From the keyboard of a married woman

Lots of things have happened lately but I don't want this to turn into a long-winded post (mostly because I want to post before we leave for dinner with friends tonight).

Wedding: Pulled it off and it went terrific! There were glitches but we took them in stride. The weather was perfect. I do wish we had had more hours in the afternoon to really get into the letterboxing but that's the way it goes. I have absolutely no pictures yet; I didn't even take any photos with my own camera during any of the events, including the relaxing camping trip we did with some other people Saturday through Monday. So now it's back to "real life" - with new stuff to sort through, dirty clothes to wash, and rings on our fingers. But really, as expected, we were already practically married so actually having a wedding didn't change a whole lot. There is a sense of "things are easier" - not having to struggle with the inadequate names for each other, like "boyfriend." One word of advice I have for those planning weddings: Get a room with a hot tub. I'm not being dirty here; lying in the hot water is the *perfect* way to relax after the stress of The Big Day.

Job: It appears I don't actually have a job this fall semester. It's very vague and confusing. I plan to find out more when I'm in on Friday. More details as I learn them.

Hearing aids: Earlier last week I finally got my new hearing aids! I had had the same Phonak Powerzoom analog hearing aids for TEN YEARS. It is nothing short of a miracle that they lasted that long. They're still fine, but I wanted to be proactive and get new hearing aids *before* I couldn't hear with my old ones anymore.

I'm still adjusting to these new Phonak Naida S V UP digital ones (they're ALL digital now, or at least the ones that will work for me). Some things are much easier: they're water resistant (no need to dry my hair before putting them in), they don't have interference with my cellphone, and listening to people with any amount of background noise is soooo much easier. Being in the car is distracting; the hearing aids go back and forth between dimming the noises and picking up Colin's voice. I don't like it at all, it doesn't seem safe for when I'm driving, but I've found when I put the hearing aids in the one other mode that's on them (so far) it's much more consistent - this is kind of funny because the mode is meant for blocking out background noise but I find that the normal mode is much nicer in crowds. Also, I still struggle with how different things/voices sound and how loud or soft my own voice should be in situations. Ooo, and the new ones are this dark transparent blue!

Webcomics: While not technically a life update, I've discovered two webcomics lately that I've been going through. One is "Scandinavia and the World" and the other is "Girls with Slingshots." The webcomic above is from "Girls with Slingshots;" I'm finding a lot of the story lines seem to resonate with me right now. As for the other one, I'm only sad that I didn't discover it earlier because it is helping to satisfy my craving for connecting with my strange and mysterious Scandinavian heritage.

Google Plus: One more thing! I'm enjoying this new feature and I have high hopes for it. I would love to cancel my facebook account but for social reasons I can't (at least not yet - can everybody switch to Google Plus? please?). I haven't posted much yet on Google Plus, but I check it regularly. My main battle is when I try to decide whether to post something on Plus or Twitter. I'm holding onto both at least for now. As for a blogging alternative, I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of this blog at least in the foreseeable future, but I'm intrigued by the idea of using Google Plus for shorter, more frequent posts without being limited to 140 characters.

Also - three red tomatoes in our garden!

Heat, gardening, wedding planning, and smaller topics

In the words of Neil Gaiman: "Sorry that I've been away. I am a bad blogger." And indeed, it's been two months minus ten days since I've last written.

First, before jumping into what's going on in my life, I love reading the dialogs found here: http://jen-campbell.blogspot.com/search/label/weird%20things%20customers%20say

Summer has unabashedly arrived; the last couple of days has been very hot with the temperature dropping to high 70s at night. I saw 104 degrees on the car dashboard yesterday but that was after it had been sitting in full sunlight in a parking lot a couple hours. The real temperature seemed to hover at 98 and 99 degrees. It's a mere 90 degrees now at noon today.

I've got myself a container garden that was a gift from Colin's mom.
The list:
One zucchini
One cucumber
6 tomatoes
6 bell peppers (3 yellow, 3 red)
An assortment of herbs

There isn't anywhere near enough dirt in the pots so that's my gardening goal of the day. Silly me, I watered the plants this morning so I have to wait a bit. At least I've got all the material. Despite the heat, I've spent the last couple days burying old potato pieces with eyes on them in the clay-ey ground under the eaves (in the late afternoon when watering the garden a second time in the shade). I'm probably drowning the potatoes when I water them but I'm trying to keep them cool. The potatoes are not a high investment project and I needed to dig up the dirt anyway so I could include it in the pots. I'll undoubtedly post updates on the garden. It might even be what prompts future blog posts to happen.

The main reason I've been neglecting the blog is that the big thing happening in my life right now is wedding planning and I wanted to try to tell as many people one-on-one that Colin and I are getting married before I mentioned it here. Which makes it a bit difficult to do any blogging. For those who didn't know yet, I apologize - it's so difficult to get to everyone especially when almost everyone lives so far away.

Let me say right away: This is not a big formal white wedding.

- It is small; just immediate family and close friends. People that have actively been a part of our lives the past 3.5 years we have been a couple. Less than 50.

- It is laid back and casual. I'm only wearing dresses so we can do the whole "bride as the centerpiece" thing. However, I've got plans for the actual ceremony which don't include a white dress.

The wedding is less than two months away. The invitations were going to go out in the mail this week but they won't be done until next Monday. There's still things to be sorted out, but I don't expect the actual planning and preparing to take over as much of my days as it has in the last few days until the time is much closer. (We'll see. This sentence might come back to  taunt me.)

Logistics aside, it's hard for me to put a positive spin on the experience right now. At the same time, I don't want to get into a rant and moan about all the details. I'm kind of confused about this, since it's pretty much a "yay they didn't elope" party, there's so many wedding-y things we're not doing and so many potential fires that aren't happening.  Hopefully things will look better after we spend this weekend with my family; we haven't been to my parents' house since Thanksgiving and my brother's high school graduation open house is on Saturday.

I made zucchini bread a couple days ago that's probably poisonous. So my heart drops with the sight of dropping the whole thing in the trash. I try to keep telling myself "It's better than getting sick from it and next time I won't use the 8x8 pan but have two 8x4 pans like the recipe said to use."

Despite the weather and the stress, I find myself having quite a few happy moments. I wonder if it's my body's way of preventing things from overwhelming my life. Plus, I like the rhythm the garden's needs puts in my day, even the aches and blisters it gives me. Ooo and also I have been reading the Hunger Games trilogy. While not sunshine and daisies, the books are sooo gooood.

I also gave myself a haircut on Sunday. I was so tired of how long it was. It hadn't been that long since sometime in elementary school; it was starting to get caught under my arms and when I had it pulled back (which was most of the time) I would catch my head being tilted too far back because of the weight. I guess the final straw was when I was trying to remake a bun and I broke the pencil when I didn't even think I was pushing it that hard. My hair broke a pencil just by looking at it.

So I lopped off more than enough for what I think is my third Locks of Love donation. I can still pull what's left into a small pony tail and I need to trim it since one side is longer than the other but otherwise I like the layered and slanted bob look. The very instant after I had fully cut through the thick rope (the scene in Princess Bride when Vizzini is cutting the rope at the Cliffs of Insanity doesn't do cutting my hair justice) was the most shocking and relieving. My hair was still in shock for a day or so but I had been looking forward to cutting it for so long I adjusted much quicker.

Okay, it's time to get back to what needs to be done before we leave tonight for Michigan.