pomp and circumstance

Well, I graduated from law school yesterday. It sort of went out, as they say, not with a bang, but with a whimper. I guess most phases of your life do. So I met a ton of my friends' family members, and I was always "This is Kate. She's the one getting married next week," followed by looks of concern or amazement and "so, are you ready/excited/stressed out about it?"

In short, yes.

I basically blocked all wedding planning out for the last couple days, and have just been doing graduation stuff. By graduation stuff, I mean, for example, drinking a fancy bottle of champagne, getting each of my parents to take me to a different fancy restaurant (divorce = TWO CHRISTMASES!), teaching my dad flip cup, oh and...you know, graduating.

But graduation's over now. I am a law school graduate. (Or at least I will be in a month when grades come back and they can certify that I did, indeed, graduate.) And that means facing facts: the wedding is in six days. IT'S ON.

Somehow, despite the fact that the Mister and I have been engaged for well over two years, the fact that it's six days away is CRAZYTOWN.

Good news: while the ten day forecast 4 days ago was calling for showers on the wedding day, the new forecast calls for a high of 80, low of 60, partly sunny. In short: my ideal day. Or as The Fucking Weather would say "80? IT'S FUCKING NICE." I believe that I can wish for good weather and it will happen. (See, e.g., my trip to the Virgin Islands with the Mister's family. During hurricane season. When the forecast was calling for terrible storms all week. And it barely rained on our first day there and not again after. You're welcome, St. Thomas.) Thus, my time wishing for perfect wedding day weather is paying off.

So, today, I recover from my graduation weekend, make lots of lists of things I MUST REMEMBER TO PACK, nap if I'm lucky, actually pack--inevitably forgetting lots of things, and try to relax. Tomorrow, I hit the road for my hometown and get down to the business of getting married.

the hub

Here's the problem: I have lots of very nice people willing to help me in this last 10 days. However, I also have a zillion people emailing me to ask me questions or finalize details or whatever. For me to email one of those very nice people to ask them to take care of whatever needs taken care of takes as long as it would take for me to just respond to the original email. Either that or they need some info which, of course, I have and no one else does.

(I spent like 3 minutes trying to make the last clause of that last sentence work with "I'm the only one who has" or "I'm the only haver of" or some such....English grammar is so tricky.)

Anyway, when The Mister and are cutting that cake, and I can look around at all our friends and family--with only the dancing to go--that's when I will enjoy all this wedding business.

blog-worthy

I feel like there are a million things to say and yet no creative juice to say them. This week--no, this month has left me tapped out. Hopefully more to come soon. We shall see.

on and on and on

So, I sort of apologize for my lack of regular posting. I only sort of apologize because I've entered what The Mister refers to as "finals freak out mode" and what could be referred to as "wedding freak out mode" and thus, this blog isn't exactly high on my priority list. Sorry, suckers.

The poll on my sailor's mouth has closed. The vote was 10-1 in favor of "Who gives a shit?" and as it turns out, the 1 "My sensitive ears!" vote was by my bridesmaid who-direct quote here- "thought it was funny." So apparently no one is offended and I will continue to curse with abandon.

My shower was this weekend. It was lovely. Lots of people came who I thought wouldn't, and a few people didn't who I thought would. I guess that's how it always goes. I was so happy to see everyone that I almost didn't notice how exhausting it is to be the center of attention all that time. But seriously, it was very touching to me how many great women there are in my life and how they all are so excited about my marrying The Mister.

We also met with the caterer, the location lady, and the wedding planner. There was a lot of "what should we do about x?" followed by the three of them discussing, turning to me and the Mister for a response and us saying something like "uuuh...whatever you think?" and their agreeing that that whatever they decided what the right choice. In short: exactly what we needed. I was sort of feeling silly about hiring a wedding planner given that a lot of the stuff I did on my own, but I will say in that hour she more than made it all worth it.

I also had my second (and final!) dress fitting. It turns out my shoulders are uneven. So that's good to know, in case I ever wanted to be self-conscious about something new.

P.S. Has anyone seen a guestbook idea that they love? And that wouldn't be ridiculously pricey? Your help is much appreciated.

fraying around the edges

Well, the RSVPs just keep coming. So far: 62 yes, 17 no, and 41 not yet replieds. (This breakdown despite the fact that they were due today. Not one of member of my mom's side of the family has sent in the card. Seriously? It's not that hard people. You write your name and how many people are in your party. Then you put it in the envelope and into the mailbox. NOT THAT HARD.) Anyway, it's actually great because it makes me really excited to come home and check the mail. Who might have responded today?? Will any gifts have arrived? (Nevermind the fact that I know exactly which gifts have been purchased off the registry seeing as I check it compulsively. It's still exciting to get boxes.)

Unfortunately, my level of excitement about wedding planning generally is way lower than my level of excitement about the mail coming everyday. In fact, I find myself ready to have a nervous breakdown just thinking about surviving the next month. Why did I schedule my own wedding one week after law school ends? Why do I hate myself so? Anyway, I am basically unable to think about anything wedding-related because my coping mechanism with being as stressed out and frazzled as I am is the oh-so-helpful "if I don't think about it, it's not happening" technique. Otherwise known as The Ostrich Strategy. It may not be helpful, but at least I'm not crying in the law school computer lab right now. Yet.

return to the living

Well, friends, I am now well enough to leave my apartment! This is a serious improvement, given that until today I had literally left my apartment only once in the last week: to go to the doctor. And it wasn't until this weekend that I even felt well enough to relocate from the bed to the couch. The flu sucks.

So anyway, it occurs to me that I feel like I should be doing a million wedding-related things, and I have no idea what any of those things might be. I am sure that a good bride-to-be would be making lists and checking things off those lists, and furiously sending emails to various people. I, however, am mostly just waiting for it all to be over.

infected

I have the flu. I think. I finally went to the doctor today and they drew some blood and did a throat swab to rule out some other stuff, but I'm pretty sure it's the flu. Whatever it is, it's miserable.

Also, my computer seems to have some sort of crazy virus. And I can't get Spybot or AdAware to run--part of the virus? Sigh. I'm going to have to wait to get my strength back to deal with it.