A Million Years

(in blog time)

I know it has been ages since I posted. Basically, coaching volleyball this fall, teaching 8th grade science, and planning a wedding have really been a time suck. Luckily, I haven't felt entirely disconnected because I occasionally get a chance to check out my Google reader and I've also been working on some other blogging projects.

There was the quick ditch effort to put together a page for the JV volleyball team I was coaching and more recently, the blog I created for our wedding. It occurred to me the other day I could have kept it all in the same place and just renamed this space Adventures in Wedding Planning. But, that doesn't really seem fair to Richard and I'm not sure I want the whole family reading 6 years of my ramblings when they stop by to see where we are registered.

So if you're interested in checking out what is going on with the wedding planning, visit whenheathermetrichard.blogspot.com. It's where the writing will probably be until about April. Unless I get a random surplus of spare time, which seems a bit unlikely.

Miss you, little corner of the blogosphere. ~Heather

Cardboard Mountain

There is a mountain of boxes in the garage. Sure, it is more like the Appalachians than the Rockies, but that does not make it less intimidating.

The thing about mountains, is that it takes a LOT of work (and more often time) to overcome them. This week, however, I have little to no time to spare. Up at 5:15, out by 6:15, at my desk by 7, on the road by 3:15, dressed and on the court by 4:15, home by 8:30, dinner done by 9, bed by 10. For those of you not super good at math, that is exactly one awake hour a day not allocated to something. Last night, I spent it going to Target to get appropriate shorts for coaching and groceries.

At practice yesterday, I found out that my coaching duties extend to weekends for all of August. Which means no Saturday recoveries (7 a.m. practice start times are not conducive to sleeping in). I'm not too down about that, and I'm hoping the early start means that I'll have the afternoons to delve into the unpacking of things and general house organization and that maybe RJ and I can sneak in a few venue visits into the plans for Sundays so we can nail down a date and location for the wedding.

But that still leaves some serious hills when you add in all the other normal things that typically go into a weekend (like laundry, errands, a social event or two, church, etc.). I know we'll get there, and that after I'm done at Research!America this week, there may even be a few days when I'll get to sleep for a full 8 hours!

College-me would be super distressed by this type of schedule wearing me down. Then again, college-me very rarely saw the sunrise or got to come home to a home-cooked meal from a loving and doting man. Despite the lack of zzz's, I think I have the better deal.

July Shall Be Known as the Month of Big Changes

To start with, you should know that I've been living in my current townhouse for 3.5 years. I found it while walking to the metro from work. When I moved in, it was my 15th move in 10 years. I've been in my current job for exactly 3 years and eleven months today. Also, I have officially been with Richard for one year and one month today.

So here's the news: RJ proposed on the 4th of July, and, of course, I said yes! It was super exciting and fireworks will never be the same again. Around the same time, I had an interview to become a volleyball coach, which turned into a position as the head JV coach at a high school out near Great Falls National Park.

While that was happening, RJ applied for and got a promotion that moved his job from Kingstowne out to a movie theater that is literally 8 minutes door-to-door from his house out in Leesburg. About a week later - after years of deliberation and months of planning and saving - I gave my notice to Research!America, making my last day of work in early August.

At the end of this week, I'll be moving out to Leesburg to live with RJ and his sister in their townhouse. I'll be coaching volleyball and substitute teaching while going back to school to become a fully licensed middle school teacher. If I can, I'll be working in a full-time position as a teacher on a provisional license; but that is contingent on how some of my interviews turn out.

As you can tell, it has been quite a month of changes. The house I'm leaving now has been my full-time home longer than anyplace since I lived in Florida. My job was my first full-time office position ever, and had the bonus of being 1.5 blocks from my house. In essence, my life has been based in this little part of town for awhile now, and though I'm excited about the changes, it is a little sad and scary to take this big forward step.

But, there is an amazing man who wants to be my best-friend-forever supporting me through this transition and it's hard not to think that all the doors that opened up weren't being pulled by some invisible strings from heaven. At the end of June, this wasn't the plan; it was just a possibility. But the cogs are in motion, my house is mostly packed, and by the end of next week, my office won't have anything in it that is mine anymore.

I'm excited about working with young people every day again. I'm super excited to be planning a wedding. I can't wait to use my "teacher voice" as an actual teacher. It's going to be a whole new adventure. I'm ready.

Typos

The most frustrating thing about sending multiple copies of the same thing to a variety of people (or maybe the same people over and over again) is realizing on the second to last email that there is an error in your attachment. A dash where a comma should be. A plural non-possessive that should have been a plural possessive or singular. Or, in this particular case, a missed merge field.

Personalized letters are significantly simpler if you know how to use a spreadsheet to fill in the blanks (and write your letter so none of the blanks need to be adjusted post-merge). However, there is no special technology to prevent you from, say, using a form letter and hand updating data that wasn't on your spreadsheet and missing a merge field in the concluding paragraph so it reads,

"blah, blah, blah {Institution Name} blah blah."

Yup. Definitely feels personal now.

Ugh. Technology, I love and hate you.

~Heather

**Update, 1 minute later** Definitely posted this to a group blog I'm a co-author on that was somehow on the top of my dashboard instead of to my personal blog. USC Honors College Class Captains, I apologize. Apparently, today's mistakes are not limited to merge errors.

Things to Get Excited About

• Parents arriving today and staying for a couple of days.
  
• Relay for Life this weekend.
• Three SOHO girls coming to Relay this weekend to start earning their service hours and hang out.
• Andrea's swim meet at the pool one block from my house on Saturday morning.
• All clean laundry (despite not being put away yet).
• Clean and prepared house.
• The most amazing boyfriend ever who put all sorts of stuff in the attic, changed the light bulbs, ran errands, dropped off Andrea's furniture twice yesterday, and managed to keep me going until 11 last night so I wouldn't be scrambling this morning.
• Said boyfriend just existing. Oh, and being able to use any type of possessive when referring to him, like "MY boyfriend."
• Work being relatively quiet this week to help mask the fact that my brain has been too busy to be 100% focused. (Still let's me be productive on a slow week, but would be disastrous on a busy week.)
• Fabulous weather.
• Blackberries coming off my thornless bush in heaping bowlfuls.
  
• Positive attitudes and helpful strangers.
• Being able to let my mind put the anxiety on hold while I practice patience.
• The fun folks in the church choir and singing every week.
• Becoming a godmother to a baby boy in just a few weeks!
• Having friends and family all over who love me and are there for me unconditionally.