not quite a pictures worth.

i need a new computer. or maybe just an external harddrive. but i think a new computer is steadily moving towards the top of my 'i need this' list.
as my sister with the babies mentioned, my oldest sister and her husband came back to the states last friday, and this past weekend was spent in NYC hanging out, laughing, eating good food, going to zoos and other fun new yorkish things, and taking LOTS of pictures!! the GOOD news is, somehow i was able to clear enough stuff from my memory to load all the pictures i took (which was not a large fraction of total pictures taken... i didnt fill my card til the last day!) onto my trusty computer Vanilley (counterpart to Milley, who has recently been replaced by Cher - just another sign that a new computer is on the horizon) the BAD news is, i am now once again dangerously low on virtual memory, (i sunk quickly from the yellow triangle with the exclamation point to the much more foreboding red circle with the X) so much so that I am not able to upload any of these fabulous pictures to my blog, or facebook, or any other internet place where they can be enjoyed by the masses. perhaps if i sneak up on it, only doing one picture at a time instead of trying them all at once, i will trick it into having enough memory so i can at least share a few of the best moments. it will be hard to choose though, cuz any moment shared with sisters all in one place is absolutely fantastic! i miss them already. i will see them again in just over a week. i like this plan :) i will take more pictures. i will have to figure out something to do with them.

cross it off the list!

it is beginning to seem like my to-do list will never end. as soon as i get to cross something off, there are at least four things waiting to take its place. things on my list right now include: (keep in mind this is by no means all-inclusive)

- Figure out the best way to merge our insurance stuffs
- Come up with a new email account (should include my new last name or not? suggestions welcome)
- Address and send my invitations (the envelopes FINALLY came in the mail!)
- Plan a honeymoon
- Figure out a way to have centerpieces and decorate my reception with a negative budget
and of course there are always the staples: grocery shopping, dishes, cleaning... like i said the list goes on and on.

BUT the one thing i got to cross off this weekend was a biggie: BUYING WEDDING RINGS!!!
the best part of it is how cool everything worked out: we went on Friday evening to look at rings, see what we liked and price our options. the guy showed us the ring that matched my engagement ring perfectly, and then showed us one that was almost identical for 1/3 of the price. the catch was, there was only one of them left. (it was a promotional piece left over from Christmas that someone had on layaway but recently decided they didnt want) so we decided to go home, discuss if we wanted to go with that ring or just a plain white gold band, and said we would come back first thing in the morning. which we did. the problem was, our definition of 'first thing in the morning' on a saturday morning was apparently not as early as some other people, and the ring that we had been looking at that was SUCH a good deal had been bought. fifteen minutes before we got there. cue feeling of despair and disbelief. but wait! fear not! enter amazing ring-store man and his multitude of connections. after just a few moments of browsing a large 3 ring binder and one phone call later, the exact same ring for the exact same deal was found at another location and arrangements were made to have it shipped to MD so it can be my wedding ring!!! how cool is that?

i crossed it off the list. now i have all the big things covered: we have a location, a caterer, and a pastor, everyone in the wedding party will be fully clothed, there will be sufficient photo-documentation and music, and now we've got the rings. we can totally get married. even if no one shows up because the invitations arent sent yet, and there are no decorations on the tables and no little favors for everyone to take home, i am getting married on October 3rd. life is good!

if only.

i've been working on a new, deep and insightful post for a couple weeks now. if i can ever find my train of thought again and hop back on it, it would be a great post.

all aboard!

conversation that happened while i was getting ready for work this morning:

Abi: What is Aunt Ami?
Claire: an engineer.
Abi: and what do engineers do?
Claire: (shy smile)
Abi: What does Aunt Ami do? Does she drive the trains?
Claire: (nods and smiles)

i love my family.

my crazy life.

or: why i have not posted any vacation pictures.

Tuesday: i flew East to get home from vacation, losing 3 hours in the air. got back to my apartment and promptly fell asleep on my living room floor. i woke up a half hour later and went to bed.

Wednesday: got up. went to work. was informed that i would be working on a project that has about two months of work left on it. they would like it to be done in two weeks. went home. rode the bike for 30 mins. made dinner. painted my toenails. fought to upload pics to facebook. started looking for houses. found one i thought looked perfect. called fiance to check it out. made an appointment to see it the next day. went to bed.

Thursday: got up an hour late. got ready and made it to work on time. worked partway through lunch. went to look at houses in MD after work. fiance fell in the basement of the house i found and discovered that it was secretly falling down. went to a church BBQ. played cornhole and volleyball. drove fiance to get a tetanus shot. drove home. went to bed.

Friday: got up. went to work. got switched to work on a job that is apparently even more urgent than the one i was on. spent part of the day figuring out which houses to look at after work. got coffee. went to look at houses. found a few we liked. spent the night at fiances house.

Saturday: woke up early. took fiance's parents to look at the top contenders. drove to my apartment to get ready for cousin's wedding. almost forgot to eat lunch. drove to state college. talked to real estate agent and fiances parents as we drove. decided to make an offer on a house. got to the wedding. enjoyed the wedding. drove home from the wedding. made more phone calls about the house as we drove back to fiances house. went to bed.

Sunday: got up and went to early service. chatted with youth pastor about DJing our wedding. drove to BBnB. registered for some wedding presents. drove back to fiances house for fiances dad's birthday party. played with beads for bridesmaids jewelry with fiances aunt. continued to discuss making an offer on the house. got frustrated that we couldnt do anything cuz it was sunday. drove home. febreezed whole apartment cuz it reeked of smoke thanks to my new next door neighbors. went to bed.

Monday: woke up at 5:15am thanks to my new downstairs neighbors having a major domestic dispute that involved yelling, door slamming, profanity, and someone getting kicked out. tried to fall back asleep. failed. got up. came to work. hopefully getting preapproval for our loan today so we can sign the contract to make the offer on the house after work today.

exciting things are happening. it is exhausting.

songs in my head.

i am going on a Grand Vacation this weekend. i am extremely excited. so much so that i have had a song in my head all week. it is about Arizona. it is a sad song. it goes something like this:

don't you know there is no Arizona... no painted desert, no Sedona and if there was a Grand Canyon, she could fill it up with the lies he told her. but they don't exist - those dreams he sold her. She'll wake up and find there is no Arizona.

this is sad to me. but i cannot think of any other song about Arizona. i can think about happy songs about other states:
Sweet Home Alabama
California Girls (daisy dukes, bikinis on top)
Georgia on My Mind
Meet Virginia (i cant wait to...)
Devil Went Down to Georgia
Mississippi Girl

not to mention the ones that dont have the state right in the song title :
West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home country roads...

there are even some cities that get their own song:
in the morning i'm leaving makin my way back to Cleveland...
yes, we have no bananas... bananas in Scranton, PA.
but Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana (my home sweet home!)

WHY is there not a happier song about Arizona?

time flies.

as i typed  the title for this post, my mind wandered to visions of little insects wearing leather jackets and sunglasses with clocks on their backs like a backpack and video cameras in their eyes that are capable of time travel because they are small enough to slip between the folds of the time-space continuum and bring back valuable information to us humans who are incapable of time traveling ourselves.

but i digress.

it has been over a year since i graduated college. over 8 months since i started my job. over two months since i got engaged. and just over 4 months til i will be a married woman.

i started to wonder to myself - "where has the time gone?" and then mid-wonder i stopped myself as i realized it has gone by in a monotonous blur of morning commutes, grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, casual fridays, tv shows, etc. (please note i did not include vacuuming, dusting, or cleaning the bathroom! these are reserved for special occasions and do not occur often enough to be included in the monotony)

its kind of depressing if you think about it. i keep living for the future: always looking forward to graduation, or getting a job, or getting married, or Friday, or knowing HOW to do my job, or going on vacation, or finding a place to live, and on and on and on and where does it leave me? at the end of a year full of landmark events, both personal and historical, wondering where my time went. and where i really dont want to end up is at the end of my life, on my deathbed, and never have truly embraced the here and now, reveling in the small joys of every day rather than being dragged down in the monotony.

i found a gray hair the other day. i did like my mother taught me and pulled it out and forgot it was ever there. i dont want to admit that i'm growing up. that time keeps passing. that eventually i will be a wife and a mother and an engineer and really be responsible for something and someone other than myself.

buckle up. brace for impact. its coming fast.