And then things were looking up!

I am done. With my job. I moved out of my classroom. Entered all my grades. Monday I return my keys.  I am jobless. But I am not all that worried about it currently. 

There is time. I am a teacher, and sometimes jobs don't come up until right before school starts. And if one doesn't? I am going to be a tutoring MACHINE. Which is actually fairly lucrative. 

There is air conditioning in my car. And in my apartment. 

I started packing my apartment- granted- it's only 6 boxes right now, and an entire apartment to go... but hey, it's a start. 

My BFF and Maid of Honor (MOH), CD, and I chatted a few days ago. She is moving back to the states from Paris in JULY! YAAY! And we had good chats about my wedding. And life. And boys.

Today I hired a 'day of' wedding coordinator. Cool.

Mostly I am excited that 2 years and 5 days ago, CB and I had a conversation about long distance while we were driving back from Galveston, after having viewed the Battleship Texas. It went something like this:

me: So, uh, if we are going to do this... if we are going to be long distance... we have got to have some kind of plan. There has got to be a light at the end of the tunnel, because, well, I've done this before and it sucks. It needs to have a definite plan for an end.

CB: Well, I guess I always kind of assumed that, uh, well... Medical school is funny, because the first 2 years are strictly academic, in the classroom, and the last 2 are clinical clerkships in hospitals, and we can go almost anywhere for those. Well, I guess I figured that once 2nd year was over you would come with me wherever I go for 3rd year. 

me: Well. You know I am not leaving my entire life behind- my family, a good job, and my friends- unless I have a very pretty ring on my finger. I just can't do it. 

CB: Yea, I know that. Of course. That's fine. 

me: Okay. So I guess that's it then. 2 years long distance and then no more. 

CB: Yea.

me: UGH 2 years is a long time. What if we don't make it? What if we are horrible at this?... (a plethora of other worries)

CB: It will be fine. We will be fine. We will work super hard and communicate well and we will see each other as often as possible and it will work.

(2 YEAAAARS AND 22 DAYS LATER)(AKA: 17 days from now)

Moving into our house in San Antonio. : )

ANNNND, CB not only passed pathology... his grade RAISED because he did so well on the final shelf exam. Yea. That's right. He is awesome.

LASTLY,

this really difficult Latin exam I have been stressing about. I did a the first 2 sections of a practice test last night, and I only missed 5. And they were all centered on the same concept- which means if I can really get that concept down, I will be awesome.

And I mastered this process called "scansion,"  which in Latin means reading a line of poetry (in Latin) and figuring out the proper pronunciation of the line via long syllables and short syllables. It involves dactyls and spondees and funny markings. That may mean nothing to you, but I have been so freaking excited about it since last night. I can't get over it. I want to scan excessive lines of Latin poetry and get everything right because it feels so good. 

For the next 2.5 weeks:

Excessive packing

Reading Latin/practicing Latin/scansion!/taking practice tests

Working out, because I need it, badly

The End. 

Best Friends, Wedding dresses, and San Antonio

Those are the 3 biggest things occurring in my life in the past week or so.

My very best friends on the planet, my CO-maids of honor (seriously), flew into town 2 Thursdays ago. They waited all day for me to get out of school, and then they made a sneak attack on my classroom. I wasn't in there, buuut that's okay, because when I came walking up to my room they turned around and it was one of the best surprises of my life. I was as surprised, if not more surprised, than I was when CB proposed (I mean- that was a HUGE surprise and big life moment, but I knew it was coming at some point... my bff's coming into town was completely unexpected). There is a video of them surprising me, but I do not have it in my possession so I cannot post it. If we are friends on the facebook you can look at it there. 

They had gotten me Friday off work. Subs had been arranged for all my classes. I was going to play hookey to hang out with my pals from Paris, France and Florida. Basically it was awesome. They had shirts made for the occasion:

As for my 'diet' and workout plan... it was spoiled for that weekend, but it doesn't really matter when something like this comes along. So all the surprises they had planned were as follows:

Lunch at On the Border on Friday, aka: margaritas at 11:45 am.

Mani/Pedi party

Dinner at the fanciest restaurant I know... seriously. The Old Warsaw. A-mazing. We dined on escargo, crab cakes, lobster bisque, salmon, swordfish, veal, chocolate souffle and complimentary champagne. It makes my belly growl just writing it.

That all was on Friday. Saturday was reserved for WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING! EEEEE! I had been putting off dress shopping all along because I didn't have my best friends to go with me, I was afraid I wouldn't find something I liked, I was afraid to look at the pricetags, etc. But now with two whores (not literally, fyi) I couldn't avoid it.

They took me to two places. I thought I had found THE dress at the first place, but then in the snotty, crowded second place I happened upon a beautiful, unlikely choice and it ended up being perfect. I ordered it last Wednesday. 

That night they took me to see Bride Wars (great movie if you are getting married and don't feel like watching a movie with a deep meaning. It was cute). 

Lastly, on Sunday, we went to lunch at a yummy eatery place and then had our Second Annual SMU photoshoot. Basically that is where all of us met, so we have gone back there for the past two years in January and taken pictures all over campus together. We plan on making it a yearly tradition. Next years will have to come early though, as we will all be together in December for a certain wedding! : )

It was the best time I have had since I have become engaged. Not that I don't love being engaged to CB, because I do, but being engaged has brought on so much family strife that I have to deal with almost on a bi-weekly basis, and I have cried more since being engaged than I have in a long time. Again, not because of CB, but because of my family and because I hadn't had my dearest friends here to celebrate. Their surprise weekend was exactly what I was needing and I am so incredibly grateful for them Thanks whores. I love you both. 

The next week was good because I finally caught up with grading and what not, and CB got his official assignment for his first medical rotation. Let me explain:

3rd and 4th year of medical school consists of 6-8 week clinical rotations through all different medical specialties. Basically the general areas which one might go into for their residency. Because CB is in the military, and attends a medical school which is owned by Congress, he does those rotations in any number of military hospitals around the country, with a few participating civilian hospitals. He and I have been pulling for a certain hospital in a certain city in south Texas, and because his lottery number (how they assign the spots and locations) was good for this first rotation, he got his first choice. So it looks like he will be doing General Surgery. Happpy!!!!!

Now for the other bit: I will be relocating in June to be with him, as our 2 years of long distance are up. When we started this long distance, we agreed that 2 years was our maximum limit. No longer than 2 years. I am so relieved those 2 years are over as well, I don't know that I could've done much longer. I would have if I had to, but I don't have to. I told him from the very beginning that I would not relocate if we weren't engaged either- not trying to pressure him, but being very clear that I was not going to pick up my life and leave a good job unless I had good reason. Obviously, this came way sooner than the 2 year long distance mark. As such... I am currently looking for a J.O.B. in San Antonio... if anyone knows anyone looking for a Latin teacher down there, let me know. 

So that is all my happy news. I love my friends. I love my wedding dress. And I can't wait to move.