The Best Day

December 5th was by far the best day of my life. I know I'm bias and everything, but my wedding was amazing...actually, it was beyond amazing. The day was everything that I had pictured in my head since I've been engaged, it even included the perfect amount of snow: enough to make it beautiful, but not enough to hinder people's ability to come.

If I jammed the entire wedding into one post, it would be a book, so I'll break it down.

On December 4th, we had an incredible day of relaxation before the big day. It started at the spa, with manicures and pedicures. Adam's Mom even got her first pedicure EVER, and now we know what gift certificates to get her for all major holidays.


On Friday night, we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went off without a hitch...everyone was on time and cooperative. The Cianfichi's had gone to so much trouble to make the rehearsal dinner beautiful, relaxing and fun. The Two Mile House in Carlisle was the perfect setting and the food was killer. It was nice to sit and laugh with family and the bridal party before the craziness of wedding day started.

Christmas Preparation

Even with all of the stress and craziness that goes along with the planning of this wedding, last night Adam and I took some time to set up the few Christmas decorations we have. Now, we will return from our honeymoon to a festive apartment and be able to enjoy the final 2 weeks before December 25th!

This ornament was attached to one of the gifts we have already received, and it quickly became the focal point of our little tree.

Tactics

Usually when I leave work, there are various homeless people out in the plaza in front of my building, and they always ask for money. Once one of my coworkers that I was walking out with said that he was probably alot less likely to give money to a homeless person when he was just leaving a very long day at the office.

Yesterday, I was walking out when I saw a young guy (probably my age) dressed in nice jeans, a button down shirt and a Polo blazer. Honestly, he was probably dressed in more expensive clothing than what I was wearing. He claimed that he had recently become homeless and then, in a southern accent, asked me for money. I don't ever carry cash, so I didn't have anything to give, but it got me thinking about whether that is a good tactic.

Giving the guy the benefit of the doubt (because I have no idea if he really was homeless or if he just wanted to go buy a pack of cigarettes at the CVS), I would be much more likely to give money to him because he is less threatening to me and also because I can picture myself if that kind of situation (hopefully that never happens). It made me want to go out and do an experiment to find out what type of homeless person gets the most money, although I don't really think that would be very ethical.

Bachelorette Bonanza

Last Saturday, my amazing sister Sally threw me an incredible bachelorette party with 10 of my closest friends. My oldest sister flew up from Atlanta and even Toni traveled down from New York City. Every time I get together with these friends, it feels like no time has passed since we've seen each other. We talk, laugh and goof around and it was so nice to catch up with all of them before wedding day.

We started the day off with lunch at Sally's and then visited two different Maryland wineries: Basignani Winery and Boordy Vineyards. We tasted about 25 different types of wine between to two and even got a tour.

After sipping wine all afternoon, we headed to Sally's to hang out and get ready for dinner. Around 7:00 we went downtown to Pazo, one of my favorite restaurants. We paired up, ordered lots of different types of tapas, and I even got to drink two really fun cocktails.

After a 3 1/2 hour long dinner, we went to Powerplant Live, where we witnessed the shortest dress I have ever seen as well as some pretty interesting pole dancers. We were there for about an hour before we decided to go back to Sally's and go to bed.

I had a wonderful time with amazing friends and I'm sure I'll remember it forever.

Improv Everywhere

This morning I was cruising YouTube and found Improv Everywhere, a group that goes to different public settings in NYC and breaks out in song. Some of their music videos are hilarious, but this is my favorite. Can you imagine being in a grocery store and having this happen?

T-Minus 1 Month

So the big day is only a month away and I am getting more excited by the minute. I have various countdowns going on as well....30 days, 5 more grad school classes, 15 more days of work, 4 more weekends, etc.

On the planning front, everything is running smoothly and I am confident the day will be beautiful and really special. We've met with the musicians, the florist and the photographer, and we've also ordered all of the place cards and thank you notes. This Saturday is the final meeting at the reception venue. We even have about 98% of the responses and it looks like an amazing group of friends, family and coworkers will be there.

I feel like I've been waiting forever for this day (well, 17 months is a pretty long time) and now I'm afraid it's going to be over in the blink of an eye. So, I'm going attempt to sit back, relax, and not become Bridezilla because at the end of it all, I am marrying my best friend and the perfect guy for me, and that's nothing to stress over.

Think of him as your solider

For the past 18 months, I have been working on a joint Department of Defense and Department of Veteran's Affairs pilot program called The Disability Evaluation System, or DES. Basically, the two departments work in conjunction in order to help some of the Gulf War's most seriously injured veterans. Working on this project has been hard for me, because many of the claims are for people my age or even younger, and many have catastrophic injuries.

Today, one of those service members took the time to come visit the office with his mother and speak to us about his struggles thus far. They traveled up to Baltimore from Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital outside of Washington, D.C., a place that has been their home for almost 3 years, since the service member was flown out of Iraq after stepping on a land mine. His injuries are unbelievable, and he is only 25 years old.

Although seeing this young hero was extremely emotional and heart-wrenching, it was even more emotional hearing from his mother. When the accident occurred, she quit her job as a nurse to be her injured son's full time advocate, sleeping in his room on a hard hospital cot, and fighting with doctors and physical therapists to get him the care that he deserved.

The whole time she was talking, she kept referring to him as "her baby" and "her soldier." Here was this big, 25 year-old man, but to his mom, he was still her baby. It just goes to show, that no matter how old people get, they are still someone's baby and mothers are willing to do everything in their power to make sure their babies are not hurting.

She encouraged us to imagine that every case we work is "our soldier," someone who is important to us and what an important lesson as we approach Veteran's Day on November 11th.