Best fiancé ever?

Today is my birthday, and S and I started the celebrating last night by going out to have some sushi. It was delicious as usual. We had the local sushi place's super yummy house salad, miso soup, and California roll tempura style and something called 'monster roll' which had a lot of things in it. It was right at the beginning of eating that S said to me, "Why did you bring your bag in?" and I said, "Well, ah, there's stuff in it I might need..." and he said, "Like what?" and I replied, "I guess my wallet, and my makeup things, and some lotion," and he asked, "What else?" I opened up the bag and looked in it, and what did I spy but the "Enchanted" soundtrack. S had snuck it into my bag as a pre-birthday surprise. Aww. I was really happy about it, because I wanted to buy the CD last week but figured I could wait on it, which paid off. Nice! We finished dinner, came back to my house, and later watched an episode of "Poirot" before crashing.

This morning was nice and somewhat lazy, eating breakfast and drinking coffee. My parents and S and I went out for lunch at a mexican place where they will serve a free birthday meal and fried ice cream on your special day. I started the meal with a pina colada, and just in the middle of telling a story, I looked down at my purse next to me, voila:



Except in its box. I looked at it for a second, not realizing what it was, and then went, "An iPod? For me!?" Upon closer inspection, it's a 160GB! I think this may mean that S is the best fiancé ever. I'm a very happy woman.

Yes, that is really my dashboard from this morning

Ain't Minnesota great?

It's a birthday miracle! While it is indeed a snowy wilderness outside today, I'm quite pleased. I wasn't too excited about sitting in our marriage preparation course this weekend, on my golden birthday (which is tomorrow) (which also reveals how old I am). This morning, S and I woke up and got ready to go, and I had some orange juice which didn't agree with me (I'll spare the particulars, suffice it to say I wasn't feeling well). Then my phone rang for the second time with a number I didn't recognize. I handed it to S and he answered. Turns out, because of the crazy snow, the marriage prep course was cancelled! Too many attendees and presenters had to drive in from areas where road conditions were worse than in town.

I feel like I've gotten a bonus 3-day weekend (I took my personal day for Monday) for my birthday! Then S and I decided to go back to sleep, which we did until nearly 11, then woke up feeling pretty good. I made waffles, S got me a Starbucks mocha (we have been trying to cut down on coffee house fare so this was a special treat) and he revealed that I have 'some' presents for tomorrow. Yay for birthdays and snow days!

Branching out

On Monday, I started reading the first of Mark Crilley's "Miki Falls" series. For a while, I've wanted to give manga a try, but haven't really found a series that caught my attention and seemed like something I wanted to devote some time to—but Crilley's book has some nice things about it: the drawing style is a bit more refined than the average line-drawing manga, it's not in the backwards-style 'original manga' format, and it's only four books for the whole series. I liked the first one so much, I stopped by the library today to pick up my hold on #2.

I also still have another stack of graphic novels to read after my classes are officially done (tonight!). We're having a bit of a pot luck tonight in class, so I got some hummus, carrots and crackers to bring. Yay for being almost done!

Semi note to self about our future apartment

(I know I promised library photos, but I can't find the camera cord and I need to keep these notes somewhere!).

Things we're looking for in a place:

shorter lease options (6 mos. or month-by-month)
available July 1 (or June, but better if July)
1-2 bedroom (2 bedroom pref. even if they're very small)
on bus line to downtown or campus
close to new library/campus (walkable/bikeable distances in good weather)
free parking (garage available = even better for my dumb Saturn)
laundry in building

Bonuses:

dishwasher (v.nice)
heat/most util. included (except phone/internet/electric)
balcony or small yard area (v.nice)

Nearing the end

My new toy came via FedEx on Thursday. That's right, I finally got a MacBook. S and I have (obviously) had fun taking lots of Photo Booth photos of ourselves, but mainly, I'm liking that I can do my homework using Google Documents and carry the computer with me to another room. I already ordered a Speck case for it, so I can keep it looking somewhat new.

I only have two more class meetings until the semester is over, and only one project. My grant proposal is probably about 2/3 done at this point, but I also need to make a one page summary and present the project in class tomorrow. Honestly, isn't writing a grant enough work? I don't know how I'm going to talk about it for 10 minutes. Part of me is tempted to just e-mail my instructor the thing and be done with it, thus saving gas (which is now up to $3.45/gallon in my area). I won't actually do that, though, because I'm so conscientious about my participation points.

S did end up watching "Enchanted" with me, and he really liked it. He actually wanted to watch it again last night, but I was feeling too driven and wanted to work on my homework.

I promise photos of the library the next time I post!

In need of some entertainment

So right now I should be working on writing my paper on "A" is for Alibi for my readers' advisory class, but I have to leave in about 15 minutes to pick up S from campus after his class, so instead I'm dorking around the internet. I really wish that I had written this paper sooner, but I spent time working on projects for my other class and watching movies, like "The Namesake" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and "The Jane Austen Book Club" and "Atonement." Well, not all at once, but in the last few weeks or so. I have grand plans to finish the paper this evening, let it sit tomorrow morning while I go on the tour of the new library (I promise photos... as long as I remember my camera!), and then edit it before heading off for class.

I got "Enchanted" from Netflix today, and I really want S to watch it, but even if he can't, I'm going to watch it soon, even though I've seen it before. Along with my cousin Simon, I thought it was a great movie, really lighthearted and refreshing. It was light and fun and pure entertainment, just like I like movies to be.

Also from Netflix, I got the next disc of Agatha Christie's Poirot, which S and I have been watching for a while. Well, I introduced him to it, but now he loves the Belgian detective even more than I do, and often begins sentences with, "Poirot would..." or makes references to it even when the occasion has nothing to do with solving mysteries. Aww.

Accomplishment(s)

I'm feeling like I actually got something done this weekend, even though I felt like going to class was a waste of time with all the stuff I have to get done this week. S and I ordered our wedding bands, so that leaves only one item left on the to-do list for this month. Hooray! Oh, and registering for gifts is sort of tentatively on the docket, too, but that can wait as long as we need it to.

The other accomplishment was that I (well, really S and I both) decided to order a laptop. I feel weird spending more than 1K on anything, but we'll need two good computers once we get married, and if we're in a 1-bedroom apartment for a while, being able to be in separate rooms to work on homework will be good (S likes music while he works late into the night; I like to go to bed at a reasonable hour). Plus, my class this summer is an online deal, so I have grand plans to sit on my deck and learn about internet fundamentals and design.

Now, back to work...

Homeworkin' it up

Oh my gosh, I am inundated with homework. I actually worked ahead last week in order to feel less pressured this week, but I still feel overwhelmed. I've got the following assignments to complete:

For readers advisory:
-Complete reading of books for booktalk on Wednesday (1.5 books to finish reading, writing booktalk blubs for)
-Complete 10 page paper on publishing/readers advisory significance of "A" is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

For services for children and young adults:
-Write grant proposal

Okay, so three assignments looks like piddly nothing, but the final projects are worth significant portions of my grades for both classes, and the booktalk thing is just becoming an afterthought, though I am excited about my chosen books and idea ("Books to try if you liked 'Eat, Pray, Love'—travel and self-discovery abroad"). Thank goodness I am done with my two projects due for class tomorrow (design a summer reading program with $1300 budget, and design a single teen program with $200 budget). I know these assignments are really preparing me well for working with young adults and with readers across genres, but it feels like a lot is on my plate before the end of the semester on Wednesday, April 23.

Thankfully, I have a couple weeks reprieve from April 23 until May 18. S and I have wedding-related work to do on my birthday weekend (April 27) and we are trying to check a few things off the to-do list before then. One nice thing I found out last weekend is that my Colombian sister Cata (exchange student who lived with us for a year) has enlisted her mother to find me some earrings/necklace (?) to wear from Colombia. We'll see how this pans out, but her mom has pretty fabulous taste, and knows I am wearing some red accents. As a backup, I may find something(s) from LuxeDeluxe on Etsy, because her stuff has a good style that I like. This is the fun part of wedding planning! This, and getting to eat tiramisu at the reception instead of cake. And, bugging S to design our invitations soon so we can get them printed and sent out in June.

PLA: nerdy fun

Last week I had the excellent opportunity to attend the Public Libraries Association conference in Minneapolis. My cousin Simon and his wife Eve were gracious and let me stay over at their place in St. Paul, which saved me considerable drive time for three days while I learned about all kinds of library-related things.

I saw a lot of people I knew, both from my job and from school, and it was nice to see so many friendly librarian faces. I attended a preconference session on management, sessions on readers advisory services for young adults, gaming in libraries, weeding, how to handle upset patrons, a session on dealing with work stress, and got to see lots of cool vendors booths. One of the best parts was when my coworker and I were on the convention floor and we happened to be by the booth for the company who is putting together our library's automated materials handling system (AMHS). We got to see the set up, how it checks in books automatically, how it sorts items into bins, and so forth.

The library fun continues today with a tour of the new library building. People in my department have yet to see what our new building looks like inside, and so today, I get to see. I have plans to take photos, so I will definitely post some of the best of those later.

I love Myra!

A few weeks ago, I was reading the Etsy Wedding Blog and read about Myra Callan who makes custom designed hair ornaments for special occasions. Man, are these things beautiful, I thought. I wrote her a message on Etsy and she replied promptly with a price quote and ideas for the design. When she had the piece completed and I felt it was maybe a bit too large (I have a small head, okay?), she re-made it for me a little bit smaller. She is incredibly understanding and will do pretty much anything to make you happy, and I highly recommend her pieces for special events, or even just something fun to wear for a night out. I keep trying on my piece and wearing it around, forgetting it's even there because it's so light. I'm so excited to wear it on my wedding day, and even after that!

The things you have to decide

In my wildest imagination, I never once thought of having to plan a wedding and think about the kind of things I have to think about now that we're about 4 and a half months from our wedding date. The latest thing I'm focusing on: flowers. I want to have a nice bouquet but I don't want to spend a lot, and I also don't want the huge bridal bouquet. I want a smaller, lighter bouquet, since I have gimpy wrists that get tired quite easily. Plus, my dress is fairly simple (see previous post) so I want my bouquet to be in line with that style.

So, I found fiftyflowers.com and growersbox.com and I think I want to create something like these:




Also, I found some bouquets that feature a pretty little flower, hypericum, and I really like them. This is one that I really like, just not in those colors. Since my dress is ivory and my shoes are red, I think I could go with mostly ivory flowers (the calla lilies and the roses) and then a few red hypericum berries thrown in for some color. Oh, decisions, decisions. With the Grower's Box flowers and the Fifty Flowers sites, I could have plenty of flowers to work with for both my bouquet, a boutonniere for S, and centerpieces for our restaurant reception.

Two fun things and one icky thing

Today, S and I are headed to the cities for some water park fun with some of his cousins. I'm pretty excited since it's been months and months since I've been swimming, and now that the weather is warming up, my spring fever is getting better, but I think the day at the water park may cure it entirely. That, and the fact that I can now bike again. Huzzah! I actually went out on Tuesday night after work to just stretch my legs again, and it felt great.

This evening, I'm singing in a special mass at church, so we're going to have to leave the water park a bit earlier than everyone else, but I'm looking forward to singing. The cathedral gathers these "festival choirs" from among everyone in the diocese for their special event masses, so it's a fairly large group, and the music is awesome.

One thing that sucks about spring is the onslaught of boxelder bugs. I think my dad needs to do some sealing of our house, because I kill three bugs a day, at least. I'm not afraid of bugs, especially not boxelder bugs, because they don't bite or sting or anything, but when they're just randomly on my desk or my floor in my house, I kind of get the creeps. Plus, they're just ugly!

Some weird things

My cousin Jess has challenged me to write about some weird things that I do, so I will attempt to explain some of what makes me weird (though probably not that weird).

1. My cousin Simon noticed that I do this. While eating, I usually have to be talking to someone or reading something. If I am talking to someone, I frequently stop eating and focus on talking, thus leaving my food alone. When I am talking to S and eating, S reminds me to eat. If I'm eating with someone else, they may think I am done with my food before I really am. And, if I'm alone and eating, if I don't have something to read, I feel very awkward, even if it's just breakfast at my own table.

2. The only thing I ever imagined about my wedding before S and I actually talked about it was what I would eat: tiramisu. Pretty much every wedding plan I've made thus far is merely to get me to the point where I am at the reception, eating that very tiramisu. I am very excited about it actually happening.

3. All my CDs are shelved in alphabetical order by artist. All of my books, however, are shelved according to made-up genres.

4. I will have a beer on a whim (S thinks this is weird, whereas I think it's just his fault he got me to like beer). To me, a beer is like a snack.

5. I've blogged for over 10 years, before the word "blog" even existed. S also wants to me to add that he made contact with me again (post high school) via that very old blog, and without it, we probably would not be together right now.

Quick update during my crazy week

I have a really busy week ahead, but thankfully I am done with my homework (mostly) for my next two classes. I have a bit more work to do on a project for Minnesota Storytime (www.minnesotastorytime.org) but I'm confident that my partner and I will have it done by Sunday.

In addition to starting our premarital sessions at church this week, S and I need to get down to business on some other wedding-y details. We booked our reception venue (a local restaurant) on the weekend, and as long as my parents are okay with it (and the price of it...) then that will be our place, which is a relief. Church and reception down, only details to follow.

I was the 'special guest' at storytime today at work, helping out one of the children's staff people. It went really well, and I was surprised how well-behaved the children were. Sure, a few of them were talkative and pointed out things that were unrelated to the happenings, but that was part of the fun. I read "Quick as a Cricket" by Audrey Wood, "Tumble Bumble" by Felicia Bond, and "Bear Wants More" by Karma Wilson, and the children's staff person read "I Like Me" by Nancy Carlson and did a felt-board story that was very cool, plus opening and closing songs. All in all, a very good experience.

Later this week, I have a choir practice for a special church service occurring in two weeks, and then on Saturday, I have a JASNA MN (Jane Austen Society of North American Minnesota) event at the Edina Country Club with my good friend Eve (co-JASNA member). Oh, and a play to attend on Friday night! Ye gods, I really am busy this week.

Woohoo

Obviously in the midst of schoolwork, my job, and planning a bunch of stuff in order to merge lives with S, the blog is taking a backburner. Bummer! I have a lot of things going on about which I could blog, but by the time I think about it, it's time for some sleep.

I haven't been feeling extremely well that past few days. Kind of generally icky, a bit of a sore throat, tired, weird appetite, etc. so I have been laying low and just doing homework and things that absolutely have to get done. I did two presentations in class on Sunday (Services for Children and Young Adults) which I think both went okay. I also got my first two written assignments back, and got perfect scores on both. Woohoo! Now I'm just hoping that my mad storytelling skills and inexperience but exuberance about manga/anime will net me even more points.

Other things am contemplating: how soon to start planning a honeymoon (the best part of getting married, in my opinion), what do with with my last name, where we're going to live, where S will do student teaching in the spring, and if I should try to get a full-time job and just graduate later. It's a lot, really, to ponder.

I feel really good about my decision to never, never, ever look at the checklist of things to do on my theknot.com account. According to that website, I am overdue on doing about 50-some odd things, and have 175 or so to go. Oh heck no! I made my own checklist, which fits on one page of a Word document, thank you very much, and I feel very good about it. I can even add eight more things to the list and still have it on one page. Some things are just things we have to do closer to the date (confirm hairstyle), and others are more pressing (choose a reception venue!?! ack!). I definitely understand why people elope, except that we've broken it down to the very minimum of things to do, and some of the things you skip when eloping (invitations, reception menu) are the things I'm looking forward to doing. I am also glad we're pretty set on our very tiny guestlist, which at this point is right around 50 attendees. Can I get a woohoo for small weddings?

"Emotionally Engaged" and other stuff

I posted some more photos of me and S at the Mardi Gras fundraiser on my flickr account and of course, more pictures of my ring. Whiteflash was so great for us. I got exactly what I wanted, and my does she sparkle!

I started reading "Emotionally Engaged" by Allison Moir-Smith, and have started journaling all my feelings during this time. I'm very excited to be marrying S, but less so about all the planning, except for... the shoes! I originally wanted the rouge of this style (Caparros Val) but Zappos.com was out of my size, so I ordered the vintage pink. Then, suddenly, one pair of the rouge was available, so I jumped. Obviously the red are the more fabulous color, what what with my fascination with Judy Garland, the Wizard of Oz, my red slipper fetish since high school, and my general love of all things red, they make the most sense. Plus, talk about being able to wear them again! But the vintage pink is so lovely, too. Lucky for me, Zappos has a great return policy (365 days from purchase, and they can still be returned for FREE) so I can decide the day before our wedding, or I could wear the pink for the church and the red for the reception...

Silly silly taxes

So, as usual, I was very excited about doing my taxes. That sentence is not sarcastic. I really was super pumped to get my refund! I don't make a lot as a library assistant, so I always get something back. Last year, that 'something back' funded my part of S's and my trip to San Francisco. So, you see now why I was jazzed to do the 'ol 1040.

Well, I filled in all the boxes in TurboTax as usual, except I had a question about the amount I spent on school this year, which is a lot. Let me repeat: graduate school costs A LOT. Unless your Masters or PhD is going to lead you to either A) a lot more happiness, or B) a lot more salary each year, then it is not worth the money/effort/time you spend getting the darn certificate. This year, I entered how much I spent on school tuition (paid for via loans) and my refund was like ca-ching!$!$!$!!$! The dollar signs included in that bit of punctuation represent how big my refund is going to be this year. Crikey!

So I got to thinking: hmm, refund last year was nice, paid for a flight/hotel/food for one week in a glorious California city, but it wasn't nearly as much as for my 2007 return.

This morning, of all mornings, I fired up the 2006 version of TurboTax and tried to see what would happen if I amended my form (1040X for all you tax nerds out there). Well, wowsers! I had plum forgot to put in the amount I spent on tuition! Silly me! Even a girl in grad school sure can be dumb sometimes. Maybe I shouldn't have filled out my form while sipping a rum-infused drink?

Anyway, so now, I am going to refile for last year, along with filing for this year, and so last year's even bigger refund can help fun my honeymoon!$!$!!$! The punctuation represents my new shiny refund amount.

Now I really cannot wait to get my refund. Oh, and my crazy President Bush induced tax credit, which I will pay for later, I'm sure of it, damn you W, I refuse to spend it! I will buy a Certificate of Deposit and nothing more, I swear to God!

What is there to be happy about?

Today I am especially thankful for coworkers who really care about me. We have such a great staff in the department where I work, and I genuinely appreciate their support and encouragement when I am feeling less than my best. I've heard it said that our library has some of the best staff anywhere, and I wholeheartedly agree!

One thing down, and I don't even want to think about the rest

So, I'm pretty sure that this dress is the dress I'm going to wear to marry S. It's the J.Crew Goddess Long dress, and it's currently on final sale. Yipee for a wedding dress on the cheap! It fits me quite well, and S's aunt is an incredible seamstress, so she can help me tweak it (omg, I need a bustle?).

The only bummer is how weird my sister is acting since I got engaged. I guess I expected some strangeness, but not this much, you know? I was showing her the dress tonight, and she asked, "Is it a wedding dress? I know you're going to get married in it, but is it a wedding dress?" I just said, "Yeah, it is, it's got a train..." and she flipped and said she was just asking, because some people get married in dresses that aren't labeled as such, and blah blah. I just wanted to say, dude, it's fine, drop the drama. I think she just wants to roll her eyes at me constantly, but what are you going to do with more than six years of age between us.

I guess weddings bring out the best and worst in people, so wish me luck!

An announcement

So, my blog readers may like to know... S proposed last Friday night! I said yes, of course. The next evening we went to the Mardi Gras fundraiser dinnner/dance. Here are some photos.