This and That

'Tis the night before Todd and my three month anniversary of being married (woo-hoo! this monthly celebration makes me feel as though I'm in high school again!), and, inspired by the lovely Alison, I've decided to write a little update post on what's been going on since I last left off.

Since September, I've been working full-time at the SF Public Defender, and I've finally had the chance to argue motions and do preliminary hearings on my own. It's exhilarating, scary, interesting, and exhausting.

We took a brief trip to LA about a month ago, which was a whirlwind of fun.

Over the last few weeks, I've been working very, very hard to prepare for the California Association of Criminal Justice (CACJ) trial advocacy competition that took place at the SF Superior Courthouse this past Thursday - Saturday. The Hastings team did really well - we made it to the semi-finals! - but I'm glad that it's over so now I'll have at least one night a week to have a proper dinner at home... At least the case was pretty fascinating - all about an over-eager organ-harvesting doctor who may or may not have hastened his patient's death to retrieve his organs more quickly!

In doing-fun-things-over-the-weekend news, Todd and I went to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival two weeks ago. We saw 1,600 pound pumpkin, a great home-town parade featuring little kids doing karate and firemen spraying each other with fire hoses, and many pumpkin-flavored things, such as bread, bars, and ice cream. It was a lovely time!

Now that the immediate stress of the trial advocacy competition is over (which I'd made into my "designated object" to avoid dealing with actual, huge stressors!), here is what I'm (most) worried about:

- MPRE Exam (ethics/professional responsibility that I'll be taking this coming March)

- Bar Exam

- Getting a job in LA (AACK - by far, the biggest worry, especially because I have such a narrow interest: becoming a public criminal defense attorney. But, because of the economy, I've decided to broaden my focus: at least for the first few years, working as a staff attorney at the LA Superior Court, or for a small to medium size criminal defense firm, would be fine. Basically, I just need to find a paying position which would be good experience while allowing me to have a bit of a life, and pay back my loans...)

I finally signed up for BarBri, and am also applying for an ABA scholarship to cover some of the cost of the course.

I'm also applying for some staff attorney positions in LA, and will hopefully be able to interview for them sometime in the next few months.

In order to keep my stress level manageable, I've made some "fun" goals for the next couple of months as well:

- to finish blogging about the wedding, and our wonderful East Coast celebration

- to make a giant Christmas list for everyone, and have a great time shopping for them

- to spend some quality time with Todd's and my family when we head back east for Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to celebrating Todd's birthday, spending a day in NYC, and having some mother-daughter adventures in Boston and Connecticut

- to start on our wedding/honeymoon scrapbook - there's a giant green-striped box just brimming with odds and ends to incorporate

- to use our brand-new KitchenAid stand-mixer at least a few times to make Christmas cookies and other goodies for our work colleagues, and ourselves!

- to keep consistently working out at the gym - I feel great, my clothes fit better, and I want to make sure this habit stays firmly in place

Phew, that post felt very cathartic! Just writing out what one is stressed about has a very calming effect...

Days At Disneyland Before The Wedding

On the Thursday before our Sunday wedding, we drove down to Disneyland, which was smooth sailing until we encountered massive traffic when we were about an hour away, and took another three hours to get there.  However, we arrived a little frazzled but with our sanity intact to be met by Todd's parents, sister and her husband, as well as our VIP Coordinator (woo-hoo!).  We checked into our room, relaxed for a bit, and then had a chill dinner at Tortilla Joe's (where we ate dinner the night of Todd's proposal!) with the family, including Todd's Uncle Chuck and Aunt JoAnne. I think we went into the Park that night, but honestly I can't remember at this point... :-)

We had a long, refreshing night's sleep, and then the next morning, Mom and Grandma arrived!  Before we met up with them, we drove to Men's Wearhouse to pick up everyone's tuxes.  Then, we all went to get manis and pedis at the local Aveda salon.  I also got this sunless tanner/massage thing which was super-relaxing, and went a long way towards evening out my tan lines. 

Grandma, Chrissie, Mom, and I in the salon:

The boys came along too, and Todd was a great sport and even let the salon aesthetician clean up his 'brows! Now that's love :-)  We all then had a lunch at this great little sports bar with really gourmet food -- we had this warmed goat cheese, and soft pretzels with delicious dipping sauces - yum! Okay, maybe I should have been more concerned about fitting into my wedding dress, but hey, a girl's got to enjoy herself...

That afternoon, everyone pulled together and helped us finish our place-card project, which involved cutting out and organizing about two hundred leaves in two shades of green:

That evening, we had a great dinner with Mom, Grandma, Todd's family, and my Uncle Steve and Aunt Lisa, and their two kids (and my junior bridesmaids) Taylor and Hayley, at this fabulous Spanish restaurant called Catal.  We ate on a beautiful breezy terrace and it was wonderful to all be together.  Afterwards, we went to Disneyland, and watched the fireworks near Storybook Canal Boats.  Altogether, a magical evening.

The next day, we woke up bright and early and had our rehearsal in the Rose Court Garden.  Our coordinator, Herta, and wedding planner, Traci, were both there, and it was great to see Traci again after a few months!  Herta was amazingly thorough and we went through the ceremony so many times that it was like clockwork.   I did get quite emotional.  It was just that I couldn't believe that tomorrow, in the same time and place, I would be getting married! 

Next up? Todd and I headed to our room to finish up letters to our parents and the bridal party.  When we got there, we opened the door and discovered our room had been filled with colorful balloons, and on the bed was a big black and white photo of Mickey and Minnie, signed by them, saying congratulations to us!  What a special touch!

After our break, Todd went on a secret errand with his best man, Brian, and later joined me and our friends down at the huge, fun pool area of the Grand Californian.  We went in the jacuzzi, down the water-slide, and just waded around chatting.  It was such a calm, fun time.  Only after this pool-side relaxing did time seem to accelerate to warp speed.  Before we knew it, it was time to get dressed for our rehearsal dinner at Naples!

I believe this is a photo of Josh plunging into the pool:

The entire Terrazzo at Naples had been beautifully set up for our Rehearsal Dinner.  Long trestle tables were soon filled with delicious dishes such as the famed (at least in our household!) Quattro Formaggio pizza, various pastas, roasted chicken, and for dessert, tiramisu and chocolate torta.  As it got dark, all the twinkle lights stood out even more, and the evening breezes swept through.

Marcelo pretending to chow down:

It was a fun, joyful, fantastic evening.  Todd's dad, Todd, and his Uncle Chuck made speeches. I'll admit I cried :-). Everyone picked up their out-of-town bags as they left.  Then, Todd went off with his groomsmen for a little apple martini-flavored fun at ESPN SportsZone, and Chrissie and I had a our brand of fun by going out shopping while leaving a note hinting at a more devious outing... ;-)

Todd and I at the rehearsal dinner:

When the boys returned, we all said goodnight, and Chrissie, mom, and I had a sleepover in my room, in which we watched Fawlty Towers (my fave!), talked, and just enjoyed spending time together.

When I awoke the next morning at a chipper 6 am (ish), I couldn't wait to see (and, of course, marry) Todd!

Holy Moly - We're Married!

Here a few teasers :-)

Rick (Todd's dad) helping him get ready on the morning of our wedding:

In the interests of full disclosure, my ugly cry face listening Todd's heart-melting vows:

My "Dad, what the HECK are you doing?" face during our father-daughter dance. 

To be honest, I loved every (embarrassing) minute of it:

A rare sitting-down-together-at-our-sweetheart-table moment.  Check out our Sleeping Beauty Castle framed photo, my bouquet, and our delicious pre-cake vanilla creme brulees:

During our first dance, to Jakob Dylan's "Something Good This Way Comes." 

You can never kiss your new husband too much:

Todd and I have been married for a little more than month now, and this has been the most hectic little-more-than-a-month in recent memory.

We've already received over 1,000 printed photos (and two discs of them to print more ourselves and upload/share) from our photographer (and been asked to choose 80 of these for our album, which is actually going to be bound in Italy!), gotten the as-yet-unwatched DVD of our pre-ceremony, ceremony, pre-reception, and tiny slice of reception from our videographer, written massive amounts of thank-you notes, gone on a truly spectacular honeymoon to Paris and London, started work and school (yay for me making it to 3L!), changed my name on everything but my passport, and just this past weekend were the guests of honor at our wonderful East Coast Celebration, where we partied long into the night, and I finally got a taste of a few Jewish wedding traditions, including dancing the horah, and being hoisted up onto a chair, and being heartily congratulated with "Mazel Tov!"

It will probably take me about three years to finish the recaps (kidding, I hope!) and I need to find a blogging site where I can load more photos to each post...but hope you enjoy the teasers for now, and I promise to be more consistent on this blog now that all the hubbub is finally simmering down :-)

Part Two of Getting Things Done

Exhibit 5: Rose petal cones!  These were a cinch ('though I was covered in hot glue by the end of it).  Basically, I took assorted shades of blue heavy-weight paper, folded them into cone shapes, and hot glued them in place.

(Sorry for the blurry photo)  I then punched decorative flower holes in them, and hot glued varied blue ribbons to either side.  Now, they'll be ready for our florist to hang on the chairs and fill with yellow rose petals before the ceremony!

Exhibit 6: In addition to finishing the other paper products (menus, welcome letters, leaf placecards to put on the apples), we also finished our programs!  They went from this:

to this: (front cover)

(back cover)

(Inside not shown for privacy's sake :-) 

So, there you have it!

We packed up the car this morning, in addition to doing a few more last-minute projects.  Tomorrow, we'll hit the road early and be at Disneyland by the early afternoon to enjoy a few days of R & R before our Sunday wedding.  We'll be bringing the laptop but something tells me we'll be a little too busy to check e-mails/ update blogs, etc.  

So I will post in this blog on the flip side, when I am finally, officially Mrs. Rosenfelt (oh my god, that sounds like Todd's mother!)... erm... Mrs. Emily Rosenfelt ;-)

Wish us luck!

It's Four Days Until The Wedding...

And things are getting done! Very, very many things! With my clerkship ended, and Todd free in the mornings, we've been getting a lot of (necessary) tasks accomplished:

Exhibit 1: Bridesmaids' gifts! (contents to remain undisclosed... ;-)

Exhibit 2: Dress picked up!  This involved quite a lot of back and forth-ing.  When I first arrived at Persepolis, the alterations place, on Saturday afternoon, I was relieved to discover the dress fit like a glove.  Except Leila hadn't sewn in the cups.  Or drawn a picture of where the bustling points were.  So I said I'd be back on Tuesday.  When I arrived on Tuesday, the cups were in, but the drawing still wasn't done.  I waited patiently for her as she drew a really simple, rough sketch (it'll have to do) and then I took the dress, and left.  Only when I returned home did I realize she didn't give me back my wedding shoes or pearl necklace/earrings.  So this morning, we again drove the 35 minutes to the marina to pick those up.  I also made a quick stop at David's Bridal to get an appropriately opaque bag for the dress.  Phew!

Exhibit 3: Favors! Decidedly delicious stacks of three Ghirardelli chocolates in assorted flavors (like Vanilla Dreams and Dark Chocolate Espresso), each tied with a variety of blue and blue-patterned ribbons.

Exhibits 4 & 5: Out of town bags!  These were a labor of love.  We went to Costco on Sunday, loaded up our cart with some goodies, and then finished out what we planned to get at Target, where we found great deals on small bottles of sunscreen, tissue packs, and crystal light water bottle pouches.  The bags took a long time to assemble, but it was oddly enjoyable and relaxing just sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of brightly colored/ yummy things! I hope the bags are a good mix of practical and fun... We plan to distribute them at the rehearsal dinner :-)

Part Two coming up!

Odds and Ends

In an optimistic mood, last Saturday, Chrissie, Matt, and I headed downtown to the 1st Annual Renegade Craft Fair - held on the 13th floor of a nondescript building, and featuring crafters of all stripes (mostly in the Etsy aesthetic):

About seventeen hours later (ok, only six! but that's still a lot), we left with several great purchases (some of which are wedding-related gifts, and shall go unrevealed until then!) including these two fabulous silk flower fascinators:

They both have barrette backing.  I'm going to have Susie (hairstylist) attach the one on the left to the top of the comb that holds my veil.  The one on the right will be worn by Chrissie with her awesome navy blue J. Crew (married) maid-of-honor (because "matron-of-honor" sounds SO matronly) dress.  Best of all, they were 2 for $20, which I think was worth it.  They both have little coordinating beads sewn carefully in the center of the layers of silk - so pretty!

Next wedding-related task accomplished: Boudoir shoot, and photo album for Todd! Not as scary or embarrassing as I'd imagined (actually quite fun! and I think Todd will appreciate the gesture ;-)

(Don't worry, this is a VERY tame glimpse...)

USC blackmail pictures... now I've been caught making the "fight on" hand sign AND wearing a jersey.  But it's all for love, so it's okay :-)

We also finalized the programs (which are going to feature a Daisy Font, found for free on dafont.com!), menus, and found a leaf template to use for the placecards.

I got in touch with the few people who hadn't RSVP-ed (luckily, only like five!), and confirmed times, locations, services, and fees with the florist, officiant & videographer (wife and husband duo), photographer, and hairstylist/ makeup artist.

All in all, things are coming together quite well, but more than anything (and as much as I'm looking forward to my last few days at the FPD - they're throwing me a goodbye lunch at this awesome (!) establishment, only a stone's throw from the office: http://www.wurstkucherestaurant.com/ on Friday) I am just ready to see Todd again, at last, and for good.

WOW...

Our wedding is 11 (almost 10) days away! When I logged on to this blog a few minutes ago, I almost burst out laughing at the tagline: "musings in the next sixteen months leading up to our wedding" because, finally - finally - sixteen months has become a year, a year has become six months, six months has become three, and now the day is nearly here!

The fast approach of our wedding has galvanized me into getting lots of wedding things accomplished: to accept what I can't change, roll with the circumstances, and type up more Google Document Shared Lists than I feel comfortable admitting to... ;-)

Exhibit 1: Nail-biting.  I caved.  While quitting nail-biting is something that I desperately want to do - and there will always be excuses - a summer of a hectic, fast-paced job, and the stresses of wedding planning have not exactly lent themselves to the calm and strength of will required to beat this terrible habit.  So this past Sunday, I bit (haha) the bullet and (for the second time. the first was for our engagement shoot at the Arboretum), I got fake nails (though it sounds nicer to say "an acrylic set").  The manicurist respected my wish to keep the nails short, and I chose an appropriately "bridal" pink for the nail color.  

After three days of wearing them, they're not half as annoying as my first experience - and several people have complimented me on them! (I feel guilty when they do this and am the first to admit that I deserve none of the credit!) However, the new nails do complement my ring rather nicely... 

Exhibit 2: My ideal reception centerpieces. Classic, unusual, elegant. Three shades of ranunculus with greenery. So beautiful, but it was not meant to be...

My florist, Tricia, called yesterday and told me that her wholesaler had just received some ranunculus and they are disappointingly small (like tea biscuit-sized) and not that brilliantly colored.  Tricia was also concerned they wouldn't hold up in the heat on the way to Disneyland.  So we brainstormed back-up options: Zinnias, Dahlias, and Astrolemeria (Peruvian Lilies).  Tricia bought these flowers and made "mock up" centerpieces but none of them was conveying the sense of natural elegance that I had wanted. The dahlias looked kind of gaudy, the Astros looked too tropical, and the Zinnias didn't come in any of the colors I liked.  So finally, we settled on Plan C: 

(Sorry, I couldn't find a photo that was as close to this as what we'll be having): White and Yellow Tulips!  Granted, there won't be as much color variety, and I miss the "ferny" greenery feel of the ranunculus, but I do think that tulips are lovely and Tricia assured me that they're fairly hardy and the ones at her wholesaler would be perfect...

My motto from here on out is: don't worry about the small things.  It isn't worth it to beat myself over not stopping nail-biting, or panic about not having the exact flowers I wanted, because that detracts from the happiness and excitement I feel about getting to marry Todd, which is - without a question - about a billion times more important than any other aspect of the wedding!  :-)