Margaux's Bachelorette Weekend

I have been getting over a cold for the last two weeks and here I sit on the eve of a major girls weekend extravaganza in Santa Barbara.

Miss Margaux is getting married next month and she invited me to join she and her girlfriends for a bachelorette weekend, which is a real honor.  I have come to think of Margaux as part of my own family and the other longstanding girlfriend in Sam's family to share in the limo between being a part of the family du jure and being part of the family de facto.

Margaux is far more patient that I am, she waited 17 years for Pete to propose to her.

In charge of our weekend festivities is one of Margaux's dearest friends whom I enjoy immensely- Ingrid.  She is a UCSB graduate along with her husband, Sam, so I know we're going to do be in great hands.  It will also be interesting to see a mature bachelorette party, since I think this is more in line with how I'd like to celebrate next year.

It should be a great weekend, especially since it will be a long weekend vacation.  We're all taking tomorrow off to travel up in the morning and hanging out by the pool in the afternoon.  I just hope I can keep up with these ladies and not relapse with my head cold.

I also can't wait to get back home on Sunday and see Sam!  He gets back from Thailand on Saturday night and will get a warm welcome from Hunter before being on call on Sunday.  Hopefully it will be a quiet night and he'll be able to spend some time at home after I get here.

TGIF!!!

I could not agree more with this meme.  OMG this has been a crappy week.  Full disclosure, it's *that* time of the month so I have been a bit of a hormonal mess.  Let's just say that I spent Tuesday afternoon bursting into tears several times in my office.  Yes, it was that bad.  Plus, Sam got sick and obviously we're all cranky when we don't feel good.  Last night, we had two comforters on our bed- one on my side and one on his.  Dear Lord, please let him be recover by the time I see him Monday!

Yes, I will be out of town this weekend at Miss Jackie's Bridal Shower.  I have tonight to pack, spend some quality time with Hunter Puppy, write in Jackie's card, fill out the recipe card (we're all donating new recipes to her and Joe's collection) and prep Hunter's dog-sitter with notes for her visits on Sunday.

Sam and I will split up our nights with him so that we don't have to have the dog-sitter stay overnight or leave Hunter at the vet.  I am on duty tonight and Sunday night, Sam will be home mid-afternoon on Saturday and rest at home that night before reporting for call again on Sunday morning. 

This weekend kicks off the 2013 Wedding Season Madness for me.  And believe me, this homebody is already feeling elevated blood pressure just looking at her calendar.  I underestimated how stressful it would be to concurrently plan a reunion and a bachelorette party long-distance.  Not that I would give either of them up, I am having fun and am really excited about all the festivities, but it's all the little details that creep up on me 

We're going to be up in Tahoe during shoulder season, so the restaurants are not as responsive as I would like them to be, i.e. (I waited 2 weeks to actually get firm plans set up with the limo company and the restaurant).  If you know me, you know that I like to try to be prompt and organized with lots of advance planning. 

Worse than flaky vendors, I have about three people I just want to punch in the face.  I realize that everyone is doing their best to be helpful; however, I wish that people would keep in mind that we're talking about big groups here and what is easiest may not be EXACTLY what you, the individual wants, but for the sake of the group (and my sanity) could you just go with the flow?  I am not going to friend 300 people on Facebook to make sure they get added to our reunion group- those folks who don't want to publicly associate their profiles with our high school can either a) get an emailed registration PDF from the folks they keep in touch with, or b) they can email me directly and I'm happy to hook them up.  And while I'm on the subject, if you join the group, please take the time to explore the information!  I can't tell you how irritating it is for me to explain the same 3 things over and over and over.  The location is listed, the registration fee is listed, and it clearly says MULTIPLE places that you cannot pay at the door.  Don't whine to me about that.  Just freakin' plan accordingly.

Can you tell my patience for morons is wearing thin ?  :-)  I should probably make this gem (at right) my anti-mantra for the next couple of months.  Actually, no joke, I should probably print it out (or order a few plaques somewhere online) and hang this up in my office at work and my office at home.  Sheesh.  I know I like things to be my way, but sometimes I honestly think my way is the best damn way to do it.

But seriously folks, I understand we all have our little preferences.  And I do want to accommodate them, if I didn't care I'd be WAY less stressed out!  Just keep in mind when you make some special request 2 weeks before the event that it may cause me to have a complete emotional breakdown, crying in my office at work. 

New Mac & Apple TV

So my personal laptop has been falling apart lately... I did get it back in 2007.  I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and buy a new MacBook Pro since I love my current one so much!  I did a lot of research and was debating between a solid state drive (SSD) and upgrading the memory on a ATA drive.  In the end I went with the ATA because I don't usually drop my laptops and they are relatively well taken care of.  Plus, I always seem to need more memory space, my poor iTunes couldn't even play movies I had such little hard drive and memory left.

So anyway, while I was in the store they were mentioning Apple TV and I had looked into getting it for Sam.   He hooked up the AirPlay device his Dad got us last year before we had cable so we could stream music wirelessly from our computers and iPhones to the living room stereo.  Unfortunately, we couldn't have cable TV and cable internet both in the living room because we didn't have enough cable output from the wall.  Oops.  

Apple TV is better anyway because you can steam movies, and rent movies, and basically access all of your movies, tv shows, and anything else through iTunes (like Sam's video games on his iPad).  So this is really much more versatile, and it's all through just power, an HDMI cord to the TV, and our wireless router in the guest room.  Very, very neat.  

Sam's been on call a lot the last week and he's pretty exhausted, but we did play around with the Apple TV a little bit last night and I think he was pretty impressed.  I'm excited for him to get home from being on call tomorrow- hopefully we can put on a movie and Sam can pass out on the couch while I work on some marketing collateral for the trade show we are attending in March.

I am in the process of downloading all my iTunes movies and it's amazing- I have been at it for over 24 hours and only 1/3 of the movies have downloaded!  Can you believe that?  Good lord, the Harry Potters are SO long to download.  This whole thing makes me want to buy faster upload and download internet speed!  

The other really freakin neat thing is that iCloud syncs all music, movies, calendar events, and reminders on my computer and phone.  So that means when I change something on my phone (add an event, an item to my grocery list, buy a song, etc.) it automatically syncs with my calendar, reminders, iTunes library on my computer.  So there is no need to constantly plug in the phone and update things via a cable.  This is going to make my OCD so much easier- and probably worse!

But seriously, the convenience of all the new technology is really, really amazing.  Even if it is expensive!  With all the bachelorette planning, and now I am heading up planning our 10-Year High School Reunion in June too, I am going to need a functional computer that IS NOT my work laptop.   

Bachelorette Party 101

Breaking News: I get to plan Jackie's bachelorette party!  I am so excited!

This is my first ever bachelorette party because I missed Molly's when she got married a few years ago. Jackie and I decided the best thing to do is to have the party in Tahoe so we can use the Santi family condo at Northstar to save everyone money.  Unfortunately, we are having it the weekend of April 20-21 and the resort will be shut down that weekend.  It looks like we may need to go all the way to Jason's for dinner Saturday night... but that's ok.  :-)

I've got the invitations ordered and I am waiting for the proof to approve printing.  Heidi is planning the Bridal Shower for 2 weeks ahead of the Bachelorette and I don't really want to step on her toes and send out my invites before she sends out hers... but I am asking for RSVPs back one month ahead of the Bachelorette so we can get the transportation, goodies, and refreshments figured out ahead of time.  That means I should probably send them out the first weekend of March so that people have between 2-3 weeks until the RSVP deadline.

It's going to be fun to be a bridesmaid again, even if I am a little nervous about the logistics being gone for the Shower, Bachelorette, and Wedding (kicking off my 2013 wedding season) every other weekend starting the first weekend in April.  I hope Sam is off at least one of the weekends I have bridesmaid stuff going on because otherwise Hunter is going to have to spend a lot of time with Dr. Kali and his amazing vet staff.  Not that I have a problem with that, but it does get a bit expensive!