The Beauty and the Mess

The sun was shining for the first time in over a week, but now the clouds are back! Why?!?!

Well, this is it. I'm just sitting here waiting for noon. When I come back to work I'll have a new name and a new life. It's totally bizarre. Tomorrow Evan's parents and cousin, and my cousin Tiff (I'm so excited to see her), are coming for Thanksgiving. Everyone else comes in late Friday night or early Saturday morning. I feel bad that all these people are traveling to see us and I'll hardly get to spend any time with any of them...but the family could have come for Thanksgiving and chose not to, so I guess it's equally their fault. Anyway, tomorrow should be a relaxing day. On Friday I'm getting a manicure and a pedicure, and then we're having our bridesmaid lunch (without Em :( ). Then we rehearse. Wow. I feel weird. Still calm and non-nervous, but weird. Evan says it's because you always see getting married as something that will happen someday. Then someday becomes Saturday. :)

My mom just called, and apparently another cousin and his wife are coming. They did not RSVP or indicate through other people that they were coming, and we already gave the final numbers to the country club lady. They just got married last year, so they should know how this works. *sigh* Only three more days and I can stop fighting about stupid things. Do you realize I've been continuously planning or helping to plan a wedding for the last year and a half? When this is over, I can have hobbies and relaxation and an open schedule again. I don't even remember what that's like. One thing that annoyed me on Wedding Channel the other day was the "coming home together" page...it said something like, "Now you can start planning your new life together." Sorry to disappoint them, but God willing, I won't be planning anything else for quite a while.

I keep checking and re-checking and re-printing our honeymoon itinerary. I have this irrational fear that the reservations didn't really go through and we'll show up at the airport to find that we have no tickets - or worse, show up in Jamaica to find that we have no room. But with the amount I paid Travelocity, we better have a plane and a room. I'm just paranoid.

Okay...there's nothing else to say. Danielle, Shelley, Shana and Phillip (and Lawson, Robin, Jeremy, and Addie), I'll see you on Saturday! Yay! Thank you all for your support and encouragement. It means a lot. I may find time for a quick post before the wedding, but otherwise, I'll see all of you on the flip side. :D

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I've gotten a lot of e-cards and paper cards from you guys. Thanks. :) I'm trying to be reconciled to the fact that I am now 25 and in an entirely new demographic. I'm now officially too old to be on The Real World. On the other hand, I don't have to pay insane car insurance bills anymore.

It was nice to have a long weekend. On Friday night we went over to Luke and Myla's to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies and had a nice time. Saturday was a long day. I shopped for various things with my mom and sister (we found my wedding shoes!) and spent some time singing with my brother while he practiced his guitar. After a lot of phone discussion with Myla, she and I decided not to go to the Derek Webb concert since the details were getting more and more sketchy. Instead, we went to see Edwin McCain, who was playing at a place nearby. It was fun to hang out, just us girls, but the concert pretty much consisted of us standing up for four hours waiting to hear "I'll Be." I thought I knew more of his stuff, but the aforementioned song and "I Could Not Ask For More" were the only ones I recognized. I liked watching his woodwind player, though - the guy had a tenor sax, a bari sax, and some sort of electronic clarinet, and he was awesome on all of them.

The next day I was completely exhausted, so after church and lunch, I took a long nap. In the evening, my mom, Debra, Evan, Ryan, Alli, and I ventured down to Graceland for the Elvis candlelight vigil. We had a good time. The whole thing was my mom's idea, so I did various things to appease her, like get my picture taken with several Elvises, and get one of those airbrush tattoos (it's mostly gone now). We talked to all kinds of people. Alli asked everyone where they were from. It was muy interesante. When we'd had enough, we all went to Perkins for pie. Our waiter was a vegan and kept responding to our orders with "I've heard that's good, but I'm a vegan, so I wouldn't know." Okay.

I got to sleep in on my birthday morning! I went to the DMV to renew my driver's license, but had to leave after two hours of waiting because I was meeting Kathy, Casey, and MaryElaine for lunch. I was really irritated. However, my friends and my McAlister's tea made everything better. Kathy gave me a Barnes & Noble giftcard, along with Pride & Prejudice "so you'll finally read it!" Yes, I'm sure it comes as a shock to many of you that I've never read P&P, especially since I lived with its biggest fan for seven years. I guess it's time to change my ways. Anyway, after lunch I tried again to renew my license online, and it finally worked! With that off my mind, I went thrift shopping. I only found one dress, but it was fun just to go since I never get to anymore.

After that, I went to my parents', and we all went to dinner at Red Lobster. My brother entertained us with stories of his friends. Our waitress was really nice and brought a dessert. We ended the day by watching the men's gymnastic finals. :) It was a nice birthday, but I felt a little bummed and didn't really know why. I guess birthdays aren't as special when you're planning a wedding. Or when you get old. Or spoiled. :P

Anyway, I have to go work now. More interesting stuff tomorrow.

Happy late birthday to Shana, with whom I share a brain. I guess the synapses aren't working so well, though, since I forgot to say anything until today! Sorry, Shana! I'm glad it was good.

Spending time with my family last night was great. I heard all about their cruise; they had some hilarious stories, one involving a flying fish that smacked my brother in the head (while he was driving a boat!). They brought me some presents, the best of which was a piece of cake from the Publix bakery which survived in the cooler all the way from Miami! It was a big piece, so I could only finish half. Then I forgot the rest when I left their house. :( I'll be back tomorrow, though, so I can eat the other half then. It's almost as good as being there. LOL.

I'm finally doing that friends-list survey that Jessica made. I was amused that almost everyone chose me as being very social. I don't think of myself as very outgoing, but maybe I am. I do have cool and fun friends, but that's by grace, it doesn't have anything to do with me. :) ( My Buddies )

Happy Friday! A few pictures from Virginia are here.

( Registry and mushiness )

Last night was Kathy's unofficial bachelorette party, which came about because her sister refused to have the real one on the day Kathy wanted. So Kathy, MaryElaine, and I went downtown for a little "girl's night out." We went to TGI Friday's for dessert. I had the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, my favorite dessert, which I haven't had in a year. It was amazing. Then we walked over to check out the Madison Hotel, where Kathy and Daniel will go for their wedding night. The Madison is quickly overtaking the Peabody as the cool place to stay in Memphis. We hung out in the lobby for a few minutes. It's somehow retro and modern at the same time, and there are very good photos of B.B. King et al. on the walls. Very nice. Anyway, it was cool to hang out with just Kathy and M.E. Tonight is the official party, and I have no idea what we're doing because Jamie's in charge. La la.

My family left today to drive to Miami. They will stay with our relatives for a couple of days, and then they'll all go on a 7-day cruise of the Caribbean and Mexico. I couldn't go because they come back into port on Kathy's wedding day. I'm sad to miss out on all the quality time, but it's okay. (I get to go to Jamaica! Have I mentioned that? :D) I do feel a little uneasy, though. I don't like my entire family being on the same trip.

There were other things, but now I can't remember. Oh well.

This icon is a picture from Hollywood Beach, Florida, where I spent almost every Saturday when I was younger. My best friend Kristi and I would "surf" and play in the sand and walk on the boardwalk all day. I'm missing the ocean a lot lately. I was looking online for things to do in New Hampshire, and there's a whale-watching tour that guarantees a whale sighting! I'd be so happy. :) Evan thought it sounded cool, too, so maybe we can go.

I am finally forced to admit that I've become addicted to Quizno's. Turkey Ranch & Swiss on rosemary bread. It's what's for dinner. Er, lunch. Plus, they're the only restaurant I know of that has Vanilla Coke on tap.

I'm spending the next three nights at my parents' because they're going out of town and didn't want to leave my brother alone. I don't mind staying out there- it's nice and quiet and I can do laundry. Unfortunately, my mom had plans for Kevin and me, which I can't do because of flute practice and my hair appointment. Now she's irritated, but at least I can spend all of tonight with him. Evan is coming out to the house so we can watch American Idol together. I'm sure Kevin will be glad to see him. They're buds. Oh, and tonight is Evan's last class of the semester! It's already Study Day week. Where does the time go?

It's still kind of weird at the house without Bun.

You know, I got a neat star guidebook for Christmas and I've only tried to use it once. I want to take that to New Hampshire, too- we can probably see a lot of stars there. The thing is, how are you supposed to use it? It's dark when you're looking at stars! Do you take a flashlight, or just memorize the map of the thing you want to look at before you go out there? What do amateur astronomers do?

I'm wearing jeans and I get to leave at 1! Yay!

Our communion service last night was good. My pastor gave a short talk (using the end of Lord of the Rings as an illustration) about how Christ didn't balk at that last minute in the Garden, but followed through and did what He came to do. It was simple but moving. During communion time, I was thinking that I can't even imagine the weight of my own sin, let alone everyone's. It's impossible to fathom. After service I ended up staying for pie anyway and saw admael serving! I wanted to talk to her more, but I needed to hurry home to Evan, since he was kind of sad about me staying longer.

My family's church is doing several performances of an elaborate passion play this weekend, and they're all involved with it. My mother sewed most of the costumes, my sister is signing, my dad is directing traffic, and my brother is playing Demon-Possessed Boy. It should be interesting. Ryan and I are going to it tonight. I'll be glad when the play is over and my family can rest. They're exhausted. My mother has been sewing until midnight every night for the past two weeks, making and re-making things according to the whims of the costume director. A few days ago she asked my mom to sew some elaborate bell sleeves, but upon seeing them, decided she didn't like them and cut them off. I would have walked out.

It seems like my two main failure areas are food and finances. I constantly eat and buy things I shouldn't. It's so frustrating.

No lyrics poll today...sorry. I'm just not in the mood to write one. In case I don't post again today, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Edit: Oh, and on Sunday I can read novels again! I'm so excited!

Is anyone else having a hard time keeping track of what day it is? The holidays have really thrown me off. This will be a three-day week for me (yay), so more confusion is coming. Also, I downloaded an update of Semagic and now I have to type in some bold system font. I can't seem to change it. Weird.

In almost exactly six hours, Evan will be getting off his plane in Memphis. I'm bursting at the seams with anticipation. How have I stood being away from him this long? It's horrible.

This weekend was fun and I got a lot done. There was some sun, I got to see Bun, and I took a walk (I can't run). Okay, seriously. I got off work early on Friday. I purchased my paper cutter, and some clearance shoes at Target. Kathy and Daniel and I had dinner at Subway. Em, who was back in town, came to spend the night and we exchanged late Christmas presents. On Saturday I shopped for some necessary clothing items, which was an exhausting and annoying process. Then Debs came over and we went to dinner and finally watched How to Deal while I scrapbooked. It was a great movie- I'm definitely going to read the book now. On Sunday I went to my church. It was lonely in the pew without Evan. After church, I met my family for lunch at the Olive Garden. Then Mums and Debra and I went to their mall. My mom spent a lot of money on me, which made me feel guilty so soon after Christmas. She bought me a shirt to wear on New Year's Eve- a pink Express shirt with a collar. I usually look awful in collared shirts, so this was a big deal. I also bought myself a corduroy skirt at Lerner, and some earrings to match my shirt. They have great jewelry there. Then, exhausted, I met Casey, Luke, and others at our new neighborhood Huey's for dinner. It was fun. After that, I went home and reorganized my closet. I am amassing a huge pile of stuff to give away, but I'm going to see about giving it to Memphis Union Mission instead of Goodwill. I'm giving away some decent things, and I'd like them to actually help poor people instead of being sold for a profit. (Plus, I shop at thrifts and it makes me sad to find my own stuff on the sale racks.)

I had other things to talk about, but this is long enough so I'll save them for later.

( Jessica's New Year survey )

Tooodaaaay the minutes seem like hours,
The hours go so slowly,
And still the sky is light...

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas!

Mine was okay. It wasn't the best Christmas ever because of some family altercations, but overall it was good. On Christmas Eve I went to service at my family's church. In the midst of the hymns, as I was meditating on Christmas Evey things, my sister (who sees everyone in terms of animals) leaned over and whispered that the music minister looked like a dinosaur. He did. That was the end of my solemnity. :) Then we went home and my mom and I played some carols together. On Christmas morning I got a lot of nice things from my wish list, notably Friends Season 5, a hair straightener, and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. My mom was really clever and hid a Michaels gift card in an Altoids box. I unwrapped it and was like, "Um, Altoids. Thanks, Mums." She told me to open it, and I did and was happy. I'm going to buy my long-awaited paper cutter, and then I will be set on scrapbook items for a long time. Kathy's parents graciously gave me a clothes box full of stickers and papers, and her sister Jamie got me a Xyron sticker machine! I was so surprised!

We went to the movies and saw Mona Lisa Smile, which was good and thought-provoking. After the movie we had Christmas lunch/dinner, watched some Friends, and went to my parents' friends' house for dessert. Then I went home to a very excited cat, who had been left alone since the previous afternoon. He was happy to see me. Evan called, too, and we had a nice conversation. I love talking to him. Only three more days. I guess the time has gone pretty fast, but at the same time it feels like forever since I've seen him. He got a big gift certificate to Structure, and I have some Petite Sophisticate and Old Navy ones, so we're going to go clothes shopping together and be all cheesy. I can't wait. :D

Em is coming back sometime today, and tonight we're going to do something or other. Yay for totally nonspecific plans.

Silent day. There are three of us in my building today. Well, five, counting Helen and Nicholas, but they're downstairs. Why are we here, again?

Hi.

This morning I got the news that Jean Larroux, IPC's college/career minister whom Evan and I follow around in groupie-type fashion, will no longer be the college/career minister. He's taking over the young marrieds group. I knew it was only a matter of time before he got snatched up by someone else. I'm really sad that I won't be able to go to his studies anymore.

Since I got home I'm not feeling like myself. Long periods of time with my family, among our extended family, have that effect on me. It's like the adult I am melts away and I become what I was at thirteen. My mom and many of my relatives seem to think I am still thirteen, so it's really little wonder. Sometimes I think they won't see me as an adult until I'm married, and maybe not even then.

It's amazing how one minute I feel so on top of things, and the next minute I'm overwhelmed by everything I need to do.

I'm trying really hard to think of something fun/cheery/interesting to put here, but I'm coming up blank. There are too many "I"s in this post. I need to be more others-oriented.

I'm back! Did you miss me?

My trip was okay. There were fun parts, but overall I was just counting the minutes until I could come home. The drive down was uneventful. The five of us had Thanksgiving alone with my grandmother and then watched the Dolphins kick some Cowboy rear. On Friday we drove to Seguin (one of the weirdest place names ever) to prepare for my cousin's wedding. We weren't invited to the rehearsal dinner, so we had dinner with my grandmother, my cousin Cliff, and his wife Rachael (they're the ones who got married in August). Saturday was the wedding. Reportedly 800 people (no, that is not a typo) were invited- I'd say there were about 300 at the reception. Unbelievable. I got to see my other cousins, Brooke and Keith, who were attendants. It was definitely a Texas wedding. The reception dancing consisted of country music, which I don't mind, but most of it was really old- we're talking waltzes and polkas. Debra and I, who were in the mood to get crunk, begged the DJ to play some Nelly or something. After a couple of hours he played YMCA and Funky Cold Medina. Then he went right back to the snoozefest. Oh well...it was fun to spend time with my cousins. The next morning we left the hotel at 5:30 am. We didn't get home until almost 8:00 last night. Thankfully, Cliff and Rachael were caravaning with us, and I rode with them for the majority of the trip back. I got to know Rachael better- which was great, because with my mother around all the time, I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to her as a fellow adult. :P I feel much more cousiny with her now, so all's well that ends well.

Now that I'm home I'm in total Christmas mode. Last night I tried to download Christmas music from mp3.com, but it was so slow that I gave up. I hate browser-based download sites. I just made a tracklist for my Perfect Christmas CD. I'm debating just buying the tracks from iTunes, but I know some of these must be posted legally somewhere. :P If any of you have Christmas songs uploaded somewhere, please let me know.

( Share YOUR perfect Christmas CD! )