I think I can officially say that I spend every living minute awake in motion. I'm hardly ever home, and when I'm home, I'm doing something, working on something, or getting ready to go.

A little on my two summer classes: yes, I realize now, that traditionally people take one class over the summer. Consumer Behavior is a nice, fluffy class, but it makes me feel awful. I don't shop at "TJ's," don't have a TV and haven't seen a lot of commercials, I don't drive a luxury car nor spend $800 in gas every month. It's like being in an alternate universe. And yet, these are the people who are going to be marketing products and services to YOU. I have one case writeup and one final project to go. My Financial Statement Analysis class is more financial analyst soapbox than accounting (it's listed as an accounting class). The weekly homework assignments are epic.

Plus, the schedule is 6-10, Monday & Tuesday. Talk about tired! Six weeks to go.

When I'm not in class or at work, we spend a lot of time looking at houses (condos). We have the most amazing realtor, and we're very fortunate in that respect, but I'm coming to hate looking at real estate. The house that we loved (albeit out of our price range) is off the market, the dealbreaker elements kept piling up on our second choice, and everything else is just … OK. I'd hate to buy a place just to be done, but it's looking really tempting. The whole thing is somehow much easier, and yet much harder, than I expected. It appears, though, that like the wedding, I've set my expectations way too high.

Speaking of, the wedding planning has been on hold for the schoolwork and house hunting. I have a living things-to-do Google document that, oddly enough, I'm glad to see grow - that means progress! I can also say that I've crossed off a few things, like picking up my veil (I knew about the groom not seeing the dress, but I didn't know about not seeing the veil!), and finalizing with this fantastic photographer that we got hooked up with through the six-degrees game.

What about work, you say? That place you spend 50 hours a week? It's going well. I seem to be doing a good job, making people happy, etc. And of course, I trade funny IT support stories with my neighbor. I know I said I'd be a bigger person than that … but people are really funny sometimes. It's a good job for me, and I'm bummed I'll be leaving next year, but then it's always onward & upward.

This will make you smile.

Happy birthday to me!

Here's to the year when everything happens.

We bought a lot of strawberries from the grocery store. This cake was inspired by an itty-bitty picture in a collage on one of the blogs in my Google reader ... that I can't find now.

Oh yeah, you want a piece.

On Monday, my great aunt died. It was pretty unexpected; she'd been very sick for a month, then seemed to be doing much better. Thus, the start of a very turbulent and sad week.

My mom called me about lunchtime on Monday, and even though I'm super-way-far behind at work, I couldn't even think straight. All I could think was, "how much are plane tickets? They'll be expensive on short notice. And what about work?" It ended up tickets were not cost-prohibitive (I flew on American with a compassion fare - thanks American!), my boss was very, very kind, and was there the next day.

I won't go in to the details (although, most of the people who bother to read my blog probably know them already), but my family is quite small. And ... unique. Which is why I had to be there.

That said, I've been terribly sad. So far I feel guilty about:

• Not living closer to home, to help.
• Not visiting the nursing home last Christmas.
  
• Making jokes. (As in, any comment I've made. Ever. In my entire life.)
• Not leaving the same day, because I was worried about turning in (OK, and finishing) my assignments for the week. (But also, thank you to my understanding professor.)
• Making Andy make my arrangements for me, as I was a total basket case by midnight.
  
• Missing work. A lot of work.
  
• Feeling guilty about missing work, when my family really truly needed me.
  

I could go on, but then we'd be getting in to all of the things I feel guilty about, and my arm and hand are just too twitchy for that. Nothing like a semi-public shaming to ease the guilt.

On the other hand, I do not feel guilty about going. It doesn't exactly make me feel good, or holier-than-thou. I'm not even sure that it helped at all (although, it sure did seem to lift my dad's spirits). I'm still very sad over the whole thing. Hopefully all will be well tomorrow ...

The past two days I feel like my brain hasn't been running on all cylinders.

Work is really, really busy, only because I've proven pretty competent. Whoops! I like helping people. Someone told me today that I've been coming up on the report to the director (who knows how they found that out). Really, I don't like recognition; I just like doing a good job. I don't need someone to pat me for doing what I was hired to do. For the next two weeks I get to be a little bit more in charge of the system I help administer, which is a little worrisome but seems totally do-able.

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook.

Wedding vendors like to take advantage of you. Not only monetary advantage, but they also seem to like to taaaaake their tiiiiiime. I'm not talking about anyone in particular.

In looking for a house, Andy has wisely been looking at statistics for the area. Looking at the crime statistics for our current neighborhood, which I've always joked about being ghetto, is actually really scary.

Oh, I wish we could afford the first house we toured. I still like it.

For some reason, I've been hearing about women having miscarriages. It makes me sad.

Lately they've been playing those "Real Men of Genius" commercials on the radio again. They were off, for a little while. And to be quite honest, they aren't as funny this time around. Anyway, it reminds me of the first round, when they were "Real American Heroes." Anyone else remember the abrupt change after 9-11?

Instead of placing an order with my friends Harry and David, I decided to bake myself. I couldn't figure out how to ship a cake or cupcakes, so I was down to cookies.

Ugh, so much homework, & I'm exhausted. I'll post my baking efforts later ...

For a very brief amount of time, I tried shopping in stores. I went to the mall a couple of times and looked at clothes. And discovered that shopping in a store is a great waste of time.

Because of this discovery, the next week or so means I'll be getting a lot of things in the mail!

• One item came in the mail yesterday. My mom saw some pretty plates on our registry were going out of stock soon, and she bought us a set of 12! Guess we need to up the number of place settings accordingly!
• Our videographer contract is in the mail. I'm dying to get that checked off.
  
• I'll be discrete and just say this: I love not shopping the semi-annual sale in the store. And free shipping.
  
• I ordered two of my textbooks, finally. One isn't quite out yet, but should be shipping soon; luckily no one else in the class will have it yet either. The other I bought from an Amazon seller because I refuse to pay $270 for books for one class, and it was $50 versus $170. So, please come through for me!
• Finally, the object that led me to the realization that I don't even remember how to shop in stores: a bluetooth headset. Let's go back to the beginning: California is implementing the hands-free requirement in July, and since I get most of my family time in the car, and my freebie earpiece just doesn't cut it, it was finally time to invest in one. And then I realized I had absolutely no idea where to get one. Everyone I know shops in stores for the instant gratification, but ... did I go to the Verizon store? I'm kind of anti them, and their stores bug me (see below, rude people in large groups). Target? Did they even sell good ones at Target? Or just cheap ones? Even though I want it right nownownow, Amazon won out with a $30 pink Motorola set with good ratings.
  

On a side note: I wonder if the excitement of getting something in the mail, convenience of not having to drive somewhere, and dislike for rude people in large groups is coloring my opinion.