Posts Tagged ‘Tal’

So we were approved to move in to the new apartment on the 18th of March. Yippee! I found the apartment on Rent.com, and the cool thing is that the website will give us a $100 prepaid Visa card for signing a lease with the place we found on their site. Matt and I started looking at new furniture and things to do with the new place. It's not necessarily more space, it's just divided more nicely. We have a whole lot more storage room. In stead of having a large living room (multipurpose room, really) and a large kitchen, we're going to have a medium-sized kitchen, dining room, living room, and spare bedroom (computer room / study). I'm psyched about moving in. Now we just have to get packing and all that together. We'll probably get all settled in, let Tal adjust, then look at getting another kitten. Anyhow, just a quick update tonight. I have my first big math exam tomorrow, so I'm off to bed early. Ta ta!

Last Thursday morning Papa flew in to Santa Barbara from Dallas. Not much else happened that day, we just kicked back and caught up. It had been a long morning for him. He took us out to dinner at Saletti's as Matt's belated birthday gift. I had the fettuccine alfredo again and it was superb as usual. We had a bottle of 2002 Beckman sauvignon blanc, which was okay. We're still experimenting with different wines. Matt and I haven't really found much that we like yet, though. Friday Matt had to work, but Papa and I ventured out to the Solvang area. We had a pastry breakfast at the Danish Mill Bakery and picked up a box of goodies to go. We explored the town a little. I got to visit two yarn shops, but I didn't purchase anything. I figure I'll get $18/skein yarn when I've graduated from the learning & mess-up stage. Papa thinks I should spin my own yarn rather than buy it. We saw quite a bit of spinning materials, but I'm not going to buy a wheel! It would be fun someday. We had lunch at the Solvang Restaurant, which is really the only place I eat in town. Yummy Tilsit cheese sandwich. Our reason for going out that way was to visit the wineries, though. We headed up to Los Olivos, which is a short but gorgeous drive. We passed vineyard after vineyard as well as orchards and a farm of miniature horses. We decided to go the Beckman vineyard since we had a wine of theirs at Saletti's the night before. There aren't any grapes on the vines in January, but the vineyard was really pretty anyway. We hung out in the tasting room for about an hour, trying six different wines and learning all sorts of facts about wines. I learned about growing vines: clones and rootstocks; how all sorts of flavors can come out in wines even though nothing is added: tobacco, vanilla, strawberries, chocolate; and that wines have nose and legs, too! It was fun and educational. We stopped by the Babcock vineyard on the way to pick Matt up from work. That one wasn't quite as exciting, as our host was kind of "okay, let's get this over with" about that whole thing. We pretty much just stood in silence sipping bit after bit then headed out. Overall, I think it was a very interesting first time in the tasting rooms. The weekend was really mellow, though. We didn't go out anywhere to do anything exciting. We rented a lot of movies, played on the computer and [I] crocheted. It's nice to just sit and visit, but I always felt a little anxious, that I should be entertaining more. Matt and I are getting used to saving our money and just sitting around inside, but I don't want to appear lame and boring to my dad. I don't think it bothered him, though. I made my chicken parmesan dish for dinner on Saturday and it was a hit! I'm glad someone other than Matt enjoys my cooking. We took him down to Santa Barbara Monday afternoon to catch his 6:30 flight. We went early so we could cruise around State Street and go out to dinner. Matt and I received Chilis gift cards for Christmas, but there is only one Chilis anywhere within three hours of us and it's by the Santa Barbara Airport. So we had a nice, although rushed, Chili's dinner. I had forgotten directions and thought I'd just feel my way around town, so after driving around in circles for a while, we were a little pressed for time. But Papa made his flight and we returned home. Everything's pretty much back to normal, now. Matt's been playing World of Warcraft, I've been crocheting, and we've been watching quite a few movies. My dad and I moved melandmatt.net from my friend in Fort Collins' server to a DreamHost server. They offer tons of space and goodies. Matt and I have moved our blogs off of Xanga and LiveJournal to keep them here. We installed a new photo gallery and I've spent hours customizing and editing that. It's all been fun. I picked Melissa up from school on Tuesday. We worked on her math and vocabulary homework. Doing homework often takes up a lot of our time for the night, but I enjoy it. I like helping her out, sometimes re-teaching it, but not just feeding her answers. I suppose that's part of why I'd like to be a teacher someday. Melissa and I have a good time. We picked up Subway for dinner. The employee making our sandwiches always gawks at her whenever she orders a bread-and-meat-only sandwich. They have to ask her a few times just to make sure she doesn't want any mustard or vegetables. She gets all embarrassed about it, but hey, she can have whatever she likes. I was crocheting granny squares while she was doing her vocabulary homework. I had picked up some yarn and a few hooks for her the other day in case she wanted to learn. She was all excited to get to crocheting! She'd been bragging to her friends and family that I can make scarves and hats and whatnot and really wanted to be able to for herself. So we got her started with holding the hook and yarn and making a foundation chain. It's … really cute. I figure the first lesson is that and she took her yarn and hook home to practice. Saturday we'll do the single crochet stitch. I'm just glad that she's all hyped to learn. I'd like it if we can sit around and crochet cute purses and hats together. I feel accomplished, having only been learning to crochet for three weeks now. I made that ugly scarf that Matt apparently likes (but I don't think Tal does much!) I've been making coasters, since we needed them for our coffee table anyway. I have two afghans going right now, but I think they'll take some time. I made my first hat, but it's really strangely shaped and looks ridiculous on Matt (and to a lesser degree, me). I have all these creations that are kind of ugly, but I am very proud of. I'm working on another hat right now. I want to start making chemo caps and donating them through Head Huggers for people with cancer. I guess they're in high demand and aren't really all that difficult to make. There's no better way for me to practice my crochet than for it to benefit someone else! I set up an album in my gallery to keep a photo-collection of all my projects. Well, Matt's off at work and I need to do chores. I've been lazy since my dad left, so the apartment's gotten a little wild.

I closed down my Xanga account and my MySpace account. Just tired of all that. I’m back home, now. It’s just you, LJ. (edit: When this was posted on LJ.)

Well, Christmas was pleasant. It our first married Christmas together, which is special. We were both a little homesick, though. It’s just hard to get in the Christmas spirit when you’re wearing shorts and a tank top and haven’t seen family in months. It was fun, though. We got a nice plastic Walmart tree and picked out cute ornaments for it. We went out with Carol on Christmas Eve to church and out to dinner. Matt and I debated whether to open gifts on the 24th, my family’s tradition, or the 25th, his family’s tradition. We ended up opening them very late on the 24th, but it wasn’t due to any of my coaxing! My mother broke Matt down. :p Carol came over on Christmas day to exchange gifts and cook a feast with me. It was all very nice. I’m thankful to have such a good friend as Carol. We’ve just recently grown closer, and now she’s about to move away in a few months.

Our Friday night parties have fallen apart; I guess it’s mostly my fault. I suppose I just feel that we’re being used by our new friends. I don’t know if I expect too much from my friendships that they’re hard for me to find, or if friendships just aren’t important enough for me to want to keep. With the exception of Carol and Erick, I feel everyone here has disappointed me. I feel like we just haven’t found the “right friends”. Maybe other married couples? Getting together with 18/19 year-old boys for movies and video games is fun for a while, but really shallow. I guess I’m just happy to hang out with Carol … I don’t need a gaggle of superficial friends.

My mother is flying in on Friday morning and I am just too excited! She and Ron are coming up to Lompoc that morning to see our home, hopefully meet Melissa over lunch, some golf, and a nice dinner. They aren’t staying up here because Tal would drive my mom crazy (she’s allergic), so they’re staying in Santa Barbara. We’ll drive down there Saturday morning to stay with them for a few nights and celebrate New Year’s Eve / Matt’s birthday / Ron’s birthday.

It’s been quite a relaxing break. Matt pretty much got two weeks off work for free without having to take leave. He’s on standby, but nothing really happens (except an early morning, random urinalysis today) where he needs to go in. It’s been nice to just hang out with him and not do much. We started new characters on World of Warcraft that we got up a little bit (he’s a druid, I’m a hunter, both night elves). He’s been playing Dragon Quest VIII, one of his Christmas gifts. We got weights and tennis rackets to play with. I got a CD from Matt’s parents, Gabby La La’s “Be Careful What You Wish For …”, that has pretty much been on repeat for the past three days (Matt really like it, hehe). I’m learning how to crochet (goofing around, I made a pretty blue bracer/arm-warmer/sleeve thingy). I’m going to attempt an afghan on this break.

Aside from all that excitement, I’ve just been burning a lot of CDs and dinners. Well, I guess the dinners aren’t so bad, but I’m still learning. Today is just cleaning and tennis and watching CSI Season 5. Woohoo! I love Christmas break! Just two more days before until family visiting, woohoo!

Man, I am so craving some of those peanut butter and oatmeal nobake cookies. I want to just go whip up a batch for breakfast! :-} So the news today is, well, slim. I was all hyped up about spending time with Melissa yesterday, but it turns out she got some viral infection (hopefully not from some infected animal at the zoo on Saturday!) and is miserably sick. Melissa and I have had sort of a rocky relationship, not because of how we get along, but just because of time and dedication, I guess. I "adopted" Melissa in March '04 and things started out really well: we'd see each other every weekend, went camping, did schoolwork together, etc. A mixture of her family events, my night-classes and unpredictable work schedule, as well as my laziness pretty much destroyed what we had and we ended up hanging out maybe once every two months. It stressed me out a lot because I care about her and want to spend time with her (also, in the BBBSA you sort of sign a "contract" saying you'll spend such-and-such amount of time together per week and I had my case worker calling up constantly to check on me … guilt!) but it just wasn't working. I almost tried to quit the program a while ago because I felt so bad, that she deserved a better, more devoted Big Sister. Well, I'm not saying everything's the way it should be right now, but our hopes are higher and our schedules are clearer! Not working in the squadron while trying to go to classes at night anymore will really help. We planned a little schedule sort of … she comes over at the same time every Wednesday and we'd also try to get together once in a while on the weekends. Well yesterday was our first Wednesday and I was all hyped for making chicken parmesan and beading necklaces together! Anyhow, long story with little point: I was just sort of bummed out. Heh. I'm meeting up with my pal, Carol, today for lunch. We used to work together until she moved sections and I moved out. It's kind of a strange relationship. When I first showed up on base she hated me completely. I don't know if it was a territorial thing (there is such a small percentage of girls to guys where we worked) and I was hogging her boys' attention or if it was just something else about me. She was all tough and frankly, just scared the snot out of me. It really upset me whenever she was rude to me for no reason and I'd whine to Matt about it after work. I don't know what happened. Her friend, Denna, and I eventually became better friends, so then it was sort of the three of us. Tension just disappeared one day. I don't know if it was that I was hanging out with Matt and she saw this as a threat (they were okay friends in tech school before I came along), but I proved myself over time? I held a grudge sort of for a bit, but there's really no point. Things have seemed pretty fine for a while. Anyhow, Denna, Carol and I used to go out to lunch together at Sissy's, a cute, colorful cafe in Lompoc, every two weeks or so. Denna moved to Italy and Carol and I were left with each other, pretty much the only girls either of us knows around here (seriously in the shop right now there is one girl and 44 guys … poor Anya). She works strange, unpredictable hours now, so we get together for lunch when we can. Today we can and I'm looking forward to it. We found another Lompoc restaurant, Sugar Magnolia's, which I just adore and sort of became "our place" to go out (Sissy's was more her and Denna's place hehe). I think Carol's sick of Sugar's today though, so ohwell, I don't get their awesome natural smoothies and pasta salad. Well … I like Carol enough, she's a sweetheart and Matt likes hanging out with her, too. But seriously, whenever we go out I feel like we just talk about the same things: work gossip (ugh!), her relationship status, or how Denna's doing in Italy. We get along, but I don't feel we really have anything interesting in common. Since I was thirteen I struggled in the girl friend department, but hanging out with all the guys didn't really bother me so much anyway. Now I just sort of feel desperate, I just want a girl to talk to every now and then! You know, a girl kind of like me, heh. Matt is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure you understand … I think he does. I think I'm just feeling a little holed-up lately. I'm an inside, introverted person and hanging out with Matt is great, but every now and then I think I miss my childhood girlfriends. I don't want to be surrounded by a lot of friends or anything, I really just want one and for her to not live across the country. I think that's part of why I want to hang out with Melissa more … maybe it reminds me of when I was in middle school hanging with the "Chicklets" … but you know, she's thirteen. There's certain needs in that relationship that can't be met, either. Well, enough of that. Lunch today will be nice, but I guess I'm going into it feeling like the friendship is all ready sort of empty and it just bums me a bit. Yes, it's another morning where I just babble, so sorry. Yesterday I got a ton of schoolwork, errands, and housework done that I didn't expect to (due to my Melissa date being called off, wahh!) so I'm a tad ahead of schedule and can spare the thirty minutes of babble! So I think I will go whip up some no-bake cookies for later (not for breakfast, ick) and play with crazy Tal. He sure is going to miss me when school starts up in the Fall. The spoiled cat has a big toy all day long every day who is just going to disappear for the semester. Poor guy. >:-)

I know, now I’m just posting for the sake of doing so. I’m just a little bored. Not that I don’t have a gazillion things to do … I just don’t want to do them right now. I changed things around on here a little bit because I was tired of the way they looked before. I hope everything’s legible enough and all.

I feel kind of cooped up. I really started to loathe my job, but I went back to work yesterday to drop off lunch for Matt and found myself sort of nostalgic for it. I think it’s just that I sit around at home all day doing school work and housework. I was really excited about going to my new job with the guard last weekend, but I guess it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. What I did before at the 576th was actually pretty cool, it’s just I got really fed up with policies, sergeants, and all the bone-head 20-year old airmen boys I worked with. Not that I think the grass is greener back there, I was ready for a change. I just feel bored in this transition phase where we don’t know where we will be living come February and I’m still just taking here-and-there classes at a community college. I’m not disgruntled or anything, I just want to get on with the next act …

Hah, so I adopted a penguin today! Tal must be pretty jealous … Her name’s Tela and she’s not so good at standing on her own two feet. If you’re super-bored, you can adopt your own pet, too!

Anyhow, I guess I will actually get on with school work. Ta ta!

So it’s been a few days and I have little to report. School started on Monday, so that’s keeping me kind of busy. I’m only taking nine credits and they’re all online-courses, so it’s not so bad. I can do my psychology homework in my pajamas! I’m also taking World Civilizations and Logic, then I’ll have all my “core classes” out of the way finally. I really just do a lot of reading and that will last me all summer.

Matt and I are considering getting another cat. Tal is four months old now and extremely playful and it’s nice that I’m home all summer to hang out with him. I was reading that a kitten’s best toy is another kitten and maybe he would have fun hanging out with one of his own. Carol and I went out to see The Perfect Man on Wednesday (which was pretty cute!) and stopped by the shelter just to peek. There were so many kittens there, I was amazed. And so cute! When we adopted Tal the shelter told us he’s not very good with other cats. I don’t know if that’s just because of the environment he was subject to, if it’s something he’ll grow out of, if they were just the wrong kinds of cats, or if he’s really just anti-social. If we do look for a playmate for him, I think we’ll bring Tal along to see how he interacts with the shelter kitties and see if he can sort of pick his match. Hopefully that will go well!

My mother got home from the hospital yesterday, which I am very thankful for. She spent seven days in there and it sounded horrible. From what I hear, things aren’t too much better, though. The only thing she “can” consume is water and tea, and neither of those will stay down for her. She claims to be in more physical pain than she has ever known and I wish there was more I could do to ease that for her. We will just keep praying her pain subsides soon and she can get on with her day-to-day life.

So I’m all happy I found some new music! I stumbled across some Tea Leaf Green and Jack Johnson (awesome!) mp3s and now have CDs on order. I’m enjoying both tremendously and you should go check ‘em out! TLF is a San Francisco band, and I’m going to try to make it up to their next local show in September and Jack Johnson will be in Santa Barbara in August (going to buy tix now woohoo!) I haven’t been to any sort of concert for a while (well, Switchfoot up in San Fran a while ago, but it was late/far away and we didn’t stay through the whole thing) and it will be nice to go see one.

Well, here’s my promised recipe of the day! Last night we had a pseudo-Steak Diane. It’s more quick-and easy and there’s no setting anything ablaze, but it’s our favorite dish we’ve found so far. Serves 2 with wild rice and green beans!

2 (6-ounce) ball tip or strip steaks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons minced shallots
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon minced fresh or frozen chives
1 Tablespoon Cognac or brandy

Season steaks with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, melt butter. Add shallots and cook over medium-high heat 1 minute.

Add steaks and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove steaks to a warm serving platter.

Whisk lemon juice, Worcestershire, mustard, and chives into drippings in skillet. Cook 1 minute; stir in Cognac. Pour sauce over steaks and serve at once.

Tonight isn’t quite as exciting: just playing with my kinda-new crockpot and making a roast with veggies. Mmm! Matt and I are just going to chill out, play some Ragnarok Online and watch some Rayearth tonight. Ahh, this is the life!

Phew! I know it's all cliche and whatnot, but seriously, last weekend was the best weekend of my life! Everything was so beautiful! *tear!* I'm currently working on getting all my favorite wedding photos up at my gallery. The biggest thanks ever goes out to Aaron and Alex! I invited them as friends and they went to work as photographers, taking hundreds upon hundreds of photos. I couldn't ask for better friends! So, here's how it went: Thursday Got up kind of early to drive to Fresno. Listened to all our wedding CDs in the car on the way up (no DJ, just a bunch of our faves burned to disk). Met up with my father and brother around noon, waited to meet up with Matt's family a few hours later. We all trooped down to the Fresno mall to pick up tuxedos then all headed to BJ's for pizza. Matt's family had been up since 3am New York time and nearly everyone was exhausted, hungry, and a bit grumpy. It was still awesome to get together for a meal and meet/catch up. My brother (Matthew) and Matt's brother (Jason) … well, it's absolutely uncanny! It's like they're twins. Very creepy. They just met and hit it off quite well. They sat all through dinner drawing physics problems and anime sketches on napkins and discussing little-brother random things. My mother and Ron were driving in from Las Vegas (the long way!) and got in later than expected. They met up with everyone at the Picadilly Inn, where most of us stayed the night. Friday This is the day that I had most of my wedding-stresses. This was mostly because I had only been up to Yosemite during the off-season and had no idea what a zoo it would be. What is a 30-minute drive in November is more like a 90-minute drive in June. So I was late all over the place and frustrated and got lost a whole lot. Jen was in the car with me when I was near tears and was a blessing in the way of emotional support! Thanks, Jen! *hugs* My mother and I met up with the banquet manager at the Wawona Hotel that afternoon to discuss the reception. This eased my worried a lot as I just got more and more excited about how beautiful it was going to be! That evening Dave and Diane invited everyone down to the Pines Resort's restaurant, Duceys, for Jazz on the Lake. This was awesome rehearsal dinner (though there really wasn't much to rehearse)! Papa Bear and Company played while we buffeted and danced out on Bass Lake. Carol (from work) met up with us at the last minute, too, and stayed with me and Jen in the Wawona that evening. The three of us and my mother stuffed birds nests and ironed dresses late into the evening. Saturday I couldn't stay asleep past 5:00 and was pretty surprised I got that much rest. Wedding morning is worse than Christmas morning! Jen, Carol and I got up and got ready to go to Revive Day Spa with Mama and Diane. I sat down first for a manicure/pedicure, which was so relaxing! Then Andrea showed up! Andrea was originally going to be the Maid of Honor and she lived in Monterey, which isn't far from Yosemite. But she just transferred to Texas and we canceled her dress and flowers and just accepted that she wouldn't be able to attend. At the very last minute she got approval to fly out to California (you can't usually take leave in training, but this is a special occasion!) She got in very late on Friday night, went out and found a dress in Oakhurst the day of the wedding, and I got an extra bouquet for her and it all worked out! Yay, Andrea!! After we all got prettied up at the day spa, the girls headed off to the Wawona to get dressed super-speedy like. Then off to the chapel! My mom is so cute, she played Bette Midler's "Chapel of Love" on the drive up to Yosemite Village while Jen and I danced in the back seat. We left for the chapel really early because I was afraid of the 2 mph traffic into the Village that my father experienced, but we ended up arriving early after all. We met up with Aaron and the guys in front of the chapel to take photos then went down by Superintendent's Bridge to take more. It was so horribly buggy out by the river we had to leave and return to the chapel. Everyone was being eaten alive. We waited around for the pastor forever and he finally showed up and we went back to the bridge for a gorgeous, mosquito-y ceremony. It was so pretty, but I felt horrible for Matt. Every now and then I'd just tune out the pastor and watch the four or five mosquitoes on Matt's face suck away and I just wanted to reach up and slap him. That's probably not the best thing to do in the middle of your wedding, though. Matt drove me to the Wawona for the reception and from there everything just seemed to go too quickly. Guests dinged on their glasses so we'd kiss five hundred times and Chris Nail threatened to keep dinging until we "did it like we mean it!" After that, Matt threatened to be rolling around on the floor with me at each ding. The food was good, but I didn't really eat much. The cake wasn't exactly like I'd imagined, but so so cute! And really, I didn't rig the bouquet toss, it just happened to go right for Jen! And when Jason caught the garter, that just didn't seem right and we did a redo (which is horrible! So sorry, Jason!) :p I had worried so much about which songs to play and what would make people comfortable and what wouldn't put them to sleep and all that, and I think I heard maybe a few seconds of two or three songs. All the things I worried about really didn't matter or even present themselves as a problem, but I'm sure most brides learn that. The whole day was really much better than I had dreamed and although it's corny, it truly was the best day of my life thus far! Sunday Matt and I stayed Saturday night and Sunday night at the Houndstooth Inn in Oakhurst, which is absolutely adorable and we highly recommend to anyone staying the night in the Yosemite area! All the rooms there are so awesome, but we decided to have the entire summer cottage to ourselves! We're going up to camp in Yosemite around the Fourth of July, so we didn't really get out around the area. I know it's boring or whatever, but we just stayed inside pretty much the entire time. We were both exhausted from a whole week of stressing and traveling and excitement, so we just crashed all weekend. That's fine with me though! We opened gifts (which just made me bawl; the people we know are so sweet!) and got out for dinner and Star Wars: Episode III. Matt doesn't have too much more leave saved up, so we had to get him back Monday night so he could return to work. What an amazing weekend! As for me, I don't have to plan a wedding, go to work, or study until Monday, so I'm just bumming around this week. Cleaning house, shopping, cooking — all the domestic stuff a wife needs to do, I guess (sleep in and eat leftover wedding cake, really!) Oh, and thank you notes. So many thank you notes! Life is good. It's nice to be back with Tal, who I think was pretty lonely without us for five days. No worries, we had a sweet cat sitter come and spend time with him! Sorry for such a long post today, but I needed to catch you all up! And go check out some pictures!

Well, I've been slightly guilted into updating my brand new blog! :p I set out meaning to do so every single day, then thought that my life probably isn't quite that interesting … Anyhow, here's the scoop! Last Thursday I drove down from Monterey via Highway 1, or the Pacific Coastal Highway. Taking this route versus the 101 extends my trip significantly, but it is a truly gorgeous drive. The only other time I had the opportunity, Matt and I got into a car-fight and I really just couldn't enjoy it! Well, I left Andrea before 5:00 am (she had quite an early flight), so I saw the coast in its dreary, foggy stage. Not quite as spectacular as a clear day at sunset, really. I think I'm going through some wedding woes right now. I didn't think I would be, considering it's a fairly simple celebration and we haven't really gone all-out. Twice as many guests will be attending than I had expected (being that everybody has to travel quite a distance to see us for a short time), which is absolutely terrific! I really can't wait to see everyone. Someone told me recently that you know who your real friends are by who attends your wedding. I don't agree with that 100%, but it is kind of putting the relationships I hold into a different perspective for me. There are five friends driving 20 hours from Colorado, which is more than the friends I have driving in from California! Anyhow, I think it's just the little things that are getting me freaked out, which I'm sure is normal. My divorced parents have not spoken to each other civilly in eight years and now I'm putting them into a pretty uncomfortable situation. I should just let them deal with it or work it out, but I'm trying to please everyone and bend to make everything more tolerable. I had a silly dream last night that all sorts of things went wrong: there was no time for hair/makeup, my father didn't show up, no photos were taken, and my nails were painted in candle wax which kept breaking off. It sounds shallow/trivial but really, it stressed me out so much! :p My mom and Ron are packed up and ready to leave bright and early tomorrow morning, which just hit me how soon everything is. We've been planning this for almost a year, and now, the event being five days away, I'm just worrying about every little thing. Not cold feet or fear of marriage kind of worries, more like guests being comfortable and rain and everyone finding their way just fine! My father joked that he'll bring some Valium for me on Thursday, but well, in a way I'm hoping he's not joking! Matt and I adopted a gorgeous, now four-month old kitten last a little while ago. I'm watching him jump up and slam himself into the wall and go crazy on every single object in our living room. Really, watching him is my new favorite activity. I always knew kittens were energetic, but I never really knew! Tal astonishes me; he is so playful and personable. It's almost annoying though, being kneaded and gnawed every morning at 5:30 or stalked every time I walk down the hallway. But oh, so cute. Go take a gander! Anyhow, I'm off to go finalize reception seating charts and music playlists. Ciao!