Day 1000: Woohoo!

So! Much has gone on in my life since I last updated. Work has been crazy (I almost wrote "school" in place of work, which says something of how much of my life I spent as a student), and life has been crazy. But...the highlights!

I got officially engaged. Cody and I agreed to marry each other back in July, but on September 15 (which was also his 26th birthday) we went walking down by the Gene Leahy mall, holding hands in the drizzling coolness, and looked at all the random bits of modern art, and listened to the water. We watched the fireworks for the first Nighthawks game, and, sitting on a damp patch of grass on the side of the road (Douglas, actually), he asked me to marry him. And he gave me a ring and he kissed me, and now we are officially engaged.

There was but one person at the office who did not know I was planning on getting married, so on Monday, after I turned in my two weeks' notice and cited my impending marriage as a reason for leaving, JBOT came to tell me congratulations, and he looked stunned when I told him the wedding is November 4th.

But yes, I did turn in my two weeks' notice. And then, apparently, a few hours after me, KWIL turned in her two weeks' with an option of part time work notice. I think Junior Boss must have had a heart attack, but so far he's been civil to me. DAD came back from trial with a cold to discover the entire office was infected, and then I informed him, in the nicest terms I could, his Junior Boss had filed a falsified affidavit with the federal court. And what did he want to do about it? We had several teaching moments about "ethics" and "affidavits", but I don't know how much disciplining went on. Junior Boss hasn't been mean to me, though, so I'm grateful, and DAD handled the whole situation very well.

Minion Brandon has now become lawyer Brandon, and they brought in a very large and tasty cheese plate in his honor. I'm going to miss that kid. (Cody calls him 'boy wonder'.) He's funny and smart and going to be an awesome lawyer. And he caught on to the office shenanigans much sooner than I did, but he will be able to better protect himself in the long run. There has been a lot of hating on Junior Boss in the last couple of weeks. I won't hash over it too much, because I complain about him too much, and he's not worth the time or the energy.

My parents came to visit the same weekend Cody did, so we could all go to the temple together for my first time. It was an interesting experience. I'll need to go back a few more times to get used to it and properly understand, and then I think it will be better. But, of course, after I went they closed the temple for cleaning for two weeks. It was good to see my parents, and I love them a lot.

Cody and I got our engagement pictures done. Both of us despise having our pictures taken, and so we were both nervous about the experience, but the girl who handled it, a photography student who is one of my Relief Society sisters, was professional, brief, and understanding about the whole thing. Mostly it was an excuse to wander around the lovely Elmwood park, hold hands, and smile, and there happened to be a girl with a camera hanging around while we enjoyed ourselves.

I finally went back to training after two weeks, and I got my shiny blue belt, so I'm super happy. Sensei Doss is back teaching again, so that was fun, but now I'm pretty sore. I miss Sensei Green something fierce.

Kris and her husband got evicted from their apartment, so Kris has been crashing on my couch. I should have a better attitude about helping people, but this is the third time in the space of one year she's crashed on my couch, and she tends to take over while she's here, so I'm pretty much confined to my room if I want any privacy, and I only venture out for showers and food. I wouldn't mind having her around as much except all she does is repeat her problems to me, and she's a bit of an attention hog. Like...she can't stand it if we aren't all cooing over her in sympathy or admiration. And I keep wanting to have friends over, and she keeps...intruding.

Liz has been having man troubles, and on Monday she came over and we watched some Stargate, ate chocolate, and commiserated. And then on Wednesday Liz and her sister came over again and we watched Merlin and commiserated. Liz came over again Friday night, crying and miserable, so there was more chocolate and commiserating, and then she slept on my couch.

On Thursday Val, Korina, and her sister Maria came over for knitting/crocheting and watching Jane Eyre. Which was fantastic, except the man who played Mr. Rochester looks like Cody's younger brother Kieran, which was a bit weird. At first, I was amused at the sheer domesticity of watching Regency book-based movies and crocheting and knitting, but I'm pretty sure that was the rowdiest viewing of Jane Eyre ever. I loved it.

Also I got my wedding dress. I was surprised at how big and poufy it is, because the girl who sent had managed to pack it into quite a small box. It fits perfectly at the waist and is more or less suitably modest. But it does not fit my arms because suddenly I have guns. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty pleased with the muscle I have that I didn't used to have prior to ninja training, but I never thought I would be too buff instead of too fat for a dress. Go figure. But I'm getting the dress altered anyway, so we should be fine.

I got to talk to Del and BenTen, who I haven't heard from in a while. It was good to hear their voices.

Now I have to do grown-up things like get my flat on the market, start wrapping up business here, and looking for a job in Idaho.

Woohoo!

But I'm getting married to the man I love, and that's worth all this aggravation and more.