Exhaustion

Who knew trying to find a darn ring would be such an ordeal?! It probably wouldn't be that hard if I didn't have an idea in my head already as to what I want. We have been to countless jewelry stores. No one has anything similar, but everyone says they can make it for me. The prices to 'custom make' this ring that already exists but I can't get from the artist, has ranged from 'well, that seems a little high' to 'are you freakin' kidding me?!?!' I know that the price of gold is high right now, but ummm, let's not be ridiculous. And EVERY jeweler wants to talk your ear off. I think that their tacit is they will just wear you out and you will purchase from them out of sheer exhaustion! We even tell them we've already got the diamond, so it's not like they're going to make all that much money off of us, anyway. The only good thing to come out of the many hours of shopping we've had is that the LAST jeweler we visited yesterday introduced us to a designer who has some styles very similar to what I want. Of course, he can't give me a price, he has to call and check on it, but it gives me some hope. As a last resort, we can go to Vermont and buy the darn ring I saw, but they don't set it there, they send it to the artist in Oregon, and all that will take time and I WANT TO WEAR IT NOW!! It kills me to have this gorgeous diamond sitting in a box on my nightstand! If you're interested, the ring I saw ages ago that I want is here (this is not a direct link, you have to select the 'Vashon' line and it is the 4th ring). The ring I just learned about yesterday that is close and I like ALMOST as much is here (again, no direct link, you have to select the 'Tension' collection, 'Women's rings' and then it is style TR-015). I have no idea why they make it so hard to link to the rings! Sheesh!

Jake is horribly cute and is totally more excited and engaged by the process than I imagined he'd be. We have a general idea of how we want things to go and now, I just have to start gathering information to plan it :) He asked his first best man to stand up on Friday and it was cute :) He's having 2, as I'm having 2 maids of honor (one has been asked and is now planning on ACTUALLY going to the gym, she says, LOL!). We're not going to have the party ahead of the ceremony, but we are going to have a Sunday brunch for everyone (a-la rehearsal dinner type style) and then the wedding and dinner will be on Monday. The wedding will be mostly friends, not a lot of family, and we hope that everyone will make a vacation out of wine country (but not too much wine to be hungover at the wedding!) Jake is going to wear a 3 piece suit rather than a tux so I think we'll end up with a little bit of a Vintage look, which means I can end up with a super cool dress :) We have a 'preliminary' list of people most likely to actually travel to the wedding and it's not as 'small' as small may imply . . .probably 50-ish people! That is nothing compared to what my mother is planning. She's having a 2nd reception in Michigan for us so that all the people that aren't invited to the California event can come (and mostly, this is her friends, more than family!) In a matter of 4 days, she has determined that it will be ~200 people. Way bigger than I'd ever want, but she's planning it and all I have to do is show up, so I can't complain. And, it's totally low key at an American Legion hall, so it will probably be lots of fun and it will give me a reason to wear my dress again (oh yeah, totally wearing the wedding dress twice!).

I have not knit a single stitch in nearly a week, nor have I worked on any homework and my presentation is in 3 weeks so maybe I should focus on that, since I do have a whole year until the wedding :) April 6, 2009 :) Today is T-365 days :)