Envy

Take one particularly hideous choir audition (the director is re-screening members, presumably to weed out people like me who absolutely crumble when forced to sing solo) a couple of days ago, and combine with the discovery of vocals-only tracks of iconic songs by fantastic singers. What do you get? Yes, lots of envy...but I had to post this anyway. It's too awesome. 

In related news, my fingers are crossed that I'll be allowed to continue singing with this choir once I get through another travel season at work, but even I wouldn't let me back in. The audition was that bad, and now I'm questioning the whole concept of "talent" and whether I have any, since singing--solo, at least--clearly isn't a strength of mine. But that's another post. (#pityparty)

A new project

A few months ago my good friend and future bridesmaid Elisabeth (who is recently married herself) were talking, and we hit upon the topic of marriage and children and how occasionally our brains and bodies would demand babies RIGHT NOW but other times we would thank our lucky stars that we were still (mostly) well-rested, (mostly) independent women. One of us (it might have been me) mused aloud, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a blog that just featured terrible, gut-wrenching stories about how pregnancy and parenthood could be miserable?” Our thinking was that such a blog would function as a good barometer of readiness: If you can read it and still want babies, then it’s time. If, on the other hand, the stories make you clamp your legs tight and look upon your significant other with fear, then perhaps you should hold off on the babies. Well, it didn’t appear that such a blog existed…but now it does.

Introducing So Not Ready, the blog full of stories that will help you be positive it is baby time before you take any steps to procreate. Elisabeth and I (mostly Elisabeth so far) are combing the Internets for stories that make our biological clocks skip a beat, and then we post them for all to read. (Think of it as an almost-mommy blog.) Heck, even after we start building our own families I fully expect that we will be sharing our own stories with future generations of readers who are not quite ready.

Don’t get us wrong; we love babies and children and we totally intend to raise our own families when the time is right. We just want to make absolutely certain that we know what we’re getting into before baby-making time begins, and maybe you do too. If you run across any articles, blog posts, or real-life stories that should be featured on our site, please let us know. Enjoy!

Things are coming together

Trying to keep this on the short side, as it's been a while since I've posted and this could easily turn into a minute-by-minute recap of the past few weeks. I will not let this post get out of hand. Pinky swear.

Life update: I had a birthday (sigh...I mean, it's great that I keep having them; I just haven't gotten used to the fact that the darn number keeps getting higher). Our Brady Bunch of cats continues to not like each other very much, but blood has yet to be shed. Work continues as always, but I'm working on a sizeable project and solidifying some long-term goals. Christmas knitting has begun a bit later than it really should have, but I think I'm in good shape to have all projects completed by their respective gift-giving opportunities. (Whether they will be wrapped is another question.) I have an awesome new phone that doesn't make me want to throw it at the wall every time I interact with it. It has apps and everything!

Wedding update: We took engagement photos with our awesome (and awesomely-priced) photographer, and they came out really well. I had my third bridal store expedition last weekend and came away with two dress finalists, and after ruminating for a few days I think I've settled on one. It's one of the store's most popular dresses, but it's beautiful and it makes me look skinny and as long as I don't see it in a wedding between now and next July I think I'll be fine. I'm not even concerned about the copycat-ness of wearing the same dress as a friend; I'm more worried that the friend will come down the aisle and I'll turn to The Boy and say "hey, that's my dress!" before I can stop myself, and then the wedding day surprise will be spoiled. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Next up:

Time to figure out the bridesmaid dresses. I'm having what could be described as an existential crisis about dress colors (do they wear the very bright color that I like on paper but find a little overpowering in person, or do they wear a less-vibrant but still coordinating color and possibly make for unexciting photos?), but I'm heading back to the bridal store this weekend to spend some quality time with the color options. I hope to come away with either a single color (everyone picks their favorite style) or a collection of shades, so everyone can start making appointments to try things on a their local stores and lock things down in the next few weeks. There's technically plenty of time--it could probably wait until January--but the sooner I can stop worrying about this task, the better.

This post isn't too long, but it's threatening to get there and I can tell how boring it is, so let's run through the other open questions quickly: finalizing a design for the Save the Dates and getting them out the door before Christmas, staying sane/rested during choir concert season (which kicks off tomorrow), looking for flight deals for our Christmas/New Year's travel expedition (two weeks, three states, very few vacation days), wishing my right shoulder would just unknot itself already.

There. That should cover it. If you've made it this far, I'll reward you with a photo that may or may not show up in a later wedding-related communication:

Edited to add: Blogger.com and IE 9 beta do not play together well. I've tried to fix what I can, but apologies for formatting weirdness.

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

This'll have to be quick since I'm supposed to be, like, working and stuff. We just had the third of three (scheduled) visits, and...crap.

After being totally floored by The View on Saturday, I figured today's venue (The Garden) would be a token visit to confirm that we'd already found the best venue, but no, not so much. The Garden has many good things going for it--beautiful garden with blooming flowers, relatively low rental rates, a whole house at our disposal for preparing and lounging--and nothing we saw was clearly better or worse than The View; it was just...different. Where The View was all about elegance and service and well-manicured lawns (it is on a golf course), The Garden has simple beauty (rustic yet clean!), flexibility (choose from eight caterers!), and flowers for days. The Boy is going to crunch the numbers on this one tonight since we didn't get a full estimate, and if the cost difference is substantial (even including a hefty catering estimate and the potential stress of doing all the planning ourselves) then we might have a winner.

Now, if the costs work out to about the same (unlikely, but possible), we'll have a different question on our hands. Do I want pampered elegance (the Sunday wedding package at The View is literally called "Pampered Bride") or DIY? I was kind of looking forward to letting my crafty side out to make decorations, place cards, centerpieces, etc., but now I'm worried that they'll look shabby at the swanky place, whereas they would probably look great in a colorful garden setting. To what extent should the surroundings reflect our personalities, and at the same time how much do the surroundings say about who we are? And how much does it matter if the venue is swanky, even if we as people aren't?

Anyway, I'm hoping that a lot of these questions will answer themselves soon--either there'll be a clear winner on costs, or the magical July date at The View (the only one that doesn't conflict with a major golf tournament) will disappear. I know we'll be happy with whatever we choose, but this part is so frustrating...