Why hello there!

Hello, Strangers! It appears I've taken a hiatus, doesn't it? Here's what I've been up to lately...

-shopping for wedding bands (diamonds or no diamonds?)

-my godson Eli's baptism

-losing my camera

-mourning my camera

-finding it a week and a half later under a pile of pillows on a chair in my apartment

-starting my new job at the Office of the President (which I LOVE, btw!)

-seeing the Shopaholic movie

-getting ticked off about some people's reviews of the Shopaholic movie (Hello, people! You didn't expect it to be exactly the same as the book, did you? Even Gone With the Wind, one of the greatest movies of all, time isn't exactly like the book)

-picking up my wedding dress (gorgeous!); dropping off envelopes to the calligrapher (a retired cop, imagine that!); meeting with the stationer to talk about the designs of the cocktail napkins, program, and guestbook(s) (all fabulous things I can't wait to share with you); ordering my shoes; dealing with the candy buffet debacle (should it be multi-colored? monochromatic? where to find "coral" candy?)

-trying to figure out how people who work all day find the strength to blog, cook, exercise, etc...

-teaching the best students I've had since my first semester here (do you have any idea how much easier teaching is when the students respond to your questions?)

-working on the President's correspondence, including a letter to a famous alum whose address no one's allowed to know, and another letter to someone whose address everyone in America knows

-wearing the beautiful gold lover's knot earrings my intended gave me for Valentine's Day

-becoming addicted to CSI: NY (and the Las Vegas one, too) and watching as many episodes as I possibly can (how could I have ever been a fan of CSI: Miami?!)

-making progress on my dissertation topic (finally!)

-laughing with my intended about the fact that the car he rented last week was a red Ford pick-up (think: tall, thin, glasses-wearing Asian scientist/college profressor who spends his days researching drug delivery to cancer cells... I think the only things he's ever hauled in his life are my shopping bags and some of his sister's larger purchases from Ikea)

-attending first REQUIRED natural family planning class AGAINST MY WILL (and without my intended who lives in Washington... he totally owes me)

-reattaching the ear of the stuffed rabbit I got circa Easter 1985