Work, Travel, Wedding, and More Travel

So much has happened lately... For one, I have continued to be insanely busy at school (the one where I teach). So busy, in fact, that I have fallen behind in school (the one where I am a student). Luckily, the grad school teacher is allowing us to catch up on what we're missing (apparently a lot of us are in that boat).

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan and I rode to Washington, D.C. with my parents to visit with my mom's family for the weekend. We went to my Uncle Pete's 60th birthday party on Saturday, then had an early Thanksgiving dinner with the family on Sunday, and visited with my dad's brother on Sunday night. We spent a few hours sightseeing in D.C. on Monday morning before hopping on a plane and flying back to Louisville.

It was nice to see the family, but of course I ended up even further behind at school. My students did not react well to having a sub, and it will be quite a while before I plan on having a sub again. I am just VERY thankful that I right now I have five whole days off...

Once we returned from D.C., we got some disappointing news from our wedding photographer, Jessica. She found out she and her husband are expecting, which is great news for her, but her due date is three days after our wedding!! So, she had to back out on us, but she found a couple of other photographers who were available on our date. Unfortunately, those photographers were at least twice as expensive as Jessica.

Luckily, Ryan isn't working right now and instead has become my personal assistant and housewife (hee hee), so he has really been on top of contacting other photographers. I think we have found a replacement for Jessica who is actually just a little bit cheaper, so I'm very relieved.

In other wedding news, I had ordered my dress (Oleg Cassini for David's Bridal) but by the time it came in, I was having doubts about it. I finally went with my mom to try it on, and it fit fine and everything, but I realized I just wasn't that excited about it. I decided to go back and try on some other dresses, some that I'd already tried on before, only this time without the corset-bra-thing underneath and in a smaller size.

I ended up finding the perfect dress that is almost exactly like what I originally wanted. The only detail that doesn't match my original idea is going to be altered, so basically I have managed to end up with the perfect dress -- and in exchanging the original dress, after the alterations, I'm actually going to end up saving about $200.

So now I'm back in super-wedding-planning mode, and I have found my ideal bridesmaid dress from J.Crew -- and it's on sale right now for $70!! :) I'm going to email the girls now to see if they're ready to buy....

Hey d.: anything you can do I can do better ;-)

Well, I wouldn't really say my Palin look was all that great, looking back....for one thing, I *had* perfect Sarah Palin glasses....but I kid you not -- the dog chewed them up on Thursday. No kidding. So I was stuck wearing the one pair I have left, which are decidedly less Palin-ish. Also, we were running late because I was at school until 7pm yesterday, organizing my classroom (a never-ending endeavor), and realized when I got home at 7:30 that my black suit was still at my parents' house in Indiana. Crap. So we made a quick trip over there, came home, got ready...but I didn't have time (or patience) by that point to bother with too much back-combing for the height on the hair. AND I didn't have any hairspray. You just can't do Palin without backcombing and hairspray. So, this is how it turned out:

And Ryan came as the union worker husband, Mr. Sarah Palin:

Unfortunately, my camera battery died before we even left the house, so there are no other pictures of the night. ):

I was disappointed to find that despite being in Kentucky, a decidedly red state, I got a lot of "Boos" and "I'm not voting for you!" It's a costume, people! Sheesh! I solved this by telling the more vocal democrats that I was supposed to be Tina Fey. Most found this quite funny.

On a more positive note, everyone recognized my costume.

Other honorable mention, funny or creative costumes:

- Where's Waldo? A group of 14 people dressed in striped shirts, but only one true Waldo: hat, shirt, glasses, brown cane, brown shoes, and jeans. I drove myself insane trying to find Waldo and went up to one guy accusing him of being The One, only to have his cane waved in my face: "Waldo's cane is BROWN. This one is BLACK!" lmao...

- A girl was carrying around a box of Cheerios with a knife stabbed into it and a box of Golden Grahams that had been strangled. It took me one hour, two shots, and a Captain and Coke to realize she was a cereal killer (which by this point I found quite funny).

- A guy had little baby chickens glued to his shirt. He was a chick magnet.

- A flip flop

- Michael Phelps. No kidding, it was 60 degrees out and the guy was wearing a swim cap, speedo, and 8 gold medals. That's it.

- Oh, and who could forget my friend Kelley, who went as Amy Winehouse. Complete with beehive updo, black eyeliner, and purple bra hanging out.

Well it was a pretty awesome night, or it must have been, considering we didn't leave until after 3am and I did not get out of bed until about 6pm today. Hey, I work hard. I deserved it. :)