Sidebar: Internship

I am a clinical psychology doctoral candidate.
The only thing that I have left to complete before I am cleared for graduation is for me to do one year of a pre-doctoral internship.
I applied for some last year and did not get one of the ones I wanted.  I decided to take another year - this year - to develop my skills and curriculum vitae so as to be a stronger applicant when I reapply this year.

This year:
I applied to >20 sites.
I received 4 offers to interview.
I did not match to an internship.

I found out Friday morning, the 25th.
My birthday was the 24th.
Very disappointing result.

Now what? I mean, I still need an internship for next year because I am going to graduate May/June 2012.  No. Matter. What.
So after the results were posted, the matching system released they also released a list of internship placements that didn't get all the interns they needed.  So I'm applying to a great and very many of these placements.  I will know if I get one of these placements on March 28th, a Monday morning.  The Monday morning, in fact, following my bachelorette weekend.
Hah.
Even so, I could -again - not match through this national system.
Thus, I have already applied for a variety of internships through the California system.

For those who aren't already familiar with this process - and even many who are - it's a convoluted and very involved process that essentially involves gobs of stress and uncertainty.

I say all this mostly to say that this result, among other things, means that I - and thus, Chris, as well - am still in limbo.  Past these next 12 weeks, I have no clue as to where I will be living or what I will be doing next year.

Possible scenarios:
(1) Chris and I live together in the Bay Area while I work at UC Davis earning about $25K
(2) I live in Zephyrhills, Florida (very near my Dad's family) and earn $39K working at a corrections facility there; Chris tries to transfer
(3) I live in places with no Southwest Airport, like Podunk, Indiana
(4) I live in Los Angeles earning $0 (not a typo); Chris tries to transfer

And many, many other iterations of similar living arrangements, types of work, places to live, and income levels.
I could earn nothing all the way up to the $39K.  I could be in the Bay, in San Diego, Texas, Florida, Ohio, New York....anywhere.  I could work at a university, corrections facility, community mental health center, or more.  Chris and I could live together full-time, part-time, or not at all on other sides of the country.
Oooh!  Also, I could start as early at July 1st, or as late as September 1st.

We'll see.

I must have used that phrase about a katrillion-jillion times during this whole internship process.

And yet....
it's true.

And will be for at least four more weeks.
Oh golly.

Four weeks from today is the second judgement day and I have no earthly clue how it will be.

And also this other little thing where I'm getting married in 82 days.

Wish me luck!!

Sad News

Chris and I learned recently that his grandfather has passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Services are being held this week.

I only had the privilege of meeting him on two occasions, but I know that he was an incredible, loving man.

Of very small comfort is that we did send him our wedding invitation, so he got to see it before he passed.

My heart and thoughts are with Chris and his family at this difficult time.

Although his passing was not entirely unexpected, the loss is poignant.

Sidebar: Scarlett Marie

On February 20th, 2011 at 4:25pm, my brother and sister-in-law welcomed into the world a brand new, beautiful baby girl.

Scarlett Marie Gray

She weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce at birth, and measured 19.5 inches long.

I love her so much, and I am so proud to be an auntie.

Three Months

The countdown continues.

It's hard to believe that there are only three months remaining until the wedding.

I suppose I say that every time a new benchmark rolls around.
And yet, it feels true.  Every time.

The ball keeps rolling faster and faster.
As the days tick past, my excitement grows....as does my knowledge of the many, many things left on the checklists and to-do lists.

Invitation DIY

Not too long ago, Chris and I set out to prep and send all of our wedding invitations.  Despite still needing a handful of confirmed addresses, we buckled down and got them sent as I posted before.

I also said that I wanted to post about the actual prep itself. So. I'm doing just that.

My beautiful set-up for making those invites:

I've got: 12" x 12" red and light blue vellum paper, a bone folder, a ribbon-hole-punch, a paper slicer, reams of turquoise and red gingham ribbon, and the invites themselves.

The back of the petal holders.

Front and back of the invites all folded together. 

It actually took quite some time with the bone folder to get the invites together like this.  The invite itself is inside, a square printed with all the information.  I had to put the invite in each petal folder, get the sides to all fold in just right so that it would look like the bottom part of that picture.  Then, I took the bone folder and creased down all four edges.

Also, because I'm paranoid and crazy, I shook some periodically to make sure that I'd actually put the invite on the inside.

Then came the vellum and ribbon part.  To make the invites look like this:

1. I took the vellum I had ordered and sliced it into one-inch-wide strips using the paper slicer (slash my favorite helper).
2. Used the ribbon punch to punch the holes in both ends of the vellum strips.
3. I cut the gingham ribbon into foot-long pieces.
4. I placed an invite in the center of one of the vellum strips.
5. I folded the ends of the vellum (doing my best to make sure they were even) over the front of the invite, creasing it on each side with the bone folder.
6. Then came the tricky part: tying a length of ribbon into a bow....without tearing the vellum (which I did many times).

Once all those steps were done (and goodness gracious did that take for-ev-er!!!!!) it was time to print the envelopes.

Honestly, it was such a frustrating process using Microsoft Publisher, and Excel Spreadsheet, and lots and lots of ink and envelopes. I don't even want to get into it.

Suffice to say, eventually, all the envelopes were printed and ready for their invitations.

We stuffed them all and I couldn't resist adding one more touch:

Shimmery turquoise heart stamp.

The great thing about a crafty/DIY-style everything is that it doesn't have to be perfect!  Not all the stampings were perfect, but that's totally okay!

All boxed up and ready for the big invite drop-off!

Phew!!!  Just remembering all the steps is exhausting!

Perfect Fit: My Rings

Before we got engaged, Chris spent many hours deciding on my engagement ring.  Because I had been told that I was not going to be able to choose my ring, I had sent him probably close to 100 pictures of rings that I liked so that there was no question about things that I liked.

So Chris went to a jeweler with one of those many pictures in hand and described to the jeweler what he like about the ring in the photo and how he wanted it to be different for the special-commission engagement ring he wanted.  A few months later, Chris was summoned back to the jewelers and shown the ring that had been created: my engagement ring.  After he proposed, I was amazed at how perfectly he had gotten the ring.  

And yes, these are the best photos I could find of the ring on my delightful sausage fingers.  ;)

And theeeeen, many moons later, we went shopping just to look at possibilities and directions.  Along the way, we found a ring that just slid in perfectly with my engagement ring.  So we took some time to think about it.....then we went back to that store and bought it!

It came in from beings size a few weeks later.

I can't help but think that, considering the uniqueness of my engagement ring's shape (in terms of engagement rings, anyhow), that the new wedding band fits incredibly well.  It will fit even better when we get it soldered together after the wedding.

I feel very fortunate to have found such a perfect fit with such ease.

Now I just have a few dozen days left to wait before I can wear it all the time!!

Wedding Weather

I have had a few questions about what the weather should be like for the weekend of the wedding.
Some people are worried about it being too cold, too hot, rainy, or some other difficulty.
Fortunately, weather in Northern California is generally predictable in terms of rain, and even getting a good sense of what the weather will be like is reasonably reliable.

In order to help out, I've looked up - previously and then again now - what the weather has been like in the past and what it should be like for the wedding:

 This is the history of the weather for the time span from May 19th through May 23rd. 

Pretty satisfactory.

Of course, we'll keep tabs on the weather when the dates get closer and we'll let people know if any major differences from this expectation arise but....for now, anyways.....I'm pretty satisfied.  We should be in for a long, beautiful day.