I'm FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right. I took my last final yesterday. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I can just relax and enjoy Erin and Zack's wedding in LA this weekend.

I'm leaving Brian at home to hang with my girls. I'm getting a massage. And I'm going to just enjoy my long weekend with nothing to do but knit, read, and be with my best friends.

Cutest little sweater

I just finished the Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting. It's the cutest little sweater I've ever seen. (Even Brian thinks it's adorable.)

Try to ignore that I haven't vacuumed in a while. I used 2 balls of Peaches and Creme in the color potpourri from Walmart. I HATE Walmart. (But that's a different post.) It's 100% cotton and completely washable. This avoids a mistake or two I made in my first attempts at baby garments. New parents don't always appreciate an alpaca baby blanket that, while beautiful, cannot be washed! However, I love that this sweater cost a total of $2.54 to make- not too shabby. Don't tell the person who gets it as a baby gift! There are about 6 pregnant women at work. One of them has to have a girl- especially since the Merv crew has had a rash of boys lately.


This picture kind of sucks but I wanted to show that I added some eyelet detail across the bottom hem. Now I just have to get a little ribbon and add the closure. I can't believe how well this turned out.

Eva seems to really like it too.


In fact, she's now laid claim to the little sweater. I hope the baby who inherits this from Eva isn't allergic to kitties!


For the sake of perspective, this is a 25 lb. cat. As I type this, she's cuddled up on the sweater.

At least I'm sure someone will love what I've knit.

Frogged

So I frogged the spirally sock. Not because of the annoying swirl of white that had developed. Nope. I had to frog it because my ankles are apparently much larger than I thought. And the stitches looked as if they were struggling to deal with my girth.

I'll probably finish it this weekend. (no more time spent on wedding planning!) Then I'll post pictures.

I have to send a shout out to the fabby girls at knitty.com. They're helping me update this bloggy thing to be somewhat more interesting than it is now. Hopefully, I'll figure out HTML sooner than later.

At Last

At the end of our reception, the song "At Last" by Etta James came on the stereo. We didn't plan it and we didn't have dancing at our reception. This was just a nice coincidence. I've always loved that song. It is sexy and classy and all about love. I made Brian dance with me. My friends all watched as we danced the first time as husband and wife. I especially loved singing the last line of the song to my new husband. "For you are mine, at last!"

Princeton Class of '52

I'm writing things to remember the biggest weekend of my life so far. I have to make sure it is saved somewhere so that I never forget.

The night before my wedding I was heading out to a second dinner with my college roommates when we saw a bunch of older men and their wives. They were all wearing name tags and dressed to impress. My friend Jen, who will ask anyone anything, asked them where they were from or what group they were with. They proudly answered "Princeton, Class of 1952!" We responded, "Amherst, Class of '99!" As it turns out the gentleman we were talking to attended Deerfield Academy for high school which is right down the road from Amherst. And we all ended up singing the Amherst fight song in the lobby of an extremely nice hotel in San Francisco.

Jen went on to tell this couple that I was getting married the next day. She asked them if they had any advice for me. The man said, "Well, we've been married 41 years. And they tell you not to ever go to sleep angry.... But sometimes you have to!" It totally cracked me up. His wife wished me all the happiness in the world and we parted ways.

They were adorable and lovely and so, so sweet.

I ran into another member of the Class of '52 right before I walked down the aisle. My dad and I were waiting in the hallway of the hotel until the guests were assembled. Another gentleman and his wife were headed out to dinner. They'd been married for 39 years. And about 3 minutes before I walked down the aisle they wished me a vary happy life with my new husband. Without even trying, I was surrounded by love and good wishes from people I didn't even know. These are moments I'll treasure forever. And I feel truly blessed.

Going to the Chapel...

Sorry I've been remiss in posting lately. Between school, work, and the wedding I haven't been on top of the blog thing.

But now I'm married. I can't believe it either. I've been with Brian for 6 years. We've been engaged for two. So it was finally time. The wedding was amazing. It was so much better than I planned. I felt happy and sad, excited and scared, so in love and so worried about the future. It was such a rich moment in my life, I'm sure I cannot accurately describe the emotions. It was the most full, deep and rich emotional experience in my life. Everyone says their wedding day is the best day of their life. And now I understand. It was such an intense moment. And I can't stop looking at my wedding ring. I feel like the last 3 days lasted a week.

My dad had a hard time walking me down the aisle. Ever since my mom's death, he gets emotional in momentous family situations. He started to cry as soon as he saw me in my dress. It touched my heart.

All day Brian was a little nervous or tense or just trying to figure out what he was going to say. At one point during dinner, he just started to cry. I asked him about it later and he said he looked up and everything was so amazing; everyone was so happy. He was overwhelmed. I've never seen him so emotionally raw. I suppose that's how I felt as well.

We were married in San Francisco on the roof of a hotel near the Ferry Building. The view was incredible. You can see from the Bay Bridge all the way to Alcatraz. And the weather gods were smiling on us. It was lovely and perfect.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. I am blessed in many ways. And now I have a new husband to build a marriage and a family with. I'm so much luckier than I deserve.