Wrangler Dani

Yesterday was horrible.  Tons of meetings, pointless blame being thrown about, long-winded explanations for things that didn’t need explaining, plenty of crabby people and enough flourescent lighting and piped air to make anyone who remembers the outside world feel slightly batty after roughly 20 minutes.

I left the office in a rush, determined to get to San Clemente (nearly 35 miles through Orange County,) in 40 minutes, come hell or a clogged 405 freeway, which is nearly the same thing.

I’ve still never bought myself a Fastpass for the toll roads – I honestly don’t make big enough bucks to warrant it, but if I had it, I would use it anyway. This is essentially the grown-up version of hiding the cookie jar.  Anyway, I lucked out, traffic was light and I made it down fairly quickly. 

Once I got to San Clemente, however, I was totally turned around.  My instinct said South, but my common-sense said North.  My driver-side window is still not rolling down, but I’m also too cheap to run the A/C, so by the time I’d made a couple of wrong turns and my back was sticking to my seat, I called Adam and lost it in the way only a very tired, emotionally-wrecked, overly warm girl in uncomfortable slacks and heels can.  Luckily for me, I’m engaged to the most patient guy on the planet, who walked me through directions to my destination and was waiting for me with open arms when I got there, instead of the lecture and sigh I deserved.

But anyways, you’re probably wondering why I was rushing to South County in the first place.  Well, let me tell you.  We had our FIRST EVER reception booking appointment, or at least, our first one from which we did not leave shaking our heads and wondering if McDonald’s offers catering services, and how much trouble we’d get into for stealing flowers from people’s yards in the middle of the night for our ceremony.

The wedding coordinator/chef was amazing, she could instantly tell that we were on a tight budget and needed some reasurrance.  We might have come off a little strong, already determined not to be talked into the mortgaging of our imaginary home for this one day event, but she quickly assuaged our fears and even gave us sample tri-tip sandwiches, which I think pretty much clinched it for both of us.

So meanwhile, we’re waiting on a quote from her, we love the place, and we’re inching nearer to one of the biggest decisions  we’ll ever make – together.  That’s the truly crazy thing about this… we’re making decisions together, and planning to do so with nearly everything for the rest of our lives.  We’ll share everything from the peanut butter to the car payment, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Love and marriage are two very strange and beautiful things.