Patrick is making us lasagna for dinner while I do laundry. I'm so happy with this life :) I'm glad it lived up to my expectations from those 2 years of living alone in Boston. Also, I love my job! I'm not sick of science anymore. I think I really lucked out in ending up with the company that I did.

I made an appointment at Mantra in Carmel for a bridal hair and makeup run-through (yeah, just another way to get money out of brides-to-be, but I'll be more relaxed if I've tried it out once and made sure they do a good job). It's an Aveda salon. I bet they'll be great; my only concern is that they open at 9am on Saturdays, and our wedding starts at 11am and is ~45 minutes away from Carmel (plus I'll need to get dressed and not be all stressed out and in a hurry right before the wedding). I asked the receptionist if they could open early for a bridal party, and she said yes, but she didn't seem too sure.

Once I do the trial run, I'll have a better idea of how long it'll take (I'm hoping it'll be less than an hour, and that they can work on all three of us--Tree, Erin, and myself--at the same time). It'll all work out one way or another. And I'm looking forward to having fancy hair and makeup and hanging out in Monterey with Patrick that weekend. That'll be totally worth it even if the salon doesn't work out for whatever reason.

Still working on a florist. My top choice (and the only florist in Big Sur, as far as I can tell) has ignored my last two emails, so I guess she's out. That's too bad. I'll be investigating florists in Monterey when I'm there getting all fancied up at the salon. I don't think I'm asking for anything too complicated, but I guess the problem is that we have a small floral budget, so we're not worth the time compared to bigger weddings. I assume that's why our first choice just stopped corresponding with me. Too bad.

Also, we need to get going on planning our honeymoon! It's a fun thing to do, but also a little daunting. We're pretty much agreed that we'll be spending our honeymoon in Italy, so it's just a matter of figuring out where and when. So exciting! Maybe we should take the time to learn a little Italian before then...I don't want to be obnoxious Americans. Does anybody have any favorite places in Italy or the surrounding countries that we should try to include in our plans? I want to eat lots of gelato!