Ketchup:

I just finished unpacking from my trip to Boston, which was over two weeks ago. I only decided to unpack now because I need my suitcase to go to Florida on Wednesday night. Otherwise, I'd probably let it all go right on sitting there. Sean says I need a "rock bottom" for habits like this. A "rock bottom" is a wrestling move that Sean basically thinks will solve any problem in the world. I have yet to be impressed. My roommate, Amy Beth, is starting to pack up all her stuff to take back to Seattle this summer. Allan walked through our room the other day and said, "Oh Carolyn, are you packing too?" My response? No, I just live like this.

So, I'm really, really excited about going to Florida. I am going to have a bridal shower! Ever since I was about 9 or 10 years old, and went to both Lisa's and Theresa's bridal showers in the same year, I have wanted a bridal shower more than almost anything. A bridal shower and a rehearsal dinner. These events always struck me as far more important and glamorous than the wedding itself. Some girls dream about their weddings growing up, I dreamed about my rehearsal dinner. This is probably why I bought my rehearsal dinner dress before even securing a wedding dress.

Today made me so very happy because after a week of oppressively cold weather, it was sunny and relatively warm, and I wore my soon to be sister-in-law's red track shorts from middle school, and felt quite exuberant and sunny. After premarital counseling with our dear Father David, we drove home via State College, and stopped at the beautiful park situated quite nicely at the intersection of State College and Bastanchury. We parked the car, and stood for awhile in the warm sunlight, watching the green hills, and the hazy, still-snow-covered mountains in the distance. Life is so beautiful, and I was seized with an unshakable desire to go hiking. I made Sean promise that we will go hiking a lot when we get married, because hopefully then I will have a job with somewhat regular hours and will not have to work on the weekends.

Speaking of jobs, I will take a brief moment to mention my frustrations with my current job searching status: It is, for the most part, halted. I realized that I can't apply for a job in April and then say that I can't start working until July. So I'm still keeping my eye out there for opportunities, but I really do think that I'll have to wait awhile longer before I can really start applying for jobs--which is just as well, I suppose, considering how much work it's taking me to plan this wedding.

Yesterday, we celebrated St. George's Day, at St. George's, no less, which is the name given to the back apartment of Took Hall, where Peter Gross and Lewis Reynolds currently reside. The party was nothing short of splendid: we drank tea, and ate treacle toffee and all other sorts of specifically British delicacies, played the Great Dalmudi (of which I had a brief, but "M-A-L-evilent" reign, as Sean dubbed it [which is a lie, because I was an absolutely delightful ruler]), read aloud the story of St. George slaying the dragon, made merry, and said many times, "God, England, and St. George!" We left feeling quite jolly, which could have simply been a result of all the treacle I consumed going straight to my bloodstream for a wondrous sugar high.

My reading life has been quite interesting of late. Upon finishing Two Part Invention by Madeleine L'Engle (which I highly recommend), I picked up a couple of books and tried to start them, to no avail. They just didn't feel right. And then a strange thing occurred--something similar to what I imagine a pregnant woman experiences when she starts to crave laundry detergent, or pickles, or something equally odd--I had a literary craving: a craving to read Ovid. And so I did. I read the first two books of The Metamorphoses, and loved every word of it. I read parts of it aloud to Claire, and she enjoyed the poetry as well. (At least it made her laugh.) With that craving out of my system, I have embarked on a new adventure: Science Fiction. Particularly, the Miles Vorkosigan series, of which I just finished the second book: Barrayar. IT IS SO GOOD! AND SO FUN! I love reading just about anything I can get my hands on, but there is the specific and unbeatable pleasure of reading a good story, that draws you in and doesn't let you go until the last page. Sean will probably be relieved that I've finished this book, since I've spent the last couple of days making continuous statements like, "I've just GOT to find out what happens on Barrayar!!!!"

In the audio book world, which is another pleasant land in which I often travel, I just finished listening to Whale Rider, which delighted me beyond belief with its characters and excellent reading, and now I am listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--my least favorite book in the HP series, but wholly wonderful nevertheless.

I told Sean this afternoon, in all serious, and probably with only a hint of exaggeration (if I am honest with myself), "You know, after Christ, and you, and my family, and my Torrey education....Harry Potter is probably the best thing that's ever happened to me."

The end.
(For tonight.)

I babysit Jewish children!

About a week ago, my mom called to inform me that I must go to Biola's bookstore on Thursday, March 25th between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. in order to purchase my graduation announcements and a cap and gown. After a brief pause, I said, "Oh, I forgot I was graduating." In the all-consuming importance of planning a WEDDING and anticipating MARRIAGE, the celebration of my extremely hard-earned college degree almost got overlooked. Not anymore. Tonight I went to the bookstore and purchased the ridiculously over-priced announcements (which I am looking at as a financial investment, and hoping they will bring in more than I paid for them in the form of congratulatory gifts...) as well as my cap and tassel. I didn't need to procure a gown, since I am going to wear Sarah's. The more I think about it, the happier I am that I am wearing Sarah's gown, it is a small, but important, link to the class that I came in with, and to all of my dear friends with whom I went through college but did not get to graduate. All that to say, now I am feeling really excited about graduation!

I am also feeling really excited about my wedding. Priscilla of Boston called me yesterday to tell me that my shoes and my veil are both (finally) in, and will be shipped to me immediately. This means they either arrived today (I haven't gone home yet to check) or tomorrow! In the midst of the sheer mayhem of wedding planning, it is comforting to know that my wedding garb is taken care of. Everything else might go wrong, but my dress, veil, and shoes are perfect, and thus, I must conclude, the day will be perfect. Also, Sean will be there.

And thanks to Biola's Career Expo which I attended this morning, I am even feeling slightly encouraged about my working status and professional life after college. I might actually get a job that I like and am good at!

But if it all falls through, I know that I still have babysitting...at least for the next few years until it just gets too weird to have a thirty-something woman coming to your house to take care of your kids. I babysat Claire and Nicholas for 7 hours today, and when I left, I had the bouyant realization, "That was easy...and fun." Seven hours of technically hard work, and it flew by, and I enjoyed myself. That is a true sign that I am doing something that I love. I also found out that Claire and Nicholas are a quarter Jewish. For those of you who truly know me, you know how much this means to me. If it was possible, and I highly doubt it that it is, I adore those kids even more now. I spent the day regarding them with nothing short of great awe...Holding Nicholas and thinking, "I am holding a quarter Jewish child..." or feeding Claire lunch and thinking, "I am feeding a child who is a quarter Jewish!" When Claire went down for her nap this afternoon, I got a lot of one on one time with Nicholas, who is almost 9 months old. My mind started to drift (as it normally does) to Harry Potter, so I started telling Nicholas, "You're just a little bit younger than Harry was when he survived/defeated Voldemort for the first time..." I hope his dad wasn't listening too closely from the next room.

Just Registered!

It's so hard to make time to write. Right now I just want to go home, read, take a shower, and sleep for a really long time. I've been at Sean's apartment, working on my resume for most of the evening. I really dislike working on a resume, or should I say, trying to sum up my entire self on a sheet of paper...And even that wouldn't be too hard, except for the fact that the sheet of paper must be perfectly formatted with no grammatical or stylistic errors. There's a career expo at Biola tomorrow, so Sean and I are going to wander around with our resumes in hand, eagerly looking for jobs.

I feel utterly overwhelmed by everything I have to do between now and June 26th. I really hope our wedding is out of this world amazing, otherwise I will be furious that we did not just elope. I have never so many decisions to make in my entire life! I have also never had so many people calling and asking me what they should wear. I am probably in charge of picking out or approving of outfits for at least 30 people on my wedding day.

I really should be more relaxed than this, considering that Sean and I spent the weekend at his house, and I took at least three bubble baths a day. We also registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which was not as awful an experience as I expected, but wasn't exactly great fun either. We registered for five pages of stuff. Then we asked the lady how much most people register for. She rolled her eyes and said she's printed off registries at least fifty-six pages long...that's fifty one pages longer than ours, which made me feel a lot better...I sure felt like a moronic materialist monster wandering around the store and zapping anything I wanted with my scan gun, so that other people can buy it for me. Sean's mantra for the excursion was, "I will not sell out." This enabled him to resist the inevitable temptation of registering for things we absolutely do not need, and it helped us keep a levelheaded approach to the somewhat heady, mind-altering experience of being let loose in a store to pick out whatever your heart desires. By far the most expensive thing for which we registered was the tangerine colored Kitchenaid Mixer, weighing in at a hefty $300, but that was also just about the only thing I wanted. Why? Because I know I will use it. Because I know it will last. And because my childhood development can be measured by my growing ability to engage my own mother's Kitchenaid Mixer. Suffice it to say, the sturdy Kitchenaid mixer is an uncompromisable domestic asset which I really do feel my kitchen (and my life!) would be incomplete without. Other than the Kitchenaid mixer, the only other thing I got really excited about was towels...This is also due to my childhood, but in the reverse manner--meaning that growing up we never had enough towels for our burgeoning family, and I have made it my mission to have a plentiful amount of large, fluffy towels in my future home...even if I have very little else. So, from the way it's looking, Sean and I will be setting up house with plenty of books, towels, and of course, love. What more could we ask for?

Recap!

I just awoke from a wonderful nap in which I was at a grand old city library, that not only had books galore, but also had clothes from every year in the past century for sale. Needless to say, it was heaven! Books and vintage clothes in the same location! Unfortunately, I also dreamed that a Winnie the Pooh movie was released in which Christopher Robin commits suicide at the end, much to the trauma of American children.

Well, it's been quite a few days for Sean and I. Right now we are up in Foster City visiting Sean's parents. We got in last night, when we flew in stand-by from Los Angeles. Kendrick drove us to the airport at sunset, cruising along the 105-West, listening to Coldplay. We were blessed to get on the first flight, and about an hour later we landed at SFO. It's so lovely to have a few days off just to relax. I made sure to take a very long bubble bath last night, reading the back issues of People magazine and my latest midwifery chronicle.


Today we had lunch with Sean's friend and mentor, Tom, who is officiating our wedding. It's really exciting to start seeing even the smaller details of the wedding come together. Last night I went to the Book of Common Prayer online and copied and pasted the traditional ceremony into a Word document and then edited it to get it exactly how we want it. I think it's going to be a beautiful ceremony.

Anyway, like I said, it's been a busy week. On Tuesday night, my cousin Lisa was in town visiting from Raleigh, North Carolina. Sean and I drove down to Long Beach to meet up with her and have dinner. Meeting up with her was the easy part, as we found her quite quickly, picking her up from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (where her dad is staying right now), but finding a place to eat proved to be more difficult. Lisa's iPhone's GPS kept insisting that we were in Colorado as Sean and I struggled to follow his friend's directions to Long Beach's downtown district. Anyway, after an hour and a half of driving around, we finally ended up in the Shoreline area and ate dinner at The Rock Bottom Brewery, which Sean really loved because "rock bottoming" people is one of Sean's favorite phrases. It was so fun to see a familiar face all the way out here in California. I had forgotten how much fun Lisa is to hang out with, and since I haven't seen her since the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college, we had quite a lot of catching up to do!

On Wednesday, I spent the day with Emily Moothart and her three adorable boys. In the morning, while the boys were having Quiet Time, she and I got to talk a lot, and once the boys got up we made Clover Rolls in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I've been thinking a lot about my future...you know, career options, grad school, stuff like that. But being in their home, and making bread with those precocious little boys confirmed all of my deepest convictions that what I want more than anything is to be a wife and mom. Forget fancy degrees, I know that I will be happy as a clam if I have enough children to keep me busy, and, of course, if I get to share life with Sean every day.

Wednesday night I babysat for Madison and Taylor. We watched Finding Nemo, which made me cry, and then Disney Princess Sing Along Songs. SO GOOD! Madison went into her room to put on her Belle dress--to get in character for the sing-along--and I asked her if she needed help. "No, I can do it by myself. I need some pri-acy," she told me in no uncertain terms. Never mind that she cannot yet pronounce the word "privacy" correctly, she is most decidedly an independent little girl.

On Thursday, Sean and I got to have lunch with Dr. and Mrs. Corey...in the President's office! It was really awesome! Each time Sean tells the story to other people, it grows a little more absurd..."We ate lobster that the President caught with his bare hands that very morning..." But in all seriousness, it was a delicious catered lunch, and we got to tell them how we met, and about our Biola experiences, and our plans for the future, as well as hear advice from them about marriage and stuff. It really helped me to realize just how much I've loved Biola and been blessed by it.

Thursday afternoon, Sean came with me to babysit Claire and Nicholas, since he didn't have classes due to Missions Conference. We took them on a walk to the park, and picked dandelions and went down the slides and played basketball, and just had a great time. On the walk back to their house, Sean was carrying Claire, and she asked him if he was my daddy. He said no, so she asked him if he was my little boy! Hahaha! When we left three and a half hours later, Sean was like, "Care, how do you do it? That is such hard work!"

So, for now we are going to keep enjoying our time up here as much as possible before we have to go back to L.A. and back to work and back to the books. But I'm enjoying our little respite up in the Bay Area!