The weekend that wasn't

I've never been one to hate Mondays, but today I do. I hate today, because I feel like I didn't get a weekend. I worked on Saturday from 7am to 7pm. I didn't get anything done this weekend. I feel like I'm spiraling out of control because there are so many things I have to get done and I'm not making any progress. My room is a mess and I need to do laundry, and heaven forbid I do that during the week, but honestly, I am so behind on homework and not to mention the fact that I have hardly started training for a half marathon in March, and oh yeah--there's that thing called a wedding that I have to plan and figure out, and right now it's all a big pain in the rear.

I could have used Sunday to get some stuff done--maybe a little studying or something, but then I decided that I was entitled to enjoy my Sunday afternoon. I had worked the whole day before and didn't get anytime to just sit. So I did. I guess if we're trying to make my afternoon sound productive, I could argue how my watching of Bachelor episodes was necessary, because Brad Womack went through three years of therapy to improve his relationships, so I could learn a lot from him right? Going on a tv show and making out with a different girl each date is a perfect way to get over you commitment problems.

The other semi-productive thing I did this weekend was decide on a wedding dress. I was so proud that I finally emailed my China seamstress friend last night to get moving on it--but do you happen to know what day is today? It's Chinese New Years Eve---so yeah, I'm pretty sure I will not be hearing a word from her for a good two weeks. Chinese people know how to do holidays, that's for sure. But why do they have to do it right now?!

So anyway, as a result of my no-weekend, I was super unprepared for today. I was a lazy bum in aerobics this morning, and most of my homework was left undone. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep. In the words of Cher Horowitz , "I felt impotent and out of control, which I really really hate. I had to find sanctuary in a place where I could gather my thoughts and regain my strength..." So where did I go? Yep, you guessed it. Tonight I went out to the mall and Starbucks with some of my homies. It was great. Just like mission times when it was too cold to do anything else on a P-day except chill at Starbucks.

So my room is still messy, homework still nagging me, but whatevs. I don't care. Right now all I care about is Bachelor Brad kicking off the crazy Salt Lake girl who is giving us a bad name. I guess we'll find out momentarily.

I'll think about homework tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day. Here's to Tuesday. And as another side note: happy 19th birthday to my dear sister Camille! (I hope her day was better than mine!)

Love, Annie

Honeymoon: check!

At least I can be rest assured that with all the wedding stress, I will be rewarded in paradise. After deliberating about where to go, we've gone with the option that not only includes some of the world's most beautiful beaches, but also stress-free planning because my fiance has spent all his childhood summers there. We're going to the Dominican Republic!!
And as I was perusing photos on the internet, I came across this list of the top ten most beautiful honeymoon destinations. This is number five. I am so excited.
That will be me walking on those white sand beaches in less than 5 months. Happy day.

Frustration

So, wedding plans are coming along rather smoothly. Venue: check. Temple: check. Photographer: check. Cute boxes for reception favors: check. There are still a few things left that are kind of important: flowers, invites, food (which is a headache--I am annoyed that so much of my budget will be the food)....and the dreaded wedding dress.

I have known for years that finding a wedding dress that doesn't make me want to barf or die from boredom would be extremely difficult. I just don't want a blah Mormon wedding dress. I had a few ideas for what I wanted, but nothing I ever found in a store. This weekend I went to a bridal show with my mom and they had like 20 teenage girls bouncing around in wedding dresses with signs showing where to buy them: and they were all disgusting. I just can't handle it! I am intentionally not posting example dresses right now to avoid offending anyone who might actually like/own one of these said dresses.

After the bridal show, I was feeling up to trying on wedding dresses, so we hit up a local bridal boutique. And it was sad. Not one dress even motivated me to want to take the time and effort of climbing into a dress and standing in front of the big mirrors to stare at myself and get all excited that oh! I'm going to be a bride! how amazing is that?!

So what's a girl to do? I need a dress, but I have no desire to try dresses on. I just want to order it off the internet and be done with it. Is that bad?

There is a sign of hope though. I have found a couple of dresses that are promising. One happens to be $3000 dollars. No biggie, because I have an outsource: China! Did I mention that China is amazing? I've been saying it the past 4 years because it really is. I thought about posting this fab dress for you to see, but that would ruin the surprise wouldn't it? But the more I look at it, the more I love it. So stay tuned.

Love, Annie

My Jersey Boy.

I love him. He navigates me through the streets of Manhattan with ease. He only has mild road rage towards the crazy NYC taxi drivers, and he is a first- rate parallel parker.

My Jersey boy drove us all the way to Queens (which in a car wasn't bad at all) so we could go to a Romanian restaurant, which was fabulous. Everyone there was Romanian and spoke to us in Romanian. And even though he doesn't like it, he still drank Borsec mineral water with me, because no Romanian meal is complete without mineral water!

He also read my mind and suggested we drive down through Brooklyn so I could see/go over the Brooklyn Bridge. I really wanted to do it, but I didn't ask because I guess I felt silly asking to take a big detour just so I could drive over a bridge. But then he suggested it anyway. Oh, it is love!

And let's not forget another reason why I love my boy: he buys me diamonds!!

So that was my weekend. It was fun, and it sure was cold. Now back to school. Yay.

Love, Annie

Why I love listening to the radio right now

Usually I never listen to the radio, but lately I find myself being drawn to it because there is an almost guarantee that one of these songs is always playing, and I just love 'em.

First is Edward Maya's "Stereo Love." This guy is from Bucharest!! And this song is one that I heard on a regular basis on the bus, and in restaurants, and pretty much everywhere. It was also probably one of those songs that when I heard it I would think to myself, "I just can't wait to get back to my music!!" And yet now when I hear it playing on the radio, I love it. It just makes me feel all happy as a flood of memories of Romania come when I hear it.



And the other one is Katy Perry's "Firework." Once again, I was never crazy about Katy Perry until Romania. I would hear "Hot 'n Cold" almost everyday as well when I first got there. And it will forever remind me of one of my favorite people in Romania. And I love "Firework" because of the music video: overall it's a good one, but it sure is funny to see fireworks spewing out of Katy Perry's chest.



Hope you all had a good holiday weekend. Mine was fab, and I will write about it later, I promise. Love you all!

He is the cheese to my macaroni

Well, I guess there is no beating around the bush.

The boyfriend is now the fiance. And I'm pretty happy about it! These last few weeks have been so crazy that I just haven't gotten around to writing about it all (that, and the fact that my laptop is still in the shop from the screen getting stepped on...whoops!). Right after he popped the question, we peaced out to California and celebrated at Disneyland. It reminded me of the Disneyland commercials after the world series: "You just got engaged, now what are you going to do?! --We're going to Disneyland!!" So our first photo as an engaged couple is this:

The happiest place on earth! It's a good thing that we took this one when we did, because we actually looked decent. A few hours later it would have been in our nasty ponchos and soaked to the bone. Thank you, rain.

Our week in Cali was so much fun and so relaxing after dealing with finals and finishing up the semester. We all know that I was so tired of school. Just read all my previous posts. We went to Disneyland, we visited dear friends, we ate Romanian food, we went to the Poinsettia Bowl (The Navy Alumni Association sure knows how to throw a tailgate party!), and we went to Coronado and walked on the beach on the last day of our trip when the weather was finally clear and beautiful. It was wonderful. Here's another picture of us ((To the right is the look we were going for: I think we succeeded)




















So there you have it! It's pretty weird and scary to think about getting married. Probably because it means it's time to grow up for reals. But, I guess it will all be good. And I'm going to get all cheesy and say that I consider myself pretty lucky. Somehow I always get what I want. How about just one more pic for kicks and giggles?

Save the date: June 17th!

Loves,
Annie

Yay for 2011!

I haven't blogged in a whole month. So sorry! And I am even more sorry that this is only a 3 sentence post. I have so much to say, and I just wanted to let all of you in blogger world know that I am alive, in case you care.

Much love,

Annie