Next Month

Sorry guys, I have been a little obsessed with blogging over at orbridemag.com (and now, seattlebridemag.com as well, ha ha. I'm taking over the Northwest!) so I have been a little slow to post here. But the beauty of having my own personal blog is that I am allowed to post all the inappropriate/non-bridey things here (believe it or not there are things going on in life that have nothing to do with the wedding or lots of wedding going ons that I would rather not have complete strangers read). That being said, regardless, this will be very bridey anyways.

Tomorrow is August 1st, which means starting tomorrow when someone says, "So, when is the wedding?" the correct response is "Next month." WHAT??? Holy Gee Willickers! When did that happen? I feel like I just posted at the 100 day mark on the bride site and now we are looking at like 51 days (not that I'm counting or anything!). Wowzers. On the one hand it feels like it has been a very long time since we got engaged, but I can't believe that the wedding is just around the corner.

It's also starting to hit me- my life is going to change. Dana and I won't be living together anymore, the bank accounts will merge, life decisions will become a joint effort as opposed to a singular one, going to the grocery store even will be different with different tastes in food (we are both fiercely loyal to our margarine brands-seriously), there will be a boy sleeping next to me in bed. I was correcting a proof at work yesterday with my contact information and changed everything to my new last name and email- there in front of me, was physical evidence that is getting close and getting real- kate.calamusa@tigeroak.com!

A part of me thinks I should be freaked out about it, but I'm really not. I know its going to be different and be an adjustment, that it will probably be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. There will be things we will both have to get used to as we live together and set up house and where to even set up that house is completely up in the air (the housing search is on a bit of a hiatus, I just couldn't take on another thing in the next 6 weeks). Whether we will stay at these jobs that we are both less than thrilled about at the moment is completely up in the air, maybe we'll be in Latin America by next summer, maybe not. If you know me AT ALL, you know that usually the "not knowing" would drive me up the wall. But, somehow, with Casey that just seems to be part of the adventure- we are a team now. I like not knowing where is life is going to take us, it doesn't really matter to me, because I have safety and security, respect and love in him and in God, and that is all I need. I'm sure there will be unforeseen difficulties and I'll shed a little tear about not being Kate Palmen anymore when the time comes. But the promises I have in being Kate Calamusa, in being a helpmate and teammate, the wife of a man whom I dearly love, the mother of his children, are amazing and I cannot wait until.... next month when the wedding ends and the real journey begins.

The difference between men and women...

Last week, I spent like a half an hour in Fred Meyer picking out birthday cards for my mom and mom-in-law. Now that Case and I are (almost) a married couple, I figure we can now get away with those brithday cards "from both of us." Now, I don't believe in sappy birthday cards, no no they have to be funny, so after an exhaustive search through a lot of fluffy cards, I found a couple of acceptable cards as follows:

Card #1:
Little stick woman: "We hope your birthday is full of rainbows and ponies and sparkles!"
Little stick man: "I am not saying that."
Little stick woman: "Then what would you suggest?
Little stick man: "We hope your birthday is full of monster trucks, beer and babes on trampolines!"
Little stick woman: "That is so juvenile."
Inside card: "We'll just settle on happy birthday! What? It keeps the peace."


Card #2:
Picture of beaver on the front of the card that is both holding a flower and farting at the same time.
Inside card: She wanted to get you a sweet card, and I wanted to give you a funny one. So we settled on one that was both. Happy birthday."

The Moms loved their respective cards and they were quite funny, but I couldn't help but think they were a bit stereotypical of both men and women. I mean its a card so not's a big deal, but as a woman I enjoy a god fart joke sometimes and Case is not exactly the monster truck and beer type. When you watch sitcoms, it seems as these prototypical gender roles are larger than life: the wife yelling at the husband for watching tv, the husband always wanting sex but never getting any. And really, I doubt that these stereotypes have much truth to them. I mean, really.

Cut to this week and I am writing a thank you note to mom-in-law for the lovely duvet comforter and cover she gave us for my shower. Inside of that card:

Kate:
Dear Mike & Sharon,
Thank you so much for the duvet comforter and cover you gave us for the shower! It was so thoughtful of you and I so appreciate you coming all the way to Oregon for the shower. The comforter will look great in our bedroom and I can't wait to find matching throw pillows to go with it. We love you, thank you so much!

Casey:
Mom & Dad,
Way to buy us a present that will help ensure you have lots of grandkids. Thanks!


Oh.

An "In" With The Big Guy Upstairs

God emailed me this week.

No joke.

I logged into my gmail account and in my inbox was an email from god@gmail.com (I guess God likes gmail just like us humans) telling me of a job for an assistant editor in Oregon posted on Craigslist (apparently, God also cruises Craigslist for his followers in his spare time. I wonder if he could find me a good deal on a couch) Ironically, I also got an email from youshoulddothis@gmail.com for another job posting the same day, but I'm not really sure who that guy is. Maybe God has an executive assistant, although that sounds like a good email for Jesus too.

I am really glad that God takes me the time to shoot me an email about job listings, I had been getting emails from myself about them which always kind of freaked me out because I didn't remember doing any job hunting on the internet. Normally, I would blame Mr. Calamusa, in fact I know he gets a kick out of confusing me by making me think I've lost my marbles because I DON"T remember emailing myself. But well, an email from God doesn't sound like something Casey would make up.... or would he? Oooh, I don't think you should impersonate God, that's a smoting offense. Like fire right out of the sky type stuff. Good thing it wasn't Casey then.

The Oh-My-Gosh-We're-Getting-Married Moment of the Day

I obviously know we are getting married. I've got a fiance, a wedding ring and a dress to prove it. But every once and a while it just hits me like a ton of bricks that we are getting married and Casey and I will soon be living together as husband and wife! And its funny when these moments come because they are usually really small little things, like the moment last night.

One of Casey's buddies asked him to be, as he put it, a groomsdude in his wedding in December. When Case called last night, he called to check and make sure it was okay for him to commit to going to their wedding right before Christmas.

Case: " I just thought I should probably check with you first because its right before Christmas and well, I realized it may affect OUR plans. I guess we can figure out with work and such how we can see our families the next week. Maybe we can go to my parent's and then yours or something."

Kate's Thought: Sure, December is fine. Wait a minute, we will be married in December. We will be living together and spending Chrsitmas together for the first time, I'll be his wife then. Wow, we are getting married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kate, out loud: "Sure, sounds good to me."

What a wonderful realization!

Too Busy To Blog?

I realize it certainly looks that way from my lack of posting. And we are busy, busy beavers trying to get the invitations out the door by the end of the month (a LOT of people moved in between the time we sent out our STDs and now and who knew that it takes so long to stamp, stuff and address neatly??), house hunting ( I think we are up to 12 condos visited now? Sincerely enjoying the dreaming and scheming there) and working (the office got broken into this weekend, computers stolen and I'm picking up the pieces)-- so I sincerely apologize for my absence of late BUT I admit, I am starting to drag a little bit.

Life is going at a breakneck pace at the moment and there are so many exciting moments (bridal shower next weekend!) that I am trying to savor, but I am soooooo exhausted too. With so many different things going on I sometimes have to fight the urge to take a great, big GIANT nap. I also realize that life will slow down again after the wedding and am really looking forward to cuddling up with my husband (did I just say husband? yes, yes I did!) in our own place. So, suffice it to say, I have been feeling a little less than inspired and don't really feel like coming up with new ideas. So my poor Oregon Bride blog is suffering (I threw up some post about not working out today just to get one up there) which isn't good since that one is for work and they actually expect me to work on it. Sigh..... do they make energy bars for life? Cause I think I need a big fat one right about now.