Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Just Two Crazy Kids Trying To Make It Work

Well!  Hello there strangers!

There have apparently been lots of changes in the blogging world since I dropped off the face of the earth for an extended and unscheduled hiatus.  I'm trying to catch up on everyone's sites, so forgive me if I don't have the time to comment yet, I've got tons of reading to do and soon I should be back to normal commenting conditions.

As for me, wow, what an amazing two weeks it has been.  The week that Colby spent in Louisiana flew by at an unbelievable pace.  We got so much wedding planning taken care of, and now the majority of my list consists of confirmations and final details that have to wait until closer to the date.  Aside from wedding planning we had a great time getting him reaquainted with the old homestead and spending tons of time with family and friends.  The Friday and Saturday night following our whirlwind week our family friends threw us two big bashes to celebrate our engagement.

Oh, because did I tell you?  We're officially engaged now!  After an afternoon of burritos, ice cream, and college campus wanderings, Colby brought me down to the levee by the Mississippi River, got down on one knee and popped the question for real.  And then he dropped the ring and had a minor heart attack.  But it all ended well with the ring on the correct finger and that night we had a lovely formal engagement celebration in his hometown followed by a more relaxed Jack and Jill shower on Saturday back in Baton Rouge.

With about 4 or 5 hours of sleep each we got on the road early Sunday morning with the car literally packed to the roof and then some.  After four loooooong days of traveling, most days not ending until eleven or midnight, we made it into Washington and I finally laid eyes on our new yellow house.  When we got to the door Colby grabbed me and carried me--romantically, albeit not very gracefully--over the threshold.

He had warned me that the place was a bit of a mess, but I really don't think that "mess" was the proper term to use.  Over a week later and the upstairs still looks as though some kind of paperwork/laundry bomb exploded.  We're still waiting for all of my things to arrive this Friday, so hopefully once we have all of our furniture in the house we can start putting things in their place and it may just begin to look like an actual home that people live in and not a deserted crackhouse.

As far as pictures go, I have plenty to share with you, and I promise that as soon as I can locate my camera cord I'll get those downloaded and posted.  Of course, I've got about 4,000 pounds of crap coming my way on Friday, so it may be a while before I can find a tiny 2 foot long cable.  Talk about needle in a haystack.  But hey, maybe if you just wish hard enough and clap your hands a miracle could occur.

Now I'm off to track down the Veteran's Affairs department in Washington so that I can get a frustrating unemployment debacle straightened out, and hopefully get some money into my account some time in the next few weeks.  Being jobless sure is relaxing, but it isn't very financially secure, and those bills just keep rolling on in.  Oh, and memo to the sun:  It sure was great having you around for the past two days, please come back again some time soon... please.

I Don't Really Handle Surprises Well...

Y'all, I've got to tell you, I am so tired of hearing this damn story and feeling guilty about it, and yet, I love you immensely and can't keep anything a secret from you.  The short story is that Colby is here now, and it is lovely and wonderful and fantastic.  And no I don't have a ring yet, so you can all just stop thinking that's where this is going.  (You were there for a minute though, weren't you?)

Okay, so now for the long story.  For about 3 weeks I had been imagining just exactly how Saturday would unfold.  I had the Race for the Cure downtown that morning, and then I was going to come home get changed, pack for the night, head over to Colby's parents house and then we would all drive to New Orleans together to pick Colby up at the airport at 4 o'clock.  I would be looking absolutely adorable and after 5 months without seeing each other, his breath would be taken away when he is reminded of how fabulous I am in person.  (Big head much?  No, not really, I just talk big game.)

So, Colby calls Friday night and we talked for a few minutes, but he said he was going out to dinner with some friends and would call later (although he insists I said I would call later--whatever, he's wrong).  The night passed and I didn't hear anything, but I figured they were just still out somewhere and I was exhausted so I went to bed.  The next morning I was up bright and early for the race and the morning was flying by and I still hadn't heard from Colby.  Finally at about 10:30 I called just to see when his flight was, and he told me he was headed to the airport and he would call from Atlanta.

The race ended around 11:30 and after chowing down on free pizza and drinks, I headed home and started to get ready for the drive to Hammond.  I got in the shower and right then the phone rang, I couldn't answer so I let it go to voicemail, but then there was a knock on the door and my mom was saying that Colby was on the phone.  So, I turned off the water, grabbed a towel, took the phone and asked him if he'd be at the airport still in around 10 minutes so I could call him back.  He said they would be taking off in about 30 minutes, and I mentioned that I was surprised it would take almost 4 hours to get to New Orleans from Atlanta.  Colby asked what time it was here and I told him almost 12:30, and he said that he had the time wrong and they were actually leaving in an hour and a half.  I thought that was a little weird, but I was cold and wet, so I just hung up with the plan to call back.

I sped through the rest of my shower but when I tried to call Colby, my phone wouldn't work, so I figured he would probably call me back when he hadn't heard from me.  I started toweling off and then the phone rang again, and sure enough it was Colby.  I told him I was done in the shower but I hadn't been able to get my phone to work.  He said that was fine, but could he call me back in a minute, he was going to grab something to eat.  Once again, I thought it was a little strange that he'd not eaten while I was in the shower, but whatever, the boy likes to eat--that's nothing new.

I started combing my hair, and suddenly our  dog starts to go crazy when the doorbell rings.  I know, I'm looking really dense right now, but I thought absolutely nothing of it and just kept doing my thing.  Then there's a knock on the door, and I just figured it was my mom again.

"What?"

Silence.  Knock knock.

"What?"

Silence.  More emphatic knock knock.

Big sigh on my end as I wrapped a towel around myself again and opened the door in a huff--my Crest Whitestrips blingin' in my mouth, hair a hot mess, face all red from the steamy shower.

"WHA--  Oh.  My. God."

I'm sure by now, this comes as absolutely no surprise to you, but there Colby stood with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a huge shit eating grin on his face.

In my mind it feels like about 15 minutes passed while I tried to process what was going on, then realized what had just happened, and nearly died.  I still couldn't think of a damn thing to say, so all that came out at that point?

"SO NOT COOL!!"  SLAM.

Y'all, he'd left Seattle the night before, flown all damn night to get into New Orleans at 9:30, then driven the 45 minutes from his parents house to mine, picked out lovely flowers, all just to surprise me and HE GETS A DOOR SLAMMED IN HIS FACE.

I was still beyond flustered and totally confused, and during the next 20 minutes (which is a total record time for drying the hair, putting on makeup, and getting dressed) I kept trying to figure out what had happened and convince myself that I hadn't actually said "Not cool".

You see, in a long distance relationship, a girl always dreams of this kind of thing--the dashing boyfriend showing up on her doorstep, flowers in hand, to sweep her off her feet.  But in the fantasy, the girl always has on makeup, and DEFINITELY does NOT have on Crest Whitestrips.  And not even CLEAR Crest Whitestrips--they're totally generic and they're BRIGHT BLUE.

But anyway, I suppose all's well that ends well, and I've done my darndest to try to convey how absolutely cool his little sneaky plan was.  Although, I've got to say, it's a little terrifying just how convincing he was with his little white lies!  Let's hope he only uses that power for good in the future, eh?

You Guys Rock

Thank you so much for putting up with my incredibly whiny and venty post of last week.  Also, thank you for putting up with the fact that it has greeted your bright shining faces for so long, somehow weeks just keep blowing by and before I know it it's been 10 years since I last posted on my blog.  Oh well, it happens, right?

So, what have I been doing for the past week?  I'm still running a lot--almost every day I go for about 30 minutes and not only have I lost about 10 pounds but I'm getting to the point where I actually kind of enjoy it again.  We're about halfway through this program that will get us to 30 minutes of running and then I've found another program that I want to start some time in May that will work me up to six miles in about 3 months.  I think I'm quitting there though--I've never been interested in running races or marathons or anything and 6 miles seems like a good goal to reach and hold steady.

You know, though, this is a perfect example of my contrariness.  I was so ready to get out of the Air Force so I wouldn't have to run anymore, but now that I don't have to run I can't wait to get out there every morning and get my heart pumping.  Go figure.

Colby and I also had to finish a "Premarriage Awareness Inventory", basically a 115 question test about different relationship and marriage topics.  Or as I like to call it, "Instant Divorce: Just Add Honesty".  I guess these things are made for people who have decided to get married, but have yet to actually speak to each other.  Aside from a couple of valid questions that may spark interesting discussion, the questions were either ridiculous or completely offensive.  Case in point:  "If you could change any physical feature on your fiance, what would it be?"  Okay, now, first of all, you cannot physically change any features on your fiance, so this question is entirely pointless and idiotic.  Secondly, there is no way you can answer this question without hurting someone's feelings.  You've already decided to get married, so it's likely that you're fairly at peace with one another physically--why even bring this up?  Alas, it's a prerequisite to answer the questions and we have a "counseling" session on Tuesday with our officiant, who is also a very close family friend, so that should be... interesting.

I've started thinking about what I'm going to do job-wise when I get to Seattle in a couple of weeks.  I've thought about temping so that I can easily take the time for the wedding and honeymoon in the upcoming year, and I've had a few people very kindly offer to help out by circulating my resume, so there's that.  But then I've also been thinking about possibly going to esthetician school.  I've done a little bit of research and requested some information, but it was sparked when I went for a highlight and cut at the Aveda Institute last week.  I was talking to the girl doing my hair about how I'd always wanted to go to beauty school, but I didn't want to deal with people's hair, and she filled me in on the fact that there are estheticians that solely do skincare, and that is way more up my alley.  I can file for unemployment for 6 months once I get to Washington and that seems to be about how long the school takes if I do it full time.  So, we'll see.  I still have to talk to Colby about it and see what he thinks, but it's on the table, and I'm taking everything one day at a time right now.

Anyway, I'm down to T-24 hours until I finally see Colby!  Actually, I just looked at the clock, and it will be almost exactly 24 hours from now that I'll see him.  His parents are going to the airport also and then I'm spending the night at their house, so I'll have to share him for a while, but it should still be pretty awesome.  I'm so used to it being forever before I see him again though that I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that I'm seeing him tomorrow.  Weird.  But I am under strict instructions from him that if the first word out of my mouth when I see him is "presents" or I mention presents at all within the first hour of being back together, he's bringing everything back and I don't get anything.  He knows me so well...

In Constant Need of A Nap

Update:  Colby is officially back on US soil, so hooray for that!  It'll still be a week before I see him, but now I can pester him with phone calls constantly!

I am freaking exhausted, and my crankiness will probably be exhibited to its full effect in this post.  I feel just as worn down now as I did when I had a full-time job to do along with all of the extraneous activities I've been doing for the past two weeks.  I'd go to a doctor to get it checked out, but doctors are pretty much off limits for me until November 24th, when I finally resume my lifelong career as a military dependent, so for now I just yawn a lot and fall asleep on the couch most afternoons.  Tonight, I was supposed to go to dinner with a friend, but we decided to postpone it because he was running late helping a friend move and I was about to digest my stomach.  And I've got to tell you, I was pretty thrilled to put it off to next week, I would have been less than stimulating company tonight.

So, since we last chatted there's been some wedding drama that has stressed me out more than I should really let it.  The issue is the fact that my parents have made it clear that this is Colby and my wedding, so we should be in charge of all of the planning, which tends to conflict with Colby's mother who is in possession of just as controlling a personality as I have.  Don't get me wrong, I get along well with her, and I really do love both of his parents--they're great people, that have never been anything but kind to me, and I truly enjoy spending time with them.  However, from the beginning of this process, she has been extremely... how shall I say... "present" in the planning. 

From the beginning she was suggesting photographers and bands to Colby, which I was fine with, although I already had plenty of amazing vendors in mind, but I knew that she was just helping, and I didn't think much of it.  Then, one of the things that we worked on over the Christmas holidays was checking out hotels to block during the wedding weekend for our guests.  However, we didn't find anything we liked in the couple of hotels I had time to investigate and instead of waiting for me to get back to Baton Rouge in February so we could make our decision together and potentially block more rooms for a larger discount, she did her own research while I was still in Little Rock and blocked rooms for the guests on Colby's half of the guest list in a hotel on the other side of town from my parents' house and the wedding location.  Again, it's just a little thing, but it's been little things like consistently that each time we interact.  I sent out a schedule of events for next week, detailing all of the appointments I had made so that Colby can meet all of our vendors and start getting involved in the plans.  I sent the email over two weeks ago and heard back from Colby that everything looked good.  Then, yesterday. I got an email from his mother asking me to rearrange practically all of the appointments, in an already event packed week.  Again, one of those "small things", but when you add it to the hotel blocks, her questioning our reception choices, and not including me in the rehearsal dinner decisions at all, amongst other things, well, let us say that I often express my anger through tears, and there have been tears to be had over this issue.

I'm trying to let it go, I keep letting it go each time, and when we spend time together everything is really okay.  It's just these moments of exhaustion and frustration that make me want to say screw this whole thing, we're going to Vegas.  But then I remind myself of all of the other wedding horror stories I've heard, and I remember that I don't really have it all that bad, and I put on my big girl panties and deal with it (read: moan about it on my blog).  Plus, I really, really want to be the center of attention for a whole weekend!

In other news, how bout that American Idol, huh?  Man, those boys suck.  I generally try to reserve my opinions about my favorites until the Top 12 have been selected, but the good ones just really stick out to me this year.  I love Blake Lewis (the beat boxer) and Chris Richardson (the JT look-a-like) and have no doubt that they'll make it into the Top 12.  I'd really be okay with it if the rest of the boys were kicked off tomorrow though.  The ladies are still a little more difficult for me to narrow down, though I do know who I want in the Top 12 without a doubt--Stephanie, Jordin, Sabrina, Melinda, Lakisha, Gina, I'm pulling for you ladies, rock it out for me next week!  As for the rest of these kids, they had their shot, and they were decent, but no one will remember their names in 6 months.  That's show biz... kid.

Anyway, it's just about bedtime for this girl.  Tomorrow is going to be a lazy day of guest book making and then Sunday I'm off to the White Oak Bridal Show--keep your fingers crossed for me that I win something big!  Of course, the other big event Sunday will hopefully be Colby's arrival back in the US of A, so if you want to cross some of your fingers for him too, I'm willing to share the luck!