zilch.
nada.
zero.
it's like i fell off the face of the earth. which, is in correct. because since that time, i have not only been on the face of the earth, but i traveled to the other side of it.
a lot has happened since the last time i posted. a few days after the post, hurricane irene slammed the eastern seaboard and caused some major flooding. that same weekend, my boyfriend's family came to visit. we enjoyed a lovely day at the pool while the coast was getting hit with the storm.
in september, i went to the dentist and had my teeth cleaned. not sure why it is blog worthy, but i have slacked off so much lately that i feel like i should just let you all know that my oral hygiene is still kept up.
on september 29th, i left to go to south africa for 14 days. i journaled while i was there. or, at least i tried to everyday. it was a trip that changed my life. even thinking about it now is bringing back tears. the people i worked with and the students i met are all extraordinary. it is rare that i use a word of that caliber, but it fits perfectly. soon, i will post about that trip. tonight i will only catch you up on life. and, i do promise that i will write about my trip. until then, here is a picture of me and some of the students i worked with...
i got back from south africa on october 12th. that was a wednesday. when i got home, around 11am, i went home to drop my stuff off, then went to have my first meal back on americian soil...taco bell...not my pick. but it was food and way better than airplane food. i went to work the next day 100% jet lagged. if you asked me anything about that day, i could not tell you much. i did, however, manage to get everything done that i needed to get done.
one thing i do remember is telling my boyfriend that i did not want to go walk around and give him a tour of a local church that i had interned at. that place is massive and being in the mental and physical state i was in, i was in no mood to go walk around that enormous building.
the day after that, my boyfriend and i hopped on his motorcycle to go look at the fall foliage in the mountains. the leaves are beautiful in the fall here. and they are even more beautiful when you are riding on the back of a motorcycle. the day was bright and sunny...but it was an illusion. it was also cold and windy. we both dressed in layers but it wasn't quite enough. but we ventured on. somewhere along the way, i lost my hair tie. made for quite the windy look. i decided that instead of dwelling on being cold, i would dwell on the fact that i lost my hair tie. i was still pretty tired from the plane ride home two days earlier so i figured i was justified in my thoughts.
we rode 2 1/2 hours up to the mountains. once we got onto the parkway, we stopped at the first lookout we saw. it was nice to stretch but it was cold and if we were going to be cold, i thought we should be cold and moving. not cold and standing around...
...well, lo and behold we were lingering in this spot for a reason....my boyfriend walked me down a path AND PROPOSED!!!!!!!!!!!!
yup. that's right. he popped the question. now, by this time, most people reading this already know that we're engaged. but, like i said, this is an update of the last few months...
there is more to that story than i am posting. and i will fill you all in on the wedding details after the wedding. i don't want to give up all of my secrets before hand. i fully intend to chronicle the days leading up to my wedding on here as well as the things i learned along the way. hopefully it will help someone who reads it.
so now do you see why i haven't been blogging? i've been busy wedding planning. he proposed october 14th. we're getting married in april. that gave us 6 months to plan. i needed to get on the ball.
november flew by and in that month was my fiance's birthday. i was nervous about what to do for him. i mean, i've never had to plan something for a significant other's birthday...let alone for my fiance's birthday. i can plan parties (and weddings now!) like there is no tomorrow and they will be great. but when it comes to gift giving i freak out. i stress out over it way too much. so what did i do? went the simple route and we went to dinner at his favorite restaurant and saw a movie. i will have the rest of our lives to plan birthdays for him.
the day after his birthday, i woke up sick. the day after that i was beginning to lose my voice. the day after that i had no voice at all. i wanted some hot tea from starbucks that day. but had no way of ordering it. thankfully i had a small white board in my car. i wrote on it "hey, i lost my voice. could i please have a venti orange blossom tea? thanks!"
seriously, i did that. no shame. i thought it was pretty funny and brilliant.
anyway, i was sick until the first of the year.
christmas was great. again, first christmas i've had with a significant other. we had fun. he got me a mop as a gift. haven't used it yet. said i am going to wait until we're married.
the new year was celebrated at one of my best friend's house. i was surprised i didn't fall asleep shortly after midnight. nope, stayed up until 4:30am. yeah, i can't believe it either. then, i got up at 8something to go to church. no, i didn't fall asleep during the service if you're wondering. i did have a nice long nap that afternoon, though.
wedding planning after the new year has been kicked into high gear. all i have done the past 11 days has been devoted to the wedding. seriously, i don't think there is a day where i have not spent a little time working on stuff. i should keep a time sheet on it to see how much time i actually am putting into it.
my fiance and i met a year ago on the 10th. we had our first date a year ago on the 12th. that was yesterday. we went back to the place where we had that date. its a coffee shop just outside of a college campus. neat little place. it hasn't changed at all in the past year. but my life sure has. i went from walking into that shop last year not quite remembering the face of the guy i was meeting to walking into it this year with him and knowing he is the man i am going to spend the rest of my life with. pretty big change if you ask me. i think if you had asked me last year if i knew that he was "the one" i would have laughed and said "who knows. why are you trying to rush it?"
actually, i did say that to some people. guess they were right. i should tell them "thank you" for being right.
i think that leads me up to today. i've been sitting on the couch for several hours now working on wedding stuff. i took a break to go eat dinner with my brothers and had a great time with them. i've been back at it for 5 or 6 hours now. i decided it was time for a break.
i cannot say how much i will post in the next few months. but i will promise to post the things i wrote in south africa. and, once the wedding is over and things have settled, i will write about the process of planning this shindig. i would say it has been an "ordeal" but then i checked to see what the meaning of that word is and don't think it quite fits...
ordeal - noun
- A painful or horrific experience, esp. a protracted one.
- An ancient test of guilt or innocence by subjection of the accused to severe pain, survival of which was taken as divine proof of innocence. (source:google)
i don't think it is painful or horrific. though i may think it has had its moments. as for the second definition, well, i don't think it is that either. wedding planning is something ancient, though.
oh well. it has been an experience. and i will share it with you all once i am done with it.
