On Life Changes

[the setup – and yes, he was smart enough to bring booze AND chocolate]

Here’s the deal: this is going to be a quick-ish life update post, and then we’ll have the funnies and the eats coming quickly thereafter. Deal? Deal.

For those of you that have somehow managed to avoid this news (and kudos to you: I have been most persistent), My Man and I got engaged about a month and a half ago. It happened in gorgeous, perfect Moab on a gorgeous, perfect evening (well, it was cloudy – perfect to me) while some weirdos watched from a nearby RV (yay!), and I am very, very, very happy.

There is something very seemingly “grownup” about the process of getting engaged – suddenly, people seem to think that you are capable of making huge life decisions and that you know what you want from your future, and that maybe you can afford to buy furniture or a house or something. Allow me to be clear: we don’t and we can’t and we have no idea what is going on. We are both still just as confused as we were a month ago, except the difference is that we know we’ve got a buddy (is it weird to call him a buddy?) to work through the confusion with moving forward. And that’s kind of nice. 

[this picture is included for the express purpose of showing off the dress I purchased for $20 at Target]

Potentially the best part of all of this? How excited everyone ELSE seems to be. We have felt so much love from everyone, all over the world – it’s been pretty major. It has definitely made it easier for me to get excited about the prospect of a wedding (because weddings are for grownups) when everyone else is getting so excited. Because sometimes I’m like, “Weddings are for grownups,” and then a friend is like, “No you’re having one. Yay!” and I’m like, “OH yeah! That’s scary. Cool.”

In my experience, people who are engaged can get this kind of self-satisfied “smug married” (as my girl Bridget Jones would call it) attitude that makes everyone hate/resent them and wish they would shut up already. They say things like “fiancé” and then eventually “husband.” Ick. Except, eventually, I’m going  to say those words, and they will mean something different to me, but it will still probably sound the same to everyone else. I’m struggling with that just a little bit. And sticking with “pre-husband” for now.

Wedding-related summary: I am marrying my total BFF and that is so, so, so awesome. He rules. And I am so effing lucky.

[ma blang]

Our other piece of news is that we’re moving away from beautiful, wonderful Boulder, and making our way to also-beautiful, probably-also-wonderful Berkeley, California, so that My Man can attend law school. Understandably, this decision is one that has me torn in many directions: excitement at the prospect of change, sadness about leaving friends and family, fear about not finding a job, and all of the other good stuff that comes with big change.

Can I be real with you for a second? I love travel, but I also love routine. I love knowing which friends’ doors I can just knock on when I’m bored, and which restaurants have the best thai green curry/pizza/sushi/whatever it is I’m craving at any particular moment, and which walking route in our neighborhood goes past the prettiest houses. I guess those are all less about routine than they are about familiarity, and that’s something that I’ll have next to none of in this new place that is to be our home. Bizarre!

This is all to say that while lots of things are changing, one thing should stay the same: this blog! For now I have yet another adventure upon which to embark, which means that there should be lots of weird new experiences (see above) and lots of new fodder for these here internet pages.

Get ready, world. And hey: thanks for sticking with me through the sad, empty tumbleweeds that have been blowing across this blog recently. Working on it, as usual.

[it is entirely possible that our whole lives are going to look like this from now on.]