Our main objective for the weekend is to tour two places for our wedding ceremony/reception site. I really like both places from speaking to the event coordinators at each respective place. One is a country club, the other place is actually a plant nursery (yes, as in a place that grows plants) that happens to have event places on site. Both places would mean having an outdoor wedding, which I like (although I’m worried about the weather but that’s totally out of my control so I can’t worry too much).

The country club obviously has its own caterers and with the nursery, we’d have to worry about getting caterers to come in. The country club also includes a few more niceties like an event coordinator to make sure that everything runs smoothly on your wedding day. The nursery is just in a really pretty place and would give us the freedom to bring our own caterer if we wish.

My family actually had Easter brunch at the country club. The food was wonderful. I think I’m leaning more towards that place but we’ll see how we feel when we actually see it. I will feel better about all of the wedding planning once we have a location set in stone. I am really beginning to see why people usually have a year-long engagement before getting married; I can see how one would need it. Really, I do.

I hope after seeing both places that we’ll come to a consensus on where we want the wedding to take place and then most everything else should be smaller details and those I can definitely handle.

What are you doing this weekend?

I’m a big fan of reading “Missed Connections” on Craigslist. There’s also a section in one of the weekly alternative papers called “I Saw You,” which is essentially the same thing. The premise of both of these things (for those who don’t know) is people write short ads looking for people that they talked to briefly somewhere, lost touch with or even sometimes simply saw. For the romantic in me, this is sort of endearing. I think a lot of us want to believe in love at first sight or at least the idea that we can form a deep bond or connection with someone who briefly waltzes into our lives. It’s the stuff of romantic comedies but to a degree I think there are many of us out there who want to believe this is true.

Some of them are terribly romantic (this one is from craigslist):

“I don’t want our story to end. I think we’re just about to get to the good part, or at least that’s what I hope. I have baffled you and you have baffled me, but the only way out of this confusion is take a leap. I don’t know if you want to walk away (or already have). But if telling you how I feel could prevent you from moving along, then here goes. I REALLY do want this and always have. You deserve to know my feelings (the ones that always weren’t apparent to you). I have been smitten with you ever you since we locked eyes over the cubicle abyss and had our first conversation on the elevator. You have been on my mind ever since. I think our connection is terrifying at times, but undeniable. I want you in my world. And I love you with my whole heart.
After all we’ve been through, I think we deserve a real chance at this. I think we can get it right this time.”

I find myself wondering how many people find each other through these ads. Does it ever happen? Say you’re on the train, you meet eyes with the person across from you for a brief second before they get off the train. About a week later, you find an ad for a person looking for someone with gorgeous eyes who happened to be riding the train about a week ago and was wearing the same outfit you were wearing the week before. How do you proceed? Is it worth contacting someone that you share a mere few seconds of eye contact with? Do you check things out or simply ignore it?

It’s just amazing to think of the possibilities of something like this…

(This is a work of fiction. I do not have a 7 year old kid )

Your life is spread before me like a favorite novel, a story I know by heart. I’ve loved you since before you were born. This is the kind of story in which I am constantly thinking back to my favorite parts. I swear your heart and mine beat the same rhythm, beat the same song over and over again. It is endless; it is eternal; it is forever. You are a part of me and always have been since before you became you. My heart knew your voice before I ever heard you speak your first word. My hands knew your touch before they ever felt you. Some things you just know without knowing from where or when they came.

You are a gift.

You are a treasure.

You are mine.

Yes, I’ve loved you since you were born. You are seven years old today, my darling girl. Here you lie before me, sleeping and breathing deeply as only children do. When you wake, we’ll celebrate and open presents but now it is just me alone with my thoughts of you and your beautiful story.

I cannot say that I have ever been a fan of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s politics and his personal life may have been something less than desirable.  However, if we are being honest, can’t we all say that about some parts of our own lives? I criticized a lot of his opinions and very rarely did I ever agree with what he had to say. However, I can say in full honesty that I deeply respect him and think that his passing is devastating to the American political world. It’s hard to believe that he had been in the Senate since 1962.

There’s a quote that says something along the lines of “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” I deeply believe this quote and believe that Sen. Kennedy personified this quote. He stood for a lot of things. He wasn’t afraid to be vocal. He never feared speaking his opinion or saying what he felt he needed to say. You have to be able to respect that even if you do not agree with his opinions. Often, it’s hard to find our own voice and this extends much, much further than simply voicing our political opinions. It’s quite easy to be afraid of taking a stand when you fear that others are going to disagree with you. To see someone who was able to say what he needed to say may give us who don’t always speak our piece a little more courage.

RIP Senator Kennedy.

I think I’m still trying to wrap my head around the whole planning a wedding thing. We have a date set and a guest list mostly worked out. Now we need to find someplace to get married and someplace to have the reception. I keep reminding myself that the wedding is one day; the marriage is a lifetime (I’ve had several people pass that advice onto me in different forms; it’s a good piece of advice). I think I’ll feel better once we’ve settled on a place though. I’ve sent out for quotes to a couple places so I’m waiting to hear from them. I need to calm down a little about the whole thing, me thinks.

We spent the weekend in PA with the Architect’s family. It was nice to see them. They seem to be excited about the wedding as well!

I have about two more weeks until I have to go back to school. I’m going to try taking three classes (yes, I’m working full time as well). I just want to get my Masters finished and over with. I should be able to graduate in the Spring if I complete 3 classes in the fall and 3 in the spring. I can see the light!!!

How was your weekend?

When we were rabbits

We wore glass slippers

We walked through mud

We slept at the Motel 6

Things change

We’re no longer rabbits

Our glass slippers no longer fit

I sleep alone at the Motel 6

But every time I see that super nova

On the sign of the gas station

Across the street from the Motel 6

It takes me back to the days of mud…

We don’t always agree and we’re both strong willed. That can be a disastrous mix. Sometimes it is and we fight. Things have gotten better over the years. I’ve matured and realized that when you say things, often they are things to consider and to mull over. In the past, I’ve had a tendency to charge right back and that never worked. I feel like I understand you better now. And I feel like I can say anything to you now. I understand where you are coming from. I understand everything a little bit better now. I respect you for what you’ve done for us and I love you for the very same. We may not always agree but we’re family and I realize that I couldn’t have done all the things that I have been able to do without you right behind me. I know I say thank you a lot but even still, I am not sure that those words are strong enough sometimes. But I know no better words so thank you again for doing what you do and making me who I am.

One thing that I learned in my finance class that I took this summer is that when one invests money in something, they typically expect a positive return or in other words, they expect money and they expect it in quantities greater than the amount that they invested in the first place. Apparently the members of Congress should have taken this class with me seeing how this is a concept that they don’t seem to understand. I would have proudly had them in my class as long as I didn’t have to be in a group with them (you all know how I hate having to do other peoples work for them).

 I was reading an article in The Express (our commuter paper here in the DC area, which is a subsidiary of the Washington Post) this morning about how Congress allotted $3 bil for the Cash for Clunkers program (I’m not sure if all of this money has been spent). However, auto dealers have only made deals worth $1.9 billion (what happened to the other 1.1 billion???) and the program ends at 8 pm EST on Monday.

The article says that Secretary Ray LaHood said that Cash for Clunkers has been “a lifeline to the automobile industry.” Orly?!? Not that we didn’t know that this was probably the real driver for the program anyhow but good job on Congress using smoke and mirrors in order to convince some people that this program was actually supposed to be good for the environment or something. I have to question how much money we, the people (and taxpayers), are going to end up giving to these car companies. This program did absolutely nothing to improve American car companies and while some of the companies have had to rehire some of the people they laid off, I’m going to bet that these re-hires are temporary as this program did nothing to improve the overall long-term production.

I like long term planning and solutions that will be good in the long run. Quick fixes may fix something in the short term but in the long-run, quick fixes don’t do anything except take us right back to where we were before.

In your opinion, was Cash for Clunkers a failure or a success?

This week has been busy. On top of that, I’m dealing with major allergies. My ears have been all plugged up although luckily it looks like I’ve escaped without this turning into a full force cold.  We’ve been working on getting a guest list down. We have a date picked out (September 18, 2010). It’s pretty crazy to think how much planning goes on for a wedding but I suppose that you really create that workload yourself. In a way, we probably have a little more planning to do since we’re kind of creating our ceremony from scratch. We both want the religious influence but we didn’t want to get married in the religion in which either of us were raised (I was raised Catholic and the Architect was raised in the Church of the Brethren), which means we get to design our ceremony.

I knew that I would marry the Architect. We fit each other like gloves but this week has made everything really real. So I’m still around but I just haven’t written that much this week!

How is your week going?

We had been planning our Sunday for about a week. Last week was finals for me and the Architect was working a lot so we hadn’t gotten to spend too much time together. The beginning of our weekend was busy between three different parties from Friday night to Saturday night. Sunday was going to be our relaxing day. We were going to go to the county fair to see the animals and go to see The Time Traveler’s Wife. Little did I know that there was more. We went to the fair in the morning and walked around for a few hours. Then we went to the movie (it was really, really good by the way). Afterwards, the Architect suggested walking around a really pretty lake right next to the movie theatre. I said okay so we started walking. We got to a really pretty, shady spot and he asked me to marry him. I said yes right away!

I had absolutely no idea that he had planned to propose yesterday. He was very, very sneaky about it and I can’t believe the ring hadn’t burned a hole in his pocket since he had it with him all day long. He also managed to keep the proposal a secret from my mom and sisters even though he asked my dad for my hand on Friday. B’s boyfriend knew as well because he, the Architect and my dad went to have a boy’s night at the movies on Friday while we girls had a party for one of our family friends. They both managed to keep it a secret!

We’re looking at a September or October of 2010 wedding. We’re both very excited!

Here’s the ring (he had it custom made for me and had a hand in designing it; too cool!):