January 15, 2098

Celeste: "I am already hateful of this process."

Bethany: "You've been engaged for four days. Suck it up."

I am a worrywart. It is true that I became engaged on Friday night and I am already stressed out. The wedding may very well be tomorrow, not April. I have already managed to annoy those around me, make my mother angry and persuade Josiah to rethink his decision to marry me, let alone be around me for 10 minutes.

Here is the first dilemma of the too many to come: our desired timeframe.

You see, Josiah and I have been together for a long time. We didn't want to have a super long engagement, because by that time Josiah will be really old. I know there's nothing wrong with being engaged for a year or more, but we just want to get it over with. We've been waiting for a long time, so we see no reason to prolong it.

So we picked April. I've always dreamed of a brunch wedding (our favorite meal), with a crepe station and fresh blood oranges cut into fancy shapes (neither of these will happen). Still, though, we like waffles. April mornings are perfect in Arizona -- 70s with a zero percent chance of showers. Can't get better than that for an outside wedding.

Apparently everyone else has the same idea because places are ... not really available.

Josiah was convinced that a wedding would only take three weeks to plan. We argued about it even before we got engaged. My mom has always said a year was the length needed to properly plan. I told her she didn't have the Internet back in the day and I could surely cut that down. I am confident I could get everything else ready in 8.5 months, but I can't really change the unavailability of venues in April.

I've already had dramatic conversations with anyone and everyone who will listen to me (mother, Josiah, Bethany, Erica and Amanda). As of yesterday--my second day of searching--I had resigned myself to having our wedding in my parents' backyard amidst a lot of dog poop. I would invite 10 people and feel sorry for myself. Mom says I was being "doom and gloom," which has been a common phrase since Friday night. Not anymore!

So it turns out pretty much all of the venues I've looked at have had one Saturday available each, either in late March or April. That's good news, kind of. I'm happy that places are available but it scares me that there is only one date at each. Just today a place e-mailed me saying someone had secured a Saturday at lunch. I need to be quick and agile.

I have some appointments set up for this weekend to look at a couple places, then one next week. Hopefully they go well and stay available until I can go look at them.

I will feel much better knowing that we have a place secured and I can leave my parents' backyard to Cheyanne and Aldo, our cute poopers.

Also: Hilarious excerpt from an e-mail I just received:

"We have availability on January15th, 2110 to host your wedding."

Wow. That was the exact date I was looking for! Gotta love that font.

I remember a summer's day...

I'm getting married. Not sure when. Not sure where. Not sure to who. Just kidding.

Josiah and I "met" in January of 2002. I was 14 and he was an older man of 16. He had black, plastic-rimmed glasses and wore black band T-shirts, just like me. I knew we were perfect for each other. I would see him in the halls of Millennium High School with his emo friends. Truth be told, I was his emo princess. He says my "Cheer Up Emo Kid" backpack patch "spoke to him."

Years passed and I had yet to say a word to him (barring when I interviewed him for the school paper). I continued being really girly, walking certain ways to class because I knew his friends hung out by the vending machines (so cool). I drew a heart around his junior year picture in the yearbook. I awkwardly sneaked around Blockbuster when I saw him walk in, only to run to the corner and call my best friend Megan. Looking back, I'm somewhat embarrassed, but not really. I'd probably act the same now!

In October of 2004, I received an unexpected instant message from my recently ex-boyfriend/good friend Zack. Our AIM exchange went like this:

"So I went to a Mt. Eerie concert and saw Josiah."

"..." (me being nervous over the Internet)

"Yeah, I told him you were in love with him."

"bad words!!!"

"He said he was interested in you."

"I hate you."

Considering Zack hadn't spoken with me for a couple months after I broke his heart (kidding about breaking the heart, not about the silent treatment), I thought he was just being a jerk. Turns out, for the first time ever, he wasn't!

After some gutsy contact via Livejournal, Josiah and I started e-mailing ... then phone conversing ... then meeting at Barnes and Noble on the fateful Wednesday evening of Nov. 3, 2004.

And now we're getting married.

It's about damn time. (Thanks Zack.)