prepare for a novel - part one

   Presenting…Mrs. Morris! Yep, the big day has successfully passed and I am now a married woman - weird!

all photos property of Spotlight Photo and are not to be duplicated

A little lot about my special day(s):

   It rained and rained and rained the five days prior to Saturday, June 1^st and I didn’t want to admit it but I was in a slight panic. It wasn’t that the wedding would have had to be called off if it was a torrential downpour, but I so wanted pictures outside on a sunny day with the mountains and the trees and the grass..etc, etc. We had a Plan B for an indoor ceremony at the same venue, but I still secretly crossed my fingers before looking at the forecast each time. I told myself to only look at the proposed weather for Saturday once a day once the 10 day forecast was televised. The first time I peeked, it was supposed to be 82 with thunderstorms. The 82 part sounded great, but I was a bit worried about the thunderstorm aspect. The next day I snuck a glimpse and it said 62 and cloudy. Talk about a variation! A bit perturbed with the 20 degree shift, I now began to think it’d be too chilly. The forecast given for Saturday eventually began to even out and it looked like it’d be about 70 and partly cloudy. I decided I could deal with that.

   On Thursday, the wedding festivities began at the venue. I had the good fortune of Garrett’s mom, Angela, wanting to play a part in the decorating aspect for the event. We took a trip to a neighboring town to check out a rental shop and quickly discovered that we had the same vision for the wedding décor! I was so grateful for her interest and willingness to help because I genuinely wasn’t going to put much work into decorating – simply because I found it expensive, hard to tackle with just me and my bridesmaids, and pretty overwhelming. We rented furniture, chandeliers, trinkets, signs, and so much more – all so beautiful. I was excited to see what vision Angela had for everything and was completely blown away. Family on Angela’s side began to arrive during the week and dropped everything to help turn the barn into a scene from a fairy tale. It was rustic with a fancy country French theme, lights strung from every possible corner and chandeliers casting sparkling spotlights everywhere you looked. From high-backed upholstered chairs to mounted chipmunk heads, from heirloom lace to hand-made banners, and everything imaginable in between, my mind was completely blown. I could’ve just stared in awe for hours. The amount of time that family put in was incredible. All day Thursday and Friday, early Saturday morning, then again on Sunday to take it all down. You couldn’t have hired a better crew!

   The venue was a fairly obvious choice for me from the beginning because my parents are property managers and have rented this particular spot out for weddings for years now. It never occurred to me to look into different venues – not because this one was free (because it wasn’t), but because I once stumbled upon some wedding photos from a prior ceremony and they took my breath away. I decided I wanted those mountains behind me as I said “I do”. The spot came with a beautiful outdoor area for the ceremony and a two-story barn for the reception. The capacity of the barn is slightly over 200 folks which we originally thought was manageable, but we slowly discovered that it wasn’t realistic. Garrett’s dad’s family has farmed in the valley for about six generations now, which naturally means they are known by almost everyone. My situation was slightly different having lived in the area for a bit more than a decade. After working on our guest list we came up with a grand total of almost 400 people. 400! My parents couldn’t believe it and broke the news that it sadly wouldn’t work at the venue due to lack of space and a general hazard to the facility. I felt horrible having to tell Garrett to cut off people that he’s known for his whole life, but it turned out to not be so hard after all. We got the list down to about 275 and decided we just couldn’t cut it down anymore. We hoped that it would just work out. As a sort of saving grace, we learned that the Pastor that married Garrett’s mom and step-dad was willing to lend us his giant canopy he uses for the traveling church he operates. We couldn’t believe it and jumped on the opportunity because it allowed us the extra space we desperately needed. Although I was a smidge against the idea, feeling like it might take away from the simplicity of the barn and homestead idea, I quickly realized how beneficial it’d be. And it totally was. The wedding would not have been the same without it! Garrett’s groomsmen and usher took the canopy project on like a bunch of super heroes and I am so thankful for their hard work. Even the Pastor admitted it was the fastest he’d seen the monster go up! It was incredible.

   Friday was for decorating and I can’t even explain how happy I was that I didn’t have to direct people: put this here, that there, hang that over this, blah! That was the part I was not looking forward to. But, fortunately, Angela didn’t require that sort of direction and led Team Décor with ease. Lights went up, chandeliers were hung, furniture positioned, stuff hauled, mirrors and picture frames placed, …etc, etc. It was amazing to watch. Each time I stepped into a room, my socks were knocked off. The best part was that I couldn’t have envisioned it better myself. It was beautiful.

   Garrett’s dad and step-mom hosted the Rehearsal Dinner that night and it was equal parts fun and delicious. We hung out on the screened porch of the main house and enjoyed the slightly warmer weather, though we still looked apprehensively at the storm clouds swimming around in the sky. My fingers remained crossed despite the positive forecast for the next day. My bridesmaids helped with clean up, the groomsmen played yard volleyball in their nice clothes, grandparents chatted, Team Décor worked a bit more, parents relaxed…it was a great evening. We walked through the ceremony a couple times and it all started to get a bit more real. I was nervous standing in front of everyone, practicing vows. Nervous butterflies began to come alive in my stomach. My bridesmaids and I stayed in the main house that night while the groom and his guys stayed in a neighboring house down the road. They came over and we played card games and chatted for a few hours, relishing the last time we’d all be in the same place for quite some time. My sister/Maid of Honor notified us that the Northern Lights were dancing outside and we all excitedly went to the screened porch to watch. It was incredible! I’ve never seen them before, especially in Montana, and couldn’t help but see it as some sort of sign for the next day’s events. They lit up the sky for hours and my sister took some stunning photos. It was so cool!

   After getting to bed late due to festivities and a prank by the neighboring groomsmen (trying to scare us…those punks), we ladies finally got some beauty sleep. There was some unnecessary drama in the morning concerning some missing breakfast food and I had a brief Bridezilla moment, but luckily I think that was the only one. The guys may or may not have thought it was a free-for-all the night before and might have eaten/taken some stuff, but it all worked out. Then it was off to get our hair and nails done at one of my bridesmaid’s mom’s salon in town. It was so fun having us all in one place – some helping another paint fingernails, another pinning up curls. I was so happy with how my hair, fingernails, and toes turned out! We did a few practice rounds on a wedding style and mastered it the day it actually mattered. Each girl looked beautiful and unique because I didn’t specify a particular style for hair or nails. It worked out perfectly!

…to be continued

something big just happened.

   I completed my senior year of college! Just now! Well, like 38 minutes ago really. It’s over, just like that. Instead of getting all mushy-gushy in a giant essay about “how fast time flew” or “oh the memories we made”, I am presenting:

College: A Year FOUR YEARS In Review

In late August of 2009, my parents and I caravanned to Bozeman on a sunny day. I drove with my mom and my dad hauled all my “necessary items” in his truck behind us. Despite almost locking my keys in my car at a rest stop outside of Deerlodge, we made it to my new home safe and sound.

The day was a hot blur of over-excited 18 year olds, blue and yellow t-shirts, loud music, humid dorm rooms, introductions, organization, and temporary farewells. I will never forget my mom telling me she and my dad were sad as they made the four hour return trip. I was too prideful to tell her I was sad, too.

But I was excited! So excited. I was finally in college – no more curfews, no chores, no sibling who borrowed things without asking, new faces, a new job, responsibilities abound…

   Freshman Year consisted of awkward dorm living, bad cafeteria food, experimenting with the party scene, bad grades, bad study habits, new friends, homesickness, intimidating exams, freedom, finding myself, and homework. To say there were “ups and downs” would be an understatement.

I was lucky to be attending the same University as my significant other and spent 80% of my time on adventures with him. We learned that the year we spent apart was more than worth the angst, emotion, and distance. And I’m so thankful for that.

   Sophomore year brought huge changes. At 19 years old I signed my first lease to a blue triplex with mold and pot-smoking neighbors. It was definitely an awkward dance as three girls tried to cohabitate. One liked parties, one liked fishing, and I wasn’t really sure what I liked yet. I found myself stuck in the middle of a situation only three teenaged girls could ever create for themselves.

I discovered I was better at school than my current transcript said I was. I became interested in bike rides, novels, quiet drives, close friends, and dogs. School was #1, Garrett was #2, and everything else was in a giant cluster in third place. I still got homesick but I made new friends. I no longer had to eat cafeteria food but couldn’t cook a non-bland meal for myself to save my life. I got a job at a coffee shop and found a passion inside, but unfortunately had to quit due to a mean stalker :(

   Junior year brought another big move. Katie and I left the original apartment after basically getting booted and found a cute little place a few blocks from downtown and campus. We studied, gossiped, cooked, drank, cried, danced, exercised, laughed, and grew together. She became my second sister and my rock as I cranked through the hardest year of my college career.

I became tired of school and dreamed of a different life. I bought a bike, experimented with yoga, began eating healthier, and cut out some bad influences. Garrett and I realized we were it. He taught me to relax and to be calm, I taught him to plan and anticipate. I still got homesick and missed my real sister and my dog with my whole heart.

   Senior year went by in a flash. I entered the school year with a beautiful new addition to my ring finger and excitement coursing through my veins. I juggled wedding planning, internship applications, difficult classes, a new job, and club involvement and felt overwhelmed more often than not. I recognized my desire to prove myself wrong. I found that my current priorities were not making me happy.

I nervously accepted an opportunity to move to Alaska for the summer of 2013 and was thankful to have a man by my side to support such scary decisions. I dragged myself through two semesters of endless work and tried my darndest to do other things for my wedding, for work, for clubs, for friends, for family, for me. It came as a shock to realize my four year undergraduate stint at MSU was soon to end.

   And now it has ended. I completed my “final” final exam today at approximately 10:25am and left the building in a weird daze. I’m so happy! And yet, I’m so weirded out.

   Fortunately (or unfortunately), I will be returning to this familiar town and campus in the fall for Graduate School. The only things that will change are fewer familiar faces, a wedding band added to my ring finger, Alaska memories in my mind, and (hopefully) a little furry companion.

I can’t help it...: where did the time go?

so here's a funny story

   A few weeks ago, my roommate and pretty-much-sibling threw me an awesome bachelorette party at our little apartment. It was a great afternoon filled with white chocolate covered pretzels, “special punch”, dirty word games, laughter, sunshine, and friends.

Proof:

   Everyone was instructed to bring “downtown attire” to change into and our apartment eventually turned into a giant dressing room and hair/makeup studio.

   Getting to the root of this story: a few days after my bathroom had been bombarded with curling iron-wielding dress-wearing ladies, I was hanging up my hand towel when I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the drain of the left sink (I have 2, obvi). I should let you know I have a nasty fear of spiders and think they are the creepiest things in existence. Anyway, I stood there looking at the thing in the drain for a good 30 seconds when suddenly it moved! I swear it moved. I deduced right then and there that it was a nasty drain-inhabiting spider, gathered up my courage, took a tiny step closer to the sink, and quickly turned on the water to wash the hellish thing down to its sewer-y death. I only let the water run for a few seconds because I hate wasting water then took a peek to see if it was gone. It was still there! I figured I’d at least wounded it, though, so I left for class. Also, I’m not really sure how this is all relating to the fact that my bachelorette party occurred a few days prior to this situation. I think I subconsciously thought the drain-spider appeared because my bathroom had been a complete disaster ever since the female invasion. Anyway…

   Later that day I came home and it was still chilling there, all gross and whatnot. I turned on the water again but the turd still clung on! Irritated and grossed out, I ignored it and convinced myself that the probability of it crawling all the way to my bed and laying eggs in my ear cavity was pretty low.

   The same thing happened for about two more days: me peeking to see if it was there, getting irritated when it was, turning on the water, checking again, feeling exasperated and running away when it still didn’t go away. That was my life.

   Well on day four, I finally got fed up with having to avoid my left sink entirely due to fear. I somehow mustered up the courage to grab a Q-tip and prod at the thing to push it down the drain.

   It all happened in a matter of milliseconds: grab Q-tip, assume guarded stance, run water, aim Q-tip at spider…one…two…three…PROD!

   But the only thing that happened was the thing stuck to the Q-tip.

   Confused, I pulled my poking device out of the drain and attached to the end of it was…a craisin.

   So that was that. 

third time is not the charm.

   I'm currently in the process of mailing out my wedding invitations (with only 47 days 'til the "big day", I better be!) I was really lucky to have connections with a graphic designer who personalized my invitations and all the pieces-parts to a T. I love them SO MUCH and will probably keep seventeen of them just for myself to cherish.

   Anyway, Garrett and I had a cool last-minute idea to seal the back of the envelopes with wax - you know, like in the "olden days". Garrett hand-carved a cool "M" stamp and we bought some special sealing wax in an awesome green color. We were both totally stoked because we're into that stuff and whatnot.

   So we sit down to begin the addressing-stuffing-adhering-stamping-sealing process when I realized a potential problem - what if the wax makes the envelopes too heavy/bulky for the traditional "forever" stamp? I obviously didn't want to risk going through the entire process only to find out I needed three more cents of postage on each one, so we made up a "sample" to take to the post office the next day.

   On my lunch break that following day, I skipped to the post office (not really) and told the post office worker that I was about to be sending out a bajillion of the pretty wax-sealed envelopes. I asked him to weigh it and check the size for me to see if one stamp would cover it. So he weighed it - no issue there - then he slid it through the sizer thingumabob - no problem there, either. I subsequently purchased about five sheets of the cute "love" stamps and went on my merry way!

   A few days later, I returned to the same post office but was met with a different employee as I proceeded to send off about 50 completed envelopes. I asked him to weigh and size a few, just to be on the safe side, and once again was told that they were completely fine. 

   About a week after that, I once again visited the post office to mail about 50 more little beauties. The postal worker, a woman this time, weighed 'em and sized 'em and gave me the thumbs up. I was glad to be getting the invitations crossed off my list!

   Well, two days later my grandma called and told me some not-so-fortunate news: a family friend had received their invitation with a stamp on it that said "20 cents postage DUE"....

EMBARRASSING

   I was really caught offguard because how could that have happened? I'd taken all the precautionary measures and was told THREE TIMES that there would be no issues! None! Frustrated, I took the next batch of about 40 invitations to a different post office yesterday. I told the woman my predicament, and asked her why only one invitation out of over 100 had "postage due", and all she said was, "well, it depends on the delivery person."

What?

   What do you mean it "depends"? Aren't you a business? Aren't you supposed to have these things pretty set in stone? I mean, either it costs 42 cents or it costs 62 cents, right? Not sometimes one or the other. Of course I didn't say those things, but seriously??

   So my choices were to:
   a) take the risk and send off another bundle of envelopes that may or may not be stamped with the dreaded "postage due" warning, DEPENDING on the postal worker...

   or b) pay another thirty bucks to buy 20 cent stamps for the remaining invitations to cover my butt

Awesome!

   I immediately called my dad for his advice and he said it'd be safer to cover my bases and get the dumb stamps. Not that anyone would really care about the 20 cents due issue, but it is pretty embarrassing. Plus, in the scheme of wedding planning, an extra $30 really wasn't something to pull my hair out about.

   So I returned to the counter and told the woman I'd go ahead and buy the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY stamps. She proceeded to pull some sheets of the 20 cent-ers out of her drawer with the face of our very own President George Washington on them and I couldn't help but say, "and I'm assuming those are the only 20 cent stamps you carry?" 

Yes, yes they are.

   So now my cute little invitations with the pretty green wax "M" on the back, the calligraphy addresses in lovely silver ink, and the relevant "LOVE" forever stamps are now tarnished with the pasty old man skin of Mr. Washington. 

These things, I tell ya. 

what i did in denver vs. what i was supposed to be doing in denver

   Two weeks ago, a group of five lovely ladies from the MSU accounting program, myself included, put on their big girl pants and boarded a plane to Denver to compete in the annual Beta Alpha Psi Regional Conference.

   Now, this conference isn’t all fun and games as the title may lead you to believe. To prepare, the Regional Conference Committee (that’s us) had to choose a presentation topic. After hours of grueling work and preparation, we managed to finish our project: spreading the word about a career in accounting to seniors at local high schools. (By “grueling” I mean “we met at coffee shops for a half hour at a time” and by “hours” I mean, like, two per person – but still!) We were pretty confident about our results and were excited to go to Denver present in this prestigious competition.

   The conference didn’t begin until Friday at 1:00 but we “somehow managed” to wrangle up a flight that delivered us in the Mile High City by Thursday morning. The conference also ended at 3:00 on Saturday, but we flew out early Sunday. Not only are we good with accumulated depreciation and amortizing premiums on bonds, but man can we plan weekend getaways. Watch out!

   Traveling with a group of girls is probably the best thing ever. We were just all on the same page, you know?

   Oh look! An enormous Forever 21! – all that needs to be said. No one even had to ask “should we go in?” It just happened.

   Anyone else want anything? – the only words emitted as we passed a Starbucks.

   And you can’t forget the natural bathroom mirror dance that occurs as all five females attempt to get ready in a hotel room with only one acceptable reflective surface.

   So there was that. But the best part (besides placing 3^rd in the competition – woot!) was what we accomplished on Thursday.

What we were supposed to be doing: practicing our presentation.

What we did instead: started hitting Happy Hours at 3:00pm and not stopping until 12:00am.

Woops!

   We made a pact to document each beverage of our Thirsty Thursday – Denver Edition (we only missed one round, surprisingly!) 

What I like to call "the Martini Experiment". Let's just say I'm going to
stick with my gin and juices for a while.

Stellas and Long Islands - superb.

Wynkoop Brewery's very own wheat brew - not as good as MT's  "Beltian" White, however. 

Repping the gin and juice. Sup.

   To conclude, I'm super proud to have placed 3rd in the competition - earning us a pretty certificate, recognition, and $125 - but I'm happier to be associated with such great people who:

a) pulled strings to help us fly to Denver instead of drive (thanks Molly!)
b) work hard to take opportunities like these seriously to reflect well on our lovely school,
and c) know the perfect ratio to the "work hard, play hard" way of life! (BAP so hard)