T-minus 100 days!

The Countdown is REALLY starting to pick up some speed! In now (less than) 100 days, James and I will finally be married! It seems like only a few months since we got engaged. Time does fly. I know I have a TON of stuff to do, yet have I done it? NOPE. My 3 months home in Cleveland are going to be "Busy, Busy, Busy" (in the words of that wicked man in Frosty the Snowman...what's his name??)

For those of you who don't know (which I doubt is anyone since I don't think random strangers are reading this blog...I'm not THAT interesting, but bear with me), James and I met when I was living in Puyallup, WA in 2005. We met through Yahoo Personals. I had just made my profile searchable again after having it made private for a few months while I was "seeing where it goes" with someone else. It obviously didn't work out and I turned to Yahoo again just to meet some new friends. I met a great guy named Chris who was in the Air Force and we became quite good friends while I lived there. I was saddened when I busted my phone last summer and couldn't retrieve my phone numbers and lost so many numbers of friends I've met along the way of my traveling world. And soon I met James. I told him on our first "date" that I was only interested in being friends for now. He seemed cool with that. We hung out quite a bit and I made the decision to ask him to my friend's wedding in Pittsburgh in December. Yes, I know. A trip across the country to meet some of my closest friends seemed like a sign of commitment but I wasn't there yet. I even sort of regretted having asked him but we already had plane tickets so...off we went. While there, two of my bestest friends from CLE came down to Pittsburgh for the night before the wedding and we all went to some club at Station Square. I distinctly remember the conversation with my best friend Megan after she had met James and saw our interactions. Her quote? "I can tell you're just not that into him." My response? "You're right!!" I decided that when I went home for Christmas I was going to give our whole "relationship" a few more weeks and if I was still feeling that way, that would be the breaking point. Well, after Christmas things were a whole lot different. I don't know why, but suddenly I was so excited to spend time with him. My heart would skip a beat and I remember the moment when I was struck over the head with Cupid's arrow and I realized I LOVED this man. I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth thinking about the wine tasting weekend James and I were embarking on and I thought, "Wow, how lucky am I?" My world has been spinning ever since!!

About six weeks after that moment, I moved to the Bay area and James and I have been long distance ever since. I did do one other assignment in the NW where I got to see him quite a bit, but I'm SO looking forward to seeing him every day (well almost) for the rest of my life. We're currently in the midst of our longest separation since we became long distance (9 weeks) but we've been pretty good at meeting up every 5-6 weeks usually. It's not ideal, but it's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Is it July 4th yet??

An update

I've been so busy lately! I went to Portland the weekend before Easter to see James. We managed to get all of our wedding invitations addressed as well as print out the inserts with the directions. Now all I have to do is hand write a few more that will move before we send them out and stuff and seal! We also went to dinner at The Melting Pot. YUM. It's a fondue restaurant for those of you who haven't been and I HIGHLY recommend...though it is pricey. Definitely only for a special occasion. We had a yummy spinach and artichoke cheese fondue for our appetizer and cooked some to.die.for treats in our main dish fondue some of which were: lobster tail, shrimp, chicken teriyaki, a yummy pork, and some other fine yummies. The best part: the Oreo Cookie Marshmallow Dream Dessert fondue. Nothing better than dipping strawberries, marshmallows, and brownie bite in warm dark chocolate with marshmallow and oreo crumbs. Pretty much HEAVEN.

I spent Easter weekend with my Aunt and Uncle in Atlanta. Pretty much did nothing, and it was great. Went to see my cousin Mikey's tennis match on Saturday. It was gorgeous...70ish and sunny. He lost and was bummed about it but I thought he did good. A much better job than I would have done. Then again I don't even know the rules of tennis and had to have my uncle explain it to me during the match. We had a fabulous steak dinner on Saturday and between my aunt, uncle, and me we polished off almost 3 bottles of wine! It was fun. Easter was pretty low key. My aunt put together an easter basket for me. So sweet! (and lots of sweets in it :)) She and I worked out at her gym which was good for me in my never-ending quest to get back in shape. I weighed in at my trainer's last week and I'm officially lighter than I've been in 8 years )though weighed in again today and back up over my plateau) and since August I've lost 18.5 pounds!! So excited about that!

I'm now down to 8 days at my job in Chattanooga. Where the hell does the time go? Seems like I just got here! I've LOVED my coworkers here. They are the best. A lot of them are near to my age which has been so nice. They even threw me a surprise bridal shower last week. SO FUN. I can't say enough about these women (and the 1 token male in the PT dept). I will truly miss them and their good ole southern hospitality. I've accepted a position to work at the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic starting April 8 and I'm so excited about that! What an opportunity to work at one of THE BEST hospitals in the country! If those 12 weeks fly by as much as these 12 weeks have, the wedding will be here! (100 days as of 3:30 PM on 3/26!!!) But who's counting? LOL.

One Year Ago...

One year ago today I was in Cannon Beach Oregon for the weekend with James. And he was proposing to me!!! It's hard to believe we've been engaged a year already! And less than 4 months until the wedding. Time is flying by and I'm getting to the point where I like to think about the fun DIY stuff to do leading up to the big day and I constantly dream about our honeymoon plans for Fiji. I'm mostly looking forward to seeing James every day, rather than every 6 weeks or so. This 2 year long distance thing is getting old.

Bummed Take 2

So I guess I need to update yet again. I woke up this morning about 5:45 to use the bathroom and thought I'd check the status of my mom's flight this AM. I blinked twice when I saw the "CANCELED" word again. I called her and sure enough she and my aunt were heading back to the car and driving back to Cleveland. Her flight was able to take off but it was full and no seat for them so they canceled their tickets. Thankfully, she gets a full refund but still. They braved horrible weather on Friday night to drive to Columbus, woke up EARLY on Saturday to go to the airport only to find out their flight was canceled, rebooked for Sunday and returned to my cousin's condo where they were snowed in all day. So then they get up EARLY again (after losing an hour of sleep thanks to the time change), go back to the airport and yep, canceled again. So at 6 AM they head for Cleveland, again in horrible weather, get stuck in the snow at the end of my aunt's street and have to be pushed out by some good samaritans and returned home to my mom's house. All that trouble, and no visit. :( I had planned to take them to the aquarium today here in Chattanooga. I went anyways, but it wasn't nearly as much fun. I did get to pet a few stingrays and even a shark though so that was cool!

Bummed

I've been looking forward to this weekend as my mom and my aunt were coming to Chattanooga to visit. They got tickets on the airline Skybus out of Columbus for a whopping round trip total of $55 each!

Yet here I sit on Saturday morning by myself. Their flight out of Columbus was canceled due to the snow storm that hit Ohio. They did get rebooked on a flight on Sunday that gets here early in the AM but then I only have 24 hours with them. I'm just bummed. I had been looking forward to this weekend for the past month. Everyone at work has been great giving me ideas of places to take them and where to eat...and now we won't get to do hardly any of it! Grrr...I hate blizzards. (unless of course it's in the mountains dumping on my beloved ski resorts)