Wedding Update

I think I'm going to regret not updating this more often about all the fun chaos that's going on this time of my life.

Hair: I found a really good woman to do my hair for me. She did my future sister in law's hair for a while and she really liked her. I can see why, the woman is very talented. I have the obnoxious problem of having waaaaay too much hair. It is getting so long that it's almost impossible to do anything with it, too. Well, I got it thinned by this woman and... wow. I lost literally a pound and a half of hair, and I still have more hair than the average female. I've decided that after the wedding I'm going to get it thinned out as thin as she reasonably thinks she can get it, but I'm just happy to be able to manage my hair again!

A pound and a half of hair, and I lost no length at all. 

Shower: I have my bridal shower this weekend!!! I'm soooo excited to get to go see my good girlfriends, but I'm not too happy about being away from James for 4 WHOLE DAYS!!!!! I'm going back to DC to have it (ya, I know most girl have the shower in the town they live in, and the wedding in the town they are from if it's different... I go against the grain I guess... or I just don't like the inconvenience...). I know almost nothing of what's happening except for when and where it is... except one of my friends asked me and James to provide a list of 5 characteristics that describe the other... let's just say James wasn't very pleased. He did it, but no doubt they're about as sarcastic as his answers could be... I'm like, "look, buddy, it's not like YOU are the one who's going to have to sit through all of it!" I mean, I trust these girls (mostly) but I'm really not too sentimental either... here's to hoping, I guess...

Gifts: I've been watching my registry like a hawk... I finally stopped looking at the specific items that have been bought when I realized that I'm going to need SOMETHING to be surprised about at the shower! I mean, I am sure some people will give me money (which I never know how to react to) and some people will buy stuff not from the registry, but it's like, "wow, this thing.... I was... hoping someone would get it for me... yay..." I also abhor opinging presents in front of people... all their expectations and such... But anyway, 22 gifts have been purchased (it was 19 this morning) out of... a lot (we're greedy). I'm kinda excited to find out what we're going to get. Fed Ex called me today and said that they'd be delivering the package around 2pm. I asked James about it and he got no package. Now either it went to his apartment (which means either his roommate picked it up or one of his neighbors will [not in the good way] because he wont be back there for several days) or they dropped off something at my parents house. I went ahead and changed the address on the registry from his apartment to my work so that we don't have to deal with that more.

Photography: We canned our photographer. James wasn't happy with them and they have been bugging me to no end about our engagement shots. Seriously, they have called me at least twice a month since we've picked them, yuck! I told them in November not to bother me until the Spring for engagement shots, but they wouldn't listen. And then the guy calls me one day and I'm being rather obviously short with him and he goes, "You're not getting stressed, are you?!?" I was literally dumbfounded. He then proceeded to tell me that most girls have their bridesmaids do all the work (ya... right). I told him that all mine were in different states and so he dropped it. I mean, seriously? Who does that? I only stressed out about this for like a day, then I found someone who seems pretty good, and you almost always can convince someone to give you a deal when you're two months out and they don't have a wedding planned (though I'd recommend against planning it that way).

Invitations: I've sent almost all of them out. There are 4 stragglers (people who I got their addys late, plus two that live in different countries (I already know one of them has his ticket and the other one isn't coming) that I'm not the most motivated to get the invitations to right away.

Nails: I decided I wanted to not go the fake nail route (sorta) for the wedding. My nails are paper thin, so they don't grow well or stay long for long, so I've decided to grow them out a little and shellac polish them. I'm excited to see what they look like. I'm doing it tomorrow (I went over budget for February... tomorrow is March!)

Ring: I got a new engagement ring. Apparently I am allergic to white gold. We had an interesting time at the store. James didn't mind me coming along to pick out the new ring, but he soon regretted it. This one was too this, that one was too that. After tons of different options, I found one. It had originally an opal in the center, which we replaced with an aquamarine. I'm fiercely opposed to the conflict/blood diamond thing, which is way closer to home than most would suspect (most diamonds come from 2nd or 3rd hand places before they get to America, so they honestly can say they didn't buy from a discredible source, and the others honestly can dehumanize people). And even if they DID come from a decent source, I don't like the idea of buying the type of rock that people have died over. For example, a new diamond mine was found in a poor town in Africa, within a few months, the government was set up to shoot anyone who tried to "steal" diamonds from it. Don't believe me? Google it.

Now you must add the obligatory "Oooo, ahhh"

Still working on figuring out wedding bands, though. His is gonna be EXPENSIVE. Oh well, we'll find a way.

That's about it for tonight. Going to head to bed soon. God bless, everyone!

It's not about freedom

You know what's driving me nuts about this whole HHS thing? Catholics that write this crap.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/blog/show/its-not-about-contraception/

I hope you didn't read any more than the second sentence of that, it just hurts. It IS about contraception! It's not that the government is forcing us to do something, it's that the government is forcing us to do something WRONG! Forcing someone to violate their conscience is wrong. If the government mandated that contraception was to be taken out of all health insurance policies, would that be wrong? NO!

People, government is, by nature, a good thing. It's the abuse of government that is so cruel. I can't stand these libertarian idiots who say that freedom is more important than the good... NO. The good is more important than freedom! Not getting blown up is more important than my privacy when going on an airplane. There is no such thing as a "right" to vote. If there was, God would have instituted it and we would have had a very different Savior (perhaps it's the lack of holiness in me, but I totally would have voted for the guy that says we can do whatever we want without offending God!).

All of the papal documents that have addressed government say point blank that governmental control is a good thing. The government exists to protect the good and orderly in society. We can't go saying that just because the government did something bad that we should annihilate it (I'm talking to YOU Ron Paul!). How about... oh I don't know, FIXING the problem???

4am

It's 4am, and I'm awake.

It's basically normal for me to awaken sometime during this hour. I generally need to go to the bathroom, change positions, or whatever, and then go back to sleep.

I can't.

The reason is because I'm sobbing too hard. I'm on this new medicine (a different one from my previous blog posts). This medicine is less controversial, so I'll be more frank about it. It doesn't matter what it's called, because I can't spell the darned thing anyway. The fact is that it's not working.

I was taking prednisone in addition to this new medicine (more on that later) and I was supposed to start tapering off after a couple of weeks. I decided to try yesterday, and I woke up with a huge flare up in my left elbow and a smaller one in my knee. Now, this is actually improvement to only have two problematic joints, but you must understand that that's just about as consoling as the phrase "President Mitt Romney" is to this country (ie. a heck of a lot better than where we are... but come on!). I tried once more last night not to take the prednisone, but here I am, awake and sobbing.

My elbow hurts. I just took my prednisone, but I'm running out. I only have 5 left and I'm not sure what to do. Do I give this new medicine more time to try and work?

This is an increasingly frustrating situation because:
1) There is a host of potent medications out there that I could easily afford and be able to use... that is if I wasn't Catholic and getting married. I can't use methotrexate because it's an abortifacient. I originally had qualms with using it in my early Catholic days, but my (nominally) Catholic doctor helped me realize that it's not a sin if you have no possibility of that effect.

2) I was on a good medicine, but with getting off of my parent's insurance and solely onto my work insurance, I can no longer afford it. With my typical 80/20 plan, that puts me at over $1,400 every other month (all other expenses excluded). While I'm willing to TRY to make this work if it's absolutely necessary... I honestly just don't think I can. (PS, I got off of that medicine a while ago because it was actually found more potent than necessary, so it's not strictly a cost issue, but with it not even being a real option in the future, my heart breaks a little) but my doctor also recommended against using that drug if I were ever to get pregnant.

3) I'm consistently having to take time off of work to see the doctor (I have other health issues that need to be addressed, too, you know), talk to doctors, call doctors, think abotu calling doctors... it's just too much.

One of these days I sincerely hope to make a trip to Lourdes.