The To-Do List

Yeah, I can't promise that there will be another post between now and the wedding. I can't BELIEVE how much STUFF there is to do!

Here's (most of) the list that I started working on Friday afternoon:

Done
Talk with Allie and Mom about cake details, send one of them to the bakery
Confirm final details for cake topper, send payment for balance
See invitation lady to order personalized thank-you notes
Write thank-you notes. Lots and lots and lots of thank-you notes
Attend final dress fitting
Arrange gym membership so that I have a snowball's chance of being able to breathe in my wedding dress
Book flight to Charleston
Look into changing name on licence, passport, social security card, bank account, and obtaining marriage license
Confirm Bridesmaids' sizes
Call church to confirm policy on wedding banns, arrange "interview" with monsignor
Disassemble desk- move to garage to be picked up by buyer
Update spreadsheet with responses and gifts received
Find pashminas for the bridesmaids' in case it's freezing that weekend
Select bridesmaids' shoes
Gifts for people throwing parties

In Progress
Design program cover
Write personal note for program
Format sheet music for program
Program layout (confirm with priest and music director)
Cards of what people seated together have in common (to facilitate conversation)
Find gifts for the brothers playing the violin during the ceremony
Assemble last bit of bridesmaids’ gifts
Engraving for Greg's wedding band
Pack for move
Figure out where to put all the stuff that used to be in my giant desk
Write more thank-you notes
Call dress designer to get J.J.'s dress fixed
Find a wedding gift for Greg
Decide on instrument voicing for processional
Find out when bridesmaids are arriving for shower and wedding
Compile page of "head shots" so that photographer knows who key players are

Not Started Yet
Send list of song preferences to band
Meet (again) with florist to revise details
Design menu card to have on tables
Choose a song to dance with my Dad to
E-mail priest to confirm that he's available for the rehearsal
Select paper and ink color for ceremony program
Wedding cake shaped cookies or cupcakes for choir
Find a harmony for Eternal Father (Navy hymn)
Send letter to Yacht Club to change my membership status to "non resident"
Find out who wrote the hymns we're using for program
Take preliminary location shots at yacht club to send to photographer


Believe it or not, I'm sure there's lots missing- some that I've done, some that other people have helped with, and some that I just haven't thought of yet.

But I love the craziness- I hate being bored, and this stuff is (mostly) fun!

There's so much going on! Work is NUTS with a capital NUTS, but I'm leaving in less than three weeks, which makes things more bearable. My shower is on Saturday, and I know my bridesmaids have planned a fun night out afterward. My last Juilliard concert is on the 16th, and Josh, Courtney and Tyler are coming out to the burbs for one last Sunday night orphan dinner that weekend. After that it's full speed ahead on packing, because I fly down to Charleston the following Tuesday afternoon!

Greg and I will drive up from SC that weekend, then put most of our collective stuff into storage before moving into the Susse Chalet (more on that in a minute.) The following weekend is Easter, and I'll sing five masses. That brings us right to the wedding, ladies and gents, and there you have it! Crazy busy nuts, but I love it!!!

So, I guess I actually have a big update: Greg's training schedule has changed, and so has our agenda for the next 10 months or so.

Long story short(er), we will be going to Groton, CT for about 10 weeks after the wedding. This was originally supposed to follow six months in Ballston Spa, NY (Saratoga Springs), but the order of the two has switched. (I'll spare you the long details, but we're very happy about this!!!)

So, the plan now is as follows:
-Wedding on April 14th
-Week off (to be spent someplace in New England- undecided as yet)
-Greg goes to SOBC (Submarine Officer's Basic Course) April 23rd
-We spend roughly 10 weeks in Groton: Greg works business hours, has weekends off. We'll be living in the Susse Chalet on base- essentially a low-end Best Western from what I hear, but without breakfast. Not our choice- it's cool.
-After SOBC, Greg has all but two days of July off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, you read right. That may not seem like much in the civillian world, but he hasn't had that much time off since high school!!)
-We'll leave on our HONEYMOON on July 9th. To say I'm excited is a dramatic understatement. Greg and his Mom have put together an AMAZING trip that I only know a very little about, but it includes Paris and Bastille Day fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. I know a little (but not much) more about the plan, but I will fill "my readers" in on it another night. (I'm HUGELY excited, but I don't want to spoil the surprise!) What I do know is that this trip is an amazing wedding gift from Teresa and Hap, and I can't thank them enough!!
-After the honeymoon, we'll have about a week left in July to move into our first "real place" (read: not a hotel) in Saratoga Springs. That's when reality will set in a bit- Greg will be working rediculous hours and have minimal free time, but at least with this scheduling change we now know that we'll be able to attend Courtney and Tyler's wedding in August and Matt and Emily's wedding in September.
-Since we'll be upstate for an entire academic semester, I'm hoping to get involved with a choir or two and maybe a theatre group. If I play my cards right, I might even be able to sing in Oratorio Society at Hamilton! Hooraaaaaaaaay for singing with Rob again!!!
-Greg will finish school in Saratoga on January 11th. This is great, because it means that we won't have to move across the country over the holidays (we were nervous about that with the old schedule.) The potential down side is that there's a chance Greg may have to stand watch on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. But we'll survive.
-After Saratoga, it's off and across the country for Lizzie and Greg. Plans currently include either San Diego or Pearl Harbor (if we can) and a puppy (eventually.) Hooray!!

I guess that's about it for now. Well, there's probably lots more, but it's one in the morning and I've already used enough exclamation points in this post!!

Hope all is well with everyone out there. Please drop me a post to calm me down a bit (but not too much- I'm enjoying this!), and then check back in a few weeks. I'll try to manage a post before the wedding... maybe with some pics from the shower... we'll see how the "to-do list" goes!

Merry December!

Hello!!

Oh man- I'm still full from Thanksgiving weekend. Italian buffet at the club on Wednesday, turkey on Thursday, chili on Friday, steak on Saturday and meatloaf on Sunday. The only one of my favorite meals missing that week was mom's spaghetti sauce, but I think I might have exploded at the mere mention of meatballs!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the S.'s house this year. For a holiday with both of our families gathered, it went really well. (You'd think combining events with future in-laws would add stress, but with our families it actually reduces it!)

I made the stuffing and stuffed celery. I'm very proud of my culinary achievements. I successfully mixed Roquefort, butter and cream cheese in a bowl and then spread it on celery sticks. This is usually the closest I get to cooking. But this year I actually did something with a pan! And heat! (Whoa!) I made (and didn't mess up) Mom's stuffing!! And put it in the bird! (Amusing conversation was had while stuffing said bird when Teresa flipped it over and told me "there's another cavity under here.") Ick. (But dinner was DELICIOUS!)

Greg and I played quite a bit of ping pong that weekend. We were in Branford Thursday night, New Rochelle Friday night, and then back to Branford on Sunday. The reason for the jaunt back to New York was a meeting with the priest that's going to marry us. That went pretty well, except for the part about him not liking that we're planning to wait to have kids. (Um... we're kinda young, and Greg's kinda going to be away for months at a time... we'd kinda like him to, you know, BE THERE when our first child is born!) The first of three, by the way. (That's bound to provoke a post or two from the boy... that is if he reads my blog!! ;-)

The rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing and filled with backgammon and James Bond movies. (No, not the new one- the marathon that Spike TV runs just about every holiday.) We had breakfast with Kate and John who were visiting from Merry Olde. The boys talked about chemistry, the girls talked about knitting. It was fun, but kind of scary. There's that quote from Grey's Anatomy: "We're adults. When did that happen, and how do we make it stop?" Yeah. But it was nice to see Katie-kate. I miss her.

We had an evening out with the Branford gang and some Q.T. with Greg's brother and sister. Good times. J.J. and I got lost in her closet for a little bit while getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We did our makeup and had all sorts of girl talk, which we don't get to do nearly often enough.

In other news, I'm moving home. Yup- it's official- I'm losing my independence. Actually, this is by my own choice. In addition to saving a load of money on rent before the wedding, living at home will (theoretically) give me the opportunity to merge and purge my stuff. And oh do I have stuff. Stuff happens when the same bedroom has been your home-base for over 20 years (gulp!) and there is 20 years worth of STUFF to either get packed neatly or risk having Mom toss it. (I know there was no way to know that the blue windbreaker from when I was two meant anything to me, but this is why nobody else should get to throw out my stuff! Hmph!)

I think that's about it for now. I'm a Christmas shopping machine these days. It's easy when work is painfully quiet. Too bad it never stays quiet for long.

Nougat

What exactly is nougat anyway? Our office had a whole big thing about nougat this morning, complete with talking over cubicle walls and multiple mass e-mails debating the topic. Of course by the time this had been going on for 10 or 15 minutes there were eight people craving Snickers bars. The natural end to this kind of thing was the inevitable run to Duane Reade for a bag of Snickers and Milky Ways and subsequent Passing Of The Nougat. I love quiet days in the office.

The afternoon was even better! We haven't seen Shirley since she left on maternity leave at the end of July, but she came in today with her two-month-old Davey. About an hour later (and by pure coincidence) Sal's wife shows up with their five-month-old Parker Izabelle. There have been only three baby office visits in the history of our company. Two in one afternoon was fantastic!

Davey (at about 1 week old)

Parker Izabelle

Anyway, bigger things are happening than just babies and nougat. In fact, I've been pretty busy since I last posted.

I drove down to Annapolis with Greg's parents last weekend (and found out they read my blog! Hi Teresa and Hap!) to help move him out of his apartment. The four of us and his brother Paul packed up just about everything Greg owns, then headed out for a delicious dinner at a sushi restaurant in downtown Annapolis, followed by a round of drinks with the S. clan, then another with the Navy clan.

The next morning we loaded everything into a 16' moving truck. Total cargo weight: 1,300 lbs! (Not that I'm one to talk, but the boy owns a lot of stuff.) After lunch, we headed to Ikea to buy a sofa. We found one that we all liked alot- especially since it has a replaceable, machine washable slip cover. (Yeah- our new couch is going to be in a bachelor pad for the first six months of its life... it's going to need to be washed!!) Greg and Hap managed to fit the couch into the truck (which was exactly wide enough!), which thankfully saved us from having to repack the whole thing.

Teresa and Greg were staying one last night in Annapolis before heading down to Charleston, but Hap and I had to get on the road. We said our goodbyes in the parking lot, which was just as well: it kept me from getting too sappy. It wasn't hard, though- we would see each other in a few weeks. Our plan leaving Annapolis was that we would see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and work out two additional visits: one in the spring and one in the fall. It worked out that we would go one month, one month, six weeks, and six weeks between visits. It was all planned.

Unfortunately, every time you think something is all set, the Navy steps in. Of course. Greg found out on Tuesday that he has class on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which makes it impossible for him to come north for the holiday. :-(

Since we really can't change Greg's schedule, we've been working on changing mine. We thought about me flying down to Charleston for Thanksgiving, but apparently the reason they don't have Friday off is that they will be in an important testing period, so having me around as a distraction is probably not the best thing. Not to mention that flights are outrageously expensive that weekend. So we're thinking that we'll do Thanksgiving like we do my birthday, our anniversary and Valentine's day: a week early! (We've been dating for over two years and have yet to celebrate any of those days on the correct date. Ah well- we're getting married young- we'll have 50 or 60 years together to fit those in!)

Unfortunately, I only have three vacation days left, and it's unclear if the office will be closed between Christmas and New Years. I've put myself down for vacation days on the Thursday and Friday of that week, and I'm saving one for some time in November to see Greg. (We think he might have a long weekend for Veteran's Day, so I'll take my last vacation day then.)

Between worrying about my lack of vacation time and the difficulty of getting to Charleston, I've been all stressed and upset for the past two days. Annapolis was easy: four hours on Amtrak and I'm there. Only $84 each way. Charleston, on the other hand, requires an airplane and a lot more money for a short amount of time spent together.

So it looks like our schedule for both the fall and the spring is going to be six weeks apart, one long weekend together, and six weeks apart. Yuck, yuck, yuck. We'll have about one week together over Christmas, so hopefully I won't have to work those other two days.

I know that we're going to have much longer periods of time apart, and that this really isn't bad, but we've never lived less than four hours apart. At least we'll be able to spend lots of time together when we're preparing for him to go out on deployment.

Something about this makes me think about when I used to babysit for toddlers. When the parents left, the kid would cry. No question. They'd be all upset for a little while, then they'd settle down and be just fine. What was much more difficult for them was when the parents left me with the kid then went upstairs to change, reappeared for a few minutes, left to go to the car, came back to get something they forgot, and then left again. As soon as the kid had settled down, the parents would return. Each time they left again, the kid would get even more upset, and stay upset longer. (Honestly- do parents realize they do this to babysitters?)

I feel kind of like the little kid. It's not that I fall apart when we leave each other, I just feel like something's missing, and it takes me a few days after seeing him to pull myself back together and readjust to being alone. Sometimes it almost feels like teasing to have such a short period of time together, just to go back to missing him almost immediately. It's like being hungry and being offered one M&M- you want it so badly, and you happily eat it up. It's great while it lasts, but it's gone before you know it and you're somehow hungrier than you were before. What gets you through is remembering the flavor and looking forward to the next meal.

Now, all these metaphors aren't meant to imply that I don't want to spend those long weekends with Greg- I want them more than anything. I'm just happy that he's going to be around that week in December. We'll get to spend some real time together, and I'll feel much better.

They say that time flies faster and faster as a wedding draws closer, and I wonder if that will be true for us. It's so weird to know that we will have just three visits together before we're moving him out of his apartment in Charleston and into our first home together. We'll be married in just over six months, and I'm sure it will feel like time has flown. In the mean time, the next several months are going to be like pieces of nougat- I know I'll enjoy them, I know they'll be sweet and not last very long at all, but I have no idea what they'll be made of.

But I Never Win Anything!

So, last night, at my company summer party, there was a raffle. I was surprised when my name was drawn for a "DVD gift bag," one of about 20 smaller prizes being given away. At the end of the smaller prizes, everyone's name went back into the bowl, and three bigger prizes were drawn. I actually won the grand prize- a $500 Amex gift card! Whoopie!

There are so many things I could use that money for: theatre tickets, a J. Crew shopping spree, airfare to Charleston when Greg goes down to Nuke School. But the money will stay tucked in a drawer until we need it for the wedding.

I've always been somewhat frugal, (at least since I stopped blowing all my babysitting money on craft supplies to take babysitting again!) but I've really tightened my belt over the past few months. My rent has gone up, and I'm trying to save for the wedding. I'm planning on moving home at the end of this year to save some money, so that will help, and last night's windfall certainly doesn't hurt! Greg and I won't see each other much over the six months while he's in Charleston- travel to S.C. is expensive, and he won't have much free time.

I guess the big money thing is that when we get married, I'll leave my job in the city and try to find something in Ballston Spa. I'm really not sure what I'll do up there, especially since we'll only be there for six months. Our next move, to Groton, CT, will be for less than three months, which will include Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'll probably find a job wrapping packages in a shop somewhere. At least I have retail experience on my resume! Who knew that would actually make my life easier at some point?

In any case, maybe I'll buy a great new pair of jeans- that's always an easy way to feel like a million bucks, even if you've only spent $75.

By the way: funniest internet video I've seen in a long while
Tea Partay

The State Of The Lizzie Address

My life is about to change. A lot.

I'm getting married and moving away. I'm leaving my job, my apartment, my family and my friends and marrying a man in the Navy. Yup, life is about to change.

So, I've decided to start a blog. I think keeping an online, public diary will help get me through these changes, stay in touch with friends, and share some of the experiences I'm bound to have with Greg as we adjust to married life and I adjust to my new life as a Navy wife!

The good news in all of this is that I have Greg. He makes me happier than I ever dreamed I could be. We're heading out together as partners on a big adventure- one that I never could have imagined 5 years ago. We are deeply in love and both know that we are lucky to have found each other.

With Greg at USNA Commissioning. May, 2006

Sometimes life can almost seem like a fairy tale: my white knight has appeared- he is handsome, brave, and as honorable a man as you'll ever meet. And dropping everything to follow your one true love is certainly a romantic notion. But it's sometimes a bit scary.

Greg is training to be an officer on a submarine. He'll be away on deployments for long periods at a time, and I won't hear from him daily or know where he is most of the time. This won't start for over a year, but it's something I'm preparing for.

But we're also preparing for adventures! After we marry, we'll live in Ballston Spa, NY for 6 months, Groton, CT for about 3 more, and then we'll be off to the west coast. Our current top choice is to be stationed in San Diego, CA. This, however, is a bit unrealistic. San Diego only has a few submarines, and therefore only a very few slots for officers. So maybe Pearl Harbor, HI. Or if not Pearl, then maybe near Seattle, WA. Who knows! This decision won't be made for a while- it depends on Greg's class rank coming out of Nuclear Power School in March.

In the mean time, though, we're planning a wedding and spending as much time together as we can. Greg is currently on Temporary Assigned Duty at the USNA Sailing Center. Translation: he gets to spend his summer coaching and sailing around the east coast. Tough duty, huh?! :-) He just finished his training block (read: cruise) this week, and now has most of August off. Hooray- lots of time together!

(Note- I may mock Greg's assignment this summer, but he actually has had a lot of responsibility, it hasn't been all fun and games. Or picnics and rum cocktails. Just mostly.)

So, it looks like August will be my favorite month this year. Next weekend we are going to Greg's family's summer house on Martha's Vineyard. The house belonged to Granny T-Bird, Greg's great-grandmother, who sounds like she was a really cool old lady. The house, named Mytoi, is basically a Japanese cottage, complete with rice paper windows. The view from the back of the house is stunning. The peaks of a rooftop and an osprey nest stand are the only man-made things to be seen. Other than that, there is only a beautiful marsh with a winding creek between the porch and a pond. It is serenity defined.

The view from the back porch at Mytoi

During the day, kayakers like to come up the stream that goes through the back yard. This can be interesting when you're in the shower- it has full length clear glass windows that face this view! Greg and his friends call it the "porn shower!"

Across the street is Granny T-Bird's garden; now a public park. I have loved Monet since I was 9 years old, and when Greg took me to the garden last summer and showed me the Japanese footbridge over the waterlilies, I just melted. I think it is the most beautiful garden I have ever seen. It reminds me of the mood set in the Glen on the Hamilton campus- nature allowed to flourish on its own with only a slight nudge in the right direction.

The Japanese footbridge over the pond in the Mytoi gardens

The Japanese footbridge in Claude Monet's garden in Giverny

A series of bridges in the Root Glen at Hamilton College

When we get back from Mytoi, we'll have a week apart before heading to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with Greg's friends from Branford (now my friends, too!) A week on the beach is something I've been looking forward to for a while! I'll add more about the N.C. trip later.

(Some of) The Branford Gang, as seen on New Year's Eve

So that's where my life is right now. I'm working hard, planning a wedding (and even though I didn't really mention it in this post, I'm guessing that wedding plans will be a frequent topic!), and I'm enjoying any time that I get to spend with Greg. All in all, my life is good these days. Actually, it's great.

So, in conclusion, the state of the Lizzie is happy. That is all.