Left Brain, Right Brain

We are going to close on the Forest Lake house in three days. I am not excited. Frankly, I just want it to be DONE. I want to not have to go through all the hassle and mess of moving again. Buying the house and moving to Forest Lake does not excite me. But I'm not one to get excited about stuff like that, really.

K. seemed really concerned about this the other day, but it's not a BAD thing. I talked to Jon about it last night, and he's not "excited" either! I guess we just take life as it comes and try to make the best of it. There's really no point in getting all worked into a froth over something that's going to be initially stressful and challenging anyway. Once I get through the move, get things calmed down and settled in, maybe then I will get excited. I'm much more likely to get excited about new curtains and paint and things like that. Moving to a new house and a new town? Not exciting. Just flat-out stressful and annoying. Too big of a change to say I'm looking forward to it. Which is not to say I won't ENJOY living there once I'm moved IN!

I think I'm getting repetetive so I'm going to stop now. We are probably going to have a house-warming BBQ thingy around the end of May - maybe Memorial Day weekend. Now that is something I can get excited about!

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060417/symantec_taxes.html?.v=1

I have no idea if this affects me at all, but it really kind of sucks for the Company!!!

Actually, it won't affect my position one bit, so HAW HAW! :P

I HATE SHEDDING ANIMALS IN THE SPRINGTIME. Even little Indy, my practically shed-free kitty, is shedding like MAD! Cat hair everywhere and I can't seem to catch up! It's in my nose and mouth constantly, on my clothes, in the keyboard of the computer, on the furniture, ACK!!!

Let me remind the reader that I have NEVER lived with a shedding animal before, and I am rather disgusted by the whole process. POODLES ARE THE BEST.

I got my dog Muffin when I was 4 years old. She came to live with us in November, 1981 when she was just 8 weeks old. She was a beautiful black and white phantom toy poodle. If you think poodles are horrible yappy dogs, you have not owned a poodle, so SHUT UP. Seriously, shut up. I don't want to hear any negative garbage about a breed that is nothing less than totally ideal for me. If you have bad things to say about poodles or their hair or anything about them, please take it somewhere else. They only have that curly hair to remind you that they are the EINSTEINS of the dog world. (OK, 2nd only to Border Collies, but still remarkably intelligent, perceptive, trainable, personable, and wonderful.) ( More about Muffin, dogs, work, and babies )

Today is a very busy day in the office, so I grabbed lunch at the Burger King a couple blocks away (just cuz it's cheaper than eating in our café).

I just finished my Whopper Jr. and small onion rings a couple minutes ago, and I put all the wrappers and garbage back in the little paper bag that they came in. Then I looked at the bag. It is a grease-spotted, yucky little brown paper bag. And I just ate "food" that was in that. I can't believe it never occurred to me just how disgusting that actually is. God, I hope I don't puke anytime this afternoon just thinking about it.

I think I may never eat fast-food again. Not that it was something I ever did very often, but I think it's going to become something I never do.

I have named my riding lawnmower "Murray the Tractor". It is technically MY tractor since I am the one who applied for the Fleet Farm credit card, so I figure that gives me naming rights.

Do you ever have one of those days where the things that people ask of you just get more and more crazy until you just want to throw your hands up and say, "Oh, you've got to be KIDDING me!" to the Universe?

Today is that day.

And every time I think that the requests and complaints can't possibly continue or get any weirder or more annoying, ANOTHER ONE pops up! I swear, I'm afraid to leave my office to go have lunch, because then people will have a hour's worth of saved-up whining for me when I get back! The last thing I want to deal with today is a backlog of annoying requests and complaints. No, actually, the last thing I want to deal with today is ANY of this crap. I want to go home. Last night we kept thinking tomorrow (which is now today) was going to be Friday. And then this morning Jon started talking about doing something that is happening FRIDAY, and I said, "Today's Thursday" and he was not pleased. I'm not pleased either. I want today to be Friday.

I'm going to be out of the office on Friday morning while we do the inspection of the house in Forest Lake. And then I am driving to Fargo after work tomorrow night. I would LOVE to just take the whole day off, but at the rate this week has been going, tomorrow will probably be my busiest day of the week. It's been a really backwards week. Monday was all nice and calm and laid back, and now things have gotten to the point of being about as irritating as they possibly could be. Yuck.


ETA: AAACK! It's happening again!!! And if I HAD gone to get lunch, things would have seriously gone down the drain for REAL!! I guess that's a good thing - at least I caught it before it blew up. But still! COME ON!!!

Goddammit, my inner were-bride is coming back to life again. Thought I'd killed her off once and for all.

It's like an infection of my BRAIN. Suddenly I want a big ol' frilly fluffy white gown again. Gah! Why does this happen??? It doesn't make any sense at all. It's not even natural - it's just my subconscious reminding me that white wedding gowns have been the style for the last 150 years or so, and don't I want to be fashionable for my wedding? No!! I don't! I just want to be me! I want to be special! I want a dress that I can wear again and again! I don't want to waste hundreds of dollars on a one-shot wonder!

...and yet the inner were-bride does.

I'm battling her for control, and she is getting stronger. She first came to life after I got *THE DIAMOND*, much to my surprise, but I squashed her into submission in just a few short weeks. She popped in once in a while to voice her frilly little opinion, but I just nodded and told her I'd take that into consideration, along with all my other options. Now that the venue is booked and the date is SOLIDLY September 23rd (quick, mark your calendar!), and I've started looking at menu options and decorating ideas, well, the whole thing is suddenly getting a lot more "real" and it is giving my inner were-bride strength. She found out that there is a $99 sale at David's Bridal which ends on April 3rd, and she is considering driving me to Fargo this weekend so I can go dress-shopping with my mom. Ack. If I'm not careful, she might even drag me to the local David's Bridal to do some browsing this week.

It's not easy battling with a fluffy-chiffon-tulle-lace-sparkly WERE-BRIDE... she is getting really strong and persistent, and I think she's starting to win. :(

I am not actually that emotional right now, but the hormones of my Moon make my eyes want to cry and my lips want to pout. It's weird. Like my body feels like crying, but my mind and emotions really don't.

As the wedding date gets closer, the plans are morphing slowly into shape. My parents are paying for the wedding and are now doing all the planning, which is a HUGE GIGANTIC load off my back. I hate that stuff, and they are real pros at it. For this to happen realistically, we would have to do the wedding in Fargo. This is not such a terrible thing. It's my hometown, which is supposed to be the traditional location for the wedding. It's also cheaper to do everything there. And my uncle, who works for the NDSU Alumni Foundation, can get one free usage of their beautiful center per year.

The Alumni Center is booked on September 30th, but it is WIDE OPEN the week before - September 23rd - which also happens to be the first day of autumn... not to mention the first full day of Rosh Hashanah and the first of Ramadan. Hah. So my dad actually already got us penciled in on that date for that location. I will probably confirm it once and for all this week.

I have a lot of relatives coming to the wedding - about 15-20 of them. I believe 7 of them are traveling over 3 hours from central North Dakota just to get to Fargo. I'd feel like a shit making them travel another 3-4 hours to get to the cities. Jon only has 6 relatives TOTAL coming to the wedding, 4 from the Twin Cities and 2 from St. Cloud, which is like an hour closer to Fargo. So there. It's totally fair doing this in Fargo, the "most central" location. I have more long-distance family. Not to mention, the hotels in Fargo cost less than hotels in the Cites, and while I am not paying for ANYONE'S hotel rooms, less people will be paying less money overall, which is good.

Jon is being a real trooper through all this. He isn't in love with going up to Fargo, but he is in love with me ;) and he is being totally open and willing to do whatever it takes just to get this thing over with! LOL - Besides, we will be LIVING in the Cities, and after this, we will only have to go to Fargo once or twice a year to visit my family for holidays or whatever. It's a small price to pay in the big scheme of things. And people travel for weddings ALL the time... it's no big deal.

I am actually really happy and confident and calm. My wedding is in great hands. But I still feel like crying. Damn periods.

OK, I know I mentioned this in my previous entry, but I just wanted to stress it again here:

DID YOU KNOW THAT MILLS FLEET FARM OFFERS WEDDING REGISTRIES???

Holy buckets, man.

I realize that a few of my dear readers may not be familiar with Mills Fleet Farm stores. I don't know how well I can describe them, but I will try. It's like a hardware store only bigger, or a Home Depot, or a sporting/hunting goods store, only they also have regular clothing. And farm equipment. And livestock supplies. And lots of power tools. And selected furniture and home-improvement things and other stuff... my cousin-in-law used to say that if he couldn't buy it at Fleet Farm, he didn't need it. Can anyone else help me describe this place? Did I do OK?

Well, mostly it's like a giant wholesale hardware store. Just not really the type of place I would expect wedding registrations, although I do like it. Jon is a real handyman and will be able to register for a new saw and some other stuff that will be real nice for our new home together.