Good Things and God Things.

This weekend was full of good stuff and God stuff.

1) After a little bit of a late start to the weekend (I did some overtime at work to add to the wedding fund), Patrick and I headed over to my future sister-in-law's sister's house to do some pumpkin carving. And drink pumpkin beers. Because at this time of year you can never have too much pumpkin. 

Basically, we turned these:

Into these:

And I also go to play with a baby. So overall, very good night.


2. The next morning, Saturday, I woke up at 5:30 am. Yes, 5:30 am. I headed over to the Mascolo residence to carpool with Michelle & Annemarie to the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. There was this event called the Long Island Catholic Women's Conference that a few of my friends had helped organize, and we knew a bunch of other people that were going too. It was a nice day at a beautiful place, and I got to see a lot of awesome people, and take a break from life for a bit, and think about God and things. So yeah.

3. After that awesomeness, I was very exhausted and very tempted to go home and go to sleep. But my friend Charlie, who is basically one of the most awesome people in the universe, was having a birthday party in Brooklyn. 

Something strange happens when you get into a long term relationship. You get lazy. It suddenly seems so much more appealing to stay in on a Saturday night and watch Netflix instead of getting dressed up and traveling into the city or whatever. But I'm realizing now that maybe we should make more of an effort to do just that while we still can, while we're still young. The wedding is a year away, and we want to start having kids not long after that, and then there will be no more late night trips into Brooklyn.

So, we went. And I'm really glad we did. There's something you get out of actual socialization and conversation with new people that you just can't get out of Netflix. Another bonus is that Charlie's group of friends are pretty much all Catholic, and "cool" Catholics. There's nothing like talking to a girl who basically resembles a tall model in a hipster wardrobe, but is also wearing a religious bracelet and is telling you about the year of missionary work she did in Brazil. Or the cute couple relaying how awesome a trip to the Cloisters was. Or the trendy girls who launched their own legit magazine (Verily magazine) because publications like Cosmo are trashy. The Catholic young adult scene in New York City is so amazing I wouldn't even believe it existed if I didn't see it myself. 

Also, there was a bocce ball court in the middle of the bar (Union Hall). And the bathroom was co-ed. So there was that.

4. This morning I discovered that I am no longer capable of having more than two beers without succumbing to a major hangover. This is unfortunate. But, I had to get out of bed eventually because at 2 pm Patrick and I were scheduled to see a house in Melville again that we saw last week, this time with Patrick's parents. I fell in love with the house a little bit more, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. There's already another "interested party" trying to outbid us. This. Is. Stressful.

5. Had another youth group meeting tonight. The topic was love. The teens were awesome. Chatting with the other core members after was awesome too. The more I experience in life the more I understand why God wants us to live a certain way. I feel like if I had lived up to that "ideal," I would have saved me from having so many painful memories and baggage. But living in 2013 makes being Catholic very hard for so many reasons. (Not that it was ever easy, now that I think about it. Pretty much all of the 12 apostles got tortured and killed.)

I'm going to leave you all with this quote from the incredible C.S. Lewis displayed in a nifty little graphic by the chicks at Verily magazine:

Prominent Peace & Patience.

A sad truth about running is that if you don't do it for a week, it's really hard to start again. Before tonight, I hadn't run in almost two weeks mostly thanks to a cold. (Can't really run if you can't breathe, right?) Also, it's been getting colder, and darker earlier, two things that make the act of running not as appealing. 

I forced myself out the door tonight anyway, even though the sky threatened rain and sunset was scheduled in another 11 minutes. Only got in 2.7 something miles. Better than nothing though, right?

I need to stop running so much anyway and start doing more workout DVDs and cross training if I'm going to tone up for the wedding. Today's wedding dresses demand prominent collar bones. It's a fact.

Came across this on the internet the other day:

I find it interesting because if anything, I tend to get depressed sometimes, while Patrick tends to get anxious. We need to learn how to just meet in the middle. Two words popping up in my prayers lately are peace and patience. (I like how that sentence was unintentionally alliterate.)

Also! I am blinder this week than I was last week because I have been proofing calendar PDFs nonstop at work. My eyes were literally hurting by the end of each work day. I wonder if editors and writers are doomed to have poor eyesight from staring at computer screens all day.

In other news, I finally upgraded to ioS7 and now I feel like I have a new phone. (I'm sure my phone screen isn't helping with my vision, either.)

Gotta go. My eyes hurt.

Days Like Yesterday.

Yesterday was one of those days that initially didn't seem like much but turned out to be unexpectedly chock full of awesome. Originally we were going to go upstate, but after a week of me getting sick and then me getting him sick and then us both being sick, we didn't feel up to the travel. 

So the morning was just the right amount of lazy, tea and oatmeal and two episodes of Parenthood on Netflix. Not just any episodes - the season finale of season 3 and the season premiere of season 4. Finales and premieres are just better. They try harder. Though this show is amazing enough on its own. I love my family of course, but I wish I could somehow be part of the Braverman family too.

If you haven't watched it yet, I suggest you find your way to a Netflix account and do so.

After that escapism, Patrick and I went to a couple of open houses of - surprise surprise - two more houses that won't work for us. The first one advertised three bedrooms but in reality only had two. The second had a kitchen on all three floors. 

But THEN. It was time for one of my favorite events of the year: going to Hicks to see Otto and get a pumpkin! This has been part of my Halloween tradition since before I can even remember.

Of course going yesterday made me think of how much better it will be when I have a kid someday (hopefully) to share it all with. 

After Hicks we went for a walk at Stillwell to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather and fall foliage.

As we were leaving we spontaneously pulled into a carnival just to buy zeppoles.

Then we spontaneously went to Bed Bath and Beyond to find some ideas for the registry. Got dinner at Mario's in Plainview, then met my brother and some friends for drinks at The Black Sheep Ale House in my hometown. 

Today will be decidedly more hectic. I have press releases to write for work, a youth group meeting to prepare for and execute, more open houses to visit, and a million other things to do. And yet somehow it's almost noon and I haven't done any of it. How does this happen?

I've been so antsy for time to go faster because I really want the wedding to get here already. But something tells me that I need to just relax and appreciate the days like yesterday.

I've liked October since before it was trendy to like October.

Yes, it is October first. For some reason October suddenly seems to be the favorite month of 90% of my Facebook friends. I mean, it is a month of awesome. But I'm wondering when loving fall became such a cliché.

Now that it's October, my wedding almost seems like it's in the foreseeable future. Almost. Not quite. Still over a year away. Next October.

Things to do this month:

1) Wedding dress shopping with my sisters, mom, and future mom-in-law.
2) Mail out Save the Dates.
3) Set up a wedding registry. (Bed, Bath, and Beyond maybe?)
4) Finalize the wedding party.
5) Schedule a food tasting at our wedding reception venue.
6) Visit Hicks nursery, see Otto the ghost, and get pumpkins.
7) Figure out an awesome Halloween costume.
8) Do as much fall-y fun stuff as possible.
9) Stop working so much Do lots of pay-per-piece work so that I can afford a wedding dress.
10) Be patient.

Plus about a million other things. That's all that's making it on the list before bedtime, though.