So, I didnt die, I just havent been posting. Mainly bc I feel like no one reads my journal anyway, so it sort of like what the point, but whatever, I'll make a short post.

Wedding planning is going well. I think the last time I posted was probably when i got engaged and that was all the way back in May. Sheesh, time flies :) We have mostly everything done. We still need to decide on the limos, but that's about it. We have the place, the DJ, the photographer, the flowers, my dress and the bridesmaids dresses. We even have 1/2 of our honeymoon booked (Hawaii for 10-12 days...Kauai is booked, we still have to do Maui and buy our airline tix). Wedding planning is much more exciting now that its coming together. The girls dresses are eggplant, so my color scheme is shades of purple and dark red (the red only appears in the centerpieces).

We started registering...scratch that...I started registering, but I can't find everyday plates that I like which sucks. Everything is either plain white or flowery. Im going with my mom this week to a few stores to see what I can find.

In non related wedding news...I got a jury summons and have been sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if they call my number to report to court..ugh! I wouldn't even mind going except that it is in the ghetto, there is no parking, and I'll need to find a ride to and from unless I take public transportation which would take me 2 hours to get to the court. Sucks!

That is really everything that is going on in my life now. We are going to start looking for houses in the spring, which will probably be annoying and test our strength as a couple. Hopefully we wont kill each other.

First of all, thanks for the congrats guys! I know i dont update nearly as often as I used to, but i still read your journal entries when i get the chance and I appreciate the well wishes.

Wedding planning is going swimmingly, thought thats probably bc we havent done much of it yet LOL We are interviewing DJ's and I am calling one of them this afternoon to tell them that we will be picking them and to see if they can give us a better price. I hate calling vendors, so naturally, I am dreading this. When thats all said and done, we will be speaking with photographers. I have a list of about 7 photogs that have been referred, but I am obviously not going to all 7, so I need to narrow it down. I would say of all the recommendations I have gotten from people, photogs have been the most popular...everyone keeps giving me names telling me how much they love them.

I sent out all the engagement party invites (Auguts 9th), so Im just waiting for responses. So far, I have 6 people as no's, which is actually okay bc we invited way more poeple that I wanted to invite, but they are all people we want there, so there was no cutting the list. I know August is a big time for vacations, so Im expecting poeple to have other plans. We tried to pick a date that was more accomodating, but it just got to the point where this was the only week we could do it (Johns bro is getting married in Oct and we didnt want it too close..not to mention theres about 5 weekends blocked off where we cant do anything bc of them...bridal shower, bachelorette, bachelor, rehearsal dinner and wedding).

We just got back from Toronto. We went for a long weekend to watch 2 Yankee games. It was John, Joe and Anthony and of course me, the only girl. We had a good time, but I wasnt impressed with the town at all. We all kind of felt the same way...we went there, experienced it, and will likely not go back again. Plus, the Dollar is so weak, that everything was expensive. Its still more than Canadian money, but only by 8 cents per dollar.

My birthday is this monday (Ill be 26...woohoo...its just another year, whatever). B/c John and I are on a tight budget (not so much, but we're trying), I told him we can get a nice dinner and I odnt want any gifts. I odnt need anything, and I'd rather put the $$$ towards a house. Friday we have the Billy Joel concert and Saturday is the Austin block party, so I wont be going out this week for my birthday..maybe next weekend...probably friday since I have Stacie's "Meet and Greet" for her bridal party on saturday.

So back to the whole "tight budget" situation, I have opened up a joint savings account and checking account with John. We have about 15 months left to save, so i am having us put in a minimum of $1000 each into the savings acct a month. Sounds like a great idea right? Hmmm except that its the summer and we have 2 vacas. One was Toronto, so thats over, but we are going to the Cayman islands in August. I'm hoping, we wont be spending toooo much money there and that we are able to get some cheap food some days. Hopefully there's a supermarket around so we can buy alcohol cheap and keep it in the room. Anyway, I digress...

I am trying to save up by not shopping, but I cant think of any other way to save money than i already do. I dont pay rent, I bring my lunch to work everyday (I used to buy lunch once a week, but now i dont even do that). Im trying not to go out to eat, or if I do go out its a cheap place. I also need to find out what my parents will be contributing, but everytime something is mentioned, by mom says "I still have to talk to your father about what we're paying for". I wish she would just tell me already. Either way, we are paying for the bulk of it, so I just want to make sure we have enough for the wedding and have enough for a down payment on a house. A lot of stuff to think about in a small amount of time. i know once work picks up, I'll be able to get more overtime hours which will help out, bc right now its slow and Im making hardly more than my base salary.

So thats that in a nutshell. I start an Ad class at work tonight from 5:30 til 7. Im not looking forward to it and wish it would be over already. Then tomorrow I have our "white hot party" at work, which I will probably be at for a few hours and then go home.

So Ive been slightly shopaholic lately, but I need to stock up on my loot. In my defense, I have only been shopping when Ive had a coupon or when things are on sale :)

I got a bunch of stuff at Old Navy (I'd post pics but that takes too long). I got a bikini, a black 3/4 sleeve cardigan, a grey cardigan, a silky "going out" blouse, (which Im actually debating on keeping bc the straps are too big and originally I was thinking that I would bring it to the tailors and have them adjusted, but am I really gonna do that?), 2 pairs of flip flops, a pair of jeans (also debating on that bc I have a million pairs of jeans, and i dont know if I reeeally need another one), and i htink Im gonna go back and get a silky dress :)

Last night i went to Delia's with my mom and I got 4 pairs of pants...thats right FOUR pairs of pants. BUT they were buy one get one half off, so how could i not get 4??? Im actually really happy bc I got drak blue pants and khaki pants that I can wear to work, or when im just hanging out. The only work pants I have are black or gray dress pants and jeans, so now at least I can wear pants without looking like a slob. We have a pretty lenient dress code here...basically anything but sweat pants...and in the summer, its just too hot to "try" to look nice, so I resort to jeans a lot (but they can be hot). i also have a bunch of skirts, but if its raining or I dont feel like shaving, then i wear jeans. I also got a grey dress and a cute black top. AND I had a $20 off coupon and a 15% off coupon, so I split the purchase.

Now I just need a few pairs of shoes and Im good to go :)

This weekend Im going to the Mets Yankees game with John Chris and Les on sunday, so that should be fun. Though the game starts at 8, which means Ill probably get home around 1 ish, depending on how we get there, which sucks, but the game will be good. Hopefully the Yankees kick butt :)

I cant wait for this weekend. I just wanna sleep late one day and Ill be happy..Im still recovering from not sleeping well sat and sun, so Im pretty exhausted. Workign saturday really messed me up. I have to return books to the library (I wised up and got a library card so I dont spend so much $$ on books every month), and return things to Express and Mandee's. I dont want to get the bill with all that stuff on it.

Next friday is Mohegan Sun and Im super excited :) Im just so happy to be doing something different instead of the same old all the time. And we have off on Monday which is always a good thing. I could really use a day off.

Nobody ever comments on my entries anyway, so it doesnt really matter that Im posting, but here I am nonetheless.

I got my wisdom teeth removed 2 weeks ago and got the stitches taken out last week. It wasnt even remotely close to as bad as I thought it would be. I got all 4 taken out...2 were impacted and it just made sense to have the other 2 removed. I didnt deal well with the anesthesia (I had them put me to sleep), and I almost fainted after (I have vesovagal syndrome, so I know when Im going to faint and can try to prevent it, bc it happens a lot), but surprisingly my mouth was okay. The doctor gave me this whole shpeel before about how I waited long, and its gonna take longer to recover and blah blah, and honestly, I never experienced pain. It was sore for awhile and I ate mushy foods for the first 3 days, but that was the extent of my discomfort. If anything, it felt more sore and like sumthing was stuck (bc my mouth was swollen) than pain. Im so glad I got all 4 taken out though bc now I never have to think of them again :) I was also really nervous that my dental insurance wasnt going to cover the procedure which was a whole drama in itself, but I just receieved a letter saying they covered most of it :)

I got my taxes done and found out that my current employer wasnt taking NYC taxes out of my paycheck bc they thought I didnt live in NYC. So now, instead of getting back a good amount of $$$, I owe $800 :( Not so happy about that. But, in the end, Im still getting a refund from Federal, so thats not so bad. The only thing that sucks is that I didnt get paid from them yet, so I need to shell out $800 of my own money. UGH! Y is it that I have to pay for their mistake...hmmm...not so fair.

Work has been crazy busy bc they are launching a new drug. Last Thursday I worked a 17 hour day 9am-2am. Thank God I get paid overtime or I would not be happy. I actually volunteered to stay and help out though, so I am really to blame. What can i say? I like making money and time and a half is nice extra cash. Thank God I have this job!

I have to go to 2 wakes this week which sucks..one tonight and one tomorrow. Im waiting on the details of each. I hate wakes. But then again, nobody likes them.

I went to Johns cousins wedding this Saturday and it wasnt all that fun. The food wasnt good, the DJ sucked, and we were like the only young people there besides his brothers and their dates. I did have about 6 Vodka-Seltzer_Cranberry drinks and they were deelish :) And I got to wear my fancy black sequined dress. But I didnt take any pictures...Ive been really slacking on the pics lately...it kinda sucks.

This weekend appears to be a slow one. I dont have much going on. What is upsetting is that I dont have a day off until Memorial Day, May 26th :( Im gonna have to take a sick day somewhere between now and then :)

They started this whole new fruit thing at work where we get a fresh shipment of apples every week for us to snack on. I would normally be excited by this except for the fact that apples are sooo not my favorite fruit. The ones they get are super tart, and they hurt my teeth. BUT I was happy to see that today they got in a shipment of bananas :) Hopefully this will keep me from snacking unnecessarily on junk food.

Speaking of junk food, I need to pick up some more lean cuisines. I started bringing the panini and pizza lean cuisines for lunch and I love them! The best part is that they only cost $2.99 at Target as compared to $4.25 at Waldbaums. WooHoo :) My favs are the chicken, spinach and mushroom panini and the spinach and mushroom deep dish pizza. I tried the pita and I wasnt impressed...it didnt have that grill tray that makes it crispy.


John is leaving for Vegas on Wed :( He will be partying it up in the sun and I will be stuck in the cold weather...though its actually supposed to be pretty warm this week...but still, that doesnt compare to Vegas sunshine. We still have to figure out a good time to take our vacation this summer. I htink the whole Houston trip is gonna fall through bc nobody seems to be researching it, and I dont think anyone is enthusiastic about it. We might still try for Toronto

John got an invitation to his cousin's wedding on April 5th. Im excited bc we havent been to one since Fish's in September. Its actually at the same place his other cousin got married at except its the opposite side of the family, so its a bit ironic. Its also only a few towns away from Johns house so we can take a cab if we have to :) It should be fun...I have a black sequined dress I bought at Express that I can wear. I have 5 other dresses I can wear, but this one was on sale and I couldnt pass up such a cute at such a good deal. The only problem I might have is that its a taaad short. Hey..its not my fault I have long legs. I just hope I dont look skanky. Its actually not that short but appears to be shorter bc the bottom of the dress has a lace hem which is obviously see through...if it wasnt for the lace it would be a perfect length. Eh...what are ya gonna do.

I am always starving. I dont know if its because I eat breakfast at 7:30am and my body uses up the energy from my english muffin 3.5 hours later at 11, or if Im just a person that needs to eat constantly. It's horrible. AND since I gave up bagels, i feel like my breakfast routine is really not helping me out :(

I hate being bored at work bc my computer basically faces everyone that walks past and I hate feeling like I'm on display. Not even the fact that I should be working and not on LJ, but the fact that I don't want people to look at my screen and say "oooo shes buying shoes". I wish I just had something to do. I hate waiting around for something to come in and having nothing to do in the meantime.

Friday is pay day so thats good :) It would have been Thursday but its a freakin leap year, so I have to wait another day. I haven't been spending too much $$$ on shopping...mostly food and booze, so its not like I'm desperate for it. I think at first I wasn't used to getting paid only twice a month, so it was hard to manage my money, but now I know how much to put into savings and how much to keep in my checking acct to be safe :)

I think I'm craving Mexican food. We ate at such a delicious restaurant in Huntington about a month ago and the food was sooooo good. John and I shared this steak with melted cheese fajita thing and it was sooooo good. We need to go there again..it was pretty expensive though, so maybe on a special night we can go there :)

I went to sleep last night at 11pm and took the later train this morning so I got a good 8 hours of sleep. Ahhhh! I feel so refreshed. BUT it's crappy weather outside, so I htink thats bringing me down.

This weekend my parents went away to atch my brother in a swimming tournament and i was in charge of watching my puppy Chloe. I love my wittle doggie and she is super cute, but its still a pain to feel like a slave to her. I couldnt really go out all weekend bc i didnt wanna leave her by herself for too long. She was alone friday when I was at work for over 8 hours, so I didnt want to come home friday for an hour and leave her all alone again. Saturday i spent the whole day with her and then left at night to go out to dinner with John and his friends, but then came home at 11:30. John and I gave her a bath last night bc she smelled and her feet were dirty from playing in the snow. I think I strained all my muscles holding ehr in the bath bc my butt is killing me. I must have been squatting a lot. Ughh...my lower back hurts too.

I never realized how much work a little doggie is. I guess this is why my parents never wanted us to get a dog when we were little. Oy! She wakes up at 7am every morning and wants to play. Then she pee's (80% of the time on the wee wee pad) and she poops, but never at the same time, so after I finish cleaning one, I have to clean the other. Then we have to play more, then she naps, then I have to feed her, and she poops and pees again. Its a vicious cycle. Now I know what having kids is like...though having kids is 95% harder...you can leave a dog alone, whereas, if you dont want child services visiting, you cant leave a kid. AND I get to do this all over again next weekend bc my parents are away again. Yay!

John is going to Vegas in a week and a half. Im not upset that hes going just a little jealous. I would really like to go to Vegas, but now that he's going, he won't want to go again for awhile. I owuld just like to go out and see shows and eat lots of food..Im not a gambler, so I just wanna vacation there...not gamble. We're trying to figure out a place to go to this summer. I think we are going to use his parents time share unit again. We can trade it in to go to the caribbean or Mexico, so we were thinking of doing that.

We also got tickets to Billy Joel at Mohegan Sun Memorial Day weekend :) So that will be a little trip bc we are only going one night. Mohegan Sun is expensive...$550 for one night...yikes!! i think we will stay at a hotel near there. Theres a hotel less than a mile away for half that price. I wanna stay at a hotel that's less than $200, but John would rather stay closer and pay more. I guess we'll see what happens. I htink that weekend is the start of my Summer Fridays which means half days :) So hopefully we'll be able to get there early, though it IS Memorial Day weekend, so we'll see.

Such exciting things coming up...I cant wait. Feb is always a lull where not much happens and then the second Spring comes, everything gets busy again :)

This weekend was pretty good. It was a 3 day weekend, so how can it be bad right? Friday was Caroline's birthday, so we went out to Tequila Sunrise for drinks. It was pretty crowded, which is kind of weird because its not the type of place one would consider going to for Happy Hour, but it turned out to be a good time. We bought pitchers of Sangria and had a few drinks and chatted about stuff and ate chips and salsa :)

Saturday was John's brothers engagement party. My boots didnt come in time to wear with my dress, but I bought a really cute pair of platform pumps, so I wore those instead. The catering hall was very nice and the food was deelish. It was a pretty fancy engagement party..sort of like a pre-wedding. They had a DJ and a sit down dinner and a slideshow. Maria is Greek, so the DJ played a lot of Greek music, which was not so fun for us non-Greeks, but it was interesting to watch the different rituals and customs they have. For example, people throw dollar bills on the floor when the DJ is playing good music and that money goes to the DJ at the end of the night. They also had a lot of different dances with circles and clapping and snapping. LOL

For dinner we had Penne a la Vodka, Caesar Salad and John and I got the filet mignon, which was deelish. (I usually get fish, but I had Sea Bass on V-day and didnt feel like salmon). I definitely made the right choice though bc the steak was really good and the piece was huge! After the party, we all went to a bar in Farmingdale called Changing Times. I heard it was a dumpy bar, but it was actually nice. I would go there to watch a game (its kinda far from John though), and they had Blue Moon, which is always good ;)

Sunday John and I went out to dinner with his friend Mike and his girlfriend. We went to Bourbon Street on Bell Blvd. I never ate there before, but we were tryig to think of a pub to go to so we tried it. I thought the food was pretty good. John didnt like his pasta, but my quesadilla's were deelish.

Yesterday John stayed over the whole day, then we went to Chris and Lesley's for dinner and I got Chipotle for the first time which made me very happy. The food there is actually pretty good, and I htink its my fav fast food Mexican place. Afetr dinner we played waaaaay too much Wii.

I dont have much planned now. I think the engagement party was the last thing I had to look forward to for awhile. I know Johns cousin is getting married in April, but we havent gotten the invitation yet, so i dont know when that is. And then I guess I'll have Maria's bridal shower in the Spring. John's going to Vegas in 2 weeks with his friends, so I will be alone :( At least he's coming back on a saturday so I can see him that night :)

I really have to start planning a trip somewhere. We're trying to do Houston in June to watch the Yankee game and maybe a trip to an island in the summer. Johns parents might give us their timeshare again, but we need to look through the book an decide where to go and whats available. Im not really picky, I just wanna go to a fun place :) I htink we've decided that we're definitely not doing NC this summer. I always had fun in NC, but this past trip was a little too much for me, so Im kinda happy we're not going.

Tonight I went out to dinner with my cousin Candy. She met me after work and we went to Rio Grande on 38th bw Lex and 3rd. It was really good and not expensive at all. We wound up spending $35 each and we shared a pitcher of Sangria, so not all that bad. Its a tiny place but it looks pretty big from the outside. Its a good thing we got there eraly bc it started to fill up quickly.

Im so tired, but I cant seem to wind down which is why I'm on the computer now instead of trying to fall asleep. Ahhh....I love Fridays! It's so nice to do whatever you want and be able to wake up as late as you want.

I bought a pair of black boots online today while I was bored at work. I hope i get them before the party, but if not, its no biggie bc I also bought a super cute pair of platform pumps that I could wear if need be :) The boots were originally $250, but I got em on sale for $85. Pretty sweet huh?

I went to the gym yesterday which helped me feel less like a lump of shit, though I ate like a pig today, which made me feel more like a lump of shit.

Im not sure what we're gonna do on V-day bc its a Thursday and I dont know how buys I'll be at work. Last Thurs I worked til 10:30. I think this week is gonna be pretty busy, but hopefully, I wont have to work reeeeally late nights. I got my bonus (not sure if I mentioned this before), but I got about $200 taken out for taxes...bluch! Taxes really suck.

Not sure what this weekend will bring, but I need to get my bangs cut and I wanan try to get a manicure..my nails are hideous!

So, most of you know that I have a new puppy named Chloe. She's a little Bichon Frise and I absolutely love her to death. I am NOT a dog person and have always been a little hesitant with my reacting to a dog's presence, and I cannot believe how much I love her.

At my old company, we had about 5 different dogs on any given day and I hated just about all of them. One would bark like a lunatic everytime a man walked past. One was smelly and always plopped himself in the middle of the doorway so you had to step over him. Two would smell food from a mile away and sit at your feet waiting for something to fall out of your mouth. Then there were random ones that would be there randomly. It also didnt help that they would pee and poop everywhere. I really hated them. Besause of that, i could just never picture myself with a dog, but now I understand how people love their dogs so much.

Chloe is soo cute and she's such a good little doggie. I bring her up to bed with me every night and she waddles into her bed and when i wake up in the morning, she waits for me to shower and dress bc she gets restless and has to be let downstairs. She is really well behaved (though she's going through puppy-teething stage, and nibbles on everything). She's so friendly and loves little kids. She's just such a loving dog and I find myself really, truly missing her when Im not with her. Im so happy she has opened me up to a whole new world where I find myself so much more accepting and loving of dogs. Now I feel like I can really understand y people get so upset when something happens to their pets. They are really a part of your family :)