In Costa Rica today it's 32 deg and sunny

The countdown is on! We leave a week today and get married in less than two weeks. Omg. Yes, that is, in fact, sufficient to return me to a being a teenage girl. You could probably even add in a SQUEEEE! ;) hahaha wow. Was fairly amazed at the response my two-week’s to go Facebook status generated. Made me smile :)

Progress is being made. The ceremony’s been signed off on; all the paperwork’s been sent. Kind of random what information they wanted, but so be it. Was surprised at the details they needed for our witnesses. But it’s good to go :) Have to admit it made me all kinds of melt reading the ceremony. Sappy romantic side in full force – usually it only comes out watching a chick flick or reading a novel, but apparently my own wedding is fair game ;)

Went and tried my dress on for the last pre-wedding-day time. Seamstress did an amazing job. It is fairly stunning and fits as though it were molded to me. Has all kinds of complicated fastenings though – wouldn’t be physically possible to do it up on my own… hahahha yeah for friends to help!

Speaking of, had an absolute blast at my staggette the other day! Huge thanks to Stephy for organizing and to all who came – some from fairly long drives! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time… It all started with the hat… Oh dear… It was a pink and sparkly cowboy hat. I am not even kidding. It even had a veil on the back ;) I would’ve said the kind of thing that only Steph (or possibly Jael) could imagine, but clearly somebody else did too since Steph and Rebecca managed to find it for me. But much as it is so not my kind of thing, it really is part of the bride thing, and it made me smile to have it. Tradition counts for something :)

For the record - we banned cameras after the dinner portion of the evening ;)

The evening began with dinner and drinks. Our waiter was reasonably entertaining and seemed to be having fun with the whole staggette idea. After we were all caught up with each other (I don’t get to see my friends nearly enough these days!) we changed location and went out pole dancing. Yup, take a second and reread that sentence. It hasn’t changed. Hahaha was that ever entertaining. And there we learned that Kerri can *really* spin, those with dance backgrounds had a distinct advantage, and none of us should quit our day jobs. We *almost* made it out injury free except, well, Steph was with us… And Steph and gravity have never been on good terms.

Following the class of silliness, with the girls now outfitted with pink tiaras and chains of plastic beads, we continued our travels – originally searching for a pub, but finding instead a Demetre’s. If you haven’t been to Demetre’s, you’re missing out. An entire menu of deserts. Brutal for Paula who’s forgoing sugar for the month (silly girl!) but for the rest of us, pretty well the ideal end to the night… Mmmmm sugar…

So yeah, it was a pretty awesome night :)

As for the rest of the craziness – my to do list only seems to grow. Despite finishing things every spare moment I have, the list gets longer… I’m not quite sure how that’s happening, but such is life. Mum’s been helping me check some of it off, but a lot can’t be delegated. And all seem to take so much longer than expected!

And that’s in with things like going to the gym, and teaching, and tanning. Not to mention my day job ;) It is awesome and finally busy enough to keep me amused and focused during the day. But once I leave work – let the games begin. Tanning – that’s been an experience. I, of course, end up choosing the most expensive one around. Sheesh. It is, however, by every review and personal account I could find, well worth it. Their machines seem to take 1/2 – 1/3 of the time regular places take. Which, given my schedule, is a serious plus. The actual time in the tanning bed itself is nbd. The warmth really is instantly relaxing and puts me in my happy place. I truly love the sun, and the lights mimic that feeling far more than just being hot. The beds are also huge, clear, and very open so there’s no claustrophobic feeling. But I could totally do without the tanning lotion. Ugh. It’s got quite a strong scent, and it seems to get on *everything* -- probably because I put my jacket on after and then it transfers from my jacket to anything else I ever wear *sigh* But so be it – I *really* don’t want to be burnt in my wedding photos ;) Sacrifices must be made. First world problems eh? ;)

Last weekend I was so sick. I got sent home from work on Friday am – meetings with both people I report to and they both said go home. Then I thought the people I sit with just might revolt – one I’m pretty sure I caught it from and the others wanted nothing to do with it. So home I went. And I went to bed as soon as I got there and slept. Got up and relocated to Paris and went back to sleep. When I woke up that time I signed into work just to get a few things off that really needed to get done, then pretty much went back to bed. Brutal. Saturday a repeat. Left the house in the afternoon long enough to take Chris to his stag party (at which he seemed to have at least as much fun as I had at mine – but that’s his story to tell…) and then went home and back to bed for a few more hours. It didn’t help that both Sasha and Lexi were also sick. Frig. All good now, but was not fun then. Steph dealt with Lexi for me while Sasha and I consoled each other. Sunday, after having now slept for about 48 hours, I was feeling slightly more human and relocated to the couch. Completely and totally unproductive all weekend. Ummmm did you hear about the to-do list? Yeah. *sigh*. Ah well, the end result is I was feeling reasonably human again in time for work on Monday which, being my last week before going away for two, is chaos. And surprisingly, despite feeling completely horrid for the vast majority of it, was actually really nice to have a quiet, let’s not do anything, weekend with Chris. We don’t get those very often given the whole renovation thing.

So this week – a ton of running around, some last minute shopping, all the silly odds and ends, and then…

Costa Rica!

Woohoo!