I'm ridiculous

I'll admit it freely: I'm crazy, impulsive, ridiculous and don't always think things all the way through. This is part of the reason Bradley and I get along so well, I come up with the crazy ideas and he either convinces me it's a bad plan (moving to Egypt) or does the work to make sure it happens (riding the Seattle to Portland last summer). However, this has been bad for our wedding plans, where Bradley has learned that I take "No" even worse than ususal. The most insane, thus far, as been our Save-the-Dates (sadly, I don't have a photo of a completed one...how did that happen?):



Unfortunately for Bradley's sake, our invitations are looking like they are going to be even more ridiculous.

I decided a long time ago to make our invitations like a passport. Initially I was going to have a page for each port where the cruise will stop in an attempt to stop people from thinking that they're going to just be sitting on a boat for 7 days. My initial attempt looked terrible and cheap, though, so I scrapped it and am going for a more authentic approach. This is proving difficult, though, since we're inviting people to two separate events. *sigh* This is what I worry about these days. :)

What Bradley doesn't know yet is that the passport-invitations are not the end of the craziness, however! We will also have envelope liners, for which I bought a kit earlier this week. Finally, today was an example of just how ridiculous I can be.

I love www.weddingbee.com. It's quite literally a blog for brides to talk to other brides and I love it. Imagine a ballroom filled with brides who were only discussing their weddings and now you get the idea of the blog. It's brilliant and I love it. On it today I saw that Ms. Giraffe (the bloggers all have cute names to protect their real identities) was trying to teach herself calligraphy for her invitation envelopes. Raise your hand if you immediately logged on to Amazon and bought the same book, then paid for expedited shipping so you know for sure that you will receive it before you return home, where your fiance will see it. *Jill raises her hand.*

I can't help myself! It would be so handy to be able to be able to write so fancy throughout my life! *sigh*

Bradley's here!

Last night, my most glorious fiance arrived in DC to visit for 10 days. It is wonderful to see him again; it's funny how different conversations and such are face to face rather than over a telephone or super-slow Skype connection. We have lots planned over the few days that he's here; tonight we are going to see "Cirque du Soleil" and I'm super stoked about it!

The thing for which I think I am the most stoked, however, is for a Halloween party held at a mansion not far from my hotel. It's a masquerade theme, so Bradley and I are simply dressing up and putting on masks. He actually found a place in Bellevue that had some great masks and he brought them to DC with him. I got to put mine on for the first time last night and I love it! It's absolutely beautiful! I wish I had more excuses to wear it again! Which, of course, brings me to the wedding. :)

I really want there to be a night or an event to which I can ask people to wear masks as if it were a masquerade. But our party at home will be on a Sunday afternoon and the cruise already has themed nights for each night aboard. I really can't ask guests to also pack a mask that they will wear for one night that might be damaged in transit. *sigh* Sadly, I think I'm going to have to let this dream go. Sad, but the way it must be, I suppose.

Bradley's coming to visit!!!

I have been in DC for a month now. I've made friends, visited sites and, just this weekend, began the hunt for my favorite brunch place. I've been to see "Les Ballets de Trockadero de Monte Carlo" and have slinked around in the wardrobe hallway while "Salome" performed in the Opera House. I have visited the Lincoln Memorial, one of the Smithsonian Museums, seen the Pandas in the National Zoo and wondered by the Vietnam Memorial. However, my favorite event will happen on Friday: Bradley will arrive!!!

Bradley and I quickly realized that his coming with me on tour or on these out-of-town engagements were a great way to get in a bit of a vacation. First off, my hotel room is always paid for, so we have a free place to stay. Secondly, I am always paid some sort of per diem and my airfare is always covered. Therefore, for simply the cost of Bradley's airfare, we get in a nice vacation! It's a little odd sometimes, when I have to get up and go to work while he snores (loudly) in bed, but it's a great nonetheless. This is how we went to New York, where we had a lovely time!



This time, he's coming to visit me here and I couldn't be more excited about it! Not only does it break up our separation almost exactly in half, but it allows us plenty of time to hang out and see DC together! I already have more events planned for us than any working-vacation could actually handle, but that hasn't stopped me at all. I'm just so excited to see him!!!

What a roller coaster

This is going to be a long story and won't be entirely wedding-related, but here it goes: In June, PNB did a production of "Coppelia." It had new costumes and new sets, but the choreography was George Balanchine's. They kept trying to bill it as a "new work," but Balanchine died in 1983, so it would be surprising if he created a new work in 2010. I'm not sure even he is that talented. At that point, it was obvious that Rico was back on the sauce and my Sandy-fuse was ridiculously short. The day before we moved into the theater I had third break-down in relation to my job and Bradley told me to quit PNB. Not do Coppelia, to just quit right then. I didn't and Coppelia went fine. My mood turned up again.

At the end of July, the company toured to Vail, Colorado to partake in the Vail International Dance Festival for the third time. It was not very well-planned and there was one day where I and my crew worked from 4:00am to midnight. Well, my guys worked from 3:30am to midnight, but I digress. The day after that super long day, I was getting ready for my 6:30 call time for the show that night and I started receiving phone calls from my friends who were all camping together back in Seattle. They got ahold of me at 6:15 and informed me that a friend had passed away that day. I had no understudy, I couldn't call in sick, I had to call the show that night after grieving for my friend for all of 15 minutes. When I returned home from Vail, I had another break-down about how much my job ran my life. It even dictated for how long I could grieve for my dead friend.

In the middle of August I found out that the Development Department had hired someone for a position for which I had applied. I had applied only after discussing the position with the Director of Development, but at no point was I even contacted for a courtesy interview. When I found out that someone had been hired, I felt certain that I would never be able to advance within PNB. That was the final straw and I decided it was time to leave.

The events that took place in the three weeks between when I turned in my resignation and my final day are best summed up in the wise words of my wonderful fiance: "PNB is like a bad boyfriend; they're going to try to screw you as many times as they can before you go." The individual events don't need to be recorded. My final day was a glorious day; Peter asked everyone on staff to come into Studio C for a final "round of applause." Unfortunately, I was quite sick (I had a fever), but it made for a good excuse as to why my speech was so short - in reality it's because I was going to burst into tears. I didn't want to leave, but was so unhappy that I couldn't stay.

The morning after my final day at PNB - Sept 10 - I was offered the Production Stage Manager position with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Washington DC. I accepted it and arrived in DC 9 days later. I will be here until Thanksgiving. The people with whom I work are amazing. They are a myriad of personalities, but I truly enjoy them all. I have am now in my third week and we have our second show tomorrow evening. Suzanne Farrell is amazing and I am enjoying working with her and the dancers she has selected. The Kennedy Center is huge and fantastic; while I write this the chorus for "Salome," which the Washington National Opera opens either tonight or tomorrow, has been rehearsing at the end of the hall near my office. It's amazing music to write by. :) Today I saw on Facebook photos from the first rep of PNB's 2010-2011 season. I didn't realize how badly I missed them until I saw them onstage and realized I didn't know the roles they were dancing, who was the understudy and what else they learned. It's a painful, but it's OK. It's a loss and this time I have more than 15 minutes to grieve.