I’m really starting to get independent and Tom and I have been wanting to move out of our parent’s houses for a long time. We actually have been stockpiling furniture and stuff for a few years. We have a bed, 2 desks, dishes, silverware, pots and pans, cups, and maybe some other stuff I can’t remember right now. We have looked at 1 apartment so far and will be looking at others soon. After I get the car we finally can move but I’m feeling like such a coward because when we move in together my parents will freak and sometimes I don’t want to move out until after the wedding just to avoid the drama.

They can’t do nuthin though except complain cuz I make enough money at my job to pay for my own life and Tom makes money being a grad student. I really just need to be adult about it and say that even though they don’t approve I am an adult and can make my own decisions. I was told at one point that if we lived together they would be “very irritated” and that it was going against all I was taught. Gee I think there are more important life lessons than that, personally I think their priorities are out of whack but being bible-thumping evangelicals will do that.

We are 7 months out from the wedding right now I am sure as hell not moving out by myself at this point. Its either stay here (ugh) or move out with Tom. Aat least I have won a small victory in not going to church since the summer. Even if pressured I would strongly resist, a waste of my precious weekend time and of my gas. I drive their car right now (not for much longer!!!) and I buy the gas for it.

I’ve still only gotten 2 paychecks from my job so far and this month had crazy spending as I got new clothes which I needed since I have been so super poor all summer and I have to fill up my car every week which is just going to be a reality of having to drive so far to work every day even when I get the new car. Oh and one of my student loans entered repayment this month so there was that too. Next month should be better because my loans should be consolidated by then.

I’ve been using my new credit card since last week and I want to be extra sure I’ll have the money to pay off the bill when it comes without having to dig into the car fund so next month I think will be more frugal. This week will be too busy to consume anyway with going to visit Tom’s cat that lives out at his house while him and his family are on vacation and also I took on a longer Technibble article assignment that is due Thursday and a dr. appt and giving blood next week on Monday.

Calls this week have been better even though our queue has been insane because the powers in charge decided that it would be fun to push out an update to Java and break everything. Oh well that’s what they pay me the big bucks for.

Irritating things from the past 2 days: I can’t find my social security card, but I am pretty sure it’s in the house somewhere. Somewhere. I got my new firstcreditcard in the mail yesterday and tried to change my lord of the rings online billing to that card and it won’t go. I just got done IMing a Discover customer support person and the card is fine so something on the game’s side is goofy. Speaking of money a day or 2 ago I found that my bank account mysteriously gained $70 and I can’t figure out from what. Kind of glad i’m going to transition to another account I set up at ING as my “main” acct and retain this one mostly for cash and such since ING is totally online they don’t have actual banks to go to but I like working with ING a lot more. Also I have to work Saturday and that will make 6 days of work in a row… then sun/mon off. We didn’t get the wedding photographer we really wanted so now we also have to go find someone else and hope they are affordable and will give us the picture files.

Good things: I signed up for Netflix with the new card, my first thing to put in my queue was battlestar galactica… I have been trying to watch this for a while but there aren’t good streams online. I watched the 4-hour long miniseries and got kind of bored. I just started watching this show Caprica which is set before BSG and is about how the cylons got started and I really liked the first episode of caprica so I want to give BSG another chance. In October I’m getting 3 paychecks due to the way the week layout ended up so I’m excited about that too! The car goal will get filled up even faster.

Also I got my health insurance info in the mail yesterday and more today so I’m all squared away on that, got my cards and everything. It feels wonderfully independent to be dropping off my mom’s insurance and have my own. Thru my work I get free life insurance too and some other things like retirement etc., the postal union gets postal employees some sweet benefits compared to other federal employees.

sooooo tired… will regret staying up tomorrow

This week people calling in have just been crabby and unpleasant and I also got yelled at by another help desk that I called about an issue that I should have solved myself but forgot how. After talking to a few coworkers I have reached the conclusion that the people at this helpdesk are just in general angry people because they yell at even experienced agents sometimes. A big part of this is not taking the angries personally which I am still working on.

Good things – I set myself up on Mint.com which is the most awesome personal budgeting website evar and I set a goal to save for my car, I want to put in a downpayment of $5000 and if I follow the plan I should be able to get the car around January. Right now I’m thinking Honda Civic but I have a few other cars in mind and just need to go see them and test drive. Other good things, Tom and I ordered our cake on Sat, we are working on photographer, and soon I am going to start talking to florists. Probably gonna tackle florists later this month when Tom is going out of town for a week and I will be booored. Also on Sat we toured an apartment building that is ok, the apmt is pretty spacious I think, but it felt slightly dingy in general. Need to tour more buildings. Probably gonna be moving sometime in the winter after I has my carrr.

Worst thing right now is I have to get up at 6 and have a long commute, 25 miles. In the morning I get there in about 1/2 hour but in the afternoon the traffic is heavier so it takes an hour or so to get home. Its totally worth it though because they pay very well, have good benefits, great job security, opportunity to move up, and everyone I work with is really nice. When I’m done with training in 3 more weeks I will start at 9 instead of 8 so I can get up at 7 and that will help.

Tom and I are going to start looking at apartments/rent townhomes soon, we are both antsy to move out of our parents’ houses. We have some certain specific townhomes in mind that we have been interested in for months. I will be saving for a new car too so I am not sure yet what will come first, car or aptmt. If aptmt comes first Tom has a car that I can use until next spring. He takes the bus to the U so we need to find somewhere by a bus route for him. His car is a little nicer than the one I’m using right now but I still realllllly want a new one, I’m looking at the cheapy cars like Honda civic, nissan versa, toyota corolla, hyundai accent. Requirements are GOOD MILEAGE, automatic transmission, power windows, keyless entry, AC, and a plug-in for my iPod. A compass in the mirror would be nice too since I have a tendency to get lost… Really demanding I know.

As for wedding right now we are trying to get a photographer friend of Tom’s sister… she will work for us outside of her studio but someone else is considering her for our date and so we wait to see if she will be free.

Here is a picture of the building I work in, click for enlargement

As baking goes I think cookies are pretty damn easy and these are no exception, just mix up the ingredients! I like to use our electric mixer. The key to a great cookie is to be very careful with bake-time, they should still be pretty gooey when you take them out and they harden up when they cool, with regular chocolate chip cookies there should only be a teeny bit of brown around the edges if any brown. I don’t like a lot of people’s homemade cookies because they overcook them. Anyway, this is what you get, chocolatey morsels of deliciousness.

I’ve been wanting to work a Lord of the Rings quote into the ceremony but Tom disapproves and also I can’t really find anything that I feel is truly appropriate. LOTR has some romance and love, especially a lot of “friendship love” but a lot of death, sadness, mortality, and going into the West. From some googling this seems to be the best option so far:

An excerpt from ” The Two Towers : Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien

ENT: When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!
ENTWIFE.: When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air,
I’ll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.
ENT.: When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!
ENTWIFE. : When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I’ll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!
ENT.: When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I’ll look for thee, and call to thee; I’ll come to thee again!
ENTWIFE : When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I’ll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again:
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!
BOTH : Together we will take the road that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

Its not what I want though because it’s about how the Ents argued about what land they should live on. The Entwives liked fields and gardens and the Ents liked the forest so they split off into their own groups and the Entwives were eventually lost. I don’t think that gives the right message of unity lol.

I found this segment of somebody’s ceremony online though that I really like, about the definition of marriage:

A marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of human relationships. This ceremony is not magic, it will not create a relationship that does not already exist and has not already been acknowledged in all the commitments you have made to each other, both large and small. It is a symbol of how far you have come together and a symbol of the promise that you will make to each other, to continue to live your lives together and to love each other completely.

So also I have a lot of time to obsess over wedding stuff that I don’t have to obsess over for months. Flowers have been a fear of mine for their budget destroying qualities. The florist bill can easily go over $1000 (says the girl spending $500 on a cake)!! I looked at the local boards on www.weddingbee.com and found some people to check out. I’m interested in people that work out of their home because they seem to be cheaper and I’m particularly going to check out a lady I found that will go to the flower wholesaler with you to find flowers and you buy them at wholesale price and then pay her by the hour for her labor to make things. Also I’d like to use flowers that are in season to help keep costs down which shouldn’t be too hard in mid-June.

What I need made are for sure bouquets and boutonnieres. I am unsure at the moment about whether I will DIY centerpieces or have them made. I’m thinking 3 cylinder vases with the tall one having cherry blossom branches, probably fake, stick out and in the other 2 flowers submerged and a candle floating on top. Like this:

Centerpiece ideas subject to change. Also I need something to spruce up the head table probably.

For bouquets I like ones that don’t look too “constructed”. I also don’t really like the green flowers I’ve seen, so I’m thinking for my bouquet white and pink flowers and lots of greenery. For bridesmaid bouquets all pink flowers and greenery. Inspirations I’ve found:

The best thing is the cakes are only $3.75/slice! For about 100 people which is what we are planning on that would be a bit less than $400 + maybe $100 for decoration so $500. That’s doing pretty good for a wedding cake, especially one this nice!