update

Lean Cuisine's butternut squash ravioli is delicious.

That is all.

Enough already

I need to go somewhere warm.

Lent

I think I might try to give up soft drinks for Lent.


You might wonder why I feel the need to participate in Lent rituals as I am not Catholic nor am I religious. I think it's because I can't stick to the new year's resolutions (in fact I made none this year knowing that). But a month and a half? I might be able to swing that. We'll see.

One time, in college, someone I knew gave up alcohol. I know. She was crazy.

New Plan

I guess the tipping point was when I found myself breaking down over the phone spouting out "I-can-not-handle-this" between broken sobs and in spite of a huge three-day old stress ulcer in my mouth that made it painful to form words. You see, the garage door wouldn't go down on the coldest day of the year and I was standing there watching as it would creak about 1/3 of the way down and immediately bounce right back up; freezing my ass off, late for work. I'd had yet another argumentative phone call with my dad the night before; he wasn't too jazzed about the catering proposal. The one that I'd had revised three times already. Then I get an email that morning from another concerned party that the menu choice really wouldn't be suitable for my guests. And then my Dad asks why we don't have champagne. I remind him that he gave me a budget and then keeps insisting that I invite more and more people that are his friends, that I do not know. We can't afford the champagne.

After I got the garage door to close, I realized that I could not spend the next eight months like this. I'm pretty sure Mike doesn't want to field any more meltdown phone calls while he is as work either. So we talked and we decided that the traditional wedding might not be the best option for us.

But then I had a meeting with the wedding planner. I'd already canceled on her once, so I figured I should go. Perhaps someone helping me professionally would put me at ease. Ha. Not. at. all. In fact, I'm glad I did go to that meeting because it made me realize without a doubt that Mike and I would be making the right decision. She kept asking me "So...what do you, you know, want to get out of your wedding?" Tell me, how do you answer that? Isn't the point of a wedding to get married? Then she kept asking me about all the detail stuff, like themes and floral and color and food and music. And I don't know. I told her I just want it to be easy and simple. She seemed confused by that.

That evening, Mike and I determined that we would get married our way. I'm not sure if it's technically eloping though, because we've told everybody that's what we are doing. My mom is relieved, she said. My dad is cool with it. It seems to be fine. We've picked a place that I am so excited about I can't describe. In the mountains. We'll go for four days, get married, relax. And then we'll celebrate with our friends and family when we get back. This is a much, much better plan.