To Celebrate Barack Obama’s Historic Inauguration, IP and I Are Ditchin’ Town!

It’s true.  IP and I know we have no patience for tourists, especially millions of them set to descend on D.C.  So we’ve opted to make nuisances of ourselves out west.  Of course we had been hoping to attend the Inauguration, but let’s face it: we live in Silver Spring and it’d require us to hike through Rock Creek Park to make it into D.C. in a timely manner.  So it’s off to a western city we go.  I’d like to say which city but I can’t for fear it might give away my real identity.  Because I have been hyping up this trip in real life.  No Metro waits!  No overcrowded streets!  No people standing on the left!  Instead we’re trading it all for beautiful vistas, some nice hiking, and sun.  And we all know the Inauguration is going to be as cold as hell because it’s Murphy’s law; it’ll warm up when we return.

So I can’t wait.  The countdown to this trip coincides with a moratorium on all things wedding-related.  You can’t tell from this blog, but I’m kind of sick of the wedding.  It wasn’t so bad until I found out that NASCAR is holding a race at Michigan International Speedway the very weekend of our wedding.  Which means that hotels are totally booked and it’s been nearly impossible to get a block.  I’ve been able to get 25 very scattered rooms across the area, so I think our out of town guests will be fine.  However it’s been really frustrating, with some sales people refusing to return my calls after they had said they could set aside some rooms.  After many, many calls yesterday I was able to secure some space.  But hell if it wasn’t nearly a breaking point for me on Monday night.  I was stressed, so after IP and I finalized our invites (huzzah!), I decided that Tuesday would be all wedding, all the time, and then nothing after that.  So this is what I did:

• Found 25 sleeping rooms
• Booked our rehearsal dinner (which we’re billing as a family dinner in order to avoid offers of parental contribution)
• Called IP’s mom and invited her to join me in Michigan for some wedding-related fun (read: dress shopping)
• Sent the invites to print (and telling our printer that I didn’t care if they took until next week)
• Requested flowers via Etsy (with a seller who knows the request is coming)
• Asked little sis and maid of honor Dorkus to please call local shops and make appointments for us—she was happy to help since she knows I’ve been going insane

So I was able to get a lot done, but it was exhausting.  And let’s not even talk about putting the invites together—but like I said, I don’t want the invites until next week.  I’ll work on them a week from Saturday so that they’re ready by the time IP’s mom and dad show up for a visit.

(And yes, we are sending the invites out early.  One reason is to get a good A List, B List going, another new reason is the whole hotel situation.  The faster people know about this the better!)

But onto other things.  Today I dedicated my downtime at work to not looking at wedding stuff (and when I caught myself doing it I scolded myself and closed the browser window).  I actually applied for a job—that felt really, really good.  I think I’m ready to plunge headfirst into job hunting.  A colleague of mine is escaping our shared work environment and her enthusiasm to leave has finally infected me.  I want a new job with some challenges.

In addition to job hunting, I looked for Mexican restaurants in our vacation area.  I want sopapillas, dammit.

I’m now trying very hard to not do wedding-related tasks.  I allow myself to post on the boards and chat with friends I’ve made, but that’s it.  No research, no planning, no to-do list, nothing.  The only thing I will do is help my future mother-in-law book her flight to Detroit.  Sure, there’s this post, but I needed to vent.

We return to D.C. on Wednesday, when hopefully the surge of humanity will be headed towards the airport as we move away from it.  After five glorious days out west, we come back to a new administration.  Woohoo!  Hiking, sopapillas and a new president—what more could you ask for, I say?

Oh yeah.  Sopapillas in D.C. that are not fattening.  Is that possible?