I AM MARRIED!!

This comes from my fabulous hotel where I am at with my husband of almost 24 hours. :)

Flowers!

So, we finally got the flowers all tied up. I got the main order from a lady in Kihei, and we also found a guy we can get orchids from for the centerpieces. He's even gonna wrap them in white paper with a ribbon. The main order divided up weird, so Henry and Daddy ended up paying half each, which Daddy was happy about. I'm just glad that it's all taken care of.

I also finally tried on my dress (first time since I bought it). It still fits, which is the most important part. I put on the shoes we bought at Ross which were strappy, silver, and gorgeous, but they're too high. So I'm gonna wear these silver flats with pearls on them instead. It'll be nice cause it'll be much more comfortable, and I for sure won't be too tall. Mum then decided that she wanted my old shoes instead of hers.

I think those are most of the big developments of late. We planned my bridal shower and sent out invites for that. We also planned out stuff to do while everyone is here (meals included!). I've also finally been getting some sun, but I still probably won't actually be "tan" for the wedding. Too white. I'm just really excited for everyone to get here (especially Mike) and to finally have the wedding. :)

Wedding Preperations from Maui

Again I fail at keeping up, but graduation was CRAZY. Thomas, Lilly, Mum, and Daddy all came and were staying in my room. All the ceremonies were super fun and very Yale-y. I'm definitely going to miss it, even though I know it's time to move on.

I'm in Maui though, and I've been doing a great job of getting the details taken care of that I neglected because of graduation. Yesterday, I met with Pandora, who is going to do my cake. It is going to be three tiered with butter cream; the bottom will be chocolate and the middle and top will be lemon. It's going to be frosted white, with blue ribbon and frosting pearls around the bottom of each layer. She's then going to make a big bow out of the same ribbon, and cascade the ends down the sides of the cake. Then there's going to be a few white orchids on it to finish it off.

We also went to Ross yesterday and I got the CUTEST white dress for the after-reception. (The after-reception is when everyone is invited back to our house for drinks.) I also got a really cute, green bubble dress for the rehearsal dinner. And finally, I managed to find some shoes for the wedding. I have to try them on with the dress though, cause there's the possibility that they're too tall. But I hope not, cause they're super cute.

Lilly also called Maui Lani and made our reservation for the rehearsal dinner. I called the flower lady and left a message. I'm hoping to get the flowers squared away today since it is now officially two weeks until the wedding! Once I get the flowers pinned down though, it's mostly just details from there. :)

Update: T minus 31

Finals whipped my a$$, so I totally forgot about blogging. And last week I had fun doing absolutely nothing at all. I actually realized when I got back into New Haven today that I'm gonna be sorta bored all this week, so I ran to the library before it closed to get The Count of Monte Cristo. I also have a lot of tv on Hulu to watch. I got super behind on the shows I watch during finals.

So, wedding update-
We've started getting wedding presents! The first one was the wooden salad bowl from Aunt Margie. I was super excited about it. Then a couple days ago, a whole package of rescue tape showed up in Maui! I knew Reed had something to do about it. Turns out he and Ashley pitched in to get it for me in time for the wedding. It's this AWESOME super tape that can do ANYTHING. There are also some things that have started to sell on Crate and Barrel that we haven't got yet either. There are going to be so many thank you's to write!
We used to have someone to do the flowers, Paulette, but it turns out that she can't do it after all, so I'm scrambling to find someone who can do it within our budget.
Still looking for someone to do the cake/cupcakes. Lilly is helping me with that though, so I'm less worried about it.
I'm also failing at my diet. My resolution is to exercise this week since I'm not doing anything else, and I'm hoping the fact that I have to feed myself will also mean that I'm eating less. We'll see, but so far it doesn't look like my pudge is going anywhere. I cooked WAY too well last week. I made us home-maid pizza, a sausage/pasta casserole, and cinnamon rolls. That is all pudge-making. But oh well. I like food, and Mike likes my pudge, so I guess it works out.


In job news, I got a call to come in for an interview with Rocky Hill! Hopefully they'll let me come in next week when I'm there, but it's possible that I'll have to take a train into Prov sometime this week. It's do-able, but it'd suck. I'm not 100% I want to teach next year, but it'd be a job, and then at least one of us would have a well paying job for next year.

I'm currently watching horrible tv, so I'm gonna go back to that...

Bethany, CT

So I really need to be writing a cover letter and fixing my resume for the Rocky Hill job, but I wanted to blog quickly about yesterday before I totally forgot.

For the last official class of metalworking, Ann decided to take us on a field trip of sorts. We all met at the CAW as usual, and then piled into three cars and drove out to Bethany, CT. It was about a fifteen minute drive. On the way I saw a bizarre billboard that said "Diabetes is one of the leading causes of amputations." I don't know if it was a diabetes warning, or an ad for a prosthetics place.

The first place we went was a fabricator. The guy who runs it had to be gone, so he had given Ann the key ahead of time. It was basically a big open workspace, with an office and tools scattered around the periphery. There were two pieces by Tim Burton they were working on (one was a chrome end table and the other were a pair of chairs). They were super cool. There was also a piece by Donald Judd and one other person I can't remember. They also had pictures of some of their work pasted on their office door, and apparently they did one of the instillation of the entrance gallery at the Tate Modern. It made me too happy.

Next we went to the barn/studio of a guy named Erwin Hauer who Ann is apparently good friends with. The barn his studio is in is apparently condemned and he's supposed to move everything to his new location. He sculpts some figures and birds, but mainly he does these "screens," which are essentially walls with clever holes in them. They were pretty cool. He talked to us forever about his method of "lateral thinking" (in his german or russian accent- I couldn't tell which at the time). Basically, he meant that he would take one idea and try to take it in a new or different direction over and over. He said that you don't need a lot of good ideas, just a few good ones that you can use over and over. All his stuff was pretty cool though. He actually does have a wikipedia page, mostly since his stuff is in hotels and other public places all over. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Hauer 

Last, we went to Ann's house which was not far away at all. She has five horses and a dog named Tonto who was super excited the whole time we were there. Her house reminded me of the bloomsbury group house because so much of it was made/decorated by her. She gave us pie which was delicious. On the way back, the car I was in got totally turned around and it took us longer to get back than it should have, but it was fine cause none of us had anywhere we needed to be.

I finally also watched Coco avant Chanel last night. It was really good I thought. Alden fell asleep about half way through. Made me really want to not get up this morning, but I made myself since it was my last lecture at Yale EVER. Also got through my first final today. It wasn't horrible. I suspect I'll get somewhere in the neighborhood of a B-, which is totally fine since I'm taking it credit/d.

Okay- time to try and get a job now.

New Jersey

This weekend me and Mike came to New Jersey, because one of his cousins on his mother's side was having an engagement party, and it was a good chance for me to meet some of the extended family I hadn't yet. We've had lots of driving adventures more than anything though. Mike swung through New Haven to pick me up after my extra Old English class (which was ridiculous and an hour longer than it was supposed to). Somehow right around New York though, night construction got us turned around and we ended up crossing the Bronx Whitestone Bridge on accident. We had to stop at a gas station and get directions. we finally got over the George Washington Bridge and continued without further incident.

Then yesterday, we slept in, then headed for the part around 4:30pm. The way there was fairly uneventful, though the gps decided that we should go on less populated roads than the way that Mike's dad had suggested. The way back though was a DISASTER. Sarah's boyfriend was the one driving, and the empty light went on just as we got to the party. So when we left the party around 9:30pm, we headed for the nearest gas station. It and about the 10 others we found in the area were closed though. After stopping and asking for directions to the nearest open gas station TWICE, we finally found one. We were really afraid we were going to run out and have to call AAA. By the time we finally found gas though, we'd wandered pretty far out of our way, and the drive that took us an hour and a half on the way there, took us two and a half, including the time we wandered around looking for gas. It was ridiculous.

Moral of the story- driving in New Jersey sucks, and get gas in rural New Jersey before it gets dark.

Fellows Dinner

So Alden and Bobby convinced me to go to the JE Fellows Dinner tonight and I'm really glad they did. Fellows Dinners are a couple times a month I think, and each time a few seniors are allowed to attend. It a bit better food than the dining hall, with drinks, and great desserts. The cheese they had with drinks was superb. I mostly just talked to Alden and her dad. During dessert, Penny had any newcomers introduce themselves, which included me. Alden made sure I told them ALL about the wedding. We talked to Penny and a pre-frosh for a little bit. Near the end, we talked to Will and two fellows, one of whom was an older Australian gentleman who knew a lot about alcohol. He asked me all sorts of questions, and thought it was "very sensible" of me to be having the wedding in the morning for financial reasons. He even told his wife and she thought is was "very sensible" too, and said it boded well for my fiance. I can't explain really why it was so fun, but it was. Totally worth missing Bones for. It's one of those very "Yale" experiences that I'm trying to get my fill of before I have to leave.