How, exactly, am I supposed to sleep tonight?

It is the night before I leave for my wedding.   We're supposed to be going out the door in about seven hours.  Which means about an hour ago I woke up ;)   Classic eh?

It has been several days of craziness.  Let's see *insert pause while I go see what I wrote about last*

hmmm Monday at work.  Okay well the week was crazy, as expected.  But in an awesome twist, on Thursday afternoon they had a surprise party for me!   I was stunned.  Like completely shocked, the idea had never even crossed my mind.  I haven't been there very long after all, and they were smart about it -- took over a meeting that I'm in every Thursday :)  Huge thanks to Janine who's meeting it *actually* is and who gave it up for my party.   So I got to the meeting and the room still had people in it, so our guys were waiting in the hall.  And there were a few extra people -- but as we were hanging out in the hall, I just assumed they were there chatting for a minute with whoever they were chatting with.  Yeah - you scoff, but really - what else was I to think?  Ish was carrying a box, which crossed my mind as fairly unusual -- a laptop is far more normal at these meetings.  But again, I shrugged it off; maybe he hadn't had time to go back to his desk after running lunch errands.  Seems plausible.  Everybody else had laptops ;)   The agenda had been sent out as always...

The room cleared and we went in.  All good.  But then the extra people came too -- okay, that's a little odd...  And then there were more extra people.   But then Janine started the meeting and I put it out of my head.  Until she announced the change of agenda ;)   Then the still more people who I guess were just slightly outside, joined in and it turned out the box contained cake -- addressed to both Chris and I, which really made me smile.   There was also a lovely card with a generous gift inside. But mostly I was just astounded and thrilled and so happy.  It meant a ton to me that this group of people, whom I haven't known very long at all, would go out of their way to do this for me.  Pretty awesome.

They gave me the most giant knife to carve the cake.

Of course I was fairly useless for the rest of that afternoon ;)   hahaha I got through this week by being extraordinarily busy and focused.  If I was too busy to think, I could stay on task.  Throwing in a wedding party with all kinds of questions about said wedding, and stories from those who've been married quite some time -- well suffice to say that bounced me pretty firmly out of the work bubble ;)  Hahaha ah well.   Friday was super productive though, so I'm going to claim that made up for the missing hour.  That and skipping lunch all week *g*

For Christmas for Dad, I got him a shooting package at Urban Tactical.  We had it scheduled for Saturday.  On Thursday I get a call that they're very sorry but they have to cancel.  Will reschedule anytime in the next two weeks....  Ummmm no, that's really not going to work.  So I call them back hoping to negotiate a time *after* the wedding trip -- but then the person I spoke to said it was fine and we should just come on our original schedule.  So while slightly dubious, definitely worth a try.  Chris, Dad, Jamie and I all showed up at our designated time.  The girl working the desk seemed a little confused, but she worked us in.  We had a bit of a wait, but when we did get in, the guy working with us was awesome.  We each shot multiple rounds from three different guns and had a good time doing so :)   I learned that I have to shoot left because unlike the vast majority of right handed people, I'm left-eye dominant.  And substantially so.  "Well which eye should I look through?"  *puzzled glance*  "The target moves significantly depending which one I close...."  Instructor has me do a little test, and seems very surprised by the results, but sobeit.  You're not new here -- I never do anything the easy way :)   Seems he was right though -- when I aim for the target with my left instead of my right it's exactly where it's supposed to be.   The true shot of the day though went to Chris -- and was with a camera.  He managed to get the muzzle flash from my gun.  Very impressive!

Stress relief

We followed up the shooting fun and games with a BBQ.  Really, what else could you do after that?  hahaha We joined Chris' dad and brother and a few others at their local -- all kinds of award winning -- BBQ joint for a shooting-appropriate lunch.  While tasty, arguably not the best plan to enable the dress to fit!

So while work was crazy but productive, and Dad's Xmas gift all kinds of fun, wedding stuff was...  Not so.

Let's see -- remember the dress fiasco?  Well would you believe it got repeated with my wedding ring???   Seriously -- went to pick them up on Saturday after lunch.  "The wrong one was delivered."   Ummmm what?  Yup.  Sent the wrong ring.  *sigh*   Of course they did.   Chris' ring was correct -- but as he reminded me, that was the second attempt for him too.  Sheesh.  Ah well - back  up plan, the trial one in the store fit me so worse case, I'd borrow it.   But the proprietor said he'd get it to us in time.  And sure enough, he delivered it, in person, to my parents' place in Oakville (his store's in Paris) about 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon.  Cutting it close, but he did, in fact, get the correct ring to us in time.  And he went impressively out of his way to do so.

Several other minor hassles that are really petty but just seem to add up...  Spa appointment and several other things got cancelled due to the snow storm, Chris' truck wouldn't start, I couldn't get the ceremony music to download onto my ipod, I failed entirely at making the deliveries I'd planned thanks to the same storm, Jen's flight was delayed (she made it - woohoo!), tanning appointments for both of us got all messed up, and on and on.  Fortunately nothing actually tragic or even important, just more of a "really???"

But now we're packed.  Everything's done that's going to get done.  And early tomorrow morning I'm off to get married.   Excitement and terror take turns warring with each other.  And then Chris does something that makes me laugh and all that's left is happy.  Well and a strong dose of disbelief.  That surreal aspect is definitely going strong.  But then, I've never been one to settle for reality ;)

I'm getting married.  In less than a week.   And I don't think I've stopped grinning since Chris proposed.

And as I'll have no Facebook, cell phone, or blogging abilities -- the posts will be a *little* delayed till after we get back AND I have some time.  Lots and lots of time.  Tricky ;)   But they will happen!