Are we there yet??

Ahh, the wedding. We have reached 100% eat, sleep, and breathe wedding mode. Everything that I do anymore has something to do with the wedding. Hooray!

Within 24 hours, virtually my entire family on my dad's side will be in town here, to celebrate in the festivities. A joyous time indeed.

I wish I could enjoy it more. I'll be running wedding errands, and trying to move (right now, I'm about 90% at my parents' house vs. 10% at the new apartment).

At this point, I have all but given up on everything, and just want it to be over. Don't get me wrong--I am so excited about it that I can barely stand it--but there's just so much STUFF that needs to be done and I'm really beginning to doubt that it will all get done. I'm sure when it comes down to it, either it will or it won't, and if it doesn't then it must not have been that important anyway. I just wish that I could have some peace of mind in the midst of all the turmoil around me.

I know I'll survive, as all you married people have. I know it will all be worth it. I just want to see those results NOW not later.

My, how time flies.

As predicted, this month is whizzing by. It's already halfway through, and we're seventeen days away from our wedding. SEVENTEEN. Eep. There is still tons to do, but hopefully it will all get done somehow.

Now that school is over for the semester, I feel like I'm finally starting to believe that this is really happening. As soon as December hit, I began to suspect it was real, but I was still swimming with finals and juries and crazy gig weekends and losing my mind. My brain seems to be returning, for which I am grateful. I have missed it so.

In fact, it was to the point that I actually MISSED my jury this semester. I thought it was the day after it actually was. My pianist Kostya saw my teacher in the hallway, and called me right after that to tell me I had miscalculated my jury time by about 24 hours. Yikes. Thankfully, the faculty were mercifully understanding, and allowed me to play for them during a slot that had opened up the following day (which, by some strange coincidence, happened to be during the exact same ten-minute slot as my baroque jury, of all the ten-minute slots of the day). It all worked out, though, thankfully, and the juries went well, I think.

So, here we are. It's winter here, at least for now (Sunday it was 75 degrees outside, then Monday it had dropped to 24), and things are falling into place.

Oh yeah, and then there's Christmas. Guess I need to get out and do some shopping, in the midst of all my wedding errands.

Long December.

Welcome to the final month of my singleness, ladies and gentlemen. Here I am, putting off what I should be doing (practicing) to do something that has little or no merit at all. But I keep thinking of December, and how by the time it's finished, I will be just hours away from being a married woman. Nonetheless, December is a pretty wild and crazy month. It's prime time for a freelance cellist like myself to prostitute her skills out to various area churches, as well as it's finals and juries, and well . . . CHRISTMAS. It's one of those months where I just have to take one day at a time, but I know it's going to fly by. In the mean time, I'm trying to maintain a small semblance of sanity by highlighting exciting days in my brain:

Dec. 2 : Juries are over !
Dec. 4 : Last class day !
Dec. 5 : Details meeting @ Reception Venue !
Dec. 9 : Last final !
Dec. 10 : Final quartet performance / Baroque cello recital !
Dec. 24 : Christmas Eve / last Christmas church gig !
Dec. 27 : Temple Day !
Dec. 31 : New Year's Eve / Unca Chris's b-day fiesta !
Jan. 2 : Nuptials ! ! ! !

I keep telling myself I need to make it to the 10th before I really start thinking about wedding stuff, but so far that's not going so well. Ay, the whole month is already so busy! I can't believe it.

Life Goals

If I had all the time in the world, I would:

*Learn at least three languages other than English fluently (Spanish, French, Japanese?)
*Go to culinary school / become a foodie
*Write my memoirs
*Write a novel
*Start my vegetarian bakery-cafe
*Become a yogi
*Learn to juggle
*Learn to knit
*Sleep 8 hours every night
*Write more handwritten letters
*Learn how to play the piano
*Get a massage therapy license
*Get SCUBA certified
*Learn my orchestral excerpts really well and practice them daily and
*Learn and memorize all of the presidents of the U.S. in chronological order

Hey There, Delilah

I. Put your iTunes/Ruckus/Napster/etc on shuffle.
II. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
III. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
IV. Tag 5 friends who might enjoy doing this. Whoever wants to can do it.

I had to weed through my playlist to get one with songs with titles, versus classical selections with opus numbers and so forth, and this is what I came up with.

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
On & On - Erykah Badu

2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
I'll Never Fall In Love - Elvis Costello

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
The Girl from Impanema - Astrud Gilberto ("tall, and tan, and young, and lovely . . .")

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Hoodlehoo - Brak

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Pretty Woman - Al Green (that's pretty much the only reason I get up in the morning, because I am so pretty)

6. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Desired Constellation - Bjork

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
What's Goin' On (Live) - Marvin Gaye

8. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Smile - Nat King Cole (awww)

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
What a Wonderful Thing Love Is - Al Green (pretty much)

10. WHAT IS 2+2?
Nature Boy - John Pizzarelli Trio (huh?)

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Red and Yellow - Liz Rhodes

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Do Right Woman, Do Right Man - Aretha Franklin

13. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
This Way Out - John Pizzarelli Trio

14. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Maybe - The Chantels (maybe I want to grow up, but probably not?)

15. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Zingor - Zorak ("I've got ants in my pants as I do the mating dance for Zingor . . .")

16. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
O Pato (The Duck) - Joao Gilberto (quack, quack)

17. WHAT WILL/DID YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Careless Love - the Hi-Los (ouch, I may want to rethink that one)

18. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Smile - Michael Lord (another ouch)

19. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
The Nearness of You - Norah Jones (oooooh baby)

20. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Let's Get it On - Marvin Gaye (that's right, I want to get it on with ALL OF YOU)

21. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Searching - Erykah Badu

22. WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Killing Me Softly with His Song - the Fugees (that would suck, yes)

23. HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Feather Queen - Liz Rhodes

24. DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
I Just Called to Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder (I'll be waiting for that call)

25. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
How Sweet It Is to be Loved By You - Marvin Gaye

26. WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Easy Living - Billie Holiday (yeah, my life's pretty good)

27. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's

A Message From Myself

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." I forgot that I set that as the welcome message on my phone, and it made me a little reflective today. But I don't want to be reflective. I am in the mood for a silly post. So, here's a list of random memories in the recesses of my brain.

*In Sunday school once, the boy who used to chew on his socks (after having worn them) fell out of his chair while sitting next to me. Our teacher got mad at him, saying he could have maimed me for life. I didn't know what "maimed" meant, but it didn't sound good, so I was mad at him too.

*In second grade, I drew a picture of a Siamese cat named Ginger, in honor of my beloved cat-loving teacher by the same first name. When I showed it to her, she said, "That's my first name!" and I said, "I know. I named it after you!" Now that I think of it, I don't know if she was happy about that or not.

*I had a really bad dream once when I was quite small. A big, fat, round thing (rope? I don't really know what it was) and a tiny little piece of string. The big, fat, thing smashed the little piece of string. For some reason, that imagery really disturbed me, so much that I woke up crying. My parents came in and comforted me, saying something about how it wasn't fair that the big thing picked on the little thing, but it wasn't any concept behind the dream, but the actually imagery of it that disturbed me so much.

*In middle school, my friends and I had code names for boys we liked. We thought we were being so clever, saying "Baylor" instead of "Taylor" and "Codfish" instead of "Cody."

*My friend Jamey had a sweet dog (cocker spaniel, I think) named Crystal, and a stuffed monkey named Virgil.

RMH, This is Your Life!

Wow, what a whirlwind. I've had several blogworthy insights in the past few weeks, yet have not had the luxury of recording them (the irony of bloggerdom: if you have the time to blog, you often have nothing to blog about; if you have lots to say, you don't have the time to write it out). C'est la vie. My brilliant insights would have carried titles like "What's in a name?" or "An ounce of Preparation" or "Fast Friends." They would have been really good posts. You'd have loved them. But, those insights are probably lost forever: a testament to the fact that being busy isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

Mainly, I just can't believe I'm really and truly at this point in my life. I'm a graduate student. I'm a TA. I'm in my mid-twenties. I'm getting married in just over two months!

I had my first dress fitting on Monday, and it was kind of surreal. There I was, in the store, all dressed in white, being fitted for a WEDDING gown. Crazy. However, though I have been excited all along, I think after four months of engaged-ness, reality is finally beginning to set in. I picked up the invitations today, and it's all starting to look more and more like real life.

And my life is awesome right now. Exceedingly.