Life is happening!

Hello, blogger friends! I miss you!!!

I'm so sorry to keep falling behind on posts, but if I sat at my computer posting all the time, I'd have nothing to post about. I hope you see that my absence is of a very unselfish nature, as I'm doing all these things so I can fill you in and give you something interesting to read.

Work has been pretty busy the last week and a half or so, so I haven't been able to read up or post during slow periods, since they haven't really existed. Plus, I was spending what little downtime I had trying to find a reception site online.

Friday night, I got home just in time for the start of quite a storm. The tornado sirens started going off just as my TV alerted me to a tornado warning. I did what any person who grew up in the South and has had many experiences with a tornado would do: I went outside. I could see and hear the storm rolling in from the west. Poor TV reporters were delivering reports in the middle of downpours and sheltering themselves as much as they could from the hail (reason No. 857 why I decided to not become a TV reporter, despite my degree and experience). One reporter had warned of baseball-sized hail, so when I started seeing pea-sized hail falling on my precious little Honda, I moved it under some covered parking.

All my neighbors were outside watching the storm too. I was on the phone through most of it. I talked to my dad, my mom, K and my brother, who'd just gotten in the night before for the NASCAR race. The storm was getting pretty loud, but it got quiet all of a sudden. With my experience in Oklahoma (trust me -- if you live in the South long enough, you can go outside and tell if it's "tornado weather" by the color of the sky and the smell and feel of the air), I knew this only meant one of two things: the storm was over, or the worst part was about to come.

I could see the clouds swirling overhead a bit, so I headed downstairs to my neighbors' in case the tornado did come and rip off my ceiling. It was nice to finally have an actual conversation with them, since we'd only chatted for a few brief moments before. It didn't take long to realize that the storm was over for us, and we were safe.

I met up with my brother later that night. He seemed happy to be back in this part of the country, even if it was in Texas instead of Oklahoma. He showed me his uniform shirt he'd wear when he helped the pit crew. I was so excited for him!

Saturday was a busy day. I got up early and headed to a couple dress shops to see what styles I like. Going into it, I knew I loved the strapless dresses with the bunched-up skirts. After trying on dresses, I now know I love love love the strapless dresses with the bunched-up skirts. One thing I noticed that makes it even better is that that style of dress looks great with my ring, since they both have a kind of vintage feel to them.

I know I like the lace-up backs on dresses, since it adds just a bit of detail to the back. I also want the dress to have the tiniest train, which I now know is called a sweep train. And I want my dress to be simple, which works out well because I'd also like to spend somewhere around $500 (or less!) on it.

After trying on dresses, I had an appointment to look at a reception site. I fell in love! The best part is that they're going to work with our budget! When I told the woman what K and I hoped to plan the entire wedding for, she said, "Oh, that's perfect!" I'd explained to her that K and I are a fun, goofy couple and that we wanted a simple, fun wedding. "We're going to have people flying in for this thing from all over the country," I told her, "and we want them to have an awesome time."

She asked if we knew what kind of food we'd like served. "I have no idea," I told her. Then, I remembered what K and I had talked about that we thought would be fun for the rehearsal dinner. See, whenever I go with K to visit his family in PA, they talk to me like I'm an exchange student or something: "What kind of food do you eat in the South? What are weddings like in the South? Do you have [insert random thing here] in the South? What's [insert random thing here] like in the South? What's the weather like? Have you been through a tornado? What are the people like there? What kind of meat does your dad have at his store?"

K and I had thought it would be fun to have a stereotypical Southern meets Yankee Italian wedding reception or rehearsal dinner, since a large portion of my family and friends have never ventured to PA and a large portion of his family and friends haven't made it down South. Plus, the cultures are so strong for each that it would just be funny to have a meeting of the two.

I told her I didn't know that it would work for the wedding, since it's kind of a weird combo, but we'd thought it would be fun to have barbecue (to celebrate my butcher dad, barbecue-eating, country Oklahoma past) and Italian food (since K's family is Italian) served. She thought it was perfect, and she even told me about how the caterer has an option to have three stations of food served. We could have a barbecue station with pulled pork and barbecued brisket, rolls and potato salad (because I'm pretty sure it even says in the Bible that you have to eat potato salad with barbecue!), and then an Italian station, with a few kinds of pasta and sauces. It's a weird combo, but I'm so excited about it and think it's absolutely awesome.

The location, the look and everything else about this place was perfect. I was so relieved. I swear, I wanted to hug the lady who was giving me the tour. As soon as I got in my car to leave, I called K to tell him about it. I'm hoping he can make it in to see it soon.

As for the rest of my weekend, I went to dinner with my dad, his girlfriend and my brother Saturday night. Sunday was pretty lazy, which was nice after my hectic Saturday.

And life since then has been pretty much all at work. I've even been in the office after work decorating my cubicle for this P!mp My Cube contest we're having. I'm totally tiking-out my cubicle. It's awesome. I'll post pictures next week.

I'm leaving tonight for Lousiana, then K and I will fly out tomorrow morning to PA for the wedding of one of his best friends -- who, by the way, started dating his fiance four months after K and I started dating. Good thing I at least have a ring now, or I'd be giving K some serious grief this weekend!