wyn157: November 2006

this past week has been a whirlwind, but great. i was on call for the nursing home, but that didn't detract from anything. maybe that's b/c they only called me twice. :)

on tuesday, 9 of us went out to don pablo's to celebrate E's birthday. K brought a cake and gave the restaurant a heads up, so they came out w/ this sombrero and we all sang to her. :p

then for thanksgiving, gopooh and i ate ourselves into oblivion. we first went to his parents' house, where we chowed down. then we went to a party at my family friends' house, b/c that's where my parents were. it was a good thing we went there too, b/c there was a cake in honor of my mom, who just finished her pharmD program. :) congrats!

on friday C and i had a very bloating lunch at papa vino's, and then we met up w/ G so we could all chat. these ladies are two of my best friends and my bridesmaids.

saturday was the craziest of all. i had lunch w/ friends from high school, T, L, and G. i love these girls. looking around the table, flashes of our trip to philadelphia kept popping into my head. it was as if nothing had changed. i then drove back home so gopooh and i could go to new seoul garden out in southfield. we had the first 'big family' gathering, meaning, gopooh's family, my family, and my future sister-in-law's family. after dinner, there was ashley's and late-night nypd in ann arbor w/ E&F, M and K.

crazy busy, but good. :)

you know you're growing up when it's hard to get a group of friends together at one time.

in college my friends and i (and pretty much everyone else, it seems) were night owls, and restaurants were open late. i still remember going to the brown jug, this dingy smoke-filled bar/pub, at 2am. and for a good 1-2 years in there, C and i went to pizza house at 3am at least twice a week.

it wasn't just the food, although having such a variety of food around was definitely good. it was just the ease of hanging out w/ ppl. i saw my friends all the time. when i look back on those 4 years, i realize that college was truly THE best time for bonding -- i spent more time hanging out than i did studying.

but for the last week or so, 4 of us have been trying to find a time to get together over thanksgiving weekend. the date, time, and location have flip-flopped so much, i don't even know what the current plan is. it used to be so easy, and now it's complicated. it hit me that if we do manage to get together, it'll be the first time in 6 years that all of us have been together. that's so crazy.

the person i'm using as my hair and makeup person for the wedding is really expensive. i knew she would be, b/c i googled her and found out that she's won awards in michigan and has done modeling shoots and stuff. but i figured, i might as well check her out and see what i think before i rule her out based on price alone.

when i met her, i loved her. she just oozed excitement. not to mention that the pictures she showed me -- real brides, modeling shoots, magazine covers/pictures -- were awesome. she started playing w/ my hair, and i kept my mouth shut about what i was thinking so i could see what her ideas were, and i really liked her thoughts.

when i left the consultation she gave me a hug and a pamphlet w/ her info and pricing. i opened it up during the 45-minute drive home and nearly had a heart attack. for me, my bridesmaids, a trial, and then a touch-up (if i want it) between the pictures and the ceremony, she will cost more than the string quartet we hired for 2 hours!

i could look around, but the truth is that other ppl i've heard about either don't do both hair and makeup, or don't travel. or they weren't glowing recommendations. so i'm hesitant to waste my time meeting w/ them. blah. gopooh wasn't surprised at her prices, but i was! she recommended a hair glaze, so i guess i'll trust her on that one and get that done, and go from there.

man, it's a good thing gopooh and i are paying for more than half of the wedding, b/c otherwise i'd feel guilty about even thinking of using her!

i dropped gopooh off at the airport this morning, b/c he's on his way to hawaii for a conference. no fair! it doubly sucks b/c i could've gone too, if i'd tried hard enough.

i have to turn in vacation days 4 months in advance. it's a royal pain in the butt, b/c i don't normally schedule vacations like that. aside from an extra 5 for christmas or new year's i also only have 15 vacation days (which sucks b/c gopooh has 20.) i burned 10 of them for our honeymoon, 1 day in august, and i'd also pretty much decided to use the last 4 days in february. so i had no vacation days left. still, we can use an additional 5 days off between sick days and personal days.

i didn't get this month's schedule until after he'd already decided he'd be gone today through sunday. i'd assumed that i'd be in clinic today AND tomorrow, but it turns out that i was put in clinic all of yesterday and today instead, w/ no clinic the rest of the week. i seriously thought about using a personal day for today and just making up the clinic time later, but then flights were getting even more expensive than the $500 for T's flight, and i decided i could just stay home and get more ER shifts out of the way.

of course now that he's in hawaii, i'm totally kicking myself. i totally should've taken that personal day! i guess the good thing is that i'm planning on working tomorrow, friday, and saturday, so i should have no shifts to do the weekend of thanksgiving. but man... hawaii...