A dinner party

Tonight we had a dinnertime gathering at a neighbor’s house. I was telling my mom about it yesterday, and said that we had “a dinner party thing with some neighbors” and that I was going “to pick up Costco pizza” for it. She laughed, and explained that the ideas ‘dinner party’ and ‘Costco pizza’ don’t exactly go together.

I agreed entirely, and clarified what I’d meant and how my use of “thing” was intentional, as a dinner party is a very different event than having Costco pizza together…

And yet, I still wish we could have Costco pizza for our wedding reception food, despite the conflicting styles and expectations of the two things… 😛

Post-a-day 2023

Coming together

Things are, by no means, sorted. However, they are beginning to come together. Little by little – 少しずつ sukoshi zutsu – they are starting to solidify, and possibilities are starting to make sense. As a result, my stressed panic has begun to lessen, and today specifically. We have lots to accomplish, but a big part has been just getting research done and finding certain things that we need. Today, we got a good handful of research done. Sure, there’s still a whole mound of it in waiting, but the first parts can be the hardest, as it all is still so new and unfamiliar. By the end of today’s research, I had a decent handle on several things about which I had previously known next-to-nothing.

So, progress. Today has been good in that sense. Yes, we had some yelling and crying and lots of frustration and ache. And we also had some important and valuable conversations that seem to have accomplished much on their own. We are growing, and we are doing it together. And we aren’t perfect yet. 😛

Thank you, God, for today’s many accomplishments. Keep my man safe, please, and me, too. Help us always to grow together and with you, and through you and each other. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Christmas

According to Facebook Memories, it seems I watched Christmas Vacation on 19 December… multiple times… though, I have never once planned it that way. Nonetheless, it seems to have happened as an unconscious tradition to watch the film on the same day each year.

Continuing with that, again unintentionally, I even had my yearly father-daughter date with my dad to watch the film over lunch today. So, I kept with the tradition without even knowing it, same as each year up until now.

The big question is, however, now that I know, will I aim to continue it intentionally???

Thank you, God, for this day. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Boots and belts

Today, for the second time, I went to a warehouse scratch-and-dent sale for this boot company that I love, Tecovas. I was going simply to meet my mom and stepdad and see if he might be able to find a pair of boots – his first pair of western boots, actually – for the upcoming rodeo season. He’s on a committee with us all now, so he needs to have at least one pair for the shifts he works for the committee.

Anyway, I went for them, grabbed some things to keep them available while waiting on them to arrive, since I live much closer, and I also grabbed a few belts for my man’s and for me, since the belts were half the price today that they had been Friday. Eventually, they arrived, and my stepdad liked and bought a very nice pair that I had grabbed for him. (When he tried them on and walked around, my mom and I both were impressed with how nice it made him look as a whole – what we wear truly does make a difference!) I was there an hour before they arrived. Then we three spent about forty minutes working on my stepdad’s boots.

However, it took me another two hours before I left. Why?

Because I asked my man about a pair of men’s loafers.

He got too stressed, so, yet again, I got to wait at this sale while he went to the regular store beer our house to try on boots in the store in order to confirm fits and sizes. And yes, you read that correctly. We did this already on Friday for a couple hours. One benefit, though, was that prices dropped while I was waiting, so we got them all for even less than they already would have been at the already-amazing prices.

Eventually, however, after four hours of being in the store with no bathrooms (because it’s a pop-up shop situation, not a real store), I left with, for the price of one pair of boots new at the store – approximately $300, though they are $600-$700 comparable quality – one pair of loafers, two pair of men’s boots, and five very nice leather belts belts. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I actually had a really great time doing it all, too. I also noticed how much I like to help people. I was consistently either chatting with a waiting person or helping people find what they were seeking or, get this, helping to organize the products. I even went through all the women’s belts to confirm that all but a few were size XS, pulled the few out and set them next to the huge plastic bins, and then adjusted the sign that read S to read XS, and split the XS belts in the two bins evenly. Yes, I pulled out a pen from my bag to write the X on the sign, very similarly to how they were adjusting all the signs around (one-time paper signs, you see). So, anyway, I had a good time helping people. And I also found great satisfaction and delight in getting things for someone that are both useful, solid quality, wanted, and a treat all in one.

Thank you, God, for such a lovely start to the day today, and thank you for the lovely continuation and finish it has had. Thank you for this beautiful life. Please, heal those in need of healing and help them to ask for healing and forgiveness in all ways. Thank you for this love I receive. Please, keep my man safe. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Thickheadedness

My brother comments on how he didn’t realize the message I’d sent to the family was a save-the-date for our wedding. Why? As I said to him tonight after dinner, if he ever actually called his sister and had an actual relationship with her, he would have known already all about it, even before the text… I wasn’t mean, of course, but I also wasn’t wrong, and he knew it. 😛 He always stops being a good family member whenever he starts dating someone. As silly as it sounds, that’s okie thing I actually really liked about his wife before – she usually made a clear effort to keep him in touch with us. She didn’t let him disappear, and thereby had a large role of her own in my life, in all our lives…

Anyway… addiction really sucks.

Post-a-day 2023

Creating an image, or creating stress

We still haven’t created our wedding and reception and honeymoon, so it has become increasingly stressful for me to arrange the details of them. If we had a clear image of what we’re aiming to achieve, it’s be easy to figure out how to meet that image. But I’m currently working only on what I have created, and then on what my man throws out suddenly in disagreement with upset. Not a successful method for accomplishing things, and definitely not one for accomplishing them with joy, love, and ease.

God, help us, please, to create the wedding and reception and honeymoon we both truly long to have. Help us to see clearly what we want, and to communicate that clearly, effectively, and promptly. Help us to find exactly what we need for all of this. Thank you for this opportunity. Keep us safe, please. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

This dog

She is such his dog, it’s ridiculous. She clearly likes me and all, of course. But she loves him, is obsessed with him. When he opens the door for her to let her out of her room, she jumps for joy at him and rubs up against him and all. When I get home first and go let her out of her room, she barely acknowledges my presence, and sprints to the back door to go outside and look for him. She genuinely stands there, staring at the space where his car belongs, unsure of what to do, now that she sees he isn’t home yet. And when he isn’t home at bedtime, like tonight, and I go to bed, I am super nice and invite her into the bedroom with me and pet her and all, and go to bed. Within ten minutes, though, she is inevitably up and trying to get out of the room, presumably to go wait for him to come home. It’s ridiculous.

She so obsessed with him, though I guess it takes off the pressure of my being so obsessed with him, and makes me seem less weird to him… maybe… haha 😛

Post-a-day 2023

Communication

It’s a good thing we’ve been working so much on having good communication with one another. It made all the difference today, turning what was a very stressful situation into an absolutely wonderful one.

Thank you, God, for this man and for his willingness to let you guide him and for his love for me. And thank you for my love for him and the grace that we both give to each other. Thank you for this life and this love. Help us to continue to pursue and fulfill your will together, being our best selves with one another always supporting. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

A good time

Tonight was a dinner for faculty and staff and their plus ones. I expected to have an okay time. I ended up having a really nice time. We had a pleasant and loving time at our table with a few folks. We had a nice time chatting with my boss and his wife. We had a delightful time chatting with some guys who have taken religious orders to become priests. My man got to meet a good handful of the important people for me at work. And then we stopped by the karaoke after-party just to check it out on the way home, but ended up staying until it closed down. (Just need to say that it was 100% like a slightly toned down version of a frat party. It was hilarious and kind of wonderful [minus the handful of people who had gotten truly drunk and were not so fun].)

Suffice it to say that I am going to bed tonight very late, but socially and emotionally satisfied.

Thank you for this wonderful evening and night. Keep us safe, please. Heal my man’s defensiveness with me, please, and mine with him. And heal my burned finger, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Share for a reward

On Duolingo. Looking at the end of the year in review. “Share for a reward??!”

“What?! Share for a reward?! That wasn’t there earlier!”

Both laugh.

“Not like we do anything with them, anyway…”

Because we don’t use the gems for almost anything. But we’ll still take the reward option every time it asks us to share in exchange for one!

Nerds. Or idiots. Likely both, really. 😛

Post-a-day 2023