Thursday, April 14, 2005  1:47 am  <|>
<215> Rules of Engagement: I'm sorry it's been a few weeks since I last wrote. There have been a few things keeping me busy, but it's all for good reasons, and I have a little bit to report...

First things first, Dan and I got engaged on April 1st!!

Since you asked, here are some of the details: 1) I proposed to him 2) No it wasn't because I was "tired of waiting" we are just equal opportunity relationshipists 3) Yes, I did just make up the term "relationshipists" 4) We are super happy (ok this is really number one...) The truth is I had been thinking about the possibility of me proposing to him someday, because we really aren't traditional types at all and it just seemed fitting somehow. Plus I didn't want him to have the pressure of trying to afford a ring (which we definitely can't afford right now) or asking my dad for permission (which he would have gotten no problem if he had asked). Instead of rings we have engagement bracelets, real jewelry made from bike chain links (which has a special meaning to us) plus we like that we each have something to wear and not just one of us. It's just this great feeling overall of being together that you feel when you take a step like this, even though we've been told we are "practically married" anyway and we do already live together and all that. It's still special. We're not picking a date right away or doing a lot of planning, though I did quickly find out that I was more into the planning part of it than I ever thought I would be. I don't think this is because I've suddenly become wedding crazy... I just like planning things in general. Plus, with this, besides Dan and I, no one really gets to tell us how to do it, because it's "our day" - I like the sound of that. We do know that it won't be in a church, neither one of us is especially religious, we'd like it to to be outside, and we don't plan on doing much of it "traditionally," though we aren't throwing out tradition, rather we just want to be able to incorporate a lot of traditions and most of all we just want it to be a day we share with everyone that is close to us, with as much of us and personal meaning put into it as can be. We're going to write our own vows and do a lot of it ourselves. We just don't want to end up feeling like we are acting out a part in a play, when a wedding is supposed to be about two people starting a new life together. It just has never made sense to me, the super fancy, super traditional thing, not that I have anything against people who do choose to go that route. We're also not picking a date for a little while (probably picking a date within the next year to start planning, but an actual wedding date in about 2 years). My brother is getting remarried on September 17th and Dan's sister is getting married (in England, here we come!) on October 1st, so I think our families (and us too) will be quite weddinged out by then).

I have a new portfolio up on the site. The old one was badly in need of updating, but I had a new reason to get my act together for it which I'll mention in a second. I'm actually pretty happy with it, though I decided (and had to because of timing) to keep it simple, I think it gets the focus to stay on my work. I'll probably add to it a little bit in the coming weeks, but it's finished so you should all go check it out if you are interested at all.

On to other news, what else that has been keeping me busy is preparing this application for grad school and the fact that work has gotten really busy again. The application is due Friday for the early deadline. I've already forwarded my transcripts and I sent in my portfolio on CD earlier today. The only part left is completing the online application, which I plan to do tomorrow right after work. I have all the parts I need for that completed except my study plan, which I should be working on now, but I decided it was time I stopped getting distracted from writing here too long. Plus I had this big announcement to make that I waited almost 2 weeks to get to tell! Hopefully I told everyone directly first that I wanted to - I can't think of anyone I missed, but you never know with these things...

So yes work has been busy again. I'm still frustrated with the situation a bit... especially because the people in my department, the support staff anyway, are leaving soon. Unfortunately one of the women is leaving due to illness she must take care of. My thoughts are with her throughout this, I certainly know what it's like to go through something like that. The other is my pal there, the girl who is my age, and she'll be leaving soon enough for a better position - good for her, but I'll miss her! There is only a handful of other people there who I really enjoy going in and seeing everyday, and two of those people are also planning to leave within the next couple of months. We got a new girl who started on Monday that is pretty nice from how much I've gotten to know her so far. She's a temp for now though, so it's hard to say if she'll be there permanently or not yet. They are going to need someone in the support staff role within my department though. And then there's me. I'm still waiting for my evaluation and the right opportunity to talk about salary and all that good stuff. The longer I wait and the more I think about it the more I think I'm going to have to just flat out ask. I don't even know if my boss knows how much I make, because he wasn't even directly in charge of me or anyone when I started or for most of the year that I've been there. I feel like I can just sit down and talk to him about the whole situation, but he's very busy when he is in the office, so this presents a challenge within itself. Oh well, I'm going to have to do it though, I could be wasting valuable time (and money) by not pushing forward with it.

So that's really what I've been up to. That, oh and well I almost forgot. I finally launched the Second Edition of Sticky Art! I'm so glad to have that up finally, though I had to put off finishing putting back up the interviews and artist information that I had before because I needed to spend all my time working on the application instead. But I will be done with that soon and have some time to devote back to Sticky Art soon enough. I'm excited - I hope it does well... if it doesn't I don't think I'll be able to make a third unless I get back at least what I invested in to it money wise, which was a fair amount... But I haven't done anything to promote it yet, I haven't even emailed the artists because I want to finish putting up the content first. But like I said, hopefully by this time next week, things will be buzzing over there. Feel free to check it out, support the project, and even buy a couple packs if you want! ;)