Happily Married

The whole past month has been wonderful. First the wedding, which was a glorious day - I almost cried walking up the aisle and seeing all the beaming faces of my friends who had come to wish me well - then the honeymoon, a whirlwind tour of Australia through Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Cairns, and Melbourne.

Australia has always been on my list of must-visit places, but now that I've been there I can't cross it off - I have to go back. In fact we were so smitten with Sydney that we talked about living there. I don't know how the logistics would work - I just know we loved being there. Especially the harbour. And the Blue Mountains. Walking around the Opera House when it was all lit up at night, seeing flying foxes in the palm tree outside our window in Cairns, getting to touch a joey at a zoo in Adelaide, are all experiences I'll treasure. We were struck with how friendly and open and nice all the Aussies were. You'd think they would get burned out with tourists, but they were great. Now I have delusions of saying "to hell with it" about my job here, and the two of us moving to Australia so I can work with flying foxes. It's a delusion because I could never bear to be that far away from my family - especially if we start one of our own. But it's nice dreaming about it.

The best part of the trip was just having all that time to spend together. After the stressful weeks leading up to the wedding, it was lovely just being able to spend each day as we liked, exploring and eating at nice restaurants and having fun. Going back to work today has been hard just because it's the first time we've been separated for more than a couple of hours, since we got married more than three weeks ago.

Two Days

Almost there. The past week has been rushed, and the past few days have really been a crunch-time. I had lots of stuff I was going to do in my lunch hour, last-minute wedding planning, and it just didn't happen because I didn't have a lunch hour. Hopefully I will accomplish a lot tomorrow. Well, even if I don't, all the major stuff is in place.

I'm so happy. I still don't really believe this is going to happen. All day I've had a TMBG song in my head, "These things happen to other people...", a line I've often thought of whenever something particularly wonderful and unlooked-for came my way. Marriage is one of those things that I always really hoped would happen for me, and was secretly afraid would not. I still shouldn't count those chickens. But barring major catastrophes, it looks like everything is good to go.

I'll write again when we get back from the honeymoon - end of May. Cheerio!

Three Days

Lots of parties over the last week - I've eaten a lot of cake and said many thank yous, and the wedding hasn't even happened yet. I wasn't expecting everyone to be as generous and supportive as they all have been. Most of my friends are already married and I thought it would be old hat to them. And I thought people at work might even be grumpy about it, because they're not married, most of them, and sometimes it's hard to be happy about someone else's good situation when you're not there yourself. But that's just my bias speaking, assuming that everyone wants to be married, just because I've always wanted to. Perhaps it was ungenerous of me not to expect them to be so generous.

I'm nearly in the home stretch now. All I have to do is plow through the mountain of work on my last day before (nearly) a month off, and get through one final day of frantic shopping and cooking. Then - yippeeee!

Four Days

So much to remember. My brain is racing. I'm fairly organized, and I have lots of help, like I said, but even so this wedding planning business is a challenge. I keep getting hit with flashes like "what about money in Australia? we have to remember to change funds before we go" and "who will pick up the appetizers?" and "need to mail directions to those four people" and "got to look at the proofs for the wedding programs" and "did I call to confirm the cake order?" and a million other things. I'm not the type to stress over trying to make the day perfect, either. If anything, I think I'm too lax - I keep saying "It'll be fine," and then my mom or someone says, "Yes. But we still need to make this decision." I think the stress is getting to the boy, too - I've seldom seen him so busy and worried. I look forward to being married and being able to just spend relaxed time with him again.

Five Days

Today I'm just feeling happy, and lapped in friendship. Everyone is being wonderful. Though we tried to plan a really small, simple wedding, it turns out there are still a lot of things that have to be done, and it's more than we could do ourselves. I'm so grateful to my friends who are helping us with the music, lending us plates and chairs, picking up the food from the caterer the morning of the wedding, helping set up, doing the wedding programs, singing at the wedding, etc. My friends from home planned a great bachelorette party, and my friends at work gave me a surprise party this morning. Meanwhile my lovely fiancé is working hard to get all the music and other arrangements ready. Ahhh...it's going to be wonderful.