A Way Overdue Post

OK- so I'm a total slacker- and I haven't posted anything about my birthday (actual) and subsequent family celebrations. Nor have I posted about much in almost 2 weeks.

Anyway, I'm here to catch you up.

1. It's been insanely busy at work. I have heaps of perceived stress. Lately, I've been feeling like I get to do all the things no one else wants to do. These are not easy things... and I'm not a machine. But I feel like I'm expected to be one.
2. I'm on medication that is doing funny things to my moods. Some side effects I read about include: emotional instability, depression and suicidal thoughts, among others, especially as the body is getting introduced to the meds. So while I dont' have suicidal thoughts, it's occurred to me that my mood swings of late have greatly affected my perspective on things. I'm a lot more sensitive, I feel indecisive and lack confidence, and some days I want to crawl in a hole and not talk to anyone, except maybe family or John,... and some days the stupidest things make me cry. Some days are ok, though. But I'm praying for the next few months to bring relief.
3. Wedding planning is starting to take up a little more time.
   a) Found out yesterday that more relatives are planning to actually come. As the first born kid in my family, which is the only family in the midwest near a big city (Chicago), it's possible that they all are really going to come for my wedding. Many of them who haven't really visited before, have been waiting for a momentous occasion to occur so that they could-which is really cool. And I'm very excited. However, I'm trying to figure out where to put all the relatives who will be coming from out of town/country. The challenge is that a lot of hotels want an 80% guarantee... so that means that if less than %80 show up, I'd be stuck with paying the difference. Problem is, I don't know if we can generate more than about 6 rooms booked (from my side at least) -- so the cost savings for a group booking is not seeming all that practical.
   b) We booked our DJ yesterday. Originally, we wanted to see if maybe a friend w/ a PA would be able to help us. Unfortunately, considering all the logistics, it just wasn't practical and we wanted to make sure that sound would not be a problem for us. The nice thing is that the DJ will accommodate our music nazi request- i.e., there will be no requests allowed at the reception. John and I felt that we could put together a pretty slammin dance songlist... and we both absolutely disdain any kind of line dancing, conga lines, locomotions, electric slides, YMCA, chicken dances, macarenas, etc. For everyone else's wedding, that's fine- line dancing of any kind just ain't our thing.
   c) Got all the wedding accessories for me and the bridesmaids. I have all my gear now... and am making my hair stuff (I'm not paying $120 for a rhinestone hair comb!). But putting things together takes time, a glue gun, wire cutters, and 1 inch, one sided, alligator clips that I could only find on eBay.
   d) Pre-marital counseling only happens every other week, but it takes a lot of mental energy. John and I are doing really well so far, but we're usually wiped out afterwards.
   e) I started designing our invitations this week. Still some tweaking to do, but its been some work. Trying to combine celtic and chinese design elements, representing our respective heritages... I think I have a solution, but we'll see if things will work out.
4. So my birthday was interesting.
   
   First, John sent me this package via Fed Ex. When I opened it, I discovered that he had registered a star in the name of Lurve. I mean it. Lurve. What used to be Cygnus #XXXXX(fill in coordinates here)-- is now Lurve. At first I was a little puzzled as to why John would register a star. Then I read the enclosed card. Basically, someday our descendants can look up in the sky and see our Lurve. Get it? Ok, sorry if I've now made you sick,... but it was very romantic and poetic. I even went out yesterday evening and found a frame and matboard for the huge 12 x 16" certificate that states that there is now a star named Lurve in the cosmos.
   
   So I went into work on my b-day and my co-workers laid out a spread of healthy food- fruit, health food bars, weight watchers desserts, and chocolate soy milk. They all know I'm dieting... and it was all very yummy. Later, John had a vase full of roses delivered to my office, much to the jealousy of my co-workers. After work, John came over, we relaxed for a little bit and he took me out for dinner at Bahama Breeze. While we were there, my pop called at exactly 7:46 pm (the time I was born, 31 years ago) to say happy birthday. It was a lovely day.
   
   Continuing the birthday madness,.... my mom and dad decided to have a big birthday dinner for me and Esther (whose birthday is 6 days after mine) at the Chinese restaurant where the wedding will be held in Sept. They invited John's mom and Darrick's fiancee's parents as well. Our family is getting very big. Dinner was good and the mom's got to talk some more.
5. So this has been a stressful week for my family--- on Sunday, my little sis was heading back to school and was driving on a very icy road when the car slid, did a 180 degree turn into oncoming traffic, and she was hit from the rear. Fortunately, thank God, she escaped with only bumps and bruises-- the folks took her to the hospital to make sure her injuries were superficial and everything was fine. But the car didn't fare as well... so they all are dealing with that this week. If anything, the folks are all shaken up about the accident in the sense that it really could have been a lot worse by a few inches. So if you can pray for my family as they deal with all the stuff resulting from the accident, that would be great.

So how's that for a busy week?