Most of you already know that I lost my puppy dog Booby last week. She’d not been doing well for a few weeks, so we knew it was coming, and thankfully, we got to say goodbye. So while I am heartbroken that I don’t get to scratch her butt (right above her tail) or rub her ears anymore, I feel so lucky to have had such an amazing companion for the last 13 years. 

A woman found her running along the side of the highway in North Dallas the day before I decided to get a dog. From the first moment we met (she peed on the floor) I knew she was the one for me.

Every time I would leave town I would worry like crazy that something would happen to me and I wouldn’t see her again; or worse, that something would happen to her while I was away. But every time, I would come home and be greeted by crazy barking and a tail wagging so furiously that it moved her entire body.

I took her to Starbucks with me 3 days after I brought her home. I tied her leash to a table and went inside to get my coffee. When I came out, she’d pulled out of her harness and was gone. After a panicked search of the shopping center I returned to my car to find her sitting next to the driver’s side door, waiting for me.

She moved cross-country with me twice, outlasted several relationships (and even more friendships), survived four cats, and made me smile more times than anyone could count. 

She taught me how to be patient, how to forgive, and how to find joy in the smallest things.

I honestly feel that she knew that my heart was in good hands and that she could trust Scott to support me through this. And I think she knew that she was safe and loved and that it was OK to let go. 

She was the best dog I’ve ever known, right up to the end, and I will miss her forever. 

it’s all basically done! NOW WE WAIT. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg&ob=av2e

has been discussed, chosen, and ordered. 36 DAYS!!!!

we have checked off three big things this weekend. you’ll be glad to know that scottie will probably not be getting married in a t-shirt and jeans; i will not be walking down the aisle in vans slip-ons, and we will not be exchanging cigar bands during the ceremony. 

i’m sure my mother is relieved. 

in other news: favors are nearly done, my MOH has a dress, and i found the Right string lights this weekend. 

so everything continues swimmingly! 

except that whole “people actually getting their invitations” thing. 

scottie and sent out save-the-date cards, mostly so out-of-towners could begin to plan their trips before the “lower fare” window closed. we got non of them back from the post office, so we figured the addresses on those were safe to use for the invites. 

well, the USPS is doing their DANGEDEST to see that they AREN’T.

so far we’ve gotten three invitations back with “insufficient address” labels on them. the addresses look something like this: 

Friend or Family Member’s Name

Address 

Apt No (where applicable)

City, State ZIP

They are white envelopes with dark grey writing. I have ridiculously good penmanship, so I know they’re legible. I can’t help but think the postal service is just being a bunch of a-holes. 

How do I know this? Because my cousin and my aunt and uncle got two separate invitations at the same address, one addressed to my cousin, one addressed to my aunt and uncle. My cousin received his; my aunt and uncle’s was returned “insufficient address.” 

THEY SHARE A MAILBOX. IN A TOWN OF LESS THAN 4,000. 

Another one is a friend of mine who lives in Brooklyn. She’s got a somewhat distinctive name; it’s not like there are a zillion people running around with her last name in Fort Greene. And i would bet my LIFE that she’s the only one in her building with that name. but somehow, including her name, street address, apartment number, city, state, and zip code on the envelope wasn’t enough for it to be delivered. 

I get mail for every single person that has ever lived in my house (and their children, in some cases), but somehow the USPS won’t deliver a hand-addressed invitation to CURRENT RESIDENT of a particular apartment? Maybe I should have addressed it to some random person or made it look like a Val-Pak or an AARP flyer. Because based on my mail she sure as shit would have gotten it then. 

this is the road that my relatives live on. i can see how finding the right house might be confusing — there must be something like 7 mailboxes on their stretch. 

just booked our hotel room (where I will also be getting ready on the the Big Day) and spoke to the people who are gonna make our favors (i love it when i find a place that does things cheaper/better than I could do myself). Then I realized that May is like 3 weeks away. And we’re getting married in May. 

Holy. 

Crap. 

I don’t know if I’m nervous or excited (or both) but let me tell you right now: my brain is ON FIRE. I have waaay more going in my skull than I’m used to, so please forgive me if I forget something that you tell me between now and May 18. Because it’s super-busy in there. 

Things are going swimmingly, however. If only I could find SHOES. (Seriously, like 75% of what’s in my brain revolves around shoes. how cute are THESE??)

holy crap. I don’t know how people drag this out into a year or more. I can barely stand it!!!

a lot of people have asked me what my name is going to be after we get married, and i respond that it’s going to be the same as it is now and they’re always a little confused by that. 

I’ve talked about it with scott, and while he would really like it if i took his name, he understands why i would want to keep mine, i mean, i’m almost 40. it’s been my name for such a long time that i don’t know if i would want to change it. 

and there’s also that whole archaic “ownership” thing; while i know that’s not something that is even an issue in my relationship, it still makes me bristle a little. how is my name not just as important as his?

But then I think about what will happen when we have a family. How annoying will it be to have a different last name than my children? And is it really that important to hang on to this name? Maybe I could keep the same name professionally and then use a married name in my personal life? Am I overthinking it? 

What do y’all think? 

probably the most important thing I’m learning from this process is to recognize what really matters and what doesn’t. take the invitations, for example. I couldn’t bring myself to spend a ton of money on something, ultimately, that would go into the trash.

But I also didn’t want a generic invitation with black script and  none of that krakberry sparkle that we all love. (hee)

so we were going to make the invites ourselves. without going into too much boring detail, i’ll just say there were extremely frustrating technical issues that were kind of beyond our control that led us to rethink that decision.

it was a bummer, yes. but it was also a lesson in rethinking a plan and going with a better option. you guys, this could have been a huge deal. but the fact that we figured it out and were able to get invites made quickly (and at a huge discount, wheee) bodes very well for the future. and plan b invites look awesome. so, so happy with them! 

i’m not going to post a photo of them because I want the guests to see them first. but i will plug the online company that printed them (and our save the date cards), because they’re awesome and inexpensive and do really good work. 

A lot of you know that I’m kind of a workaholic. I have several jobs, and am passionate about each one. I count myself blessed to get to have three jobs I love instead of one that I hate.  

Most of the time my work doesn’t really feel like work, which rules, but which also means that sometimes I look up and three weeks have gone by and I feel like all I’ve done is work. So I’ve had to force myself to take time off, because I’ve gotten burned out before and that’s not fun at all. So I’ve been taking a day off every week. A full day, with no work at all, just hanging out with Scottie and either getting stuff done around the house, or doing fun stuff, or sometimes doing absolutely nothing. It’s my favorite day of the week. 

I loooooove planning trips. It’s so much fun to look at hotels and neighborhoods and learn about a city I’ve never visited.

I’m addicted to the site Trip Advisor; it’s super-easy to navigate and full of helpful information. Most listings have quite a few reviews, and I love to read the really bad ones written by people that clearly had unrealistic expectations. My favorites are the ones riddled with misspellings, like “hear” instead of “here,” or full of grammatical errors, or that are one long sentence.

I also really enjoy reviews that gripe about the size of the TV (I tend not to watch a lot of TV on vacation) or that are upset about something outside of the hotel’s control (like the weather). Sometimes I wish that the people who claim that a hotel is “filthy” would post photos of their own houses, just so we could get an idea of their frame of reference for cleanliness. 

My favorites, though, are the negative reviews to which a staff member of the hotel has responded. Sometimes the response is friendly and apologetic, and attempts to explain the situation and offers to respond offsite with the reviewer; other times (i LOOOVE these) the manager or staff member is kind of snippy back and suggests that the guest wouldn’t have been happy anywhere, or mentions that the guest was offered a different room and refused it, or that the guest chose to ignore the hotel’s guest information or signage. 

Every hotel reservation is a crapshoot; you never know what it’s going to REALLY be like until you get there. It’s part of the fun!