Here

We really are here! Though the posts about the our lives in the city are scant (most are in the works) we wanted to post a little proof.


A few nights ago TheBoss was out here on business and we spent the evening with him. It was fun to drive through the city and show off our new diggs. We had a fantastic dinner and really enjoyed just spending a few hours together.

Continuing

We're continuing our famous streak in the blogosphere.

capture(d) posted our bridals, Mikimber did a little tribute to us on the big day, and my brand new sister-in-law also documented the festivities. There is something so great that is cultivated in the blogging community. . .

DeeCee

Things I loved about DC today:

• the chaos
• the heat
• the metro cards with Obama on them
• the trees
• Patriffic claiming that he loves Obama because he makes him laugh
• The Obama commercialization
• The over Obamification of everything
• Peoples obsession with our current president

Things I did not love about DC today:

• Garbage
• Missing Husband all day (this full time job stuff is the pits)
• hurting feet
  

Few

Here is a link to our wonderful photographer's blog where she posted a few pictures of us on the big day. I left my copy of the photos back in Utah, but hopefully we'll get it soon and we can put some of our favorites up.

Thanks Emily May White Sparks!

Married

You might have thought that finals, a wedding, moving out, and packing to move across the country might have killed us off, but not so. We survived the weekend and have found ourselves cozy in our little basement apartment. Welcome to the life of a newly wed.

Yesterday we had quite the experience during our first official day in DC. We walked half the city before getting cussed out by an angry man on the bus (I'm going to make Husband--since graduated from BrightBoy--write more about this), and finally made it to Husband's swearing in for the new job. After we trekked out to my soon-to-be place of work and fell in love with the area. The woman I'm working for asked our ages and after we told her, rather than taking a deep sigh, crossing herself and praying that our young and ignorant lives wouldn't be shattered by the insanely big commitment we just made at the rip old ages of early-twenties, she congratulated us on having the courage to get married.

It. was. so. refreshing.

She even cited a recent article in the Washington Post's outlook section that talks about the benefits of getting married young. We looked at eachother and did a mental high-five.

By the time we dragged out tired bodies in the door and downstairs it was 8 o'clock, making for a nice, even 12 hours in the city.

We.
Were.
Beat.

Featured

Danger! posted about me. Because she's the sweeetest. And because I'm getting married.

In.
6.
Days.

Vigorous

Last week in my Creative Writing class we talked about hard work, how it makes you not only strong, but how it has actually been proven to make you happy. I liked this thought. I instantly whipped out Mr. Apple and starting clacking away on his black keyboard.

Aristotle said that the one the that everyone seeks after is happiness. Everything else is merely a means to an end. So what makes people happy? and how do we not get caught up in feeling like everything we're doing is rote and meaningless when all we really want is the end all: happiness.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi spent nearly all of his life studying this very thing. What makes people happy? Why are some happier than others? He came up with the notion of "flow" and ultimately wrote the book Flow, outlining many of these ideas. He found that happiness is not determined by external forces at all. There is no socioeconomic criteria for happiness, no popularity quota or sucess ranking that will automatically qualify an individual for happiness. Rather, it's an inner thing.

I'm been guiltly of "wanting the weekend to come" lately. Not in a literal sense, but figuartively. I'm always looking beyond the here and now and wishing for something just on the other side. I feel like a lot of us are that way. We get so anxious to get beyond what we're currently doing, that we can't even appreciate what it's like to be where we're at. We're always living to get, and not really getting to live.

There is a latin phrase that goes, "Dum vivimus, vivamus" or, "While we live, let us live." I've decided this is key. Genuinely happy individuals are few and far between. Csikszentmihalyi said, "If Diogenes, with his lantern twenty-three centuries ago, had difficulty finding an honest man, today he would have perhaps an even more troublesome time finding a happy one." Could it be that we're all stuck wishing and forgeting to do something?

Happiness seems to be neither this thing nor that, but growth. Victor Frankl wrote, "Success, like happiness can't be pursued, it must ensue . . . as the unintended side-effect of ones personal dedication to a course far greater than oneself." Happiness is the unintended side-effect that propeled us into greater action and motivation. Let's lead a vigorous life!

I'm a firm believer that the key to happiness is work. We need to learn to enjoy the sweat on our brow, the industry, the dirt on our hands, (the blisters on our fingers from typing finals papers).

I'm still trying to convince myself that finals is a time for great happiness because it calls for a lot of work. We'll see if I can do it.

Snow

There are quarter sized flakes falling outside my window to match the quarter sized tears falling down my cheeks.

I thought it was mid-April? Oh wait, it must still be February.

Sneak

Here's a sneak peak at the results from our fabulous photo session last Saturday. capture(d) truly did a remarkable job!

Warm

I smelled warm wet cement today. It flooded my head with images and memories. Getting out of the pool and laying on the hot cement, sprinklers in the summer, warm rain, water balloon fights, the hose on the trampoline . . . the smells of summer are so close!

Visual

I went to an artist lecture last Thursday given by Casey Jex Smith and one of the points he hit hard was that art and the church don't have to butt heads, in fact, they can go beautifully hand in hand. He stressed over and over again to "Stay active in the Church!" and to use the scriptures as a source of visual inspiration. There is a wealth of imagery contained in the pages.

With this still in my mind last night I began reading in D&C 137 and the second verse says that Joseph Smith "saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter." My mind was taken up and played with images for a few minutes as I anticipated making the covenants that will prepare me to be worthy to enter that kingdom. I can't believe in just a few short weeks I'll enter the doors of the temple that I've grown up by my whole life, and finally be able to receive the sacred instruction that takes place within the temple walls.

Crunch

It's officially crunch time and with that comes the stressful musing of my subconscious. I dreamed last night that the return address on all the invites were printed to say:

Kosovo
123 Easy Street
Happy Valley
USA

rather than our last name. I freaked out wondering what we were going to do. We were already mailing them out late and where as we had about 50 extra envelopes, there's no way we had 500.

I woke up in a cold sweat and literally ran into the kitchen to check the box of envelopes, reading for mailing.

They're addressed correctly, and should be hitting a mailbox near you in the next few days.

Phew!

Poetry

You might not know it, but it is National Poetry Month. (Isn't that fantastic?)

Poets.org has a free Poem-A-Day subscription during the month of April to celebrate. Sign up. And get involved.

Winner

I finally bought shoes to wear with my wedding dress today. It has been more of a task than I anticipated, but eBay came to the rescue.

There is something strangely exciting about shopping on eBay. Not only is there a heightened sense of anticipation and suspense, but there is this great reward at the end. If you are the highest bidder, eBay kindly informs you that YOU WON! You have the fantastic opportunity of PAYING MORE MONEY THAN ANY OTHER SCHMO would pay for that item! What a lucky winner.

I got to be a lucky winner today. It felt great. It was like I was applauded after my purchase, like a big cybercrowd was cheering me on as I was granted the chance to cough up the cash.

But my satin ivory flat are one their way. 3 weeks from today. It's. Un. Real.

Late

It's way too late to be up posting pictures, and it's almost too late to post pictures of last Saturday's festivities, but it was just way too fun not to.

Before the mayhem. Listening to how heaven is going to be a celebration. Sounds great.

False start. Hooligans . . .

When the sky went dark.

Mogli in his natural state.

OlderAndWiserToo. See the goggles? So wise, so wise.

Our first kiss.

Clapping, chanting, weaving through moshing, lack of personal space.

Foolish

BrightBoy felt so clever. He called me this morning to tell me that he received a packet in the mail containing information about his internship this summer. In a calm but almost apologetic voice he said that due to massive budget cuts thanks to the failing economy, his salary would be considerably less. I was still in bed with my eyes closed while I listened to him thinking only two things: "Crap," and, "Good thing I'm out earning him anyway" (barely). It didn't take long for him to excitedly shout "April Fools!" and the few nerves that came unhinged quickly reconnected and I wanted to reach through the wireless connection and smack him.

If we made any less, how could we afford our luxury pad this summer? Seriously.

April is foolish. It brough more snow today and I would just like to ask it kindly to take it back. We don't want your snow. We don't want your cold. We don't want your overcast clouds and windy weather.

I swear if I see one more flake, I'm going to start sawing at my wrist with some snowman's carrot nose.