Doing it myself

Thanks for the comments yesterday! I didn't mean to make it seem like I was already stressing over bridesmaid dresses- I'm actually not. I think that I was just recognizing that it is going to be difficult to do with different body shapes and bridesmaids scattered around the country.

Also, I wanted to apologize about my lack of comments lately. I am not able to get onto Reader at work and I try to do a lot of my reading on my phone while on the bus. It's really hard to write comments so I end up wanting to comment, but then forgetting to by the time I get home. I will try to get better!

Moving on......while I appreciate wedding websites such as The Knot- what with their checklist and the budgeter tool- I am already getting annoyed at them. I have been trying to figure out how to ask my four favorite girls if they will be my bridesmaids and all websites are trying to get me to buy edible invitations or cards in order to ask them. While it is a cute idea and not very expensive, little things like this tend to add up and before you know it, you are over budget and not able to purchase something you REALLY need for the wedding.

So, I decided to make my own invitations. To save trees, money on the cards and stamps, etc. I made a word document and attached it to an email (see below). The actual document has a bit more information on it, but you get the idea.

A girl can never have too many dresses in her closet………

……what’s one more?*

Will you be my bridesmaid?

*My intention was to put an ugly bridesmaid dress as the picture- it is a bit much, yes? :-)

This weekend CP took me out to a fancy-pants dinner to celebrate my bar passage. It was absolutely delicious and totally unexpected! At that dinner we decided that we will each have 4 people standing for us at the wedding.* CP also joked that we aren't going to have anything to talk about when the wedding is over. "Is that why people get pregnant so soon after getting married? So that they have something to talk about?" Ha ha.

Anyway, I am a little worried about one of my friends and whether she will agree to be a bridesmaid. I went to law school with her and while she currently has a law clerk job, it is not what she wants to do and might also be temporary (depends on bar passage and other things). If she does get her dream job she will probably get married pretty soon afterwards (they got engaged in March and have been waiting to elope until she gets a permanent job). And then? They plan on getting pregnant pretty soon afterwards because he is in his late 30s and wants children before he turns 40. I definitely would understand if she felt money-wise that she couldn't be a bridesmaid, but I won't deny that I will be very sad.

Keeping in mind that one of my bridesmaids is a teacher and the one above is not in a permanent job, I would like to keep costs as low as possible. As my potential bridesmaids are scattered- one on the East Coast, two in the Midwest, and one out West- I certainly don't expect them to make it to everything. My best friend who will be my maid of honor has already said that she is ready and willing to do whatever I need. She's great. However, I see myself leaning on CP more than my bridesmaids simply because all of them are a plane flight away. We'll see I guess.

My choice for bridesmaid dresses will also be very interesting. Three of the bridesmaids are as tall as me, while my maid of honor is short. Three of the bridesmaids are skinny, while one is overweight. Two of the bridesmaids are very booby, the other two have mosquito bites. How do you find a dress that looks good on everyone?? I know that some people give out a swatch of fabric and tell their bridesmaids to find a dress themselves, but I really do want everyone in the same dress for pictures.....


*I have two guy friends that I would LOVE to have as guy bridesmaids but CP and I both agree that it might look a little silly. I guess that while we don't want to worry too much about traditions, that it one that we will follow. Maybe they will do a reading or something?

What a load off my back!

My stomach was in knots this morning as I kept refreshing the website for the supreme court. What will I write on my Facebook status if I fail? What will I write on my Facebook status if I pass? Two minutes before 9am, I refreshed and suddenly the results were up.

I PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!!!!!* What a freakin' relief. Seriously. Now I never have to take that damn test again!

Of course, I couldn't quite celebrate with champagne this morning as I was at work conference in RI (and have been since Weds). Currently it's very windy and very rainy so the drive back to MA is going to be interesting. But I do know of a bottle of Prosecco (Italian champagne and my favorite) that is sitting in our house just waiting to be opened! CP spent part of last night making stuffed quahogs (clams) for our happy hour/ appetizer Friday so that should be a yummy dinner.

When I called CP to tell him the good news he was excited. And then said, "good thing you passed because then we stay engaged. You know that the engagement was predicated on you passing the bar." Ha ha. Not funny CP.


*My Facebook status immediately went to "HOLY CRAP I PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!"

Wedding facility questionnaire

As promised, here is the questionnaire we sent out to potential reception sites. Feel free to copy and paste and send out yourself!


Facility Name

Facility Address

Contact Name

Contact Tel. & Fax

Contact Email

1. Do you have the following dates open (Y/N)? (we listed our top three dates here)

2. What is the base cost for your facility?

3. Can an outside ceremony be held at facility? (Y/N)

4. What is the cost of the ceremony fee?

5. How many people can your facility hold for an outside ceremony?

6. Is there a reception package? If so, is it the same price as your answer to question #2? Please list price if it differs.

7. If so, what is included with the reception package?

8. Do you charge extra for things such as cake cutting, corking, service staff, gratuity, meal tax, etc.? If so, please list prices.

9. How many lodging rooms are available on site for overnight stays?

10. Is there a minimum number of rooms that we must reserve?

11. Is there a bridal suite (to freshen up) available?

12. If so, is the suite included in the reception price quoted above? Please list price if the suite is not included.

13. Do you have liability insurance?

14. What is the length of time for the reception for the above quoted price?

15. Is there an overtime fee?

Min:___________________

Max:__________________

16. What are the minimum/ maximum times of availability?

17. Is there a minimum guest count?

18. Will additional parties be going on simultaneously?

19. Are we allowed to rearrange items in the reception room (s)?

20. Are the use of dishes, tablecloths, glasses, etc. included in the quoted price above?

21. Are there kitchen and cooking facilities onsite?

22. Do you allow outside caterers?

23. Is parking available for the quoted price listed above.

24. Do you have coat rooms or racks available at the quoted price?

25. Is there a bar on site?

26. Does the facility have a liquor license?

27. How much does it cost for an open bar or is it included in the quoted price above?

28. Do you allow the bride and groom to provide their own alcohol?

29. Are there any dress codes?

30. Are there restrictions or regulations on music (for instance, music must be turned off by 10pm)?

31. Do you offer a wedding consultant the day of the wedding at the reception price quoted above?

32. Is a police officer required at the reception?

33. If a police officer is required, is the cost included in the reception hall price?

34. How much of a down payment is required?

35. What is your cancellation policy?

36. Please provide any additional information that you would like us to know about your facility.

37. Additional Comments:

Crazy future brides

So this weekend CP and I went up north to look at places for our ceremony and reception. Our questionnaire* went out to probably 30 places; about 20 replied (which we thought was pretty good given the short amount of time). We ended up making appointments with six places (3 on Sat, 3 on Sun) based on cost, location, etc.

The first day was just okay…CP would have been fine with one place but I thought that it looked a little worn. One of the places the first day had a hold on the weekend that we wanted, but the owner said that it was a tentative hold. You see, some woman who is NOT YET A BRIDE has come THREE TIMES in the past year to look at the place. She keeps putting a hold on the same weekend and promising that she is going to be engaged soon.

I have one word for that potential guy: RUN!!! While I think that it is great if you want to think about where you might have your wedding, what kind of dress you would want, the flowers that you would have, etc. I think that actually going and putting a hold on a place before you even get engaged is a bit ridonkulous (especially if you have been doing it for a YEAR). I understand that there are places that have two year waiting lists (definitely not this place) during busy times, but not once did the guy come and look at the Inn. He probably doesn’t even know about it. So this woman is basically already planning the wedding before he even gets a chance to do some looking around and before they are already engaged! The owner of the Inn certainly made it sound like this woman was a bit crazy.

Moving on…..we almost didn’t go to our last appointment on Sunday as we were tired from driving and all of the meetings, but kept it anyway. Thank goodness we did. As soon as we stepped on the property, we knew it was the place. A beautiful mountain backdrop, a cute inn that we could take over for the weekend, owners that we thought we would be able to work with, peak fall foliage, and a cost that was within our budget. Our wedding date is now set for October 3, 2009!!!!**


*I will post the questionnaire so that any future brides/ grooms can use it if they would like. We decided to send out a questionnaire before visiting the facilities to be able to compare site costs and amenities. We read that some places will nickel and dime you with a facility rental fee, but then not tell you that tables, chairs, and linens are not included and that you have to rent them separately. So, in order to not be surprised and to have information going in so that we could ask more thoughtful questions, we had them fill out a questionnaire. Two of the places actually said that in the 10+ years they have been doing weddings they have never seen a questionnaire and were impressed. Go us!

**I was really hoping for this date as our dating anniversary is October 2nd (3 years next week!) so now our wedding anniversary is only going to be one day off.

Leaving town?

So yesterday an opportunity came up to volunteer for a 3 month rotation down in DC. I have to do a 3 month rotation in DC for my fellowship anyway and CP and I decided that the sooner I get it done the better because it’s going to get very hectic when it gets closer to the wedding. If I was selected, I would head down to DC on December 1st and stay for three months. It sounds like a great opportunity in a different division, working on stuff that is very current.

However, if I fail the bar (which puts my stomach in knots because I will hear on FRIDAY) I have no idea how I am going to study for the bar (AGAIN), work long hours in DC, keep my relationship from falling apart because we won’t see each other every weekend, AND plan a wedding. Oh god I hope I passed the bar.

Why are you talking funny?

So based on your comments from this post, I am going to go to a MAC store and buy all new makeup. Luckily, I only need a few essentials which means not spending *too* much money. I guess milking 10+ years out of a couple of colors of eye shadow is a good value. ;-)

Since I am having a hard enough time remembering to call my fiancé “fiancé” and not “boyfriend” at work, to friends/ family, etc., I think that I should change his name on this blog to something else. So I don’t confuse people in a year when he becomes my husband, from now on he will be named CP.

Housekeeping items aside.

This weekend CP and I headed up north to stay with his dad Friday night. His dad and girlfriend graciously offered to watch fuzzy britches for us while we checked out wedding locations. CP’s dad was talking a little funny when we first arrived at the house….we came to find out that earlier that day he had lost a front tooth!!! CP’s dad is a little older than my parents- he is in his early 60s. He tried to call the dentist on Friday after it happened but never got a call back. So all throughout dinner he was the butt of many jokes. We were all joking about taking a picture of him smiling and sending it to my parents with a caption of “can’t wait to meet you!” Poor guy. His brother has had problems with his teeth as he has gotten older and just recently had major surgery to fix everything so it was a bit embarrassing after all of that ribbing on his brother to suddenly be without a front tooth.

Despite the jokes, we had a nice dinner. Both CP’s dad and girlfriend are really excited about the wedding which is great. They wanted to hear about everything that we had talked about so far, the places that we wanted to check out for reception sites (and even offered up some of their own suggestions), how formal we want the wedding, etc. CP’s dad even offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner which was generous of him.*

More on the weekend tomorrow……


*This might be a little interesting as CP’s mom has not mentioned about paying for anything. However, she is currently planning her own (small) wedding in November and her fiancé is currently out of work so we are not expecting anything.

I need advice

Ladies, I need some help. Now that I am back in the working world, I have been wearing makeup every day. Don’t worry I have kept my tomboy roots and only put on powder* and eyeliner** every day. However, my problem is taking it off at night. I know that it is not good for my skin to leave it on, but currently I only have Clinque makeup remover. I do not like the Clinque makeup remover as it doesn’t do a very good job of getting my eyeliner off and you have to wash the stuff off afterwards. Who wants to add that second step?

So here’s where you come in. I am looking for an easy (as in one step) makeup remover. I would rather not use wipes as it just adds to landfills….although I suppose that cotton balls do too. Lately I have been just using a washcloth and water, but that is kind of harsh on my skin and eyes. Help!

In the meantime, I have a tip to pass along. Like most people that are almost 30 I have started to use an eye cream to try to prevent wrinkles. I recently got a facial and the woman told me to use the eye cream on my skin between my nose and upper lip to prevent wrinkles in that area too. I had never heard that before- has anyone else? I have started to do it since I figure it can't hurt....

*Foundation scares me. Plus, I would probably be one of those people to put it on and have a noticeable difference between the color of my face and my neck.

**So the stuff that I use? Is about 10 YEARS old. I had it in COLLEGE. And I’m not even close to being halfway done with it. That is probably a good thing since it is MAC and therefore expensive.

I've had it already

Well, it has been one week since I got engaged and I'm already ready to elope. BF and I want a fall wedding, preferably in the mountains of NH. Supposedly, this is one of the most popular times to have a wedding in New England as everyone wants to have their wedding during leaf peeping season. So, a lot of the places that we are looking at only have one of our dates open or some of them, no dates at all (we gave them a choice of three).

Not only that, but everything is so GD expensive. A wedding is ONE DAY. Yes, I would love for a nice wedding, but the fact that one has to spend $30,000 on ONE DAY is ricockulous.* One place that I knew would be out of our price range was just $27,000 to rent the reception hall, an outdoor area for the ceremony, and proposed food and alcohol costs. HA HA HA HA HA.

Sorry for the rant. I probably should have waited a few weeks to start planning my wedding instead of jumping right in. That way I wouldn't have become a bitter bride-to-be just yet.

*This is my word that signifies that something has gone above and beyond ridonkulous.

Our first attempt to make friends

So BF and I decided to suck it up and check out a local Meetup group on Sunday night. The group is all about people that love food- both going to restaurants and cooking it so we figured that it was right up our alley. BF was a little perturbed that we had to go during the Pats game, but I convinced him that there would definitely be a tv at the restaurant (I totally made that up- good thing I was right!).

17 people were scheduled to show up, only 8 actually did. BF was the only boy. But, I had to hand it to him, when he wasn't watching the game, he was definitely joking around and fun. And he said that he was the wingman! The organizer picked a great tapas restaurant so we were happy to at least find a good restaurant.

At one point we were talking about people that said they were coming, but chickened out. One of the women who did not show up is a member of the Boston Tantric Group. Ummm okay. BF joked that if she came to the next event he might have to say something like, "I could talk to you for hours and hours!" HA HA HA.

So we decided that we would definitely go to another event. The only drawback of the night? One of the women that happened to sit across the table from BF was ridonkulously annoying. She was a college professor of art history and kept throwing out that she went to Brown for grad school. I have no problem with people that go to Ivy League schools. I do have a problem with people that talk AT me instead of having a conversation WITH me. That is what this woman did. She found herself way too interesting and just wanted to hear herself talk all night long. BF was very patient with her....I had to turn away and talk to others once in a while to get a break. The way I look at it? You aren't going to like everyone in the group and now BF and I know who to stay away from at the next event!

The first few days....

Proposal stories from the past few days:

*After BF proposed he said that one of the lines that he thought about saying when I pulled the ring out of the mussel was "wow! Some fisherman's wife got screwed!" Thankfully he did NOT.

*After calling our parents BF thought it might be funny to just change our status to "engaged" on Facebook and not call/ text anyone else. I nixed the idea because I do have a small number of friends that are not on Facebook and it's just not a nice way to tell some of our close friends. So, we took a picture with my camera phone and sent the picture of the ring with my smiling face in the background to all of our friends. Unfortunately, some of the picture messages didn't go through, so some people ended up finding out through Facebook anyway. Oh well.

*At first, we were a little underwhelmed with the reaction from both of our parents. However, I reminded BF that his mom already knew about the ring because she held onto it for some part of the summer AND that my parents knew that we went shopping for rings back in June. So while it was exciting that he finally proposed, it wasn't like it was totally out of the blue. Since we have now talked to all of the parents again since breaking the news, they have seemed very excited to help us out with the wedding process and we feel better.

*The reaction from people on Facebook was a bit ridonkulous. I had something like 50 wall posts congratulating me. BF was a little sad that he had all of 6 posts. Poor guy. He's learning that it really IS all about the bride pretty early (just kidding!).

*On Friday night BF and I went to the bookstore and bought a book on "real weddings" by the creator of the Knot. So far, we found out that we should have called my parents first to give them the news so we already suck. We called his parents first because they also live on the East Coast and by the time we got around to calling people, it was almost 9:30pm. Since my parents are one hour behind, we knew we could still call them a bit later.

Giving you what you want

So here is the ring:


I guess BF has been wanting to propose for a few weeks now, but has been putting it off. He bought the ring the DAY AFTER we went ring shopping in mid June. His mom held onto it while we lived with her (just while I studied for the bar this summer) and once we moved down to MA he kept it underneath the passenger seat of his car!!! Boy is he lucky nothing happened to it!

While I was at the grocery store last night, he bought champagne at the liquor store. We decided earlier in the day that he was going to make mussels in white wine sauce. So when I went to get wine glasses in the other room he wrapped the ring in plastic wrap and put it in one of the mussels in my dish. He said that while we were eating, he started shaking so badly that he was trying to think of what to tell me if I asked why he was shaking. Of course I didn't even notice.

I went to dig out the mussel and noticed what looked like a bottle cap wrapped in plastic wrap and said 'ewww what is this?' BF gets up and starts to walk around the table to unwrap the ring and all I could do was laugh. I really had no idea how to react.

He got down on one knee and said that he didn't have a speech prepared, but that he loved me and would I marry him. Before I said yes he started to put the ring on my right hand, so I stopped him, said yes, and then we put it on the correct finger. Silly boys.

HOLY CRAP I AM ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha ha the irony

Ha ha the irony of writing yesterday's post. BF proposed last night!!!! I am now engaged!!! Definitely still in a state of shock. Details to come tomorrow.

Whoa.

I'm not asking much

I'm not asking much. I don't want BF to spend a lot of money on a weekend away, or even an expensive dinner. I don't see him as the type of guy who would take me to a large sporting event to propose (although I love the Eagles, it would be weird to be proposed to at the Linc). I don't see him taking me out to an expensive dinner just to put the ring in my dessert.

What I do expect is something a bit more romantic than the way my dad proposed to my mom. My mom happened to be ironing and my dad said, "I think we should get married." Don't worry, I rag on my dad a lot for the lack of imagination/ romance.

So while I don't need BF to spend extra money on where he proposes, I do want some thought put behind it. Some nice words about wanting to be with me forever, how much he loves me, how much he can't wait to spend the rest of his life with me/ have kids, etc. Maybe even a little story about when he first realized that he wanted to marry me.

The setup could be free. On top of a mountain after a hike. On a little beach that we land on after going kayaking. Something that doesn't necessarily cost any money, but has some signifiance for us.

Then again, I will probably be happy with the proposal whenever it happens. Thank goodness I don't iron so that BF could copy my dad's "charms."

Toad scare

BF and I had a bit of a scare Saturday night involving fuzzy britches. The day started out just fine...we got to sleep in a little bit before heading out to the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival. We were a little worried about the weather, but had nice and sunny weather for the hour that we were there to eat lobster, lobster, clams, and more lobster. Yum. :-)

We then headed out to the birthday party for the two year old. We were a bit disappointed in that the inflatable house that we were promised? Was the small kind...so no adult play time in the house. So sad. So at the party? I was one of three or four women of child-bearing age that was NOT pregnant. It was very weird. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that I am not pregnant right now as you know, marriage needs to come first with BF, and hopefully at least a year of two of newlywed bliss before thinking about kids.

BF and I got the kid these. They make funny sounds when you punch things. (Nothing like promoting violence in a two year old!) Actually, BF always has a great time picking out toys for kids (including his niece and nephew). As I was standing in line at the pharmacy counter, he kept punching me with the Hulk Hands, giggling. The woman behind the counter gave me a knowing look.... something like "do they ever grow up?"

After about two hours of watching Tropical Storm Hanna pour buckets of water on us after the birthday party, BF and I decided to drive home. There were definitely times on the highway that I was going 40 mph because I couldn't see a damn thing. After making it home safely, BF decided to take fuzzy britches out. Fuzzy britches then noticed a huge toad (about the size of a fist) hopping outside. So what does fuzzy britches do? Of course bounds over to it and puts in in her mouth. Almost immediately, fuzzy britches realizes that no, the toad does NOT taste good and her mouth starts foaming. I have never seen fuzzy britches foam before.

BF and I were a little worried with the reaction, so I ran inside to check on the internet. Some sites said not to worry, some sites said that dogs can die within 30 minutes of licking a toad because they have poisonous toxins on them to keep predators away. So I try to pour water down fuzzy britches throat while BF is trying to call vets (at 10pm on a Saturday night). Luckily, BF got ahold of someone and was told that we have no poisonous toads in MA, but we were a little worried. After using a wet washcloth to wipe out fuzzy britches mouth, the foaming calmed down. Here's hoping that fuzzy britches has now learned her lesson to not pick up toads in her mouth!!!

Are you ready for some football????

My favorite season is back- FOOTBALL SEASON! From now until February BF and I will be glued to the tv watching the Patriots (BF) and the Eagles (me). The Eagles aren't played a lot here in MA (silly AFC region), but yesterday I found a live webcast for my computer.* It's free and because our wireless connection is pretty fast, the streaming video was really good. It will suffice for the season.

My only issue? I don't think that I am going to make it to an Eagles game this year which is going to make me cry. I have been to at least one Eagles game since 2001- including three playoff games when I lived in Philly. I have been booed by fans of teams such as the Redskins, Broncos, Giants, and Bears for proudly heading into their stadiums with my Eagles jersey (and NO it is NOT pink). Two years ago I was so worried about not being able to make a game that for my birthday BF flew me down to New Orleans for the weekend and we went to the game with one of his friends.

For the most part, other fans are pretty nice...although I did almost get in fight with a 16 year old girl while at the Eagles/ Broncos game. You see, BF and I had been on about 5 or 6 dates at this point. We drank (a lot) tailgating. About two-thirds of the way through the game, the Eagles started to come back. We were sitting in a whole row full of Eagles fans so we were obviously cheering. Some hoochie 16 year old girl stood up and yelled "sit down" at our row. So I yelled back "no YOU sit down bitch!" Uhhh then her father stood up and looked back at us. Luckily, no punches were thrown and I got out of there safely. Looking back on it now, I'm not quite sure why BF continued to date me after that....


*If you don't follow football at all my Eagles KICKED ASS, beating the Rams 38-3. I was quite the happy camper.

On the importance of networking....

Thanks for the comments yesterday- and yay for people de-lurking! :-) I'm pretty sure that if I had any Republican readers, they are long gone now! Whoops.

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Today is a lesson on how it is always a good idea to network, no matter where you are. A friend of mine from law school called me last night to tell me her good news- that she got a job! Ever since the bar she has been depressed and down on herself because she graduated in the top 10% of our class but didn't have a job yet. She has been getting into fights with her fiance and in general annoying him because she felt lost and bored.

Two days ago she was at the dentist when he asked what she was doing these days. She said that she was still looking for a job and at this point would take anything. Her dentist said that he had a lawyer friend and that he would call to see if they were interested. Sure enough, the law office was looking for someone and my friend was in the office the next day for an interview! They liked her enough after the interview that they hired her! She starts Monday. For everyone out there that is depressed and out of work (or even underemployed), put yourself out there and let everyone know that you are looking. You never know what could happen!

Opening a possible can of worms here...

I realize that I could be opening a can of worms here, but this is my blog and I wanted to get my thoughts out about Palin and McCain. Disclosure: I will be voting for Obama.

*McCain says that he is impulsive. That if he makes the wrong decision that he just lives with the consequences. McCain met Palin only TWO times before he picked her for the VP slot. He says that he knew about Bristol (Palin's 17 year old daughter) being pregnant, that Palin's husband had a DUI 20+ years ago, and Troopergate. Somehow I don't think that he would have chosen a VP with all of those skeletons if he had really known about them. What kind of advisors is he going to pick if he becomes president? We just had eight years of impulsiveness so obviously that statement makes me worried.

*Being that he is the oldest candidate for President ever, Palin could easily become president. You never know what could happen to McCain. Her experience? She has been governor of a not-so-populated state for only two years and before that was mayor of a small town of 7000. Just because Alaska is closer to Russia than the rest of the US does not mean that she has foreign policy experience (sorry silly Fox News anchor).

*News came out that Palin's husband has been active in an Alaska sucession movement. Palin has also attended meetings. I wouldn't say that someone attending sucession meetings is someone that "puts the country first."

*The person that I feel awful for is Bristol. She isn't Jamie Lynn Spears. She is not used to all of the media attention. High school is hard enough...now the entire nation knows that she is an unwed soon-to-be mother.

*What we should be doing it talking about abstinence-only programs. Palin is pro abstinence-only sex education programs in schools. Uhhh they clearly didn't work. Maybe if her daughter knew about using condoms then she wouldn't be knocked up right now.

*Bristol is lucky in that she will have money and some support as an unwed mother. (I say some support because her mom as VP will be traveling all over the place and will likely not have a lot of time to help out). As governor of Alaska Palin voted against funding for unwed mothers. I guess Bristol is lucky that she is the daughter of a powerful politician.

*It is sad that people are asking if Palin can be VP when she has so many other things going on in her life. People wouldn't be asking a male politician if he could handle it if he had an unwed pregnant teenage daughter and a baby with Downs Syndrome. However, in our society, women are more likely to be the caregivers. That is why this discussion has been brought up. But my parents work with families that have mentally handicapped children and it is HARD. Palin has experience with her four other children, but this is completely different.

*I also don't think that Palin is a go-getter by going back to work three days after having her child. I am not a mother, but don't you need time to bond with your baby? Figure out how you are going to handle raising a special needs child? I hope that she did not do that because she felt pressured by male politicians to get back to work as quickly as possible.

*Pro-lifers are applauding Bristol's decision to keep the baby. While I respect the decision (that may or may not have been made for her), she is probably going to have to drop out of school to raise the baby. She can't legally marry (at least in most states) with the consent of her parents. Does having a baby mean that she won't be going off to college? Why do we want 17 year olds marrying just because they will have a kid together? I know that I personally changed SO MUCH during high school, all throughout college, and even in the years after college. Would they be getting married if she wasn't pregnant? Probably not.

Your thoughts? Feel free to comment, but let's keep it civil.

Randomness

*I got a new phone today after two years with an LG. Since I can't access my personal email account or Facebook at work (the horror!), I decided to get one that has a big enough screen so that I can surf during my lunch break. :-)

The touch screen is going to take a little getting used to. The only thing that bothers me so far? That it is called the Glyde. I HATE when companies misspell names of products intentionally.

*Last night I trolled the small number of posts on the local Craigslist looking for potential friends in our area (no I haven't posted anything yet as I am still worried about that whole "swinging" thing that you guys warned me about!). Some guy posted about meeting new people and I responded. He said that he had about 15 people that were interested, but wanted to wait until 30 people wanted to meet up. To me that's kind of silly. Why not hold a happy hour and even if 5-10 people show up that gives people more one-on-one time to get to know each other? Maybe it's just me getting antsy.

*I also found a post that led to a bunch of Meetup groups in this area. Has anyone ever used Meetup before? If so, was your experience good or bad? I found a group for kayakers that sounds like fun. There was also a foodie group that is meeting for tapas about 30 minutes away in two weeks. BF and I thinking about checking it out....

*I was up way too late Monday night doing absolutely nothing so work was tough yesterday. I hate walking into work with red eyes looking like I had been out boozing all night. Me thinks it won't impress the head honcho..... Nor will the half falling asleep at my desk. I hate the taste of coffee, but knew that my caffeine mints would probably make me a little jittery. By the way? The caffeine mints below? Are freaking awesome. I would highly recommend them. They definitely got me through law school.

We had friends!

How was your Labor Day weekend? I had a fantastic time. Friends of ours from law school flew in for a nearby family reunion. Saturday night was spent pre-gaming before the Red Sox/ White Sux game. It was nice to hang out with friends and go out drinking- at actual bars!

Sunday we went to dinner at a local pizza joint. Although all of us were a bit hungover from the night before, we sucked it up and started drinking some more. Since there was no bar to hang out at afterwards, we headed back to our house to drink a lot more and play Wii. Wii + drinking = serious fun.

Monday I was hungover. Our friends had to leave to catch their flight and once again it was just BF and I again. Next weekend? We will be heading out to a birthday for a two-year old. There will even be an inflatable house. To be honest, that is what sold us on going to the party. :-) There is also a seafood festival that we are going to head up to so that I can eat some lobstah. Mmmmmm lobstah.

Something you must experience yourself

I figure that this post is perfect for Labor Day.

I worked at my first job out of college for two years. I had plenty of responsibility and was close to my coworkers. The only thing that I didn't like about the job? My paycheck. Even though I was working a second job on the side, my credit card bills were steadily increasing. I decided that I needed to change jobs to get rid of my debt. I thought that as long as I made more money I would be happy.

One always hears the phrase "money is not everything." Boy did I find that out in my second job after college! It was a sales job for a large work equipment company. I never had to go out into the field to schmooze, but was constantly on the phone talking to dealers. We had operating instructions (OIs) for absolutely everything...except on how to go to the bathroom. I was making a lot of money, but hated my job. I could not make any independent decisions; everything had to be discussed with my boss first. People were nice enough, but there was always competition. My managers were all about the bottom line. When I would get home every night I felt worthless that I was making money for a large company...not using my intelligence to make a difference in the world. I was chipping away at my debt, but would cry on the phone to my mom because I hated work so much.

After a year with the company, I decided that I was wasting my life at a job that I hated. That I had always thought about law school, so what was I waiting for? Although that was a tough year, I'm glad that I went through it. First, it was great to get me out of debt. Second, it was a great learning experience. I knew that I would never put money ahead of happiness at a job.

So when I started law school, I knew that I didn't want to work for a large private law firm. I didn't need to make $150,000 and bill 100 hours a week. It was an easy decision to work at public interest internships: with the city government, non-profits, and federal government agencies.

The summer after my second year of law school I went to an interview for a middle-sized private law firm that specialized in employment law. I had just finished an internship in employment law and thought that I might be interested in that area of law. Plus, it was paid. The women that I interviewed with were nice, but I decided to withdraw myself from consideration. I KNEW that I didn't want to work for a private law firm. Instead I could use the summer to work for a public interest employer that I would potentially want to work for after graduation.

The concept of trying to find a job that you love instead of one that just pays a lot of money is a hard one to explain to others. It really is something that you have to experience yourself and hopefully learn from that experience. I'm glad that it is something that I learned early on in my career. I do have student loans from law school. And as nice as it would be to quickly pay off that debt, I would rather be a sane and happy person when I get home from work every day. So far I love my new job and feel that I am making a difference. I am extremely happy that I went with my gut and not money.