Married!

Hello everyone (is anyone out there?)! I have been so bad about writing regularly on this blog. So much has been happening lately, I do not even know where to begin. First things first, I’m married!! Let me tell you, it’s been fantastic so far! Granted, it has only been less than two weeks but nonetheless I highly recommend it. I am married to the infamous Concord Grape blogger, also known as Brian, B-Phat, Grape-Boy, or Dough-Nut, depending on who you are and how you like to refer to him. I won’t even begin to share the dozens of nicknames I have for him. It’s too embarrassing. Anyway, the wedding went beautifully, I could not have asked for a more perfect day. The weather was spectacular and sunny, which was very lucky given the fact that it rained almost every day before and after that day.

So many of our close friends and family were there, which made the whole thing very special. All of my aunts and uncles came, as well as two of my cousins, which was awesome. I met Brian’s dad for the first time, finally, which was great. And lots of friends from DC and elsewhere flew out for the event, which meant a lot to us. And of course our friends from Seattle were there, too. One of my favorite things was seeing all of my various friends and family members converging in one place and meeting each other. It was so cool seeing my college friends meet my friend from high school, and my coworker swapping travel stories with Brian’s mom (my new mother-in-law).

We had so much fun. The ceremony was mostly a blur, actually. I don’t remember even seeing anyone in the audience except when I occasionally stole a glance and it felt really surreal to see everyone out there, because it kind of felt like we were alone up there in our own little world. Both Brian and I were spacing out a bit, but luckily we didn’t mess up or forget anything, or light anything on fire with our unity candle. At the end of the ceremony we kissed, of course, and then walked back down the aisle as everyone was throwing lavender! Here is a picture of that happy moment:

We felt so lucky and thankful and had so much fun that day. We felt like it was an opportunity to announce to our friends and family publicly how we feel about each other and to make our commitment to each other solid and official. I did not used to think I cared much about symbolic ceremonies (i.e., graduations, weddings, holidays, etc.), but more and more they are becoming really important to me. For me, the wedding day marked an historic occasion in our lives, celebrating our commitment to each other. We’ve marked our commitment to each other symbolically and legally, and it feels even more solid now than before. I’m also taking Brian’s last name, which makes it feel even more concrete as we now share a family name.

Next post: Honeymoon!

Keeping up with the ol' blog

Not much to report here... except about a million things.

We went to a neighborhood block party tonight and it was fun to meet our neighbors. I signed the neighbor roster with my new last name :)

Wedding planning is in full force. We are looking forward to the wedding day itself and the end of planning. It hasn't been a bad experience or anything, but we're just ready to enjoy our special day and be married and get on with life!

Steve is hanging in there ok, he is keeping up his blog pretty frequently which is great. It gives us all a first-hand account of what he's going through and how it all works, and I think people feel a bit less helpless when they're clued in.

I'm excited that my good friend Sheila will be here this weekend. I haven't seen her in over two years and I'm uber-excited.

Work is going well, but incredibly busy. I'm doing a lot more writing than I ever have in the past, and I like it, and I'm getting faster at it. I am getting a promotion and moving into an office soon (after the honeymoon).

Oh yeah, and I think I've gained about 15 pounds in the last couple years. Seriously. My "spacious" pants are barely fitting anymore. I don't know what's going on. Is it that I'm in my thirties now? Or am I nesting? And if so, should I be embarrassed about that (the nesting part)?

And my friend Erin just said that she wants to move away -- go tell her not to leave!!

I'm back

Hello hello hello! Sorry for the long hiatus. I've been running around like crazy. Thankfully, I am looking forward to a fun & relaxing "girly" appointment with Erin on Saturday to get our nails done!

Things have been quite busy around here. Steve is doing pretty well, his platelets are hanging in there since he had a platelet transfusion a couple weeks ago. It turns out I am not a match for him, and neither are my parents. It is really unfortunate that did not work out, but we knew it was only a 30% chance that I might be a match. The national marrow donor program is now searching for a match for him. I guess yesterday they identified 5 people in the world who could potentially be a good match for him. They will contact those people and bring them in for more testing to see how well they match. And they will continue searching the database for potential matches. They are looking for a 10 out of 10 match, ideally. In the meantime, he is doing monthly cycles of chemotherapy to kill off the bad cells and promote the growth of new ones. The other thing they are monitoring are his platelets and blood counts, which are all hovering a bit low.

Steve is keeping a great blog about his experience here. Go give him some love! And sign up to be a bone marrow donor today.

My parents have just rented an apartment here in Seattle, and moved in yesterday. They will keep their house in New Mexico, but plan on living here for the next 9 months or so. It's great to have them around and it's nice to surround ourselves with family as much as possible. They're only a few minutes away from both Steve & Johanna, and me & Brian. It's really nice to have them here all the time.

We just had the exterior of our house painted last week, it looks awesome! I'll have to show a before and after picture as soon as we take one.

This morning, I did a walk-through of our wedding site and met with the caterer. Things are coming along swimmingly. My mom and Johanna came with me, and it was really nice to have the support. There are a ridiculous number of decisions that need to be made. Choosing the color of linens on the various tables is a major ordeal!

Brian & I went to an Andrew Bird concert tonight, with Josh Ritter too. Both are amazing and it was a fantastic show. It was at the zoo and we got to sit on the lawn and eat our dinner while listening to them play. Too bad it's freezing here in July, though... arrgh. It better not be this cold on our wedding day.

Here is a sneak peak at our wedding "inspiration board" that I actually put together a few months ago. It's going to be bright and orangey! Granted, most of the stuff isn't exactly what we will have at the wedding, but this was one of the original group of pictures that inspired what we did end up choosing. I'll show an "after" picture later with the real deal. The wedding is only a month from today!

My brother, the trooper

I have avoided writing on this blog for awhile, because I didn’t want to have to say what is real. I was hoping it would go away. But it hasn’t gone away—yet. About two weeks ago, my brother was diagnosed with a blood disease called myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), very unusual for a person his age and in his good health. His bone marrow is not producing blood cells correctly and his platelets are very, very low. The good news is that he is feeling perfectly normal overall, and is able to go out and have fun and feel good. He started chemotherapy treatment this week, to kill off the bad cells and help promote the good ones, which might slow him down a bit. And then he will need to have a bone marrow transplant. Hopefully, we will find out this week if I (or my parents) are a bone marrow match. Then we can get moving on that. As scary as the bone marrow transplant may be, I think it will be a relief in a way, because it will be the major thing that can cure him. It will be rough, and the recovery period will take some time, but then it will be over. He has tons of friends and family who are supportive and care about him and want more than anything to see this disease go away.

Hanging fruits

Hi! Lots going on, sorry for the lack of posting...

In the meantime, here is a photo for you to enjoy.

Thirty-one

31 -- that's how many years I've been around. I'm especially thankful for Brian, and my brother, and my parents, and all the wonderful family and friends in my life and the nice birthday wishes and flowers and cards I've received. Brian has a really sweet post on his blog.

And I'm thankful for Le Pichet, where we're going to dinner tonight!

And I'm thankful for my new bicycle!

Back to "normal"

My life was pretty exciting there for a few weeks, and now it's back to regular life: working, boozing, and wedding planning... sometimes simultaneously.

Actually, it's true that I've been working and wedding planning at the same time (minus the boozing unfortunately). I've been calling cake places, restaurants, the wedding site, and next I need to call the florist, the caterer, and a hair salon. It's actually pretty fun, I don't feel stressed about anything yet. It was more stressful a few months ago when I had so many decisions to make, but it was too early to make a lot of the decisions.

Anyway, I know you're not here to listen to me talk about wedding planning!

I should give a shout-out to Trevor, the infamous commenter on Brian's blog, who was here visiting for the last few days. (Sorry the weather was so shitty, Trevor!) Listening to Brian and Trevor's conversations is like entering another world. A world of jokes I don't get, sci-fi mumbo-jumbo, movie trivia, and stories about the good ol' days. There weren't nearly as many weird food conversations this time, though. I kind of love those weird food conversations. Sometimes Brian starts talking to me about his latest idea for a new food item (double-sided pizza! toppings on both sides!) and I start to zone out, and it's those moments when I really wish Trevor was around. He would fully appreciate the wit and creativity involved in inventing new food items. I, on the other hand, just don't get it sometimes. Although I do remember one of our first dates when Brian was telling me about his "grisket" invention (he will have to explain it), and I thought I was going to bust a gut laughing so hard. That evening also involved a lengthy discussion about man-boobs and a lot of cruel laughing. That is when Brian really won me over. He made me laugh so hard I cried.

Another highlight of this weekend was an exhaustive conversation about science fiction movies and why many women don't like them. I believe the conversation ended with me and my sister-in-law talking about the Sex & The City movie. Clearly, a defeat for the guys who were trying to convince us why science fiction is so great.

But the biggest highlight of all was probably seeing the Sex & the City movie on Sunday with two female friends (and readers of this blog)! The movie was quite traumatic, with all the relationship messes and heartbreak and then making up, etc. Too! much! But packed to the brim with all that wonderful relationship goop that many women love to obsess about, myself sheepishly included.

Now back to my book. Alice Munro is my latest hero.