One Week

It's been one week since I last wrote a blog entry. That's the longest time I've gone without writing here in quite awhile. Well, in my defense, I've had quite a few things going on lately. Consider this my big, giant recap post. I'm not a big fan of recaps, so I tend to put them off forever. But here are some things I consider noteworthy about my life right now.

1) I've had a cold this week (which is probably the main reason why I haven't been writing). I had picked up some oil of oregano a few weeks ago when Roy was sick, and I put three drops in my water at night and in the morning. I feel that the oil of oregano is a big reason why my cold symptoms improved so drastically, so I would recommend it to others. If you ever try it though, consider adding it to your water like I did instead of dropping it straight into your mouth. It's pretty strong and tastes awful.

2) I got my scary mole removed yesterday. It didn't hurt at all. My dermatologist really doesn't think it's a cause for concern, but she is going to have it biopsied anyway. I'll get the results in two weeks. In the meantime, I think it's going to heal up nicely and probably won't even be noticable at Mandy's wedding (which I was admittedly concerned about).

3) Speaking of Mandy's wedding, it's two weeks until the day! I often think of her and wonder how she's doing with everything. I remember all too well how I felt near the end of the planning process: insanely stressed but extraordinarily happy and alive. I just can't believe how the time has flown.

4) Roy got a new job! This is probably the most amazing thing I have to report this time around. My husband is not one to embrace change when it comes to jobs, so for him to make this move is pretty incredible. He actually got a job in his field; he will be making a little bit more per hour and will work slightly less. The position is temporary, but it's definitely a good move for him.

5) I downloaded a thirty day trial of Adobe Lightroom last weekend, and I must say I love it! Remember the white balance issues I had with Mandy and Paul's engagement pics? Well, in a few clicks, Lightroom had fixed that. Check it - the left pic is before Lightroom, and the right pic is after Lightroom.



Needless to say, I think I will be purchasing Lightroom after my thirty day trial is up. It's a quick and amazing piece of software.

6) I got my Polaroid camera in this week. I'm so glad I bought it. Getting a good picture out of it seems to kind of be a crapshoot (and an expensive one at that) at this point, but I think in time I will learn to manipulate it to get the shots I want. Actually, I've taken some really cool shots with it. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner, so I don't really have any to share.

7) We have finally put our wedding videographer issues to bed, not necessarily by choice, but by necessity. I did send out a couple of demand letters at the beginning of March and tracked them online. One of them was returned to us unopened, and the other one apparently never made it anywhere. As I suspected, our videographer apparently is no longer in the wedding videography business. While we could have pushed on with taking him to small claims court, Roy and I made the mutual decision to let it go. In the grand scheme of things, this just isn't worth it. No matter how much we fight or how much of a refund we might have gotten, it won't give us what we really want: all the hours of footage from our wedding. It sucks, but I have too many other things that need my attention. We got screwed over, we made a heroic effort to unscrew ourselves, and it just didn't work out. Oh well.

8) I have been a music-listening-and-downloading fool lately. My absolute favorite album of the moment is She & Him: Volume One. It's totally worth many listens. I have also been revisiting some of my old favorites, like Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes, Weezer's blue album, and Violent Femmes' Add it Up. Right now I'm listening to old school Smashing Pumpkins and am enjoying it thoroughly.

9) After many frustrating months of trying to get answers about my name-changing issues, I finally made some headway yesterday. I was able to talk to someone who actually made a few phone calls to help me out. Now I feel more confident about this whole process, although there's no guarantee that the state will amend our marriage license. I will be sending in the paperwork next week though. I suspect it will be a long wait to hear anything back from them.

10) School is going great! I have to say that this has been my favorite year of school in quite awhile (in terms of classes). My internship is going well: the students are really insightful and smart, the assigned reading is wonderful, and of course I love my faculty mentor. My seminar on fairy tales is very interesting, although the professor takes some getting used to. I could be making more headway on my thesis proposal, but hopefully that will happen this weekend. All in all, I am enjoying myself very much. I have to admit, though, that attending classes four nights a week thoroughly sucks. For that reason, I am counting down until summer.

Anyway, there's my long ass recap. I have a few other things that are going on, but I think I'll make those separate entries.

It's good to be back!