I can't get no sleep.
I'm finding it impossible to sleep in on the weekends these days. The past two days I woke up around 7:30. Yesterday, I was able to go back to sleep for a little bit, but today I couldn't. So I watched a movie (The Dreamers, which I really didn't enjoy), cleaned up a bit, and took a shower all before 10:30am. I woke Victor to tell him I was going to run errands, and I was able to convince him to come to breakfast with me. We went to Legal Grounds, where I had some amazing homemade granola with yogurt and fruit. Victor had oatmeal pancakes with bananas. The coffee there is really good. I was surprised how packed it was, but it was worth it. We took our Sunday New York Times with us, and I read the travel section and special travel supplement. I really would like to go to Eastern Europe for the honeymoon, either one (or more) of the Baltic states, or maybe something further south.

By a stroke of luck, I was able to score one of these Lancôme Resurface Peel kits for free. There are 8 treatments, so Victor and I are splitting it and doing four each. We want our skin to look radiant for the wedding. We put the first treatment on tonight. I wonder if it's worth the hefty $145 price tag? Only time will tell...

Big News Weekend
Last night, as Victor and I were on our way from the Chinese restaurant to the Magnolia to see Junebug, we got a call from Mark. He and Kat are engaged! I'm so excited for him. He also told me that another of our friends, Nisha, got engaged too. Add in us and Kurt and Meredith, and that is now four couples in our group who have gotten engaged in the last year. I guess Victor really started a trend. He says that all the girls have him to thank!

I guess we are all growing up. I mean, we're in our late 20s and early 30s, so I suppose it's time. Other friends of mine from college and high school have been married for several years, but the Austin group of friends seemed to be holding on to bachelorhood/bachelorettehood as long as they could. Sure, there are still people who haven't gotten engaged yet or who are still playing the field. But for such a large number of us to have taken the plunge is pretty crazy.

Our wedding plans are going ok, finally. After weeks of hunting, I finally found shoes for the big day. They're comfy, not ugly (I can't stand wedding shoes), and I can wear them again after the wedding! Plus they were on sale.

Tonight we are going to Smith and Wollensky for their Pay Your Age dinner, in which you get a three-course dinner for your age. For example, I would pay $28, Victor would pay $29, and Phyllis Diller would pay $128. Considering that their entrees alone cost more than my age, it's a really good deal. I'm planning on bringing home the desert and freezing it so that it doesn't put back on the couple of pounds that I lost this week.

I like the way you work it
So, in the comments of my pity party post, my supervisor Aaron cried and cried that I never write about him. He's going to get mad about me calling him my supervisor, too, but I'm doing it anyway, because he is.

So, I figured I'd write a post about work. Not the annoying stuff, but the wacky stuff that my department does. Which can include all of the following: highly inappropriate discussions, spontaneous singing and dancing, inability to go to the breakroom alone (must take entire team with you), and other junk. Basically, my department is three people: Aaron, Shane, and me. We share an addiction to rathergood.com, and we constantly sing the songs from that site. In harmony. We sing other songs in the style of Eddie Veddar, which I'm sure is annoying to the people who work around us. Aaron and Shane constantly have mock fights and beat each other up. I swear, our department is one huge mess of teasing, laughing, singing, and dancing.

The fact that we all like and respect each other has its shortcomings, though. Aaron sometimes finds himself in a tough place, because we used to all be equal... then they created his supervisor position. So sometimes feelings get hurt because our friend has to be our boss. I think it may affect Shane more than it does me, but that's probably because he's been here longer than me, and he and Aaron have a pretty close friendship.

We do plenty of griping about work stuff to each other, but it's surprising how supportive of each other we are. It's been a long time since I didn't dread coming to work (definitely dreaded work at my last job), but most days I actually look forward to coming in. We're three totally different people, from very different backgrounds, but we have enough in common to make things really fun. Shane is a really good person, very sweet, and he has a way of surprising you with his great sense of humor and out-of-character behavior. Aaron shares my passion for music, fashion, food, and travel, and despite our different upbringings, we have had a lot of similar experiences. Both of these guys worked their way into my heart really quickly.

I haven't had such a close work group since my Cargill days, when I practically lived with the rest of the customer service folk (most of whom I still keep in contact with, and who I will see tomorrow at my bridal shower in Arkansas). It's nice to be surrounded by strong, intelligent, funny people during the nine hours I spend at work every day.

(Now, I really liked some of the people at Dell too, and had great times with them, but that environment was just a bit too harsh and stifling... I didn't enjoy working there, but I did enjoy some of the people a lot)

Anyway, I guess this is just a way for me to say thanks to the guys for putting up with me during my rather difficult last few months. Being able to come into work and laugh all day makes some of the stress go away.

Country Grammar
I'm feeling a bit better today. This could be because of three things:
1. New Super Furry Animals album out today!
2. New Sigur Rós album out today!
3. Gilmore Girls season premiere tonight!

OK, so maybe it's sad that I let pop culture dictate my moods, but escapism is good sometimes. I've been waiting and waiting for the new SFA album, which has been out a while in the UK. Normally I would have just imported it, but that's pretty expensive these days with the pound being so strong. So I've forced myself to be patient.

Also, I have my hometown bridal shower this weekend, which my sister, Diana, and a couple of family friends are hosting for me. Apparently my sister is going all out with the food and drinks, so it should be a good time. That's something to look forward to (or, for you grammar sticklers, that's something to which I can look forward).

It's cloudy outside today, and inside too
In other news, I'm kinda depressed today. I've been feeling it since Saturday night. I know a lot of people are having trouble finding the finances to come to the wedding. It's far from where Victor's family lives, like 14 hours by car, and plane tickets are really expensive. I know some of our friends in Austin are on a really tight budget, and I feel bad that they will have to spend money to drive 9 hours (or fly - even more money) and then stay in a hotel. Because the wedding is at 1pm - not our choice, by the way - it pretty much means anyone driving in has to leave Friday instead of Saturday. I'm not sure how many of my friends in Chicago are going to be able to make it, since that's also a pretty penny for flights, or a grueling 12 hour drive. My family is all over the US, so I have no idea if most of them will even consider coming.

I'd love to get all of my girl friends together on a weekend for a big night of teen movies, facials, manicures, slumber party, etc... but I don't think anyone would be able to come (or maybe even want to come) to Dallas for it. So that makes me really sad. I'm trying to come up with an alternative plan, but nothing I'm coming up with makes me very happy.

Why does something that is supposed to make you happy (getting married) actually ends up being a stressful emotional rollercoaster?

We have arrived too late to play the bleeding heart show
Wow. Toronto was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I’ve been back a week and haven’t thought of how to post about it yet. So I’ll address that first, then I’ll get on to other business.

The weather was gorgeous all weekend – sunny but not unbearably hot, so that was a nice break from Dallas weather. We got there and the Canadian International Airshow was going on. We never actually made it to the waterfront to see the full show, but we kept catching glimpses of it all weekend. The Canadian Forces Snowbirds were performing on Saturday, and they were absolutely amazing.

We stayed in the West Queen West section of town, kind of an up-and-coming area full of cafes, art galleries, record stores, and funky boutiques. We were able to walk down to the downtown area, which was a nice mix of old and modern. Predictably, Victor and I spent the weekend shopping and eating. We did a lot of walking, too, when we weren’t riding the streetcars. The walking felt good though, and there were so many things to look at as we walked through town. I could totally picture myself living there.

We stayed at the Gladstone Hotel, which is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Toronto. It is currently being renovated, so we got a good deal on our room. They have fifteen artist designed rooms, which are amazing. Our room was designed by Andrew Harwood and was biker-themed (not in a Harleys and Hogs way… more in an Easy Rider way).

The meals we had there were fantastic. We had a wonderful dinner at Mildred Pierce, which was, of course, named for the fantastic Joan Crawford film. Sunday morning brunch was really yummy at Sugar Café, and we finished up Sunday at the cheerful, friendly Swan Restaurant. We had only one bad experience while we were there (we had to walk out of an Ethopian restaurant after receiving really poor, or even non-existant, service). All of the other people we met were so nice, and everything we ate was terrific.

On Monday, the Labour Day Parade was held on the street where we stayed, so we walked past it into downtown. Unlike the Labor Day parades here in the US, their parade was labor unions marching. Many (most?) of them seemed to be on strike, too. I got some great pictures of the marchers and signs. Victor is very anti-union, so he made some pretty funny comments as we walked past the parade.

We will definitely go back to Toronto again, because we both enjoyed it so much. I’d like to spend some time going to the art galleries there and exploring some of the other areas of town. We didn’t get a chance to go to the Kensington Market, either, and we want to see that as well. So this was kind of a starter trip for us.

Other than being world travelers, we’ve been pretty busy on the wedding front too. About 95% of the English invitations are sent out (we are still waiting to get a couple of addresses). We’re taking care of the Spanish ones this week. Big shout out to Dan for printing the invites for us. That was a huge help! We also got our engagement pictures taken, ordered the bridesmaids dresses – rush delivery! – finally, and found ties for the groomsmen to wear. Things are finally coming together. I’ve been waking up at night in panic attacks… but I’m hoping that stops soon.

Go north, young man
Sorry I've been out of it this week. I haven't much felt like posting with all of the hell-on-earth going down in New Orleans. But I wanted to drop in and say that we're about to go to the airport to get on a plane for Toronto. We have booked a room at The Gladstone Hotel, which looks nice. I think we are just going to take it easy, do some walking around, and shop at all of our favorite places.