Engagement excitement and Urbana blues

Well sisters, in case you were all drugged up after medical procedures recently and missed it, I am officially engaged. I wasn't sure if I wanted to post that here or not, but I figure the only people who read this know us all well enough to know that. I also figure I'll be using this blog for wedding detail venting in the near future...

It's really odd to be engaged. I am so unbelievably excited, but it seems crazy that the time has actually come. :) I've been thinking about getting married for the last 5 years and now I can plan (and need to!!) without feeling weird about it. I cannot wait to get married and finally be with the best man in the world for a lifetime. I am so blessed!

On a much less jovial note, Urbana is not a good time. I don't want to sway anyone's thoughts about the conference itself. I'm sure the conference is great. But unfortunately I wouldn't know. Sunday night my boss made it sound like I'd be doing kind of trivial amounts of work. I was actually starting to feel bad that I'd be paid. Then came today. I no longer feel bad. Man, is this a lot of work. It's just another reminder of how journalism is not my favorite, second favorite or even 194th favorite thing to do. At present, I am sitting in a press room with one other person, unsure of what I'm supposed to be doing because my boss ran off with a microphone and I didn't get to ask if I could join the large group session with all the other students. The stresses of a newsroom are just not for me. I don't like not knowing what I'll do the next day and I don't like working on a deadline. But enough complaining I suppose. Just thought I'd share what I definitely won't be doing with my life! (Sorry to Ruth and Greg if you ever read this.)

I'm a little bummed I don't get to spend new years with you all. Of course, I'm actually secretly rejoicing that Heather won't be with me because, let's be honest Heathie, all of your new year's suck, and I really don't want that to rub off. Now that I think about it though, I think I'd take that risk to celebrate with my Beadies :) My dad keeps saying the Lake is no problem...but I do have yet to ask my grandma (I'm thinking she'll forget if I ask her now anyway). That will be fun though and I can't wait to see you three there. Sounds like we all could use the R&R plus a little quality friend time. I appreciate you all so much! Thanks for letting me vent. ((Anticlimactic blog ending stops now.))

-e l i s a