Crunch Time, Part 1

Last Friday morning, Ash and I took the morning off work and appeared before the clerk in the Marriage License Bureau. We signed some papers, paid a fee, raised our right hands and swore that we appeared of our own free will and desired to be married.

We celebrated with hot dogs and Limonata from the cleverly named restaurant in the Cathedral downtown. Then we walked a few blocks and visited the jeweler who made my engagement ring. He remembered us, which surprised me, but at the same time, didn't. He patiently paged through catalogs and their own design files until I found just the right pattern for my ring, then he tweaked the design to fit my tiny fingers and cast several different wax molds in variations on the design so that I could try each of them until it was exactly right. My band will be about 4.8 mm wide, with a delicate design of vines and leaves. Ash's turned out to be a lot easier. It was really only a question of which width he wanted, since he'd already decided on a plain platinum band in the half round design. The rings will be made for us and we'll go for a fitting in a few weeks.

For the first time in months, it really seems *real*. We're getting married! No kidding! And it's not that I thought we were only pretending, it's just that it seemed like one of those things that's going to happen *eventually*, *someday*. And now I'm so excited that I can barely stand it. I can't wait!

And yet, I wish I had more time before the wedding, because I feel so overwhelmed with all the things that are left to do. I've been replaying the advice that I got from Catherine way back when we first got engaged, reminding myself that no matter what goes wrong that day, we'll still end up married, and that's what matters. It's helped me keep perspective over the past several months. Nonetheless, I still think I've crossed into the black pit of wedding obsession. I am quickly losing my ability to think about anything at all other than things I've got to do for the wedding. This is a bad thing, because I'm working two jobs right now and neither of them is the sort of job where you can perform your duties while your mind is wandering around out there somewhere.