LeahAndMark.com

Okay, everyone can read Mark’s entry below, so I’m not posting the rules again… but here are 6 things about me you may or may not find interesting:

1. When I have to use a public toilet, I always tear off the end of the toilet paper and dispose of it before tearing off some to wipe with…  I just always think that maybe the person before me had dirty hands and touched the paper.

2. I have 1 grandfather, 3 grandmothers, 5 uncles, 6 aunts, and 23 cousins still living, in addition to a father, mother, and brother. 

3. I will soon have a brother-in-law, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and grandparents-in-law to add to my big, crazy family.  I’m very excited about that.  Mark’s family is beyond awesome!

4. Almost all of these people will (hopefully) be at the wedding.

5. That really limits the number of other people we can invite.  So please don’t feel bad if you don’t get an invitation!  It doesn’t mean we don’t love you.  It’s just… our families would be pissed if they weren’t at the wedding.

6.  Yes, I worry about stuff like this because I was brought up to be an extremely polite and sweet Southern girl and I’ve been working hard ever since to lose some of that self-sacrificing, over-the-top niceness.  But not all.  Because it never hurts to be polite and hospitable!

Okay, and now for blogs I like to read:

http://jamesadamthwaite.com <– my BFF and crazy conspiracy theorist

http://girlsgonechild.blogspot.com  <– cool blog by a hip, young mom

http://schuylersmonsterblog.com  <– cool blog about a special dad-and-daughter duo

http://postsecret.blogspot.com  <– PostSecret.  Duh.

So, as you probably noticed from all the China pics (oh goodness, we still have sooooooo many to go through! But we’re sleepy! And busy! I do hope we get around to that, though. In little bits’n'pieces….tangent much? anyhow…) the best travel hairdo for me happens to be pigtail braids. Yes, they make me look 10 years younger and I already look waaay younger than my 26.666 years. But- they’re easy and they get all my hair out of my face and when my hair is all dirty and gresay, you can’t really tell. And unlike a ponytail, pigtail braids don’t make my head uncomfortable when I try to recline on long bus, train, or taxi rides. Ponytails always create a bump in the back, y’know?

Convenience and comfort will almost always win out over fashion and style with me. But I did get really tired of having the exact same hairdo every. single. day. Because I prefer variety to all things, even comfort! It’s not just the spice of my life…it’s like oxygen. I can’t live without it.

Okay- now on the school front. I received some très awesome news today! I’ve been offered a coveted GRA (Graduate Research Assistantship) which means that GSU will be paying ME to go to school there! And work on a really awesome project with the Center for Restorative Justice, to boot. No loans! No debt!! No worrying!!! There’s even a slight chance that in addition to the GRA, which will only be around 12-14 hours per week, I might also be hired to work additional admin hours for the project for even more income. If that happens, I won’t even need to look for part-time work anywhere. How fan-freakin-tastic is that?

Yeah. Life is so good right now I just can’t stop smiling. Time to wake my fiancé up and get some dinner!

(Fiancé….heehee….)

Okay, back in Atlanta and this weekend has been great so far. I want to post waaaaaay more about China, but I sort of have a wedding on my mind now. And Mark says I probably need to do a brain dump because there is all this stuff running through my head that I just never thought about before. I mean, I really haven’t ever truly thought about actually getting married and what the ceremony would look/feel/be like. I thought lots about BEING married, and having kids, and all that other stuff. I’m so excited about getting to celebrate our partnership and commitment to each other, and getting all our loved ones together for a amazingly fun shebang. But other than the overall idea of saying vows and having a party and spending time with our friends and family, I haven’t thought about a wedding and all the details involved.

Okay, that’s not totally true. In high school I took this elective called Family Relationships or something… it was basically a Home Ec type class. And one of our projects was to make a wedding book, where we cut out pictures from wedding mags and planned our dream wedding, tracking the budget or something… I think. I’m not really sure what the point of the project was, other than maybe to keep us busy for the hour and half that our block schedule classes lasted. And asking a relatively shy, somewhat insecure drama freak whose friends were all gay, single, or both and who had never been in a serious relationship or even had a serious make-out session and never had more then $150 to her name at any given time to plan a wedding from magazine pictures? Not very useful or practical. I don’t even remember what I chose for my fake wedding. I didn’t even think I’d been getting married. Ever. And my tastes have changed considerably since then, anyways.

And so now I’m doing all this reading- books, internet, etc. And I never realized how MUCH goes into a wedding. Granted, everyone’s wedding is/should be unique to them, and primarily centered around what the couple a.) wants and b.) can afford. I’m not stressed out or anything, it’s more that I’m just a little surprised and maybe a bit overwhelmed. Not in a bad way, because it’s for a very happy occasion and I know we will have a wonderful and very special wedding no matter what. It’s just that there are so many more decisions to make than I anticipated. When to have the wedding, where to have the wedding, who to invite, what colors, will there be a bridal party, do I need to get a facial, when do I get my period, what vows do we want to say, do we want a live band, an open bar, a buffet, casual or formal or somewhere in between?

So … lots to consider. I am not-so-secretly hoping that we hire an awesome wedding coordinator to walk us through all this. I’ve never had a good eye for design- I’m much happier looking at other people’s designs and pulling what I like from that. But…there’s the cost issue. In the end, it might be worth it. Wedding planners have vendor relationships which usually lead to discounts. Plus, the time-saving factor. And obviously a wedding coordinator will have waaaaay more experience planning a wedding than me or Mark or even my mom. I am her only daughter, after all. But my parents are footing the bill (thank you times infinity, Mom and Dad!!!) and I don’t want to make any expensive requests. So I casually suggested the idea in an email to Mom and we’ll see if they go for it. If not, it’s okay. I can do this. We can do this. I’d just love a little direction or guidance, ya know?