Magic 8 Ball Needed

I was relaying a story about F to a co-worker who, over the years I've come to rely on for great advice and insight. As usual with stories about F she shook her head and laughed. But then she said to me, "You know DH, it'll be like that for the rest of your life. The REST of your LIFE. It doesn't go up from here, it only goes down."

So, ah, are you saying I shouldn't marry F? I mean, seriously? She's been through divorce herself, and has been in a long term relationship with a man she seems to not really like, for years. And during many conversations, she can bring some serious Bitter, Party of One. So I don't know if she's trying to gently tell me I'm making a mistake, or if she's just all doom and gloom based on her past experiences. I have enough doubt on my own without someone whispering in my ear. Yes, F has his flaws, as do I. And God bless him for being able to put up with mine. It just really took me by surprise. Well, maybe not really. Often times I've felt like she's being hinting at F not being right for me. Shit. Am I over analysing this? And if I am, why am I? Does that mean something? Why can't I be all "LA LA LA I'm engaged, life is a fluffy cloud."????

I hate second guessing myself.

Irritated

In my family there is a monthly "Family Obligation" that we take turns doing. In the spirit of saving money for The Wedding, one of my siblings suggested that F and I bow out and save the money that would have been spent on the "Family Obligation" over the next year. My other siblings are not at all keen on this idea. The Eldest feels that, "It doesn't cost THAT much." Um, maybe not for You who doesn't present it with the same amount of care, yes. But for those of us who want everyone to feel as though there's plenty to go around, it does. The Second Oldest believes that if they have to do it, so does everyone else. The thing that hacks me off the most is that The Eldest makes well over 6 figures. The Second Oldest probably comes in a close second, with a high 5 figures. Both have been in tight financial situations were money had to be borrowed. And yet, here they are, devoid of all feelings when trying to help a sister(literally) out. F has little to say on the topic but is glad that I, as the Little Sister, has finally gotten the "balls" to stand up to the others. I haven't gotten enough though to completely flipped them off and tell them to take a flying leap with their forgotten shared money sorrows. I'm just pissed off enough though to tell them not to let the door hit them where the good lord split them if either of them complains about what is being put out at our go-around of the Family Obligation.





To top things off, F, after having met one of the sibling's friends who'd made a very expensive purchase on the way to a party, is now bemoaning where we are financially. He feels we should be able to travel and buy toys at whim as do "so many others". I fear, and rightly so, that F will insist on moving back East so that his Best Friend can show him the ins and outs of being a slum lord. Best Friend is a nice enough fellow, although he has tendency towards assiness. It is this assiness that I fear F may find to once again be a wondrous way of life thus letting Best Friend influence him in ways, I feel, have long ago been out grown. Best Friend has a great deal of influence on F as it is, from thousands of miles away. (Side note here, Best Friend is the one who had the amazing wedding back East only to have said marriage fall apart before he left to serve his country overseas.) (Extra side note: I am deathly afraid that Best Friend will bring one of his skanky new My Space loves to our wedding and recreate some of the seedy scenes from his wedding.) I know money is tight, and yes, I wish we could come and go as we please, but I'm not about to sit around and be depressed about it. Which is where I think F is headed. That, and back East, which is closer to the Family and THAT is so not where I want to be. Best Friend told F he wants him back East "At any cost." Me included apparently. Ok, maybe Best Friend isn't such a nice fellow.
Tell me people, how do you curb the influence someone has over someone else?

Am I Defective?

I've expressed to you in the past that I feel less than bridal because of my lack of knowledge on all things, girlie. Then I read Clink's post, Out Brided, and I have to say, as much as I like the girl and her cider drinking ways, she makes me feel completely inept as an educated female who's planning a wedding with an educated male. I have only a few of the things she has(Church and venue), and I was feeling pretty good about it. Not so much now. As for the friend she's speaking of, a hair appointment? For the wedding? In a few weeks? I'm still trying to decide if I'll let it grow out, or just opt for extension, let alone setting up an appointment for wedding hair!!! And honestly, I have YET to see an invite that I just have to have. Here is an exert from her posting:

I thought I was doing pretty well. If Bride-to-Be were a class, I’d surely be earning at least a B+, if not an A. I mean, it’s eleven months from our wedding and already M and I have secured the church, the reception site, the registry, the bridal party and the band. Not bad, right? I mean, I should probably start thinking more seriously about dresses and we do have to get all that stuff to the church that we’ve been too lazy to compile and my diet has been more like a non-diet and damn it I had an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast today, but hey. All in all, I’m proud of us. Or, at least I was. Then I talked to M’s friend from college, Emma, who is getting married a month after us. Emma not only has everything that we have but she also has her dress, and her invitations, and her bridesmaids dresses and her florist and an appointment for her first hair trial in just a few weeks. But that’s not even the most disturbing part. I mean, some people are overachievers and I’m okay with not being one. (Besides, the overachievers never had dates in high school.) The most disturbing part is that, in order to get in shape for her wedding (please note: this woman is a size two, on a fat day), Emma wakes up at four thirty in the morning to go to the gym. That’s 4:30. A.M.

Ok, yeah, 4:30? AM?? As I commented on her post, not even for SEX. I mean, seriously? I think the last time I got up at that hour was to go to Boston, so that was for a flight for a girls' mini-break. Well worth it. Yay Boston and your cider having ON TAP selves! And working out? Um, not so much. I am not a working out kind of gal. I try to workout, but there is always some reason I quit. Mostly because, it's WORK. I YEARN for those days as a kid on the play ground when playing POOP DECK was a BLAST. Now I think about doing that, and I have to sit down. Everyone kept telling me how getting married is the great workout motivator. Not seeing it. I think I brought salad to work for a week, and then I had McDonald's. And a sub, and pizza.(NOT all on the same day.) And don't go thinking, Oh please, you one of those skinny girls that always complain about eating half of a mini muffin? I am so far from that category, trust me. I am well acquainted with Lane Bryant.
I also want F involved in the process. As I told him(through tears of course, see link to above post) I need him there to keep me sane. He however? totally laid back about the whole thing. Am I defective because all the flash and sparkle about planning my wedding has totally worn off? Am I a freak for wanting it just be DONE ALREADY? Can I take the male point of view and Just Show Up and it's all done and ready to go?????

I need some girl power or something, SERIOUSLY.

Problems

F and I are now roommates. After I said "YES!" to the marriage question, he asked if I was going to move in. Now? He's. Freaking. Out. As we first started to move me in, he said, "You don't have that much stuff. I don't see why Eldest Sister was complaining." It's been about a month now and it's turned into, "OMG, WHAT IS ALL THIS CRAP!!!" I have linens for the kitchen table, I have decorative rugs for the seasons, I have clothes, and lots of socks(which, honestly, I didn't even realize how many I had.) and, as any female, SHOES. I have boxes of old note books from college that still had unused pages and pages of paper(I purged those after he assured me we'd take them to the recycling center so as to not have had a tree die in vain). His house is bigger than mine, so fitting it all in, not a problem. It's just getting around to fitting it all in. It's become a vicious circle, Get up, go to work(late) work all day(in between reading Blogs) drive to my house to "work" on packing, moving things out, etc, get hot and hungry only to realize it's 7:30 and we haven't eaten yet and have nothing TO eat, pack up, go home, thaw something out, cook it, eat dinner at 8:30ish, watch TV to unwind for an hour or so, at 10pm fall into bed exhausted only be unable to sleep because F was snoring the minute he hit the pillow. Get up, pete and repeat. When am I suppose to arrange things? Every room, and I do mean EVERY ROOM in the house has a pathway through my stuff. I'm suppose to be purging things. Every weekend we've been busy. Or I haven't felt well. I am completely stressed out about all of it. I had a breakdown the other night. A night, which should have been stress free. The night we FINALLY booked our venue. Little things he did through out the morning were driving me crazy, and after he left to go do his Hobby, I was left to stew in my irritation. He asked me what was wrong when he got home and I said, "I don't want to talk about it right now." I was trying to give myself a chance to cool down so I wouldn't go all crazy postal on him. Finally we went to bed and I made of the mistake of deciding to journal. Writing about it, just PISSED ME OFF all over again.

"Are you going to tell me what is wrong?"

"Do you REALLY want to talk about this right now?"

"That's up to you." That response? Made me hit the roof. Fucking play passive aggressive with me! We proceeded to have a fight about something rather stupid, but it was soooo important at the time. Afterwards I was so upset I couldn't concentrate on finishing my journal entry because I was trying not to cry. The lights went out and our backs were facing each other.

"Are you crying?" came out of the dark from the other side of the king sized bed.

"no."

"What? are you crying?"

"No."

"Then why are you sniffling?" Sometimes he can be so in tune to what is going on with me, and other times.............

"because I'm trying not to cry."

"come here." he said as he lifted the covers so I could snuggle into his arms. And the dam broke and all the fears I'd had came flooding out. "Are you scared?" he asked me.
I decided to tell the truth. "Yes."

"About what?"

"Everything. Are we making the right decision. Is this going to work. Are we in over our heads."
He confessed, he was scared too. We talked for awhile longer, and then we fell asleep.
For the record, I hate crying. Lately however, it seems that's all I do. We fight, I cry, I feel better, for about a week. I honestly thought women were crazy when they said planning a wedding is seriously intense shit. Now? Not so much.

Next problem? I've become addicted, ADDICTED to McDonald's McGriddles. When they first hit the scene, I thought, EW! Now, I can't get enough of #9 with an OJ PLEASE! And sadly, as with McDonald's in general, I pass like 200 hundred on my way to work every morning. It'd be easier to avoid if they weren't EVERYWHERE. Bridal body? Not doing so well.

But, wait, there's more. Now that the venue has been secured(Thanks Mom!!!) I've become complacent. In the beginning of Wedding 2008, I was all, I MUST GET EVERYTHING DONE RIGHT THIS MINUTE!!!! And everyone kept telling me, "OH! You've got LOOOOOOOADS of time!!!" So? Now? I've got LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOADS of time! I've done NOTHING ELSE. No flowers, no invites, no favors. NADA. I swear, I'm going to end up on Bridellza's despite my efforts to stay far far away from such behavior. And I'll be the second bride who get's left at the alter.

Bedding Battles: Part Deux

The battle, which pretty much turned into a war the other night, rages on. We've experienced no relief concerning the hot/cold issue now that we are in the comforts of A/C. I am always hot. F is always cold. I love to sleep with the fan on, he shivers. I tell him to sleep in more, he tells me to sleep in less. I sleep in my birthday suit under just the sheet, so I'm not sure how much more "less" I can go. The other night he told me we were sleeping without the fan on. I said no, because I would be hot. He said his feet were cold, so I got him an extra blanket and put it on his feet. He sulked. I exploded. This requires a bit of a side note. When I am angry, he keeps at me until I tell him what is wrong. With him, he just clams up. I'd had enough of the double standard on sharing feelings. I said "Fine. I'll go sleep in the other room." At which point I made the move to grab my pillow, which he yanked out of my reach. Now that I think it about, that was kinda funny. Anyway, I yelled and demanded what it was he wanted me to, after all "I already sleep naked!!!!!"

"Can we not yell? Can we talk about this?"

Of course I felt like a jackass for yelling then, but damn it, why does he keep insisting that he doesn't want to sleep under another blanket? I don't understand. Am I crazy? Is it not easier to just add another blanket to keep warm than it is to find a way to keep me cool? I can't have the fan on, I can't turn the A/C colder, and I already sleep naked under just a sheet, so please, enlighten me as to how I'm suppose to cool off?? While you simply add a light cover and are all snugly warm without it affecting me.

Anyone?

The fan stayed on.

He slept under the extra blanket.