric (I still have it somewhere, I should find it and do something with it! like, you know, make a year's worth of clothing).  When we got to the wedding day, one of the other bridesmaids had gotten a bad size as well, but this time too small. She had it altered as much as possible, but even then, the zipper pulled apart and wouldn't stay shut, and I had to sew her in the bloody thing.

Anyway, I guess my point is that I struggle with my body image every day as it is, and there are so many expectations and fears that I have with the dress that it already feels overwhelming and scary. I have several options, like a 'plus-size' bridal boutique, DB, and what I will probably end up doing, having a dress made.  In a dream world, I would love to go with my mom and have it be an awesome mother-daughter bonding time, but in reality, I know that will not happen and I am grieving about that. I am very blessed that several people have eagerly volunteered to go shopping with me. I know that they would be supportive and helpful.

OK, now that that is out, I have a million things to do today! We are having a craft exchange party, I am SO excited, but I haven't made my gift yet - yikes! Luckily, I have the materials, I just need to go ahead and get it going! Hope you all have a glorious weekend!

(By the way, the dress in question was worn once more in my life... and there is even a picture on this here blog! Can you find it?)

Is this thing on?

Tap! Tap! Tap! Anybody out there?

Greetings! It has been a REALLY long time since I have made a post. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I have been thinking about reviving this thing for a while. The main reason? I want to blog about... wedding planning! I read this site called Weddingbee, and while I don't think I have the consistency or courage to be so public about our plans, I do like the idea of writing about the process to refer to later, and possibly for a few friends, etc. But first, I want to just start out and see if I can keep up with it a bit! I will try to start out with the back story of how I got to be engaged in the first place. Next up!

Last minute sub

Hi y'all! Today, I was a last minute sub for the MODIS Science Team Meeting, Gavin had a family emergency. It went pretty well considering I hadn't practiced at all!

I have a full week this week. It has already been super busy. Tomorrow is the STM, dentist appt, Melissa Ou's Birthday Dinner (Happy Birthday, Melissa!), and then hopefully, the gym, since I skipped today AND yesterday! Yikes! Thursday is dinner with Sonya, yoga, and then my folks will be home when I get back to help me with the house. We are working on the big upstairs bedroom. It is mostly the floor (hardwood - yay!), some framing and drywall (hate the joint cement part) and then paint! Mark Twain yellow! So excited! Oh yeah, and the new window will go in, too! Yay! The only thing is that my poor parents will be here without me, since it is the planned girl's weekend in Re-ho-both! So excited - I have been looking forward to this for months! I just did some grocery shopping for it today, love Trader Joe's!

Also, welcome back, Aimee! She has been on a VERY long science cruise all over the Antarctic, which has been so fun to read about! But even better to have her back!

That's it for tonight. ttfn

What a lovely day!

I am taking the day off today, and it is gorgeous out! Time for breakfast (lunar roll at 2 AM last night, so slept in!), take a walk, go to salon, dinner with the girls! My idea of heaven!

Anyone still here?

Hi! If you are reading this, it means either that you have me on RSS or that you have no life or are my mother (hi, Mom!).

I have been wanting to come back to the blog for a while now, but I don't want to make a big deal out if it in case I don't stick to it again. If you know me well enough to be reading this blog, you know that sometimes I am not so much with follow through (well, I am with critically important things, which is why I am sometimes bad at the other stuff).

Well, it has been so long, I am not sure where to start. How about with my day today? It was nuts! First of all, the government is threatening to shut down, and no one knows what will happen with work, etc. However, just a few minutes ago, apparently they have reached *another* temporary fix, this time just until Thursday. So we will get our lunar roll in next week at 2 AM (woot). Also this morning, I had a court date. Believe it or not, it was kinda fun! In November, I parked at my building in a spot that had previously been a handicapped spot, but wasn't anymore. Well, the markings were very faded but still kinda there. However, there was no upright sign in front of the spot marking it accessible. Well, I took pictures and printed out parts of the ADA, and sat through many people saying "Well, I don't know how fast I was going, but I wasn't going that fast, I don't think." (This is a lame defense - at least make up a number and stick with it.) So there I was, reading law out to the judge, bailiffs, clerk, and citing officer, and they were getting a heck of a kick out of me. Well, the judge wasn't sure if they were allowed to give a ticket if the spot wasn't marked with an upright sign like I was saying, so he just found me not guilty. Yay!

Then it was happy hour at Franklin's with a couple coworkers, one of whom is leaving for hopefully greener pastures. It was so fun! Those guys were really funny and I was being helped along with two "Hammers of the Gods". Don't ask. No, I don't usually drink at all, much less beer, but it was just one of those days.

So that was my day, more or less. I am currently in training for a 10.6 mile race in Big Sur, CA, with Clare, Chanda, and Eric. I am really excited, but also really nervous. I have been training really hard, maybe even more than for my half marathon last October. The races go so much better if I am well trained (duh!). I have missed or cut short some of my long runs, though, so that could be bad.

I joined the Bowie Southern Comforters Quilt Guild in November. I went on retreat with them in February and helped out with the big show a couple of weeks ago. Some of the quilts would take your breath away. If you ever have the chance to go to a show, you definitely should. I really believe they are works of art, even the traditionally pieced quilts. They are very beautiful and very calming.

Well, that is probably a pretty good start for my gentle foray back into blogging. I am really glad I just took the plunge and jumped back in. And if you are reading this in the future, that is good, because maybe it means that I have been consistently blogging, and you are just catching up!

EDIT: I just looked back and saw that on April 8, 2010, I wrote a post saying I am back! That is just weird! Now let's hope I get more than one more in before this time next year....

Summertime and the livin' is easy...

It is now summer, regardless of what the calendar says. Basically, whenever I feel like I can't not turn on the AC anymore, it is summer. Ugh, it has been really hot, although it was nice Monday and Tuesday.

I have had several things percolating through my mind these last few weeks as subjects to write about here, but of course, at the moment I can't think of any of them. I do want to mention that my Aunt Theresa died about a month ago. She was an amazing woman, and is sorely missed. I hope to write a tribute post about her sometime soon.

I am having a bit of a lazy weekend, or at least a lazy Saturday. I think I really needed it, though. Tomorrow, I hope to get to church, then do some housework and chores, then I am seeing a friend in a choral concert in the city, and them a cookout at my friend Stacy's house. Yum!

I want to congratulate my friends Tiffany and Matt, and Mel and Clare - I am so happy for you and wish you all the best for a long and happy life! It makes me so happy to know my friends are happy. Thanks for being in my life, I feel so blessed.

I haven't been running for almost 2 months due to a foot injury. I finally went to a podiatrist, who took X-rays, and determined it was just overstretched soft tissue. I think it is feeling better, but I am afraid of hurting it worse, but I think I need to just get back to my regular routine now. Nothing like running in the summer!

The house is coming along - I have a garden in, which my dad made for me - 3 yards of dirt! We have 3 kinds of corn, 4 kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, green onion, daikon radish, cilantro, basil, zinnias, and violas. Can't wait to eat them!

Hope you are all well!