Lost my fulltime job due to budget cuts. Am now subbing and working for RGIS, an independent inventory company that inventories various stores in the area. It’s pretty fun, but the hours are weird and the intra-company drama is annoying.

Joel is on a business trip for eLogic right now. Back in NJ. He was there for 3 months earlier this year (Monday through Thursday every week for 3 months!) which really sucked. I don’t like him being on business trips. The house is empty and sad.

Ben has sort of moved out… Dani finally moved into the Bergen house and Ben is kind of living there… but hasn’t moved all of his stuff out so I don’t really know what is happening with that.

I’m looking forward to Christmas this year. Even though we didn’t have much money to buy things. I just like hanging out with my friends and family.

This year, we have made a ton of new friends/made better friends with people we were acquainted with previously, which has been fantastic! I didn’t really know that it was possible to make such good friends as a grown-up. But I couldn’t imagine our lives without Sadaf, Matt, Pam, Stacy and Philson. It’s like they were always there even though we’ve only really been hanging out with them for about a year.

I very much thought that I had a lot to write about, but once I opened up the computer… my mind has gone blank. This happens a lot. Which is frustrating because I would love to get back into writing. Which I talk about a lot because I used to write all the time in high school and now I just don’t seem to have time even though I have tons of time and I don’t seem to have ideas that are worthwhile. I shoot myself down before the pen hits the paper or my fingers hit the keyboard. I would love to write professionally. I’ve always wanted to write a best selling novel, but I feel like my ideas aren’t interesting enough. Then I read AMAZING books like “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern and it just solidifies in my mind the fact that I can’t write. LAME.

This year, I’ve lost almost 30 pounds! Which is super exciting. Well, it’s really been more like this year and a half, but who is counting? I’d love to get down to a healthier weight. So I’m trying to go to the gym and actually follow the weight watchers program without sucking at life like I previously have. I went to the gym today which was exciting. I’m trying to go to the gym or go for a walk at least three times a week… except I keep waffling on which way I’m counting a week. I feel like I should count it as Thursday to Thursday so it lines up with weight watchers, but I don’t know. Oh well.

I know it’s a bit early for resolutions, but there are some things that I want to work on…

1. Losing weight, being healthier.

2. Writing. I’d like to write at least something every day… this blog would probably be a good place to do that.

3. Emotions. I get frustrated way to easily and I really need to learn to be more zen and not let things get to me as much.

So yeah, hopefully I can work on some of these things and make things better for me and those around me.

I have returned to you after a rather long hiatus. Hopefully no one was waiting for the conclusion to the Christmas story. Long story short, Joel slipped down my brother’s icy front steps and ripped his hand open/broke the railing. I then followed him down the stairs and hurt myself as well (although not as badly).

Tomorrow is the opening day activities for Brighton HS, at which I am now a full time ELA Academic Support Instructor. Awkward sentence is awkward.

I’m nervous, but super excited.

Updates to be had later.

“Wegmans is going to be CLOSED from 6 pm on the 24th through 7 am on the 26th?!?” They ask incredulously, “What will we DO without Wegmans?! I need to buy 7 billion gallons of milk, and toilet paper, and food to feed 50 people for 3 weeks, what if we NEED something!?! ARRRRRGH!” and I laugh to myself watching the insanity although I partly understand it. Anyways, where was I?

So, worked until 6 on Christmas Eve. It really wasn’t too terrible. We were busy enough that I wasn’t bored out of mind, but not so busy that I had a panic attack. A successful day before a holiday, I think. Then I went home, took a shower and waited for Joel to pick me up for midnight mass with the Harmons.

Going to church with the Harmons is always an interesting event for me. I’m not Catholic. I’m not religious. I don’t believe in god or jesus or any of that hullaballoo. I should use the word hullaballoo more often, it’s fun to write. So, needless to say Catholic mass is a bit awkward for me. But the songs are good, and the stories are interesting as long as you see them as only stories. There are only a few REALLY awkward moments– communion and when everybody says entire paragraphs at the same time, freaks me out, man. Communion isn’t really that bad, now that I’ve figured out I can walk to the end of the pew and just take a step back to let everyone else go up. It’s probably going to be a little awkward at the wedding when I don’t take communion, but I can’t because I’m not Catholic, so um… whatevs. My favourite part of mass, though, is going with the Harmon brothers. Really.

Most of the Harmon boys are not what you’d call devout. Jeremiah and Jon make just as many, if not more, disparaging comments about the chruch than I do. Yet they put on their best Catholic act and talk along with everyone and go up for communion just to make their parents happy and then talk about how huge their balls are [jokingly] in the car on the way home. Recently, I’ve been feeling increasingly comfortable with the future in-laws, which is making both myself and Joel super-happy. I used to feel sort of awkward/out of place, but I’m slowly fitting in. Yay.

So then we went back to the Harmons, opened 1 present each and frolicked home for about 2 am. Joel and I made plans to do Christmas together at 7:30 am before we went to the Harmons.

I called Joel at 7:45 and woke him up. He still needed to wrap his presents for people and it was 8:30 before he showed up, which was okay, because we are super fast present openers. After our private Christmas, we went over to the Harmons for a boisterous Christmas breakfast and present opening with Jim, Jan, Josh, Targol, Citi, Jeremiah, Jen and Jon. It was the first Christmas in YEARS that all 4 Harmon boys were present. Ha, present. Almost all of our presents were from our wedding registry which was kind of weird but also sort of awesome. I never thought I’d be so excited about a coffee grinder or rice cooker. LoL. We hung out with the Harmons until noon and then drove to Syracuse to Christmas with my family.

TO BE CONTINUED…..

Nothing new on the teaching front, I’m going to be subbing at Fairport again this year… if they ever call me. Yes, I realize it is only Monday on the first full week of school, but does that mean I can’t hope for someone to be sick/want a personal day for something? Well, not really HOPE for someone to be sick… but just waiting for the call… it’s kinda nervewracking. Then again, I’m not on the right sleep schedule yet for school to be back in session anyway. As you might be able to tell from the fact that I am typing this at 2:47 am… although WordPress says it’s 1:47, weird… might need to fix that. I’m looking forward to subbing again, despite the few days I had where I wondered why anyone would ever want to do it. It’s really not that bad. Some days can actually be wonderful and it makes me want my own classroom! Oh well, nothing I can do about that right now, none of the school districts in the area are looking for English teachers, so I’m SOL for now on that front.

It has finally set in for me that I am a non-student. People are talking about papers they need to write and classes they need to take and all that sort of craziness. And here I am, no classes to take, no papers to write… it’s pretty surreal. Not entirely sure on whether that is a good or a bad thing right now… I’ll get back to you. Perhaps around the time when people have been procrastinating all semester and all of a sudden have 12 papers to write or whatever… then I will probably be VERY happy about not being a student anymore.

House News- Joel has been living there for a couple of weeks now. Still no grown-up bed, so I haven’t spent the night there, but he apparently has a rather nosey neighbour lady who knows the pastor at Joel’s church… Soooooo I don’t know if I’ll be spending the night there before the wedding at all. :-/ She was having a conversation with Joel and his dad and was like “I’ve noticed a young woman come over sometimes at night, but she never spends the night.” Kinda creepy, but she’s 70 and can’t get around very well… come to think of it, I don’t think she has a car, so I guess she has to get her kicks somewhere.

We’ve pulled the plaster, drywall, etc off the walls in the living and dining rooms, the front hall is next. So we’ll be re-drywalling AND painting in there; painting every other room in the house, redoing the full bath AND half bath and a bajillion other things that need to be done. The ones I’ve listed specifically are the main ones that need to be done before the house will really be livable. So, the stuff that needs to get done before the wedding, but that’s 8 months away, so that’s a good amount of time to get things done.

8 months to go before the WEDDING!! Which is at once wonderful and kinda scary. Not scary in a not wanting to get married kind of way, but scary in a “OMG We have a LOT to plan before the wedding” sort of way. But also at the same time, we’re kind of in a weird state of limbo. The major wedding planning things are done- Locations, Photographer, Dress, Bridesmaid Dresses, etc are planned… and there are a few other things we need to plan ASAP, but other things can wait like favours, etc etc etc.

I ordered the save the dates and once we make sure we have all the addresses and whatnot, we’ll probably be sending those out sometime before the end of September.
Anyway, there is probably more that I could babble about, but I’m actually feeling tired AND not coughing at the same time, I need to jump on the opportunity to get some sleep. G’night.

I thought I would do an update about how my wedding planning is going.

I recently went to Alfred Angelo and found my perfect wedding dress. I knew when I tried it on at Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, MI that I definitely loved it, but it was the only one I tried on so I needed to give some other dresses a chance too. There was one that I liked, but it made me feel really warm and had tulle against my legs which was itchy so it had to be vetoed. Then I tried on my dress. I walked out of the dressing room feeling like a pretty, pretty princess. It got approval from my dress adventure friends (Erica, Susan, and Ben) and I definitely definitely loved it more than any of the other dresses. I was flouncing around and posing all silly-like. Then Susan and Jamie (the best wedding dress sales person lady) were like “You need a veil!” and “I know where the perfect one is”. So she brought out the veil.

I was facing Susan and Erica (and not the mirrors) when she put it on and Erica’s lip began to quiver and she looked like she was going to cry. Erica DOES NOT CRY unless it is an extreme situation so I was like “What?” and turned to look at myself and immediately, tears sprung to my eyes. ((On a side note, we had told Jamie that we were the crazy fun type of wedding dress shopping people, NOT the crying type. So she was like “I have to get the tissues for Non-crying people?? It was kind of hilarious.)) That was when I knew that I had found my dress! It is beautiful and I love it and I want to wear it forever and a day.

Then we decided to look at bridesmaid dresses for the girls. They tried on the ones I had liked in the catalog and a few random ones, including one that I didn’t like on the hanger but they had in close enough sizes for Erica and Susan to try them on. When Erica came out in the dress, I knew that it was going to be the dress she was going to wear, but I was originally planning on having them wear different dresses. Then Susan tried it on and it looked great on BOTH of them!! So, the bridesmaid dress was chosen too!! AND, it was only $99, with $25 off because I bought my dress there too… so it ends up only being $75 for them! And it is actually cute enough that they could wear them again (which I know is a cliche thing that brides say, but it is true in this case… and Erica said it first. )

So two of the big wedding planning things that I was kind of worried about have been taken care of!

Wedding Dress and Bridesmaid Dresses!

Now I just need to take Robyn to Alfred Angelo to try on the dress and for me to give them Pamz’s measurements so we can start the ordering process for her dress.

Also, we went to the Ren Faire yesterday and other than it just being an AMAZING day of awesome, we also ordered the necklaces for me and the bridesmaids! !

I am so glad to have so much done for the wedding. I mean, there is still a LOT of work to do, but I feel accomplished right now.

It’s adorable and in the village and 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths and is on .5 acres and is awesome and great and YAY HOUSE!

I’ll post pictures once we have more access to it. The previous owner still lives there, so I can’t run around willy-nilly taking pictures of her house, she probably wouldn’t approve.

Speaking of wedding planning- it’s driving me a little crazy, because I feel like there is so much we need to do, but we’re at a kind of limbo at the moment. We probably need to have another meeting with Joel, myself, Jim and Jan, and my Dad about trimming the guest list and other various things. We’ve found a photographer that we might be using, which is kind of exciting. We’re meeting with him on Wednesday to discuss stuff and pricing.

Also, speaking of weddings, apparently Joel’s brother Josh got engaged to his girlfriend (now fiancee) Targol… which is great and all, but seems a little sudden. Josh is my brother’s age and has rushed into engagement before, so we’re a little worried. We all prefer Targol to the previous fiancee, but still… it seems rather soon. Also, Jen is going to be pissed that Josh and Targol got engaged before Jeremiah and her. She and Jeremiah have been together for 5-6 years and living together for a while, and there’s no ring. Jere’s in trouble.

No hope on the job front. I’m going to be continuing to sub at Fairport and work at Wegmans in the Floral department… and maybe eventually something will come up? It’s frustrating, but there’s not much I can do about it right now when there aren’t job openings to apply for.

I always start blog posts thinking I have a lot to talk about and then about half way through I forget everything I was planning on saying. Boo.

Then we went to look at a house that I thought looked kinda crap on the internetz, but in person I could see it really working for us. 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a small deck, a pool, a relatively large yard (narrow yard, but long for in the village), it was built in 1932 but has recently had a lot of work done on it and it is only $125,000. Joel needs to go and talk to some mortgage people to figure out the financial bit, and his brother wants to do a walk-through, but I think it could really work. Joel does not seem to be as sold on it as I am, but for the price-range that we are looking for, I think it’s a great deal… so now I just have to wait for him to talk to the mortgage-y people and take his brother to see it and whatnot.

The longer we wait, the more I worry that someone else is going to jump on it and we’ll be screwed. *sigh*

How’s it going? Long time no see. I fail at blogging regularly. Wow, seriously, it’s June 1st and I haven’t blogged since mid-April. I’ll try to be better about that in das future.

Since April 19th, I’ve graduated from grad school. I am a MASTER bwahahahaha or something. Not having classes is still really surreal. I keep thinking I have homework to do or books that I’ve been assigned to read or whatever. I think it’ll be even more surreal in September. Even though I’ve been taking summer classes for my Master’s, September always feels like when School starts… so when it doesn’t this year, I’ll probably be very confused. My diploma came in the mail last week, it’s pretty and says I have a Masters in Science… but not what the degree is in which kind of bothers me, but I’ll survive. Planning a graduation party for next Saturday, so that should be fun.

Since April 19th, I’ve subbed a LOT more. I still love it. I don’t sub at Perry as much because the hour long drive is lame and I get paid less, but Fairport has been calling me to sub pretty regularly which is awesome. I even got to proctor AP exams. Woohoo! Seeing as a permanent teaching job doesn’t seem to be on the horizon for me anytime soon, I love that I love subbing because I could probably do this for a least a couple more years without going entirely crazy.

Since April 19th, I’ve joined the Rochester Athletic Club for Women (the RAC) to try and get myself in some sort of shape other than round. I’ve been going 4-5 times a week for about 6 weeks now and I’m not seeing the results… although apparently other people can see them or something… I have my re-eval on Thursday, so hopefully when she weighs me and does all the measurements and whatnot, that will prove to me that there is something positive going on… and if it doesn’t, I will be really frustrated. I’ve been giving up time spent with my fiance and friends and family to go to the gym and better myself, so it had better be doing something.

I have more to write about but my brain just shut down… I’ll post again soon, hopefully.

I’ve been subbing like mad whoa… I’ve subbed 15 days at Fairport since March 6th. It’s been pretty awesome. I’ve been having fun being a different type of teacher every day… math, Spanish, English, reading lab/student learning center, math lab, etc etc etc. I’ve been enjoying it a lot!

I finished my Capstone and presentation. I’m so glad it’s done! Except now I’m having the worst time focusing on the little bit of homework that I have left to do for coaching. Hence the update. LoL.

My graduation is May 9th, and then I won’t be a student anymore which will probably be the strangest thing ever… I’ve been a student since I was what? 5? 4, if you count play-school and preschool… It’s going to be surreal not being a student. I can’t wait to have time to get through the books that I want to read instead of ones I have to. Although the list of have to still exists, because people keep suggesting/lending books to me… so yeah, I guess it’s still kind of assigned reading.

I’ve been engulfed by wedding planning. T minus 13 months. I thought I had figured out my flowers, but now I’m not sure… I was thinking of just doing roses (orange and pink) for the bouquets, but I’m back to liking the idea of mixed flowers… roses and alstroemeria and maybe gerbs… I dunno. I’m so indecisive.

We have a reception venue, Burgundy Basin Inn in Fairport. It’s closer to the church and has a special with a local hotel with a shuttle and everything. Yay.

Okay, I probably have more to talk about… but I have to actually get this homework done. Last homework ever!! (that I’ll be doing… not assigning).