Hasta pronto P -Town

Friday night will be my last night in P-Town. I've begun moving. Moving things to my parent's. Moving things to Maybe's parent's house. For about a month we will be address-less.

I have mini-bouts of nostalgia, remembering that this is the place where I was first fully independent from my parents, the place I first knew true Christian community after InterVarsity, the place where I saw the faithfulness of God, the place where I finally felt settled, and calm after years of angst and struggling, the place where I fell in love with my future husband.

On Sunday, there was peace, and I still feel it. The wedding, honeymoon, saying goodbye, the move... it will all happen and it will be beautiful and sad and amazing and hard work! I'm so excited to start this next chapter with Maybe.

Perhaps in two years we will return to P-Town well established and accomplished in our marriage and sense of adventure. Right now, that is the thing we hope for, to return to this beloved, underdog of a place and to raise our family in the fear of the Lord.

Until that day, I'm signing off, at least from this location.

Luna De Miel

I can('t) wait!

Just overheard at the senior center:

Sex. SEX! I haven't had any for so long!

Suspicion

I read many, many blogs (like, more than 100?). To keep them organized I use my handy dandy Google Reader. The vast majority of these blogs are wedding related (wedding planners, wedding photographers, girls planning their weddings, designers, etc). I can't wait to purge my Reader on May 29! (well, I may wait till after the honeymoon) Then I will fill it with all sorts of home decorating blogs! (kidding?)

I don't feel like I've ever been marketed to or relentlessly pursued as I do as a girl planning her wedding. The calls, the emails, the facebook ads.... The point of this entry is this: I heard from a friend that she has a friend who gets paid by a company to create blogs/livejournals and create a personality and life story, and then work in a plug for their product (an online dating service) as time goes on. Ever since hearing this, I've become very distruting of a handful of these blogs that I read. This feels so wrong to me! I know it comes with the territory, but as someone who has been blogging and has enjoyed reading blogs since 2001, I feel violated and used because increasingly, I read the blogs of people I don't know.

That was my rant for today.

One year ago, One year ago, One year ago.

Maybe was offered a two year postdoc at Cornell so we decided to fly out and investigate this past weekend. For so many reasons, we decided, after some agonizing on Monday night, to accept the offer. On Tuesday morning we had planned to see a few apartments, "in case". In case turned out to be so good, because the third one we saw was perfect and we will sign the lease this weekend. I'm back to work for now. I know what my life will be for the next two years and three months, more or less.

I'm wondering how we will get married, honeymoon, pack, drive across the country, and unpack in less than a month. I know it will get done and it will be great. In two years and three months I hope we will return to P-town, buy a house, and eventually, raise a family.

Before we decided, we kept asking God for "peace". But I don't think that is what we have, or what we want to have. I think more than anything I'm excited to start our life together, but I'm also a little afraid. This, I realize is normal. In fact, at this very moment I'm realizing how sad it will be to leave our family, friends, and community behind. And I also know how healthy and strengthening it will be for us to start life in a brand new (beautiful) place. Together.

Ithaca, here we come!

My poor neglected blog,

Things have been really busy. But I can't complain. Life is sweet.

For those who were worried, I did find a dress about one month ago. A lo and behold, two weeks after purchasing it, the dress had arrived at the shop.

Being engaged to a soon-to-be professor or math postdoc is a rollercoaster! Offers and interviews and possibilities oh my! This time next year, we could be in Southern California, Salt Lake City, Utah, or Ithaca, New York.

This time last year I was very single, anticipating a good 5-10 year stint in P-town, jet lagged from my first trip to China, and being frightened by creepy muchacho.

What a year!

The Dress

As much as I pride myself on being a low-maintenance kind of girl/bride, I am having wedding dress hang ups.

Thrift stores have ruined me because for the past 18 years, I've grown accustomed to finding really nice, original things for minor ducats. Also, I must confess that I've thought about this way too much throughout the course of my life to just pick something that looks nice. It has to be "right".

After going to 9 places and looking at probably thousands of dresses online, I now have a pretty firm idea of what I want. My problem, is that most things within my price range are either not what I want, or of crappy quality. And those that I do want, though reasonably priced by wedding industry standards, are beyond my budget. I'm a picky girl with a small purse.

Part of it is that I am growing to loathe the industry and the bridal consultants whose mouths drop open when I tell them that I'm getting married in May. Because don't you know it takes 4-6 months to order your dress, then there are hundreds of dollars and several months worth of alterations. BULLSHIT INDUSTRY!

I'm whining, I know. But it helps to vent to the blogoshpere. In all wedding things except this, Maybe has been my constant partner. I know that every little thing is going to be all right.