when grandma says you're fallin' down on the blog, you better blog.

okay, i know it has been a long time since i blogged when my grandma is giving me a hard time about it! :) (hi grandma!)

so, wow, it's been almost two weeks since i updated you all. give me a little break, here, i am less than three short weeks away from the big day! which of course means there are about a billion little things to take care of.

since we last chatted, tons has happened. i got home from my conference on a rainy thursday, which was followed by a rainy friday, a rainy saturday, a cloudy sunday and a rainy monday. for real. i was seriously deprived of vitamin d after that stretch. the rainy friday was spent driving through tropical storm/tropical depression/tropical pain in my rear ernesto. bryan and i thought we'd be smooth and take the long way to PA--64west to 81north. figured that'd take us AROUND the storm. no such luck. bryan was driving in practically torrential downpours for a good 6 hours. it got old real fast, but there was no escaping it.

we made it to pa in one piece and hit the sack so bryan could rest up for his big day the next day: bachelor party #1. and party it was. i, of course, was not invited. instead i spent some quality time with my future sister-in-law kelley and future mother-in-law jan. i did, however, get a very sweet--albeit drunke--awakening when bryan got home. he had a very good time, and even came home with a door prize--a men's leather jacket from banana republic! okay, it wasn't a door prize. he found it in the floor of a bar and thought it was a good idea to put it on and somehow none of his companions saw anything wrong with him wearing someone else's leather jacket out of the place. so he came home with it. car keys in the pocket. someone else's car keys mind you. the class that graduated his high school a year after them was having their class reunion at the bar where he confiscated it, so we returned the jacket to the girl who had coordinated that event the next day. we have since discovered that the man whose jacket bryan "borrowed" came back to the bar accusing people of stealing his jacket and became so irate that he was arrested and spent the night in jail, in the drunk tank i presume. he was apparently quite intoxicated yet his best argument to the police was that he was the designated driver and his car keys were in his coat pocket. so i guess it turns out bryan is the hero for "borrowing" the jacket and playing fonzie the rest of the night.

the next day, sunday, was the klinger family labor day gathering. one of bryan's cousins just had a baby and i believe at least 5 people in bryan's family either told me not to wait too long or made some comment about how bryan and i should be next with the baby. alright, people, let us get hitched first and THEN we can think about babies for you all.

monday we came home and back to the real world. most of last week was spent either at work or shopping for wedding stuff or discussing wedding stuff. we got a good bit accomplished, so much that we've really taken the past few days off from it. back to business soon.

this past weekend was bryan's bachelor party #2. his brother kevin came down so that bryan could party again, this time with his virginia contingent. i'll avoid sharing details of his arrival home in the wee hours of sunday morning, but let's just say that he still smelled of alcohol when i got home from a shopping trip yesterday around 6pm...

my saturday was awesome--i got to spend time with some of my favorite people! drove up to staunton to see my mom, brother and sister and fit my sister's bridesmaid's dress. luckily, the smaller size fit her perfectly--no alterations needed! yay! we all went to this great store called fashion gallery and i found a very cute top. it was so good to see my mom, bro and sis--i really wish i got to see them more often. every time i see vic and zech they seem to mature more and more. it is freaking me out that my sister will be able to get her learner's permit in just a couple months and when my friends look at pictures of my (13 year old!) brother they think he is hot!

on my way to staunton, i passed many a car flying the UVA flag, and got the football itch really bad. i called my dad to see if maybe i could score his second ticket and meet him there at halftime, which i did. and thankfully, my good ol' wahoos put one in the W column! we sort of won by accident (the other team missed their extra point in overtime), but hey, it was damned exciting and fabulous to see my team win! it had been years since my dad and i got to go to a football game together, too, so that was tons of fun.

sunday: shopping with neener! my stepmom has been stressed to the max about finding something to wear to the wedding, so we headed to short pump on a mission, with bridesmaid leslie as back-up. i knew the task at hand was doable, it was just a matter of forcing neener in the dressing room with some dresses and dressy clothes that i knew would look good on her. and we succeeded! even got shoes to match!

and today, back to work, where i had my first "intro to conversational spanish" class, lunched with erica (my mistress of ceremonies) and even managed to get a little work done in spite of the screwy VCU financial systems. and now that i've updated this blog FINALLY, i think i'm going to go downstairs and read some more of Wicked, it's such a good book! it's the back story of the wicked witch of the west from the wizard of oz, and it is hard to put down.

i can't, however, leave without acknowledging the importance of today's date. it's hard to believe that 9/11 was five years ago. watching the news tonight and remembering, it just seems sort of surreal still. i was so fortunate to not have any loved ones killed in the attacks, and yet i mourn for all those who did. i just can't imagine what that feels like. i remember sitting alone in my apartment that day after i left work trying to figure out what i should do. there were so many people i wanted to be with on that terrifying day, yet none of them were in the same place. i am reminded how fortunate and blessed i am to love so many people, and to be loved in return.