the waiting is the hardest part

this past week has been heinously busy. but a lot has been accomplished. tomorrow, we will finally be able to wash our hands of the old apartment. it took 2 solid weekends of painting and cleaning, but all that's left is to hand in the keys. good riddance. that means I might have time to finish decorating the new place, which would be nice since it's no where near finished... and is now full of boxes of the last of the junk from the old place. regardless, being done with the old place is a HUGE accomplishment. and should save a lot of money and stress.

speaking of stress... I mailed out the wedding invitations. not all of it was stressful. in fact I rather enjoyed the organizational parts of it. address list computerized. labels typed, printed, and applied. response cards numbered to correspond with the guest list for easy tracking. stamps stuck. envelopes licked and sealed. and everything dropped off at the post office. and then the entire guest list entered into an excel spreadsheet to track party number, table number, and meal choice.

most of the stress came over the guest list. the guest list has been difficult from the beginning. a wedding is never just what the bride wants. there's a groom too, and two mothers and whole families to consider. I've come to terms with that. the issue with the guest list is that I hate offending people. and there are people who will be offended. people who did not get invites. people who did not get invites with a +1. people who will have to sit at a table with someone they don't particularly care for. it's just inevitable.

there are about a dozen people I wish we could afford to invite. but 15 last minute additions, 93 envelopes licked, and one address mix-up later: the invitations are in the mail. what's done is done, and all that's left to do is wait.