Plane Tickets

So when I was getting the mail today, I found an envelope from our Travel Agent. We had originally been planning on booking everything ourselves, but decided instead to splurge a little and let someone else do it for us. We told her where we wanted to go (Rome, Florence, Venice & Lake Como) and she arranged everything for us. Included in the envelope from her, was a brochure for the hotel we're staying at in Lake Como. In this cold month of February, this place looks like heaven. You can see it here: www.hotelvillaflori.com/inglese/como_lake.html if you like. Apparently, we have a lake view room.

Included in the package also were paper ticket, well, just the receipt, and they really got me thinking... I can't even remember the last time I saw a paper ticket. I wouldn't know how to go about getting one of those instead of an e-ticket. It was probably some time in high school. It amazes me how much technology has changed things in the past 10 years. My 10 year high school reunion is in 2007, and I can't even imagine what it's like to go to high school now.

Muslin Fitting

I'm so exited! This Saturday, I'm going to go for my first bridal gown fitting. They're doing a muslin first, so that's what I'm going to get fit, and then they're going to make my gown from the muslin.

Mostly I think I'm just happy to get to try on a gown that actually fits me. When I went with my soon to be Mother-In-Law, there were only sample dresses to try on. They dresses were a little ridiculous on me as they were size 8/10 and I'm a 14/16. Plus, I'm over 6 feet, so they were all too short on me. It's hard to get an idea of what I'll look like in the dress, if it barely goes over my hips and has to be held up with pins in the back.

So wish me luck, I'll be starving myself till Saturday (just kidding, but how crazy would I be if I actually did that?)

Reading About Reading

So I just finished So Many Books, So Little Time?" by Sara Nelson and it was a very familiar read. I'm an obsessive reader, from a family of obsessive readers, and I too judge new friends based on what they read, and what they recommend to me. In fact, I've been friends with a girl I work with for over 6 months and have just now recommended a book to her (A Long Way Down by Nick Hornsby) because I wasn't sure how much her and my taste coincide. Luckily she loves the book...crisis averted.

The other fantastic thing about this book, is her willingness to admit to never reading many of the >Classics. So, in the spirit of that I'm going to admit to a couple never read/never finished myself:

A Confederacy of Dunces - Read half of it, couldn't appreciate the humor and never finished it

Any J. R. R. Tolken - Couldn't get past the language

Moby Dick - Was supposed to read it in 11th Grade English, couldn't stand it

All Dickens beside Great Expectations... no excuses for this

There are many more on this list that I should have read, but these are the ones that cause me the most guilt. I invite everyone else who reads this blog to list some of their unread classics and get that reading guilt off their chests.

We're going to Italy!!!

So we decided to go with the slightly more expensive photographer, because his photos were just so much better. I can't imagine hiring someone and expecting to get only okay photos. These, more then anything else, are what will be lasting a lifetime... we want to be able to show our kids and grandkids these photos and be proud of how these photos tell the story of our wedding.

In other news, we've started the process of booking our honeymoon. We're going to Northern Italy for 12 days. We're spending a couple days each in: Rome, Florence, San Como and Venice. I've been there once before, but Fiance hasn't. In some ways we're looking forward more to the honeymoon then to the wedding itself. We're just so excited to be able to be married, that neither one of us can relax until after the the wedding.

Big Sicky

So Fiancé has been sick since Friday. Nothing major: a flu or nasty head-cold of some sort. I've been drinking orange juice by the gallon and living on vitamins in the hope that I don't get sick (so far so good).

We also spent part of this weekend looking at photographers. We saw 3: one we loved, one we liked and one would have been okay. We had to nix the third one because her house smelled too bad. She worked out of a studio in her basement and had two giant dogs and a number of cats and her house was just sort of gross. I felt bad crossing her off the list because of this, but I couldn't have imagined going back there again.

So now we're trying to decide between the other two photographers. We can go with the more expensive one that we loved, or the cheaper one who was okay. What worries me is that everyone who we've talked to has been disappointed in their photos. So should we go with the great guy and hope we're not too disappointed, or should we go with the other one and start out expecting to be disappointed, so then we get exactly what we expected. Or, since we expected to be disappointed, will these photos instead be something we hate. It's too hard to predict. But we'll figure it out eventually.

My Grandparents pt. 2

So on to the paternal Grandparents. Senalis, my grandfather, is the grandparent who lived the longest. Both he and my Machuta were born in Lithuania. He loved telling stories, and would have loved the opportunity to have a fresh set of ears to talk to.

My Machuta is the toughest. She died when I was 12, so I can't remember her as well as I can my other grandparents. What I do remember, is that she was a warm and loving woman. I think she would be happy for me, and would like the chance to get to know Fiance.

Times like this, I really miss all of them, but I believe that they're with me in spirit and will be with me on my big day.

My Grandparents pt. 1

So tonight I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she reminded me that it was her mother's birthday. My Grandma has been dead almost 7 year...in fact none of my Grandparents are still alive. Our conversation got me thinking about what my grandparents would think about my wedding.

I think my Mom's parents would love my Fiance. My Grandmother was a tiny little woman. She was barely 5 feet tall, but like most short women of her generation, she made up with it in spunk. She and Fiance would have argued politics and would have a fabulous time. They're very similar in personality and she would have been happy to see me with someone much more outgoing and excitable then I am.

I'm more like my Grandpa. He was a quiet man and I was closest to him of any of my grandparents. We spend a lot of time together when I was very little. He would have been happy Fiance because he made me happy, he wouldn't have cared about anything else.

Tomorrow, the paternal grandparents.