Sargeant Pepper

At a quarter past six on Saturday morning I dropped Joel off at the steps to the Athletic Center and he boarded a coach bus bound for South Carolina, leaving me as a bachelorette for a full week.  He's been doing this every spring since we first started dating, and it's a week I've come to both look forward to and dread in equal measure.  We are pretty good about spending time apart, I usually enjoy having entire days to myself: days where I can go to yoga and sit around in my sweaty clothes all afternoon, watching whatever I want on TV with the volume up to supersonic levels.  But I was caught unpleasantly off-guard the first few times he went away for entire weekends; caught by a crushing sense of loneliness that I really had no excuse to feel.   I've learned over the years that the key is to make plans, and lots of them -- even if it's just running the same errands I run every week, having a schedule in place makes all the difference.  But sometimes, despite my best precautions, I find myself feeling distraught and abandoned by Sunday night.  

Happily, I made it through this past weekend without once feeling like the sobbing little lady left behind at home.  It seems I've finally gotten the hang of this week-alone thing, and it's about damned time, right?  And ironically enough, this is the last spring break I'll spend on my own since Joel's team has been cut from the University's budget thanks to the tanking economy.  So... good thing I've got that figured out.

Anyway, now my biggest dilemma is that I am DYING to watch the last three episodes of Battlestar Gallactica sitting in my Tivo... but I can't because I need to wait until Joel gets home.  Not because I'm nice, but because I need someone around to answer all my dumb questions so I'll have at least a 50/50 chance of knowing what the hell is going on.  In my defense, I didn't watch the show until last year so I never got some of the foundational background.  In, uh, not my defense, I have a lot of questions about shows that I've every single episode of, so... yeah.  Don't ever go to the movies with me, is what I'm saying.  And don't ANYONE say anything about the last three episodes of BSG or I'll have to kill you.  That goes for the entire internet.  I already had Harry Potter ruined for me by THIS stupid video, [DON'T WATCH IT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THROUGH BOOK 6, SERIOUSLY] and I really just can't take another blow like that.  I'm fragile right now.  Twilight is over, Kristen Stewart is giving interviews that make it look like she's even more braindead than I already suspected, and my brother is taking so goddamn long to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that I'm left discussing it with myself on Twitter.   Seriously, K: if I hear that you've been sleeping this week, I'm going to be very disappointed.

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In completely unrelated news, I fear that my car might be heaving its last exhaust-laden breaths.  I've been thinking that it's been a bit noisy lately, and last night the brakes really didn't seem to be braking all that well.  I was just resolving to take it in to be looked at - it's due for an oil change anyway - when my radio crapped out.  Again.  Maybe it will be as simple as disconnecting and re-connecting the battery (that's how we fixed the radio last time).  Maybe this is nothing, maybe it's just another attack of Volkswagen Gremlin-itis... but I just have a feeling that this is the beginning of the end.  I hope I'm wrong, I'd love to drag another few thousand miles out of this old girl.

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And to end on happy note: ladies and gentlemen, we officially have a minister to perform our wedding ceremony.  Can I get a hallelujah?  We ended up going with the first guy we met with - the one that was perfect except for the fact that he had another wedding an hour and a half after ours - and I'm really happy with the decision.  He's the right fit for the style of wedding we want and we both felt really comfortable with him... the only issue was our fear that the two ceremonies were just too close together, timewise.  But after we met with another wedding dude who regaled us with a tale of the time he performed FOUR weddings on the same day, we realized that booking with someone else didn't guarantee us exclusive rights to that date and there was a good possibility that another officiant might not even tell us if they were rushing off to another ceremony an hour after ours.  I emailed Dude #1 and told him the situation - that we really felt he was the best fit and were just concerned about the timing - and he assured us that he would not book two ceremonies if he were'nt completely sure he could give both the same level of service.  I mailed a check that same day and put a huge happy checkmark on my spreadsheet.  YAY.  And also: PHEW. 

 

Comments

[NGS]

Yay for a minister!! That is a big check on the list of things to do!!

I totally can not watch a movie or television show without peppering someone with questions. My husband...does not like this. I have a particularly difficult time with action sequences because I get so overwhelmed and bored (at the same time!) with the gun fights/chase scenes/aerial kicking, badly choreographed fight scenes that I lose focus and start thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner for the rest of the week.

Anyway, I've learned to compile my questions as we watch and ask at the end. Occasionally this means I then have to watch something AGAIN to truly understand it, but at least my husband hasn't dumped popcorn on my head.

Most of the time.

[nancypearlwannabe]

Yay for finding an officiant, boo for it not being me! What did I spend those 4.5 seconds on the internet getting ordained for then, OPH?!

Kidding. I'm sure it will all work out in the end, although I am sure your officiant is not planning on ending the ceremony with a karaoke version of Baby Got Back like I was.

[Julie]

I can really relate to how you feel when Joel's away. Tim's company takes them on a 4-5 day long trip to somewhere warm every January... and the first year I was a total wreck. But it's been 3 years (?) I think?? And this year I was pretty okay.

They leave Sunday and come back Thursday or Friday... usually by Friday I am ready for him to just be home already. Going to sleep alone stinks!

[Courtney]

Woohoo for having a minister!

I get that way about some tv shows and movies, too. Then I feel really dumb 'cause like, shoudn't I get it?

[Lindsey]

Yay for choosing a minister! Are you using The Knot's checklist?? You better be!! I would be pretty disappointed if we weren't...