Just real quick

In a rush loves, sorry, but I wanted to give you all an update!

So I went home this past weekend with Ed and we
a) Got our passports taken care of! We'll get them in "4-6 weeks" if all goes well. SOOO glad to have that off our list.
b) We spoke to our travel agent! The last time I talked with her she gave us various books of guided tours and whatnot.."SEE EUROPE IN 21 DAYS!" But we knew none of these were really up our ally. Instead, I researched the trains and went to her with a list of cities we want to see, etc etc and she's supposed to be drawing up an itenerary for us! We'll travel by train, stay in the major cities and make day trips out to the smaller towns that we want to see. VERY excited. SHIVONNE--We're totally planning a meet-up :)
c) My sister has offered to make the invitations, which scared me at first. She's great at that sort of thing, always making cards and scrapbooks for someone or something, but I was afraid she might take it too far. HOWEVER, she showed me a few sample invites and I LOVE THEM! They're so beautiful and romantic, right up my ally.

Most of you know that Ed is currently writing various short stories and plans on attending grad school in the Fall of 2009 to get his MFA in creative writing. He is also currently enrolled in a creative writing class at ACC in an attempt to defer his loan payments :) He submitted a story last week and got back great reviews. TONIGHT he went to a reading at Austin Java and read part of it aloud. I'm so proud of him. Had to share.

ONE more thing :) There are finally pictures of my dress online! It's part of the Spring 2008 line, which until recently was not available on their website. But here are some pictures--much better than the ones previously posted.

I am having it altered to be tea-length..blasphemous, I know, but I don't want to worry about my dress dragging on the ground and turning brown. We're going to be outside people.

SO if you'll NOTICE the larger panel of lace going across, knee-ish area, that's where they're going to cut it. They're also going to raise it up a little around the waist. yay :)

Albuquerque

Hello loves! Just a short post to let you all know that I did, in fact, make it to Albuquerque to attend my much anticipated conference! It was completely overwhelming and more exhausting that it probably should have been, considering my aching body and sole desire to climb into bed and sleep forever.
Everything went pretty well, no troubles with the travel arrangements, plane or car, and we found the convention center and our bed and breakfast with magnificent ease--I tend to over-plan and had detailed directions and iteneraries :)
The Blue Horse Bed and Breakfast was AMAZING! It was right at the bottom of the mountains, newly established, fireplace in the bedroom, heated tile floor, great gathering space, and the most delicious breakfasts I've yet tasted, nooo joke. I'm a sucker for the pastries and this little lady had to of been a pastry chef in a past life. I'm making a go at peach french toast and apple/cranberry turnovers this weekend, we'll see how it goes!
Ed and I enjoyed our first casino experience together. I only played slots, which gets old REALLY FREAKIN FAST, I honestly don't know how people do it! Money, so easily lost, and rarely a payback. I guess it's the occasional big win, but I'm such a penny pincher, it was more painful than enjoyable for me. Ed tried his luck at a couple games of black jack and Texas hold'em, and actually won some money! With my losings and his winnings, we actually came out about $10 richer than when we started, not bad, not bad.
So the CONFERENCE. I was one of the youngest people there, by far, and for obvious reasons. It consists of doctors and researchers presenting their findings in clusters of related topics that people can wrap their heads around. I went to several talks on romantic relationships, including the one given by the grad student I worked under, Rich. Turns out our study had some pretty amazing findings and a lot of people were interested in it. And Rich, bless him, must have plugged my name in his talk 20 times, and thanked me right after he thanked his graduate adviser. When I went to introduce myself for the remainder of the weekend, it was, "Oh! Rich's research assistant! He thanked you right after his graduate adviser, that's huge!". Needless to say, I owe him big.
Other talks I went to were about religion, self-esteem, relational security, attachment, dyadic analysis, marital satisfaction over the years, and WORRY AND RUMINATION ON PHYSICAL HEALTH--totally applicable to my own life. Did you know that the physical processes we go through by worrying have significantly similar effects on our heart and blood pressure as SMOKING! Never smoked in my life and I'll die at 40 because I am a chronic ruminator. Talk about your wake-up call. As a result, I've decided to actively engage myself in positive psychological mindsets, aka, de-stressing my abused body.
It was a great experience, completely reaffirmed for me that research is what I want to be doing and close relationships is where I want to center it. I met almost EVERY professor that I wanted to apply to work under in graduate school, which was a nice perk.
Only thing I didn't take away from the conference that I went in looking for was a summer/year long internship--hopefully one that pays well :) I'm supposed to email different people this week, so we'll see how it goes. If nothing pans out, I think I might look into the Gender and Sexuality center at UT. I always wished I had the time to volunteer there, and maybe I'll get just that when I graduate.
I'm feeling..meh, 80% now? Poor Ed got sick on our last day there and ended up puking on the plane :/ and is still feeling poorly. I'm trying to nurse him back to health, because I've got items on my wedding list that are NOT getting done! And of course because I love him, wouldn't want him to be ill :)
So..this ended up being not so short, but yay for you if you read through it all! I love you guys and miss you all, even Heather who is in the same city but is just as busy as I. We should make time for each other, we suck ;)

Dress

...and the flu :( Yes darlings, I managed to find my wedding dress and catch the flu, all in the same weekend!

My dad had the flu when I got home on Thursday, and i just KNEW I was going to catch it, even though I took extra care to steer clear of everything he came in contact with, wash my hands, take my vitamins, and not breathe his air. A cue-tip shoved up my nose at the doc's office yesterday confirmed, however, that I indeed have the flu. BAH.

I found the dress with my mom and sister at The Princess Bridal..a cute little boutique in Old Town Spring (if you're from the Houston area, you might be familiar with it) and then spent the rest of the afternoon at an equally cute cafe. It was an incredibly enjoyable experience--my sister was pleasant, mom was more excited than I was (she cried when I had it on) and I got to try on so many different types of dresses! and let me just say, those suckers are HEAVY!! I tried one on that was 100 lbs! No WONDER they have assistants that help you get dressed!

The dress I chose was ivory satin with a lace overlay. The beading and lace was beautiful, and I just found out this afternoon that they are willing to make it tea length for me. I'll get it sometime at the beginning of April, so there will be time for additional alterations if needed.

Now apparantly the boutique has some arrangement with the designers that they won't let people take a picture in the dress unless they buy it? Something about publicity..whatever. These shots are Juli in the dressing room, me out in the middle, and no flash, so as not to draw attention :)

I travel to Albuquerque tomorrow with Ed to go to the conference for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Hopefully this fever comes down and I'm able to actually enjoy the trip, and not get rooms full of people sick :/