Day 1 back from Spring Break

It is Monday and the first day back from Spring break, and my mind is still not off of vacation. I would have to say that as far as wedding planning goes, spring break was successful. I wish I could say the same for my school work. I was able to to accomplish about half of what I said that I would try to work on during that week, but time just slipped away from me. Wedding planning seemed to take the main precedence of the time which would make sense because I needed to get everything approved and ordered in time for the wedding. So wedding planning is pretty much 95% done. School work…well I still have my primatology project and paper to work on. That will be my main focus this week.

Other than wedding and school work, Spring Break was a great week away from Pensacola. I was able to spend the time with my parents that I miss so much, especially since time is so precious with my father’s health. And wedding planning for my mother is a distraction from the thoughts, emotions, and stress of my father’s health. She has been the shinning star in finding all my venues, that are local, and setting up all the appointments during last week.

During that week I was also able to see many of my friends that I had not seen since before I first left for Florida. Half of whom are in my wedding, and the other are attending and will be advising me through my thesis process.

I was really happy to spend two weekends in a row visiting with Brian. It has been so hard being separated for him especially when he is my rock that I lean on all the time. Our time together, when we do get to see each other, is so precious. This time away and distance has made us grow as a stronger couple and built our relationship to be stronger. This past weekend was one of the best to be in NC with him and just spending us time. It will be such a relief when we will be able to do this all the time.

Well it is time to get my butt in gear and my head back into academia. Primatology project is the goal of this week.

Monday of Spring Break

It is Monday of Spring Break and I already feel accomplished. This past weekend Brian and I went with our mothers to our wedding venue, approved the catering and approved our wedding cake. Which was phenomenal! Chef Nancy is the baker that I am getting my cake through and she is an amazing woman. Here cakes are all natural, no red-dye, and no preservatives. We are having a very simple cake, but I am not going to tell what it looks like or the flavor of the cake. It is going to be a surprise, but I am super excited about it.

Today, Mom and I approved the wedding flowers of stargazer lilies, red spray roses, and white roses. All my vendors are local shops because I believe the best service comes from those who are working to keep up a small business that they have a passion for. My wedding gown and bridesmaid gowns come from a small local shop as well. You are more than just a number to these local shops and these people take the time to make the bride feel special.

Although this post isn’t very anthropological but it is a week to relax and get some things done. And weddings are very symbolic and ritualistic. In America, the planning brings together a mother and daughter closer than in most moments of life. This is also a time when parents of both the bride and groom are closest in their lives, until it comes to pregnancy and children. But this week my mother and I plan to finalize all the wedding plans because this is the only time that I can really be in town and the summer begins to cut too close to the wedding date. The last BIG decision to make is on the invitation design, which I believe that will happen tomorrow. I really did not want to go a whole week of not posting because it is very easy to just ignore and not be on the computer during a time when I am away from school. So why not post about what is going on and how one grad student spends her spring break.

With that I have been thinking about my past spring breaks from my time as an undergrad. I have never really gone anywhere, I just spent that time either working or catching up on school work. Which is something that I am trying to accomplish this week, get ahead on at least my primatology homework and research paper. I am also a discussion leader for Presenting Anthropology next Monday and I am going to try to kick butt on it. Not too sure how, but I will try to get together some pretty cool things to show for our video challenge.

I also wanted to mention that this past weekend was the Southern Anthropology Society conference and two of my friends/colleagues presented a paper on Liminality of the Abhorsen book series. I have not talked about this project too much, but a sneak preview for now is that this is a side project that I am working on with these two. And it is comparing and contrasting, structurally, various fictional series. The ultimate goal is to write a book on how we anthropologically and structurally broke down these fictional series. I will post more about this project another time. But I am really happy to report that they had a successful presentation.