Destination Wedding?

WARNING. IF YOU READ THIS BLOG POST YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT.

I am not capable of not thinking about something that I want to think about. So here I am, back again on the same theme. (I'm sure Alan is sick of me asking him silly questions about wedding stuff.) ... but I have come to terms with my situation: not knowing what I am going to do for our wedding is a problem. I must fix this problem. To fix the problem I need your help: What do you think about a destination wedding? Would you be willing to travel to, say, Cancun Mexico for a long weekend? I think it would be super romantic! I've looked into it, and there are all inclusive resorts that offer gourmet cuisine, any kind of beverage you could possibly want, activities and luxurious beaches for about $200 a night.

If we hold the wedding in the US, many of the people who would attend our wedding would have to travel and pay for a hotel during a weekend anyway (plus food and stuff). The only difference Cancun would add is a couple of extra hours of travel time and beautiful beaches. It would be easier for my mom to obtain a visa for Mexico than the US. And, I really like the idea of our family and friends spending time together and getting to know each other in a relaxing environment before Alan and I tie the knot.

So, what do you think? I am trying to take a survey to determine if anybody would actually come. I know that it is a lot to ask of guests, and some may think it is a little self centered... so I would appreciate your honest opinion.

GMAT PROCRASTINATION!!!!!!!!

!!!!! Apparently everything in my life is more exciting than studying for the GMAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The date is approaching to take the test. I paid $250.00 to take this thing and I haven't studied a lick. I will be very disappointed in myself if I do not do well... but I am too burnt out after work to study, and on the weekends I just want to play and have fun and drink excessive amounts of wine.

Damn. I can't focus. Deep down inside a part of me is done with standardized testing. I hate it. I do not want to be a part of it anymore. I just want to experience life through living instead of measuring my accomplishment through test scores. But, at the same time, I want to go to grad school and get my masters.

Ugggg.

This month, I have become the queen of procrastination. THE QUEEN.

I have never been a procrastinator in my life. This is a very strange period for me. Maybe I should get off my butt and study... or maybe I should have another glass of wine.

SUPERBAD

I saw it. I laughed. I guess the theme of two inept boys being stupid together and longing after girls will never get too old for the cinema. Alan looked like he was going to pee in his pants, he was laughing so hard during a couple of scenes. My brother also told me that he had loved it. Maybe this movie tapped a deep-emotional "guy thing" that I fail to see as excitingly imaginative. Overall I thought it was funny, but I do not know if I would pay to watch it again.

Buff Dirt On My Face

I just bought Bare Mineral Makeup! I found the Bare Mineral store in the San Mateo Mall, close to where I work. I walked into the store, and a young lady wearing WAY to much makeup greeted me. Her perkiness combined with her ruby red eyeshadow was kind of scary at first, but I decided to persevere. I walked out of this store with my "starter kit". I spent 82 bucks on this kit, which consists of a few "essentials", a DVD, and three brushes. I have never spent so much on makeup in my life.

I do not really have that much of an opinion on makeup, because I do not use much of it and for the most part I do not understand how it works. But I ran out of powder last week (which I use to make my oily skin not shine so much) and I decided that since I was putting this stuff on my delicate facial skin I should probably try to buy something natural looking that was not make out of chemicals I cannot pronounce.

When I got home, I showed Alan my DVD and proceeded to explain how my makeup was high-tech and cool. I though this would impress him, since he is in to things that are high-tech and cool. He was only mildly amused. I told him that my makeup was made out of colored minerals, no preservatives or chemicals of any kind; this is a good thing. As I said this I realized that my makeup was basically very expensive colored dirt. Alan then replied "Yea, girls will buy anything".

Whatever, I swirled. tapped, and buffed my face today. It was awesome.

GroomZilla, Cont.

Since I have Wedding Block, I have obsessed about finding a wedding location. I figure that the best way to start planning our wedding is to find a great location. Depending on the location we can figure out a date, and how many people we can invite. A beautiful location might inspire me out of my Wedding Block. Unfortunately, everything boils down to money: the places that we really like we cannot afford, the places we can semi- afford Alan detests, and the places we can afford are righteous dumps that we cannot make our family members and friends fly across the country to sit in. After two weeks of combing the internet and visiting places, I am done. This is too hard, and not healthy. All this wedding crap is getting on my nerves. I just moved and I am broke. Therefore, I am giving myself a break starting now from all things wedding related for at least until the next month.

Do NOT talk to me about wedding stuff for a month, please. This task is going to take a lot of mental effort on my part, since I love my groomzilla and I want to marry him.

GroomZilla

I have wedding-block (much like writter's block, only about weddings) and, my dear fiancee is groomzilla. More to follow shortly.

It Is About Time

It is about time that I start getting serious about my grad school goals. I'm looking into MBA programs. Guess what? They are expensive. This makes me mad for the following reasons:

1- Money is generally scarce among poor and middle class people.
2- Poor and middle class people need to go though grad school programs in order to increase their salary potential, and thus not be so poor anymore.
3- The good MBA schools (and grad schools in general) are expensive. Regular people cannot afford to attend "the good" grad schools. Therefore, logically, expensive MBA programs are designed for rich people to get richer.

I hope you are as outraged as I am. This brings me to the following noble cause: The Margaret Needs Help to Go To Grad School Charitable Fund. Would anybody like to donate about 65,000.00 dollars over the course of two years? Think about it as investing in the future of America, and the good of the world... something that the US government seems to believe is not important at this time.

Come and Visit

Dear Friends and Family: please come and visit! I really want to show you our new place. We have a pool, hottub, sauna, gym... and we are within walking distance of downtown Mountain View, where all kinds of little shops and restaurants are. I would love to make you dinner, and I need an excuse to bake a cake.

New Life

I am starting a new chapter of my life: I have a new job and new living arrangements! Alan and I found a cute little one bedroom apartment in Mountain View, just 2 miles away from Google central. We are currently in the process of opening the last of the moving boxes and decorating. We finally hung the hammock that my mom gave to Alan in April of last year... And, to make our new place seem more like home, we hung the Mona Lisa in the bathroom. We have a small, framed, Mona Lisa poster that we hung in the bathroom of Alan old apartment. I purchased this poster from the Louvre in Paris a couple of years ago. It was strategically placed facing the toilet, so that it looked at you with a knowing smile no matter what you did. Unfortunately, we were not able to hang the Mona Lisa in the same location in our new home, but the overall "Mona-effect" is still quite charming.

I cannot count how many times Alan and I have been to Ikea in these past couple of weeks. Almost everything in our home is from Ikea, and we still have more things that we need to purchase. We will probably be going back next week to buy a dresser for me. In general I would have to say that Ikea stuff is cool and affordable, but then you have to build it. The durability of the items that we have purchased is also somewhat questionable. However, for the prices I am paying I will not complain. One major purchase that we still must make is that of a couch. Couches are expensive! and Ikea does not offer a couch that we would like to habitually sit on and/or look at. So, we are on the look-out for a comfortable, reasonably priced sofa. I am especially interested in sofa-beds, because we only have one bedroom in our place. (If you have a nice sofa that you need taken off of your hands, please contact me.)

My new job is, ahhemm: Human Resources Manager for the San Mateo Branch! Thats right, I'm officially a manager now. I can't wait to start. The branch I am going to is about 1/3 of the size of the one I am working in now, so I expect to see a slowing down of pace. I'm so happy. I'm sure I have a lot of work ahead of me. I start in my new position this week.

Google News Flash

For the last 7 months I have gone through a love-hate relationship witht he idea of Alan working for this company. All of my friends and family know of the painful and dramatic saga that Google's HR has put Alan through. Finally, yesterday morning, Google reached the decision to hire my genius fiance. Alan and I are very happy... and we will soon be moving the the area of Mountain View CA.

I have been gloating about this non-stop for 24 hours; I am so proud of Alan. I could write for hours about Alan's virtues, but he would probably kill me so I will stop here.

YAY!

To Quell Complaints of Lack of Pictures

I give you... ME :

Pictures courtesy of Ms. Gwen, who bravely spent an afternoon trying to make me pose in interesting ways while working her camera magic. And, to Mr. Alan, for making me laugh.

4th of July and Random Ramblings

Yay! 4th of July! Oh, the overwhelming sense of patriotism that invades me as I eat my fill of ribs and chips, while watching things explode in the air. There is nothing like blowing things up and overeating to make you feel in unison with your fellow Americans.

(For those of you who know me, you would identify that passage as belonging to my slightly-off sense of sarcastic humor.)

We hosted the annual Bryden 4th of July Party, and I think it was a success. My friends came, which made me incredibly happy... especially since I haven't been able to see many of them due to work, and them moving away, and the general responsibilities of life that slowly take over your free time making it impossible to coordinate spontaneous activities with friends. So many people came to my house. My room was turned into "the bag room" and it was barely big enough. I spent hours cleaning my little house so that it would be presentable, and now I shall spend hours cleaning up the mess that the 50-odd people left behind. (BTW: A special thanks to those who took the time to help out a little before they left.)

I saw the Alameda Parade, which is always a joyous experience. I see the same parade every year, and every year it touches my heart. I love the small-town feel that it marches down the main streets of my little island.

The one thing I absolutely abhorred about this 4th of July was the day it happened to fall on. It should be illegal to celebrate national holidays in the middle of the week. Alan couldn 't come, and everybody kept asking me about him so I had to explain, what felt like a million times, that he was sick and he lives in Monterey and he has to work tomorrow... It was so hard to get up this morning; I barely got any sleep at last night. And today I am probably going to stay late at work because I have so much work to do. Ugg!

My Digestion Today

Dear avid readers: I am in Monterey this weekend, with Alan of course. Today is Sunday, it is about 7pm, and I am still recuperating from lunch. From my lunch experience I have derived a worldly truism that you should take into consideration effective immediately: "Stay Away from Indian Buffets". They are good and pleasurable at first, but then they turn into an evil source of torment after ingestion, especially if you are like me and can't help but to overeat at buffets. Why? Why are Indian buffets so good? Why can I never have my fill of naan bread? Why do their spices always dance in my mouth so nicely, so as to make me want to never stop eating.

Alan, seeing the state that I was in, tried to cure me by feeding me a Sugar Free Rock Star. Then he tried to chase me around the block. Needless to say, his well-intended efforts only slightly alleviated my distress, and gave me a serious case of the burps... which he then regretted.