Jinx!

Something people don't really know about me is that I have an irrational fear. Well, a few of those. But the one I'm referring to now is in regards to planning. I've this thought that if I make a plan and I share it too soon, then the plans will fall apart and I'll basically jinx myself. Well, that seems to have happened.

The honeymoon plans have changed. Europe just wasn't meant to be right now. We're not saying never. Just not right now. Slovenia will have to wait. Sigh. Kevin and I canceled our Europe plans and were devising a new plan. He thought on his own for a bit while I put my thinking cap on, too. We both came up with the same kind of idea. Seattle. The plan is still in the works. The idea is we'll fly to San Diego and rent a car, hopefully a convertible. We'll drive up the Pacific Coast Highway 101 to Seattle. We'll take two weeks and just enjoy ourselves. We'll take in all that we can of the Pacific Coast. We're planning on a little trip out of the country to Victoria, British Columbia.

Dates aren't set yet but it will be in September since we already had the time off approved with our jobs. We're excited. There's a lot to do and see and we're hoping we'll have time for some side trips to see our friends and family along the way.

At the end of the trip, my mom and my brother will most likely be joining us in Seattle. My mom and dad were engaged on Mt. Rainier. Paradise Lookout, if I remember correctly. One of Dad's final wishes was to have some of his remains left at that spot. So we'll have a nice family moment together.

If any one has suggestions of places to see or things to do along the way, please let us know. We're really open to suggestions.

Otherwise, the planning is coming along well. Time is flying by for us. It's already summer. It seems like we just got engaged a few months ago. Crazy!

Stressed? Me?

I'm awake. It's 9:30 AM as I sit to write this. Seriously? 9:30 AM? This is prime sleeping time! I did fall asleep somewhere around 3 AM. So really it's not that big of a deal. But I'd still be asleep if I hadn't been having crazy nightmares. 

In my dream it was the wedding day. We weren't at the right location. It was some dumpy looking hotel and yard in the middle of nowhere. No one's there to help me get in my gown. My Uncle Dave isn't there because some estranged family member's kids are acting up so he has to go babysit them. Now I'm freaking out because I don't know who will walk me down the aisle. My jewelry isn't there so I don't have anything to wear. Nothing is on time and no one will tell me what is going on. There was some other chaos going on and it freaked me out and I woke up. Good times. 

In reality, I am really stressed out for a number of reasons. Obviously more so than I thought since now I'm having nightmares. I think what I need today is a good day with Mom to just vent and get some grounding. She has a good way of getting me back to normal. I need the proverbial slap in the face to stop my freak-out. 

We've been having some difficulty with our printer for our wedding invitations and other stationary. I tried to be really organized and get all the information together in a spreadsheet for her. I labeled everything and added comments and sent her an email with an explanation. She sent me images of the samples through the website. There were a bunch of mistakes. First of all, the names were printed as Mandy & Kevin Withem. Now, what baffles me is that she made the invitations already and had our separate names spelled correctly. I'm sure there are men somewhere that take the woman's last name. But that's pretty unusual I think. So how on earth did she screw that up? Whatever. Easy to fix. There were some other errors. And she didn't understand the addresses I sent her. Or how the names should look. Now, I've written quite a few things. I've taken technical writing courses. I worked with this really great guy at Harper that told me, "Write so a gorilla can do it." Really good advice. I made a training manual for the AV student workers at Harper. I have a pretty good idea of how to be clear and concise. I used Excel for the spreadsheet. Columns and rows were labeled. Tabs were labeled. I don't really understand what the issue was. But somehow she had an issue. Back and forth the emails went. She never gave me her number so I couldn't talk to her over the phone. She works out of Texas so that wasn't going to work either. Finally, yesterday she messaged me and I think all the bugs are worked out. But we'll see. The problem is, I needed to mail these things out the last week of June so people have ample time to plan and what-not since it is technically a holiday weekend. She needs 6-8 weeks to get them done. PROBLEM! Even if I go with another company now there won't be time. So we'll see how these turn out. If they suck I'm sorry. But let's be honest, most people don't keep the invitations anyway. Most people throw them away. Though, I hope you'll recycle them at least. I know some of my family will keep them in scrapbooks, which is really sweet. 

BAH!

Anyway, I had my first bridal gown fitting yesterday. It went really well. The length of the dress is pretty good. Val thinks it's a bit short but I have to be honest,  I don't care. It's just less likely I'll trip on it. And I'll be wearing some slippers at the reception anyway, so the dress will be a good length then. One of the ushers, Jay, came with me. We had been hanging out at the mall. Let me tell you a little about Jay. He's my brother's best friend. He's basically my other brother. He's a bit of an ass. Definitely interesting. His hair changes more frequently than most women's. If you've met him, you'll recognize him by the barcode tattoo on his neck. And, no, it doesn't actually scan. We've tried. He's a no nonsense kind of guy. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. So I was a little nervous about him being there but also glad. I knew I'd get an honest answer. He was really great. We had a good time and we decided he's my back up if for some reason my bridesmaids can't get me in my dress. He's very knowledgeable about this stuff. Which makes me wonder a little. He's just very well rounded. He is single, ladies, and looking. So the fitting was quick and mostly painless. And more excitingly, inexpensive. YAY!

Things are moving along. Today while my mom is out, I'm going to work on some decoration stuff. Then I'll head over to her house for some much needed down time and venting. 

Less than three months. I think we're doing well.