First of "The Lasts"

Well, this next week will be full of "this will be the last time I _______ as a single person".

It started this morning with me saying to a co-worker "This is my last Friday as a single woman!!" It really did just hit me this morning. I will never have another single Friday. Not that any of my single Fridays before were anything special, it was just the realization.

I have a friend who has flown from her home in Virginia to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. She has been in town for the last month, staying at different homes and this weekend is my turn to have her stay with me. Oh, and this will be my last sleepover weekend with a friend as a single woman.

I know that this is kind of a melancholy post. Next Friday I will start saying "This is my first time I ________ as a married person!"

But until then, I am savoring all my lasts....

29 Days...

until I am a wife.

Kinda scary but very exciting. I finally get to check the box that's labeled "Mrs."!

Unfortunately I haven't had a whole lot of time to really soak up the idea of being a grown up, married woman. Time, these days, has been taken up with all the nitty-gritty details of planning the big event.

I tell people sometimes about some wedding show I saw on TV a few months ago about a bride who went to great lengths to free up all her time in order to plan her wedding. She went as far as quitting her job! At the time I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had heard someone do. But a couple weeks ago....I started to understand why she would do that.

Planning a wedding is STRESSFUL! So many details to accomplish, so many people to contact, always having to hound people to keep on top of their specific tasks, getting all schedules to line up, and still try to maintain a positive attitude. It's not easy. And I applaud Ben for hanging in there with me. I have not been a fun person to be around most of the time.

29 days. These past several months have seriously flown by.

I've been asked many times if I will miss being single. And to be honest...of course there are things I am going to miss. I can think of a few things off the top of my head. I'm going to miss the freedom of leaving at the drop of a hat to go meet up with a friend at anytime of day or night. I'm going to miss the ability to just make decisions for myself and not have to confer with anyone else for their input. I'm going to miss my alone time in my quiet apartment.

But I'm also really looking forward to sharing my life with someone else too. I'm looking forward to coming home and having my best friend there to talk to whenever I have something that I need to get off my chest. I will have that special person to go places with and do things with at any time. I will have a constant companion for the rest of my life and I'm thrilled about that.

29 days to practice my new signature.

Up until now I had always hoped I would marry a man with a short last name. Brookshire was just too long of a name for my taste but it's what I was dealt. But...my luck, I'm marrying a Christensen. Good thing I'm not a fan of hyphenating!

Starbucks Wisdom #280

"You can learn a lot more from listening than you can from talking. Find someone with whom you don't agree in the slightest and ask them to explain themselves at length. Then take a seat, shut your mouth, and don't argue back. It's physically impossible to listen with your mouth open."

- John Moe
Radio host and author of Conservatize Me.