Ya know, life stuff

So I got called out on not blogging much (at all) by TK. He wrote a great piece on designating the great white shark as California's official fish. I'm biased because I was quoted as being the genesis of the idea. My bias aside, any post that has a breaching great white shark with the caption, "California Motherfuckers!!!!!" is pretty awesome.



My work wormhole led me to figuring out the code sections where we make all the state designations of things. And...well...he has the rest of the story. But that's what my life has been consumed by lately.

And the job is good, if not still incredibly overwhelming. Every day is an adventure. An issue I worked on for my employer made the front page of the paper. Not in a great way, unfortunately, but we're actually not on the wrong side of it so, whatever. I haven't had any time to be bored at work. Which is a completely good thing. The pay is, as my Irish friends would say, shite, and stretching my money each pay period proves challenging. I need to learn to adjust the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed. But overall: good.

Anyway, because of the work, longform is hard. So if you miss me, I am on the twits WAY too much. (@lsucaligrl) I like the interaction, I like the immediacy, I like the bursts. (Which reminds me I actually do want to pull some of it into Storify. Like the AMAZING people watching experience I had in the Phoenix airport.)

Longform is also hard because a lot of what I did was bitching about the state of things and, frankly, there's none of that either. Things are good.

I spent the better part of August traveling on the weekends. First to drag my poor boyfriend (I really hate the word fiance and refuse to use it) to meet my family and friends. Then we went to Seattle for his birthday. Then Labo(u)r day weekend was spent in Vancouver so I could meet his family and friends. What that looks like is: cowtown to SF to cowtown to Seattle to cowtown to Vancouver to cowtown. Phew. I took a shit ton of airborne and dayquil after that in an attempt to not get sick, which I *no jinx* avoided. I laid on my couch all last Saturday and watched 16 hours of college football and felt not an ounce of guilt.

And after the better part of two months having our biggest arguments involve my utter hatred of the thought of planning a wedding and the monumental pain in the ass that would be, I have made an about face and have pinned a whole ton of shit on Pinterest. To the point that when talking to the boyfriend the other night I turned it into a verb. "I pinned a bunch of shit but then I got pinned out so I stopped." I made a spreadsheet. Several tabs. To assist with planning. Pieces are falling. Now to figure out how to pay for it and discuss it and fill out the 800 immigration forms because marrying a foreigner is a great idea. (Getting intimately familiar with USCIS.com.) (If you think being an attorney would help here, you'd be wrong. Though I can't even fathom doing it without being one.)

Now a request: if you have actual, solid, practical wedding advice: I want it. I want all of it. I have some friends I'll make requests of soon to also give advice but mostly I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. (Which really could be my life motto.) Pinterest is all well and good for pretty pictures of things but not for brass tacks. I need to know things like:

• What are you glad you spent money on? What wouldn't you spend money on?
• Things you did that were clever and you really liked?
• Things to avoid.
• Online resources you used? Books? Planners? 

 Just...general guidance would be appreciated.  And yeah. I've totally against all protesting to the contrary COMPLETELY become that girl. I am a fucking hypocrite. I like to just blame him for this. "I WAS NEVER GIRLY! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Relationships are fun! (I torture him with shark pictures as payback. He hates sharks. I figure for him forcing me to overcome my biggest fear (of commitment), this is a fair tradeoff. I can't wait to get him a shark with an arm sticking out of it's mouth groomsman cake. Love you, AB!)

Anyway. That's what's up in my world. More on yelling at the TV with the start of football season and the attempts to be a real live grown up and all that other stuff at some future date. Promise. *crosses fingers behind back*