A while back I posted a blog about how much I <3 Anthony Weiner. I meant to link it into my Twitter. My overall goal was for Rep. Weiner to follow me back on Twitter. Not the biggest of goals, but I hoped it would happen. However, after I made the post I totally forgot to mention it on Twitter.

Begin Weiner scandal. I hear that some of the people he sent pics to are people who wrote about him in their blogs and/or started direct messaging him through Twitter. I can’t help but think that if I had actually remembered to Tweet my post that I might have been graced with some of these illicit photos. Not that I want to see the man without clothes, but it would have been kind of awesome to be part of that small group. LOL

Anyway, now he’s no longer in congress or on Twitter for my entertainment. I didn’t get pics. I didn’t get a follow back. And all of these combined make me a sad panda.

What have I been doing all this time? That’s a good question, cuz time has certainly flown by. Here’s the synopsis:

*I went to Italy. I’ll blog more about that later tonight, but I will tell you it was PHENOMENAL. We spent 6 days in Rome and did just about everything, including catching pink eye. Yep, medical issues follow me everywhere I go! We headed north for 4 days to Florence. Gorgeous city, and a lot cooler and less humid. It’s nice sightseeing in weather under 105 degrees. We also did a side trip to Pisa/Lucca and another to Cinque Terre on my birthday. BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER. Finally, we headed down to Naples for 2 days. Naples is a dump, that’s for sure, but Pompeii was so worth it. Sorrento was glorious. More details on all of this to come!

*I quit 2 of my jobs. Hallelujah!! I increased my hours at the other one so I can still afford to pay my bills, and I took a different unpaid internship job. I’m now working in a school and am finally realizing my calling in life. Good thing it only took me 20-some-odd years to find it! It was a crazy month of transitioning, and at one point I was working 4 jobs for a week, but I made it through, sanity in tact. Whew!

*I’ve been planning my wedding. Duh!! For those of you who don’t know me well, I’m organized and plan ahead to the point that it’s pathological. Taking the idea from my friend (and bridesmaid!) Jess, I have started a wedding binder. My colors are eggplant, turquoise and silver, so the binder and its pages are those colors. I’ve been clipping things I like from magazines and putting them in their appropriate category. It’s fun – like scrapbooking! The binder is almost full though, fortunately with contracts! Yes, I am ahead of the game and have tons of vendors already selected, deposits paid.

*Last but not least I’ve been helping my extended family clean out my great aunt and uncle’s house and prepare it for sale. It’s kind of sad, but there’s so many of us doing it and we’re bonding over it. We found so many old pictures of relatives that lived and died before our time – it’s really neat! We also found a lot of … um… educational materials. Materials including, but not limited to, 30 years worth of Playboy magazine. The house is almost ready to go on the market.

1. Work: Same shit, different day. I’m still working 3 jobs. I still hate working 3 jobs. A major source of my blog neglect lately has come from one job in particular, wiping me out so I have NO energy to blog when I get home. I mean 4 grants + coordinating a scientific conference? I’m one person, and I work there 20 hours a week. Whew!

2. Marla: She hurts. I saw a neurologist and got an EMG and NCV on Friday. SO STRANGE. They put things on my foot then shocked me with a cattle-prod-thing. Get the results on Wednesday.

3. Italy: Um….I have done NOTHING Italy-related in a month. I’m starting to feel bad. But I have other things on my mind…..

4. Love Life: Well, I’m 7 years into my current relationship. We live together. AND WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!

J took me on a weekend adventure, and wouldn’t tell me anything. I had a feeling, but then again, I’ve been waiting for a while for this and thought maybe I’d have to keep waiting (boys are kinda dense). But then he took me to Sea World, where we did a behind the scenes penguin encounter. Apparently everyone else on the tour knew but me. I have tons of pics and a video of me/us petting penguins. Then we went into the back of the exhibit, and magic happened

Basically you can go right up to the barrier that separates the staff and the penguins, but you can’t go onto the snow (oh yeah, it’s about 20 degrees in here!). J and I walked up to this barrier, and as luck would have it, a penguin was intrigued and waddled right over to us. The little guy came all the way to the barrier and stuck his beak through it. SO AWESOME. I think I squealed in delight, and then said (to the penguin) “I love you!”. J thought I was talking to him, so he said, “I love you too, (pulled out a ring) will you marry me?”

And so we’re engaged. And we’re 100% ecstatic about it. I feel lucky to have found the love of my life, who is also my best friend, and to know I will spend the rest of my life with him. I mean, he proposed with penguins. This is clearly the guy for me! And that brings me to #5…

5. Wedding Planning: I’ve been engaged for 9 days, and I think I have a venue set. We’ve come up with our first two choices for dates (2011) and are waiting to hear back from the event coordinator. I went out to dinner with some of my friends 2 days after the proposal and they had made a bet as to how many spreadsheets I had already created (2). A week later, I have 5 total. Although the big day is over a year away, I’m not wasting a minute. Planning a wedding is kind of fun (remind me I said that if I start getting stressed 10 months from now). J is totally wonderful too. He is totally interested in this, at least so far, and while I’m the lead on the wedding planning, he’s taking the reins on the honeymoon.

So yeah. I’ve been a busy bee. I really don’t want my blog to turn into a wedding planning frenzy, so I’ll do my best to keep variety. I’ll also do my best to keep up, rather than go for weeks with no posts. And on that note, I’m going to bed. Good night world!

Anyone looking for a great starter program, this is for you.

Anyone looking to kick my ass into shape, monitor my progress and let me have it if I’m slacking!!

Option B: wipe this computer and reinstall Windows. Start fresh. I mean this plan is free after all, so I can definitely get behind this one. Problem: I have TONS of music and a good amount of pics on this computer. I’m not about to try and back all this shiz up on a DVD. Not to mention that all of my computer-savvy friends have drilled it into my head that DVDs are basically stupid.

So I’m sucking it up and buying this: A 2 TB external hard drive. 2 TB should last me forever right? And I *promise* I’ll regularly back up my stuff so that if when I get another virus, I can just wipe the laptop clean and start fresh. I’m totally stoked about my new purchase!!

Let’s see how many I can do