I'm off to the dealership to go buy my new car! I am so excited I couldn't eat breakfast so I'm drinking a Slim-Fast shake (I stocked up recently because all that Chinese is going right to my hips) instead. I have the morning off of work to do the deal. Julian gave me a pep talk and told me to stay focused and not let myself get pushed into anything that feels not right. So excited to try my new car! I hope I like it.... what if I don't like it? Oh, like I won't! J said to call him immediately and put him on speakerphone if anything does not go according to plan.
I'm leaving dear Nick the Nissan there. :( I'll miss him.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
New car? New car!
So Julian and I have been discussing the state of my car recently. I have a 1997 Nissan Sentra, which I've had since I left for college. It's not bad for a 13 year old car, I think. Nothing really catastrophic has gone wrong with it, except for the air conditioning dying on a road trip back from Vegas. In August. I get the oil changed regularly and mind the tire pressures, and always keep the fluids topped up. The paint is pretty terrible -- like a lot of cars out here in the Valley, the clear coat has peeled away on the horizontal surfaces and there is a gigantic scratch down the passenger side. But there is nothing wrong with the car mechanically, and I have never seen the point in replacing it because I am actually really fond of him. (Yes, he's a him. His name is Nick.)
Julian... let's just say he is not so fond of Nick. Julian showed up very dramatically on my doorstep on January 2nd unannounced and looking to win me back after the tough times we had in 2009. (It worked.) Since he had never driven in America before, never even been to anywhere in America besides New York a few times, he hadn't rented a car so we used my Sentra. Since we didn't actually leave the house for a couple of days after he arrived (*blush*), he didn't have the chance to see my car until the 4th or 5th, I forget which. Anyway, he said, "Are you kidding me? You drive THAT?" I said there was nothing wrong with Nick, he was just a little old and worn at the edges. Julian said that no wife of his -- and at this point he hadn't proposed (for the second time round), so I got all goose-pimply -- would be seen dead driving in a beater like that. Why didn't I take better care of it? Why did I leave all those bags and empty soda cans in it? Why did I appear to have an entire year's worth of Glamour magazine stored in there?
I felt kind of defensive about it at first. This was MY car that I paid for out of MY money. I had saved up for two years after I got my license to buy a car. It was only 6 years old then and it still looked pretty great. My parents aren't exactly poor, but they made it clear to my sister and me that we were going to need to earn the big purchases in our lives. I'm a little better than my older sister at not complaining about that! (Sorry Rachel -- it's true!) I'm proud of the many hours I spent working at the Gap to earn the money.
Julian always seemed to be needling me to think about upgrading Nick. It makes me still kind of sad to think about losing my trusty steed, which took me to college and back, and even up to Seattle once when I was dating a guy who had relocated there and I was thinking about going there too. However, once we got engaged, J became pretty adamant that his wife would not be seen driving something so "pedestrian" as a Nissan Sentra. (lol) I was worth so much more than that, and it would reflect poorly on him too if he had something new and I was still with Nick, like I wasn't worth anything more. So he has decided to wire me the money for a new car. Wow! He thinks I should get a Mercedes -- wow! I can't believe I'm going to have a brand-new car and it's going to be a Mercedes!
So after a while looking at all the info online, I am going to test drive the GLK350. It's a compact SUV. J wanted me to consider one of the more luxurious SUVs but I think the GLK is fancy enough for me! He spent a lot of time researching the model and he feels comfortable with it. He's given me a LOT of advice about how to behave at the car lot, and he's already called the dealership to tell them I'm coming in and that I am only interested in looking at the GLKs, and that I am a cash buyer who does not want her time wasted. I am so excited!
But then... it always seems to be coming back to money these days. Sigh. I'm not doing too badly in my job, and feel like I'm making a respectable wage for someone my age and experience. My little apartment is cozy and quirkily furnished and I go out to some decent restaurants, bars and clubs. But it's... well, it's nothing compared to Julian's family and sometimes I feel the weight of expectations. His mother doesn't seem to like me very much, although J always says that I'm just being overly sensitive. She is still pushing for us to do a pre-nup -- "Just look at that Paul McCartney! He wouldn't do a pre-nuptial agreement and now look where he is! How do you know Melissa won't do a Heather Mills on you!" she said to Julian. In front of me. J is refusing to sign one, and although I won't say a word to his mum about it, I'm glad he's standing up to her. The fact that we are now on our second round of engagement makes her even more suspicious of me, like I'm only after J for the money, and that somehow I charmed him back so I could get my hands on their money, when he was the one who came back to me.
She has said some truly unbelievable things to me in the past. One time, when we were in her kitchen and I was slicing some bread for a sandwich, she said, "Melissa, you do have rather fat calves for someone your size don't you?" I didn't know what to say. Once she came over to our house in Suffolk (I think of it as our house even though it's Julian's really) when he was out; we used to go to the house about once every other weekend for some quieter living than we got in London. I was sorting laundry and she offered to help fold, which I thought was so kind and maybe even a peace gesture. Instead, she looked at the label inside one of my skirts and said "Size 2? Really? I heard they did vanity sizing in the States and now I believe it." Julian said this was his mother's idea of a joke and I was supposed to have laughed. I was so shocked that I just kept folding.
Oh god, I don't seem to be able to shut up in these posts! I guess I should have been blogging for years! So... yay! New car!
Julian... let's just say he is not so fond of Nick. Julian showed up very dramatically on my doorstep on January 2nd unannounced and looking to win me back after the tough times we had in 2009. (It worked.) Since he had never driven in America before, never even been to anywhere in America besides New York a few times, he hadn't rented a car so we used my Sentra. Since we didn't actually leave the house for a couple of days after he arrived (*blush*), he didn't have the chance to see my car until the 4th or 5th, I forget which. Anyway, he said, "Are you kidding me? You drive THAT?" I said there was nothing wrong with Nick, he was just a little old and worn at the edges. Julian said that no wife of his -- and at this point he hadn't proposed (for the second time round), so I got all goose-pimply -- would be seen dead driving in a beater like that. Why didn't I take better care of it? Why did I leave all those bags and empty soda cans in it? Why did I appear to have an entire year's worth of Glamour magazine stored in there?
I felt kind of defensive about it at first. This was MY car that I paid for out of MY money. I had saved up for two years after I got my license to buy a car. It was only 6 years old then and it still looked pretty great. My parents aren't exactly poor, but they made it clear to my sister and me that we were going to need to earn the big purchases in our lives. I'm a little better than my older sister at not complaining about that! (Sorry Rachel -- it's true!) I'm proud of the many hours I spent working at the Gap to earn the money.
Julian always seemed to be needling me to think about upgrading Nick. It makes me still kind of sad to think about losing my trusty steed, which took me to college and back, and even up to Seattle once when I was dating a guy who had relocated there and I was thinking about going there too. However, once we got engaged, J became pretty adamant that his wife would not be seen driving something so "pedestrian" as a Nissan Sentra. (lol) I was worth so much more than that, and it would reflect poorly on him too if he had something new and I was still with Nick, like I wasn't worth anything more. So he has decided to wire me the money for a new car. Wow! He thinks I should get a Mercedes -- wow! I can't believe I'm going to have a brand-new car and it's going to be a Mercedes!
So after a while looking at all the info online, I am going to test drive the GLK350. It's a compact SUV. J wanted me to consider one of the more luxurious SUVs but I think the GLK is fancy enough for me! He spent a lot of time researching the model and he feels comfortable with it. He's given me a LOT of advice about how to behave at the car lot, and he's already called the dealership to tell them I'm coming in and that I am only interested in looking at the GLKs, and that I am a cash buyer who does not want her time wasted. I am so excited!
But then... it always seems to be coming back to money these days. Sigh. I'm not doing too badly in my job, and feel like I'm making a respectable wage for someone my age and experience. My little apartment is cozy and quirkily furnished and I go out to some decent restaurants, bars and clubs. But it's... well, it's nothing compared to Julian's family and sometimes I feel the weight of expectations. His mother doesn't seem to like me very much, although J always says that I'm just being overly sensitive. She is still pushing for us to do a pre-nup -- "Just look at that Paul McCartney! He wouldn't do a pre-nuptial agreement and now look where he is! How do you know Melissa won't do a Heather Mills on you!" she said to Julian. In front of me. J is refusing to sign one, and although I won't say a word to his mum about it, I'm glad he's standing up to her. The fact that we are now on our second round of engagement makes her even more suspicious of me, like I'm only after J for the money, and that somehow I charmed him back so I could get my hands on their money, when he was the one who came back to me.
She has said some truly unbelievable things to me in the past. One time, when we were in her kitchen and I was slicing some bread for a sandwich, she said, "Melissa, you do have rather fat calves for someone your size don't you?" I didn't know what to say. Once she came over to our house in Suffolk (I think of it as our house even though it's Julian's really) when he was out; we used to go to the house about once every other weekend for some quieter living than we got in London. I was sorting laundry and she offered to help fold, which I thought was so kind and maybe even a peace gesture. Instead, she looked at the label inside one of my skirts and said "Size 2? Really? I heard they did vanity sizing in the States and now I believe it." Julian said this was his mother's idea of a joke and I was supposed to have laughed. I was so shocked that I just kept folding.
Oh god, I don't seem to be able to shut up in these posts! I guess I should have been blogging for years! So... yay! New car!
Too much work, not enough sleep
I've been working some late nights recently, trying to finish this project at work for a really demanding Dutch client. Interesting working with the Dutch -- they're really, really direct and some times it comes off as just plain rude! I'm learning how to translate what they say in English to American, so I don't get offended all the time. Most of the team I work with over there are very friendly and respectful of the fact that I also have a little bit of a life outside of the office, which includes weekends. This weekend was spent in the office, however, dealing with the increasingly insane deadlines that one woman there keeps setting me. They are trying to break into the American market with their product and although I am DEFINITELY not allowed to say what it is, I can say that I think it is pretty unlikely that it will take off in America. So I'm trying to come up with a way to market a product that I don't believe in, for a woman I think is nuts. And living with Not Enough Sleep.
There are a few plusses along with it though -- I am able to call Julian in the morning his time (we just got off the phone); the 134 is practically empty and I can get home from work in 20 minutes; and a lot of Chinese food delivered to work. I have to stop pigging out on the Sweet and Sour Pork though or I will never fit into ANY wedding dress that wasn't a tent! Speaking of which, Jen is coming with my mom and me this weekend to start looking for a dress. A dress! This is for real! Even though I still don't know when the wedding day will be, or even what colors we'll have. I wanted chocolate brown and Tiffany blue, but Julian said brown at a wedding sounded terrible. He kept referring to it as "shit brown", even though I kept correcting him about it. I really want a Christmas wedding, but frankly I'm open to having it sooner rather than later.
When we get the next piece of paper from the US Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS for short, thankfully!) we'll have a better idea of when his interview will be. I'm on this great website called Visa Journey, an internet forum where everyone is applying for their loved one (usually fiance or spouse) to come to the US from overseas. SO much fantastic information there! Some real weirdos and some rude people, but the info is still great. Some person on there was really rude to Julian today and basically accused him of trying to buy his way into America!!! Can you believe it? I set her (her? him?) straight -- that we are in love and that is why he is getting a fiance visa. We're really lucky that Julian is well-off, but I don't like to brag about it. It will take a lot of strain off us though. We'll be looking for a Craftsman house in Pasadena to buy, and I will be out of my little one-bed here in what I like to call ghetto-fabulous Pasadena -- the wrong side of the 210. But it saves me $500 a month to be two blocks on the wrong side! Julian is I think a little worried about living here with me in what he calls "just plain ghetto, Melissa" until we get a house, so I get to start looking soon -- yay!
So I am still trying to come up with colors... Julian said he would like something understated and classic, like a paler shade of the blue I was thinking of and off-white. I'll probably go along with what he says, since I'm pretty useless at deciding things like that! Whatever happens, we'll have the reception at my parents' house in Burbank. It's kind of non-negotiable! I've always wanted to have my wedding reception there, ever since I was a little girl playing Barbie wedding. Julian is hardly a Ken, but that's a good thing! So much to plan... Jen is my maid of honor, and Jenn is one of the three bridesmaids (I wanted a small wedding party) along with my cousin Stella and Veronque, who is flying over here from Bristol. She stayed on after everyone graduated and designs jewelry.
So.... I guess among all this happy stuff I should probably talk about what went on with "Richard" who I can safely call Alex now that he outed himself. Alex, if you're reading this (and you probably are) you aren't scaring me. I spoke to Julian about this, and he said that he and Alex had had a great night at Club Gascon and that he had made it really clear that he was coming over to the US because it was a real adventure and because he loves me. He also told Alex that it was probably best not to "poke at me with an pointy stick" (I totally don't get the reference, but whatever) and to stop harassing me. Alex agreed to but clearly he couldn't help himself. I called J and asked how Alex could possibly know about my blog, and J said that maybe, accidentally, he might have let Alex know about it, and that maybe possibly they looked at it on Alex's iPhone in the restaurant. Alex apparently remarked on what a charming style of writing I had, and Julian felt that when he said that it meant that all was well between us. I nearly lost it -- how could he be so naive? Of course Alex was going to post something snarky.
I told Julian he better tell Alex to cut it out, but J said he thought MY response was OTT, and that he couldn't find anything really mean in Alex's post -- and that he thought it was funny! It was a good thing I had so much work to pour myself into, because I did not speak to J from Saturday evening until just now, when we just spoke (and made up -- yay!). I am going to try to do what Julian tells me to do and ignore it. I will really try, because I love him so much.
There are a few plusses along with it though -- I am able to call Julian in the morning his time (we just got off the phone); the 134 is practically empty and I can get home from work in 20 minutes; and a lot of Chinese food delivered to work. I have to stop pigging out on the Sweet and Sour Pork though or I will never fit into ANY wedding dress that wasn't a tent! Speaking of which, Jen is coming with my mom and me this weekend to start looking for a dress. A dress! This is for real! Even though I still don't know when the wedding day will be, or even what colors we'll have. I wanted chocolate brown and Tiffany blue, but Julian said brown at a wedding sounded terrible. He kept referring to it as "shit brown", even though I kept correcting him about it. I really want a Christmas wedding, but frankly I'm open to having it sooner rather than later.
When we get the next piece of paper from the US Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS for short, thankfully!) we'll have a better idea of when his interview will be. I'm on this great website called Visa Journey, an internet forum where everyone is applying for their loved one (usually fiance or spouse) to come to the US from overseas. SO much fantastic information there! Some real weirdos and some rude people, but the info is still great. Some person on there was really rude to Julian today and basically accused him of trying to buy his way into America!!! Can you believe it? I set her (her? him?) straight -- that we are in love and that is why he is getting a fiance visa. We're really lucky that Julian is well-off, but I don't like to brag about it. It will take a lot of strain off us though. We'll be looking for a Craftsman house in Pasadena to buy, and I will be out of my little one-bed here in what I like to call ghetto-fabulous Pasadena -- the wrong side of the 210. But it saves me $500 a month to be two blocks on the wrong side! Julian is I think a little worried about living here with me in what he calls "just plain ghetto, Melissa" until we get a house, so I get to start looking soon -- yay!
So I am still trying to come up with colors... Julian said he would like something understated and classic, like a paler shade of the blue I was thinking of and off-white. I'll probably go along with what he says, since I'm pretty useless at deciding things like that! Whatever happens, we'll have the reception at my parents' house in Burbank. It's kind of non-negotiable! I've always wanted to have my wedding reception there, ever since I was a little girl playing Barbie wedding. Julian is hardly a Ken, but that's a good thing! So much to plan... Jen is my maid of honor, and Jenn is one of the three bridesmaids (I wanted a small wedding party) along with my cousin Stella and Veronque, who is flying over here from Bristol. She stayed on after everyone graduated and designs jewelry.
So.... I guess among all this happy stuff I should probably talk about what went on with "Richard" who I can safely call Alex now that he outed himself. Alex, if you're reading this (and you probably are) you aren't scaring me. I spoke to Julian about this, and he said that he and Alex had had a great night at Club Gascon and that he had made it really clear that he was coming over to the US because it was a real adventure and because he loves me. He also told Alex that it was probably best not to "poke at me with an pointy stick" (I totally don't get the reference, but whatever) and to stop harassing me. Alex agreed to but clearly he couldn't help himself. I called J and asked how Alex could possibly know about my blog, and J said that maybe, accidentally, he might have let Alex know about it, and that maybe possibly they looked at it on Alex's iPhone in the restaurant. Alex apparently remarked on what a charming style of writing I had, and Julian felt that when he said that it meant that all was well between us. I nearly lost it -- how could he be so naive? Of course Alex was going to post something snarky.
I told Julian he better tell Alex to cut it out, but J said he thought MY response was OTT, and that he couldn't find anything really mean in Alex's post -- and that he thought it was funny! It was a good thing I had so much work to pour myself into, because I did not speak to J from Saturday evening until just now, when we just spoke (and made up -- yay!). I am going to try to do what Julian tells me to do and ignore it. I will really try, because I love him so much.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Not a good day
Sometimes you get days that are just so amazing, when you feel like everything is falling into place: you're in love, your work is going well, you have a place to live, food in the fridge, money in the bank, a cat on your bed at night, streaming Netflix on the Wii, and some good girlfriends. And that is enough for you.
Today is not one of those days.
I'm sure Julian will chime in at some point on this, since he was witness (or at least a witness over Skype and email) to me losing the plot. I'm not proud of it. Basically, J has a friend that I cannot stand. I'll call him Richard. Richard is in my opinion a mean, domineering jerk who pushes J around and expects him to basically come when called. So when Richard tells Julian they are going out for drinks, it's not a request but a command. (Julian will I'm sure disagree with me but whatever.) Julian is probably Richard's best friend, and has been since they were in their first year at university.
Richard also HATES me. Hates me! Sometimes it feels something like jealousy. At first when it was just us going out when I was doing my junior year abroad, Richard would make snide remarks about my hair (messy) and my clothes (apparently very American, which was a bad thing in his eyes). My friend Veronique told me that she one time heard Richard say to someone that Julian was wasted on someone like me. Julian told me to ignore him if it hurt, but that Richard just has a strange sense of humor. Once J and I got engaged, Richard exploded and actually called me up and told me I was free to ruin my own life but I was not taking Julian with me. It felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I told Julian to have a word with Richard about this, and said I would feel better if they didn't see each other for a while out of respect to me, which Julian did.
I don't want to go into it right now, but Julian and I did have a break for a while last year. Richard was overjoyed we had broken up. It was horrible, but I got the last laugh when I sent him an engagement announcement in March. Ha ha! Seriously though, J had a long talk with Richard and made it clear this is what he wanted, and I promised to stay out of things where Richard was concerned. Well, this is where it all went kinda pear-shaped, as J would say. Richard emailed me yesterday to say he would do everything he could to stop us from getting married.I ignored it. He wrote again, telling me that all I was interested in was Julian's family money. I wrote back saying that that was a mean and inappropriate thing to say, and that it was totally OTT. Richard wrote back and called me a selfish bitch, dragging J 6000 miles from home. So I forwarded the chain to Julian because by this point I was in tears.
Then J told me to ignore Richard, that he's just going to miss having his best friend around, and that he's been having a really difficult time at work (he works as an investment banker at a bank that shall remain nameless but is all over the news right now) and probably drinking too much. It made me cry even more because I felt (not for the first time) that he's defending his best friend against his future WIFE when it's the friend who is the problem! J said that wasn't the case, that I was always his best girl, and that he would take care of things with Richard. They're having dinner tonight to talk about this. I don't want to keep him from his best friend, but it is so painful.
Mary brought me a Frappuccino to my desk to help me, and I just ate one of my emergency Milky Ways I stuff in the bottom drawer of my desk. I called Jen and Jenn and they agreed to come over to my apartment later with bottles of wine. We're going to watch He's Just Not That Into You and Notting Hill (hello, nostalgia?) and veg out. I promised Julian I would be sober enough to talk at 1am though!
So... bleh.
Today is not one of those days.
I'm sure Julian will chime in at some point on this, since he was witness (or at least a witness over Skype and email) to me losing the plot. I'm not proud of it. Basically, J has a friend that I cannot stand. I'll call him Richard. Richard is in my opinion a mean, domineering jerk who pushes J around and expects him to basically come when called. So when Richard tells Julian they are going out for drinks, it's not a request but a command. (Julian will I'm sure disagree with me but whatever.) Julian is probably Richard's best friend, and has been since they were in their first year at university.
Richard also HATES me. Hates me! Sometimes it feels something like jealousy. At first when it was just us going out when I was doing my junior year abroad, Richard would make snide remarks about my hair (messy) and my clothes (apparently very American, which was a bad thing in his eyes). My friend Veronique told me that she one time heard Richard say to someone that Julian was wasted on someone like me. Julian told me to ignore him if it hurt, but that Richard just has a strange sense of humor. Once J and I got engaged, Richard exploded and actually called me up and told me I was free to ruin my own life but I was not taking Julian with me. It felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I told Julian to have a word with Richard about this, and said I would feel better if they didn't see each other for a while out of respect to me, which Julian did.
I don't want to go into it right now, but Julian and I did have a break for a while last year. Richard was overjoyed we had broken up. It was horrible, but I got the last laugh when I sent him an engagement announcement in March. Ha ha! Seriously though, J had a long talk with Richard and made it clear this is what he wanted, and I promised to stay out of things where Richard was concerned. Well, this is where it all went kinda pear-shaped, as J would say. Richard emailed me yesterday to say he would do everything he could to stop us from getting married.I ignored it. He wrote again, telling me that all I was interested in was Julian's family money. I wrote back saying that that was a mean and inappropriate thing to say, and that it was totally OTT. Richard wrote back and called me a selfish bitch, dragging J 6000 miles from home. So I forwarded the chain to Julian because by this point I was in tears.
Then J told me to ignore Richard, that he's just going to miss having his best friend around, and that he's been having a really difficult time at work (he works as an investment banker at a bank that shall remain nameless but is all over the news right now) and probably drinking too much. It made me cry even more because I felt (not for the first time) that he's defending his best friend against his future WIFE when it's the friend who is the problem! J said that wasn't the case, that I was always his best girl, and that he would take care of things with Richard. They're having dinner tonight to talk about this. I don't want to keep him from his best friend, but it is so painful.
Mary brought me a Frappuccino to my desk to help me, and I just ate one of my emergency Milky Ways I stuff in the bottom drawer of my desk. I called Jen and Jenn and they agreed to come over to my apartment later with bottles of wine. We're going to watch He's Just Not That Into You and Notting Hill (hello, nostalgia?) and veg out. I promised Julian I would be sober enough to talk at 1am though!
So... bleh.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sometimes...
...there's nothing like a girls' night out! After I get married, I won't be able to go out all the time with my friends so I am doing it as often as I can. (Then I feel guilty because I feel like I shouldn't feel that this is the end of my life... it's just the end of my old life!)
Anyway, I went out for sushi tonight with Jen and Jenn -- it got so confusing in the car when I was reading them their horoscopes off my Blackberry. I said "Jen, what's your sign again?" and Jen answered "Virgo!" and Jenn said "Taurus!" at the same time! So funny -- we were shaking with laughter. I had to refer to them by their last names which Jenn said made me sound like I was her old gym coach. We went to Zushi and OMG I am soooo full. I ate the Hungry Roll and the Ultimate Tuna Roll and a bit of Jen's Hot Night Roll. Good thing I skipped lunch! My stomach looks so big it looks like I'm five months pregnant!
Then we went to 21 Choices in Old Town Pasadena and had ice cream. I had chocolate with boysenberries mixed in. SOOOOO GOOD! Jen, Jenn and I sat on one of the benches and watched all the Occidental students. We felt so old! The whole time we were laughing -- I couldn't breathe when I asked Jen what she was having and I thought she said "Oreo with crab mixed in" -- so surreal. Jenn said the idea made her throw up a bit in her mouth.
Nearly midnight... nearly 8am where my baby is. I loved tonight but it will be so much better when it's us going to Zushi and 21 Choices.
Anyway, I went out for sushi tonight with Jen and Jenn -- it got so confusing in the car when I was reading them their horoscopes off my Blackberry. I said "Jen, what's your sign again?" and Jen answered "Virgo!" and Jenn said "Taurus!" at the same time! So funny -- we were shaking with laughter. I had to refer to them by their last names which Jenn said made me sound like I was her old gym coach. We went to Zushi and OMG I am soooo full. I ate the Hungry Roll and the Ultimate Tuna Roll and a bit of Jen's Hot Night Roll. Good thing I skipped lunch! My stomach looks so big it looks like I'm five months pregnant!
Then we went to 21 Choices in Old Town Pasadena and had ice cream. I had chocolate with boysenberries mixed in. SOOOOO GOOD! Jen, Jenn and I sat on one of the benches and watched all the Occidental students. We felt so old! The whole time we were laughing -- I couldn't breathe when I asked Jen what she was having and I thought she said "Oreo with crab mixed in" -- so surreal. Jenn said the idea made her throw up a bit in her mouth.
Nearly midnight... nearly 8am where my baby is. I loved tonight but it will be so much better when it's us going to Zushi and 21 Choices.
So...um....hello!
What a way to get me to blog! There was a funny thing that happened this morning... I'm on a little online forum for people who are British but live in the US, or American who live in the UK, or are married/engaged to one of those two (confused yet?) and I linked to a blog I happened across where the blogger was talking about how much she missed grape jelly, and it was almost EXACTLY what we had been talking about on my forum just recently. Well, it turns out the poor lady we linked to had a stalker, and she thought all the extra traffic from our little forum linking through to her blog was the stalker, and we got her really, really worried!
Good news is we got it all sorted out in the end and now she knows we aren't any harm. But it got me thinking... I write a lot in my regular diary, one of the old-fashioned kind with a lock and key (I know it's sooooooo cheesy but it's what I like!) so why not do this online as well? There are so many changes coming in my life in the next few months and I would like to have a chance to share them with, um, I guess whoever reads this!!!
So hi! I'm Melissa (duh, pretty much everyone reading this is going to be one of my friends) and I live in Pasadena but I grew up in Burbank, CA where my parents still live. I'm engaged to Julian, who lives all the way over in London, England. His family are in Southwold, which is in the county of Suffolk on the east coast of England.
We met when I was doing a year abroad at the University of Bristol and we just clicked at a party. I didn't plan to go out there and fall in love but you know how it is... I had to go back to my senior year at college and Julian moved to London because what was my junior year was his final year (the English only do three years at university, not like us Americans!), but he was lucky enough to have a job. I visited him about 6 more times in my senior year, sometimes just for a few days. Every time it got harder to leave, so after I graduated in 2008 I spent 6 months with him in London and had the most GLORIOUS time! My parents were not so crazy about the whole "living in sin" thing but believe me, it was worth it! I got to experience one of the greatest cities in the whole world through the eyes of someone who actually lived there... I became an expert on riding the "Tube" and going to the supermarket... I loved Waitrose best. I also got to sharpen my housewifely (is that a word? ) skills because I couldn't work. I know how to make excellent roast beef and Yorkshire pudding now, and I took up scrapbooking which I absolutely LOVE.
So... about two weeks before I was due to leave England it was Christmas. My parents weren't so crazy about me being away but there is nothing like an English Christmas, especially for an Anglophile like me! Julian and I went to his family's house for the holidays and I was in for a big surprise. Not from "Father Christmas" but when Julian proposed... in front of his whole family on Christmas Day! I was so surprised and I jumped up and down and nearly knocked the tree over!
So we talked and talked and decided that we wanted to live in California. I love England, but I can't do the winters. I'm a SoCal girl, what can I say? So we had to start figuring out how to do this. Luckily my dad is a lawyer and he was able to get me an appointment with a great immigration attorney. He told me that I had two choices: I could either get married and have Julian come over on a spouse visa (the CR1) or he could come over as a fiance and we then get married over here (K1). The K1 is faster so I said, let's do that! We gathered up all the forms to be ready to file May 1st 2009, but then all sorts of crazy stuff started to happen... but that is for my next post.
Good news is we got it all sorted out in the end and now she knows we aren't any harm. But it got me thinking... I write a lot in my regular diary, one of the old-fashioned kind with a lock and key (I know it's sooooooo cheesy but it's what I like!) so why not do this online as well? There are so many changes coming in my life in the next few months and I would like to have a chance to share them with, um, I guess whoever reads this!!!
So hi! I'm Melissa (duh, pretty much everyone reading this is going to be one of my friends) and I live in Pasadena but I grew up in Burbank, CA where my parents still live. I'm engaged to Julian, who lives all the way over in London, England. His family are in Southwold, which is in the county of Suffolk on the east coast of England.
We met when I was doing a year abroad at the University of Bristol and we just clicked at a party. I didn't plan to go out there and fall in love but you know how it is... I had to go back to my senior year at college and Julian moved to London because what was my junior year was his final year (the English only do three years at university, not like us Americans!), but he was lucky enough to have a job. I visited him about 6 more times in my senior year, sometimes just for a few days. Every time it got harder to leave, so after I graduated in 2008 I spent 6 months with him in London and had the most GLORIOUS time! My parents were not so crazy about the whole "living in sin" thing but believe me, it was worth it! I got to experience one of the greatest cities in the whole world through the eyes of someone who actually lived there... I became an expert on riding the "Tube" and going to the supermarket... I loved Waitrose best. I also got to sharpen my housewifely (is that a word? ) skills because I couldn't work. I know how to make excellent roast beef and Yorkshire pudding now, and I took up scrapbooking which I absolutely LOVE.
So... about two weeks before I was due to leave England it was Christmas. My parents weren't so crazy about me being away but there is nothing like an English Christmas, especially for an Anglophile like me! Julian and I went to his family's house for the holidays and I was in for a big surprise. Not from "Father Christmas" but when Julian proposed... in front of his whole family on Christmas Day! I was so surprised and I jumped up and down and nearly knocked the tree over!
So we talked and talked and decided that we wanted to live in California. I love England, but I can't do the winters. I'm a SoCal girl, what can I say? So we had to start figuring out how to do this. Luckily my dad is a lawyer and he was able to get me an appointment with a great immigration attorney. He told me that I had two choices: I could either get married and have Julian come over on a spouse visa (the CR1) or he could come over as a fiance and we then get married over here (K1). The K1 is faster so I said, let's do that! We gathered up all the forms to be ready to file May 1st 2009, but then all sorts of crazy stuff started to happen... but that is for my next post.
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