A busy weekend

I needed a weekend to recover from last weekend. I had a lot of fun but did too much stuff and was very tired.

The quick recap: Friday I worked, then came home and ran 1.75 miles (yea, I can do that now...I'm amazed), then drove to the airport to get Lynn. We went straight from the airport to a bachelorette party. I have to say I'm a bit weary of bachelorette parties since the last one I attended resulted in way too many drunk chicks, but that's cool. We had dinner, gift exchange, and then went to a bar and danced a bit. Fun night. Made it home about midnight.

We got up the next morning and shopped a little, visited the Houston Holocaust Museum (where I will be a docent in a short 6 or so months but that's a different story), then met with other friends for dinner and Legally Blonde. Laura Bell Bundy, the original Elle Woods on Broadway, performed the role of Elle and it was such a fun show.

Sunday I got up far too early, took Lynn back to the airport, hit up a showing of "Confessions of a Shopaholic" with some friends, grocery shopped, got the condo set up for another week, and then headed over to Cathie's to watch the Oscar's.

Then I was basically exhausted. One day maybe I'll expand on some of the finer points of this post but for now I am just getting it all out there before I forget. Oh, and I met Renee Fleming at Rice this week.

Vacation planning

Last night I booked some hotels for our December vacation. You heard me, December! I booked so early in part because it is a busy travel time of year and I want to make sure we have somewhere to stay but I'm also just really excited. This is the longest I've been in the US without an international trip since I was 17. I can't wait. Once flights are available in late March/early April we will use our airline miles to book tickets. The plan is a few days in Paris, then to Vienna, Christmas in Prague, and back to Paris for New Year's 2010.

I can't wait!

Now, I need to do research and book some restaurant reservations for Christmas and New Years meals since everything I've read leads me to believe I won't be able to find things easily unless I book reservations way in advance.

I wish there was still money to be made in the travel industry because I love planning trips. From restaurant picks, transportation options, cost cutting tricks - I love it all.

Movie weekend

I'm on a mini quest to see as many of the Oscar nominated movies as possible before the awards show. This weekend I saw The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, and Vicki Christina Barcelona. Thumbs up on all three but I have to say that The Reader was my favorite. And I simply adore Kate Winslet. I won't go into detail since whoever may read this might not have seen it.

Also had a choir concert on Sunday. Well, an organ recital/choir concert/our director's 50th birthday celebration. In honor of himself our director threw the recital. Since the organ in the church is hidden in an alcove they set up cameras on his feet and hands so you could watch him play. This was actually pretty cool. The choir's part went well and I'm looking forward to our May concert.

Thoughts on getting married/marriage

I have several friends getting married over the next few months and valentine's day coming up and it got me nostalgic for my own engagement period. I remember talking with friends and family and sharing our news. Of course when this happens at 20 it comes with a fair share of doubt and judgment. I think my favorite comment was that I talked about marriage like it was a business arrangement.

Frankly, in many ways, marriage is a business arrangement. You are entering into a partnership with another person that will completely alter the way both of your lives go. This person will make almost all of your major life decision with you from now on. Do you have kids? How many kids? Where should we live? How do you spend your money? All part of the partnership.

Movies show us the couple that falls head over heels in love with each other. They have cute meetings and neat things happen to them. Of course in the movie they will have one stupid argument or a misunderstanding that they are incapable of talking about with each other and they will inevitably break up for a scene or two before they run towards each other across the park to kiss/propose to each other/get married. They don't show the couple sitting and discussing what they want out of life and if it's realistic that you can walk through life together in a way that will make you both happy.

I'm kind of tired of hearing of people getting divorced because they are just not happy anymore. Who's fault is that? In a business if you didn't like how things were going would you not try a different strategy? A new business model? Or would you just fold?

I think a lot of people would be happier if they could be less idealistic and more pragmatic.