...I get back to blogging! Oh my goodness, it has been a month since I so much as checked in to my blog and caught up on the blogs I follow, let alone thought about writing a post. It's been a whirlwind, people, let me tell you.
First of all: Moving SUCKS. If you've done it any time in recent history, you are probably aware of this fact. The situation, in our case, was made all the worse by three things. 1. We both moved into our former apartment rather quickly, and at different and both very busy times in our life (me, right before the start of the retail holiday season, and Johnny right around the time of his college graduation). 2. We combined two people's lives and different apartments, two very eclectic collections of, for lack of a better way to put it, crap we had each accumulated over the years from hand-me-downs, buying cheaply, and outfitting a variety of different college dorm rooms and starter apartments along the way. 3. We had a HUGE place, with ample storage space, and thus no need to bother sorting through or getting rid of any of this crap over the course of the 2 1/2 years we inhabited the apartment. We just kept stuffing it in corners and closets and cupboards and the garage. During the move, we just kept finding this STUFF everywhere. Every time we thought we were "done", there was MORE. It was AWFUL. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that we moved into someone else's, completely furnished, home, and had nowhere to put all this stuff, especially our own rather cumbersome pieces of furniture (enough to outfit a large, 3-story, 3-bedroom condo) along with all that other crap I mentioned.
Let me tell you another thing about moving. Part way through the process, you start to feel like certain things really aren't worth the effort to move. Unfortunately, sometimes these things also are not worth the hassle of getting rid of either. It leaves one quite snugly between a rock and hard place. It's harder than you might think to cast off your used crap - even at the Freebie Barn at the dump or Goodwill. I mean, seriously? I didn't think our stuff was THAT bad! Luckily we have a friend who lives on Rt. 1 in York, who has been kind enough on multiple occasions to let Johnny dump things at the end of his driveway for sale or for free, and thankfully, all of these things eventually do disappear. Let this be a lesson to you: Do NOT accept (or buy) things you don't really want, and for the long term. Just because you have a place to put it, or need something to put in that place, or think, "hey, we might like having this someday," does not mean it needs to or should come into your home. If you don't want to or can't imagine lugging it up or down multiple flights of stairs, onto and off of a moving truck, maybe up to a new bedroom, where it doesn't work, so down to a basement to store it and then you will just move it again the next time you move... I realize this is a terrible run on sentence, but my point is... consider the future of any item before putting it in your present! Did that make sense? I must admit, I am quite the little consumer, but this move has really made me reevaluate some of these priorities and consider the art of a downsizing one I might want to take a little more to heart.
With the move now fully complete, and nearly a month lived in our new, temporary home, we are finally settled in, and dealing with the reality of living under a parent's roof again - along with trying to quickly get on top of our finances, the whole purpose of this move. There are definitely some major pros and cons to this situation, and as expected, it has proved more challenging for Johnny than for me. We are some days teetering on the brink of needing to get out of here ASAP, other days remembering our long term goals and realizing we just have to "take one for the team" and power through the difficult times.
Rudy, also as expected, has never been happier. He spends the better part of his days frolicking outside, enjoying the expansive property, keeping watch, keeping birds and squirrels and any other mischief-makers at bay, as he guards his best buddy John's precious gardens. He also has a four-legged friend in Barrett, Susan's year and a half old yellow lab, who visits frequently on weekends, and certainly wears my little munchkin out for a good napping come Monday. He's established his look-out spot on the back of the comfy couch in the den, where the windows look out onto Garrison Drive and our driveway, so he can keep an eye on the comings and goings of both his family and the neighborhood. He has made the acquaintance of just about all the neighborhood walkers and their dogs, and, of course, asserted himself as the new top dog in the area. Obviously. I mean, he is a Yorkie after all, and has the typical gigantic personality, regardless of his petite stature.
With regard to wedding planning, a whole lot of nothing has been going on. It's been a crazy busy month, for many reasons in addition to the move, and just as things are starting to get in order, summer has decided to arrive, and I am off to Las Vegas tomorrow for 8 days for the jewelry shows. We go every year, usually leaving on Memorial Day, and on this trip we meet with many of our vendors, see new products, and do the majority of our inventory buying for the year. This will be my third year attending with my Dad and Diane, and this year the show has moved to Mandolay Bay at the other end of the strip than we have been used to. It should be an interesting experience, as always, particularly as we are attending with a bit of a different approach and buying plan than past years. While it is fun to go to Vegas, it is a lot of work while we are there, exhausting, and expensive (even though it's a work trip), and every year I have been very ready to get home at the end of it. Someday I'd really like to go to Vegas NOT for work, with Johnny, and actually do what most people do it Vegas. Tomorrow we do get in pretty early in the day though (only direct flight we could get), so I will be spending a few hours at the pool, working on my tan (I am SO pale, it's disgusting), and most likely with a cocktail in hand! Woo hoo!
This trip of course means that after a month of not posting, and more than month of not doing anything related to wedding planning (and by the way, we have now entered the "normal" length of engagement time of 12-15 months to go, so now I technically should really be getting started!), it will be another week or more before you hear from me again. That's life, though, what can you do?! So long, blog friends, I'm off to Vegas, baby!
