Made it to Michigan, and we're under forty-eight hours until the official "I Do"s. Stress levels are pretty high, considering that all of the planning and most of the errands are done. The next two days will entail a lot of driving back and forth between Utica and Brighton, but all we need are time and gas. Phone calls have been coming in with the usual questions of "How are you?", "What should I wear to ____?", and "Why haven't you done ____ yet?"
I feel like I'm holding up okay. Every little thing that needs attending will be attended to between now and the ceremony, even if it pops up last-minute or if it's taken care of a little later than expected. The ducks aren't quite in a row, but even if they never are placed back in the rank and file everything else will be just fine.
Mental Note: 10 hours in a car has never, is not, nor will ever be referred to as 'relaxing'.
Secondary Mental Note: Should I be worried if the bride-to-be is trying on her mother's wedding dress two days before our wedding? I'm just curious...
Day #3 in the new house, and I'm stuck at work while Janine's stuck organizing the house. I really didn't expect moving to be as stress-inducing as it's turning out to be, especially when all of my stuff is in downtown... not to mention the wedding THIS WEEKEND! So far we're doing okay and things are slowly but surely coming together as the weekend approaches.
Janine and I have done a very good job of freaking out out of phase with each other. She'll have a slight spazz about moving out of Michigan to some weird place one day, when I'll start worrying the next about getting settled in the new house and trying to pack for the wedding and honeymoon. One is always relaxed enough to realize what the other is feeling and can help bring both down to Earth. We alternate very well at this... a little too well, if you ask me.
Oh, and my nice spiffy Nicon N50 SLR camera is broken. The flash isn't working, and it looks like the shutter might be busted from the latest round of pictures I took. I'll need to take it to a camera shop to get it fixed, so I won't have any cool 4x6 photos for the rehearsal dinner. I may try to get a cheap little one-time camera for that purpose, but repairing my camera will have to wait until after the honeymoon... like most everything else.
Back to work, and then back home to do more wedding stuff and unpacking. I'll let you know when the fun starts.
We now own the house.
Yesterday was a flurry of activity, with the closing and the lack of money from the lender and the lender saying it was wired and the Title company saying they can't confirm it until the afternoon and us having cleaning crews coming to the house and cell phones ringing endlessly. The whole day kinda felt like that run-on sentence.
Today Janine's stuff was unloaded. The only casualty was a particle-board shelf, and the curly mullet man seemed to have done a good job with the packing. The movers were in and out within 3 hours, and now the house looks like a bomb went off in it. The bad news - Janine's couch wasn't able to fit inside the house. That means mine probably won't be able to fit in, either. That means we're gonna have to go huntin' for new furniture. *crap*
Anyone wanna buy two couches?
So I got myself a new toy... one of them optical mice.
I've had the same mouse with my computer for 5 years, and it's been sucking for a very long time. Even when I cleaned it out, the damned thing would go retarted on a regular basis. I've been eyeing one of these puppies since they first came out, and I finally caved and bought one over the weekend.
"But it sparkles so!"
Most people who drive should be familiar with the act of 'Checkerboarding'. The act of jumping from lane to lane to get that extra car length in front of everyone else who's trying to avoid being hit by said Checkerboarder. If you're not, I suggest you do a little research.
So, you're probably wondering why this post is titled Only in Chicago, right?
Where else can you see a black stretch limo showing off some mad checkerboarding skills at 80MPH?
All of the meetings are done. All we need to do now is wait, sign a few checks, and dust off our dancing shoes for next weekend. The final numbers are to the right - 120 RSVP'd for Saturday's shin-dig. A little lower than the 150 we were expecting, but still a respectable number... and 30 less people we have to buy dinner for. ;-)
We also close on the house this Friday... as if we didn't have enough to do. Everything is rolling along with that, and the only thing left to do is show up for the closing and bring money.
It's pretty exciting having this whole chapter of our lives end and a new one beginning. The past year has been interesting with all of the driving and planning, and the past two months have been action-packed with all of the wedding and house plans at full-speed. I can't wait for everything to be over and let my stress levels return to somewhat acceptable levels.
If you look to your right, you'll notice the RSVP numbers changed again. They did something I never expected - The No's went to three digits. THREE! Not high two, three! You'd think that people didn't want to come and have a free dinner and a good time!
It's sad that we're well below our expected numbers. We're still waiting for phone calls or RSVPs from about a bakers' dozen or so, but I'm not expecting too many more Yay's. No matter... that just means fancier dinners for us durring the honeymoon.
"Screw the Blue Box, honey... we're dining on Velveta TONIGHT!"
Six short days until the RSVPs are due, and we're gonna start hunting people down for answers. We know we said July 19th, but I'd hope by now that most people would know what they're doing on August 2nd. Janine's read worse stories on some of the wedding boards she reads... some people had RSVP dates of July 1st and they're still getting some in the mail 2+ weeks late.
If you're reading this and need to RSVP, you can take a minute to hop over to our wedding website and click on RSVP down at the bottom of the page, fill out the form and submit.
You know who you are, and we're comming for YOU! *Muahahahaha!!!*
Hey Jill... "Maybe" doesn't count! Click the link, foo'!
One of the biggest steps toward buying a house happened today - We got commitment from our lender. That pretty much means the money is ours... well, pending the title checks out clean and it appraises for the loan value. But other than that, the money (and the house) is ours!
Here's a few numbers for you, to put things into perspective:
Sixteen days away from being homeowners;
Twenty-Three days from officially being husband and wife;
Twenty-Four days until we do that "I do" thing again;
Twenty-Seven days until we head for Curacao.
Those numbers on the right are slowly going up, but I wish they'd pick up a little steam. Thanks to all y'all who've rsvp'd already!
So, umm... hi!
Lots of stuff happened in the past week. House buying, Work, Fireworks, Commute Traffic, Janine, Fireworks, Grandmother, Blue Man Group, Dinner, Pony Ride through Downtown, Fireworks...
The house buying is coming along just fine. A few hiccups here and there, but overall okay. Two-and-a-half weeks and we'll officially be homeowners... kinda scary, huh? The best part - we already started scoping out paint!
Wedding stuff is coming along. People keep asking me if we're done planning everything, and all I can do is laugh. These next two weekends will be full of driving, meeting with vendors, and scheduling everything down to the minute. The RSVP numbers keep going up, but if I don't see more RSVPs by next week I'm tempted to start calling people. D and Shawn are awesome as Main Bitch and Main Playa'. I kinda made that last one up, but I think it fits.
Thunderstorms are cool to watch, and there have been plenty of them since Sunday. The light show rivals last weekend's fireworks. It reminds me of 505 Benjamin, sitting on the porch and watching the whole world turn a sickly green. Soon our neighbors disappeared behind an opaque sheet of rain, peeking through as the wind ruffled the sheets.
The next house we buy is gonna have a good sittin' porch.
It looks like I'm pretty popular.
I got a page from my step-mom this morning. She doesn't call me when I'm at work, she pages me via my pager. When I called her back, I got an earfull about needing to get maps for everyone and she was wondering who was named "Raclaw" that was making a reservation at the hotel. Honestly, when she starts calling the hotel to see who's made reservations you know this woman is trying too hard to meddle in things.
I also found out from her that someone got our invitation inside of a little "We're Sorry" bag from the USPS... in pieces. I also came home today to find an RSVP in a very crinkled-but-intact-and-readable condition. The conspiracy theory section of my brain wonders if the lack of RSVPs is due to the USPS mangling all of our babies. It's either them or aliens.
