2 WEEKS!

So life has been pretty crazy lately. I finally finished school (ish) about two weeks ago. It was a crazy ending. My lease ended the day after finals, so Ben and I were busy packing up my apartment and moving my stuff to his place soon to be our place. This triumphant end of the craziest school year of my life greeted me with viral pink eye in both eyes. I unfortunately do not have glasses and thus was rendered legally blind without my contacts. I didn't accomplish very much my last week in the area of unpacking. I did however, manage to figure out the horrible bridesmaid dress ordeal. After several trial and error attempts at getting bridesmaid dresses, we finally selected one from Ann Taylor that might match the original dress that I selected. The only problem has been finding shrugs to cover up the shoulders of this spaghetti strap dress. Ben and I got to work searching the internet and all our many options. Turns out, despite all the advertisements, there were not many options. Davids Bridal made this frustratingly clear after we called numerous stores all over the country. They had all of 4 of the items we needed in the entire country and not in the right sizes. When we finally ordered a short sleeve bolero they gave us a long sleeve bolero for the blistering 115 degree heat of Arizona. It was kind of a mess. I eventually gave up on uniformity and selected something simple, practical, and cheap for the girls who needed it.

As I said, things have been pretty crazy and I don't think it will calm down. There is still a lot of planning to be done for the Chicago reception. This week was filled with meetings with caterers, directors, cake decorators, and my wedding dress shop. Next week promises to echo the same sort of itinerary. Fortunately, my wonderful fiance will be here starting Wednesday.

Amidst the many hours of stress and frustration there have been the necessary moments of bliss that make everything worth it. Ben and I have not had a ton of time to relax and take in the beautiful transformation of Chicago in the summer, but we manage to take a few moments where wedding talk and preparation is formally banished from our lives. The last week I was in Chicago we took a walk up to the point and had a picnic. Afterwards we talked about all the simple things that we have been unable to talk or think about since our engagement. It was a beautiful reminder of the simplicity and purity of our love for each other. We also had a night in watching lost and eating a sushi dinner I prepared. That was a ton of fun.