7 Weeks and 3 Days

The Visit

So life is beginning to settle a little bit. Last week's visit did wonders for balancing out my crazy existence of late. Not only was it great to see Sweetie, but my state of agitation was at a minimum, and I'm down to 2 points of contact for arranging ceremony stuff in England. Yay! I can't begin to tell you how much pressure that eases off of me.

My future in-laws are great peeps, and I think we'll get along fine. In fact, my future father-in-law looks to be a huge help and resource for wedding planning... who knew? lol And it was equally nice to meet all of Sweetie's mates at his pub. They're all very good peeps... and a few of them have even indicated that they'd like to make it out to the real wedding here in the States as well as the Commitment Ceremony in the UK. I think it'd be wonderful for him to have familiar faces at the wedding.

Of course, one of them won a lottery of sorts to have tea with the Queen this year, so Mom is now fussing about the tea menu for the Tea Reception here... lol But lemme back up a little to explain... we've decided on alternate reception themes... an American theme for the Pub Party reception over there, and a Brit theme for the reception here. And since we're trying to shave expenses, we figured a mid-afternoon light tea would be the perfect fit.

But now Mom's worried that it won't stand up to the standards of someone who's had tea with the Queen... lol I don't think she should worry, though, as the lady in question is very nice and down to earth... I honestly can't see her lookin down her nose at our reception... :)

Amway, the 3 ½ days went by quick, but we packed a lot in, so our time seemed simultaneously longer and not long enough. We didn't exactly stick to the schedule, but then a lot of the anticipated ceremony planning stuff proved unnecessary, so it was all okay. We didn't get to a few things I really wanted to take care of, but mostly those were items of ceremony discussion that would be better in person, but we can just as easily take care of on the phone.

Oh, and I quite conveniently developed a UTI while I was there... but at least I happen to always keep some Uristat on me, which helped keep me comfortable until I could get home and get to the doctor for antibiotics.

Looking Ahead

So now we're down to the next countdown until Sweetie's here in May... 7 weeks and 3 days. Not too bad. I'm glad we decided to see each other roughly every other month... 8 week countdowns are relatively easy to digest.

This week I'm workin 10 hour days. Just before I left for my trip, my new supervisor (I still have to think of a blog name for her... she's somethin like an outrageous but fun social butterfly, so it may take a bit to think of somethin) surprised me with the news that she'd received approval for me to work extra hours when I got back to help catch up with my work. And at the same time, bank up some unofficial comp time to help ease up my extremely tight vacation hours for Sweetie's and my visits to each other this year.

I'm all kinds of stoked about it... and perfectly happy to log in late hours for it. In fact, I'm kinda hopin for one more week of it, as that would earn me just enough time to be able to spend an entire week next time I visit Sweetie... which would be awesome. Especially as my next trip will be when he has his Interview at the Consulate (the last stage of his Fiance Visa application process) I'd been a bit worried that if his interview were in the middle of the week, my currently available vacation time would leave me precisely enough time to travel there, go to his interview with him, and travel back. Not my idea of a pleasant trip. But with a few extra days under my belt, I can make my visit a full week, and it won't matter what day the interview is... :)

In the meantime, I have a full plate for getting ready for Sweetie's next visit in May. And writing up that VA letter to reschedule my evaluation appointment and reinstate my benefits. And filing my taxes. And catching up with my bills since... erm.. well, last May (thank goodness for automatic payments). And preparing for the next items I need to provide for Sweetie's Visa application. And figuring out what to throw in the garage sale Mom and Pop will be having next month. I need to do some serious purging if I'm gonna make room for a new husband in my home at the end of the year. Oh, and can't forget wedding planning, and a wedding dress to make with Mom... lol

I seriously doubt I'll have very much down time this year... but it's all towards a very good result, so it's a positive busy :) At least until I'm stressed out under PMS again... lol