Best day ever

I returned home from the bar very late on Thursday night, and while Matt was on work Friday I attended to many small wedding and apartment related tasks.

Then, yesterday, Matt put together a day long plan of celebration in honor of my being done with the bar exam. It was amazing. The morning started with a stop at Bruegger's bagels for my favorite breakfast sandwich. We made a quick detour to Travis Pointe, where we firmed up our final wedding reception plans. From there, we drove to Detroit, where he surprised me with tickets to the Body exhibit at the science museum. I've been wanting to see the plastinated bodies for a long time, and the exhibit was absolutely incredible. It's hard to believe how well our bodies work, especially after you see all of the organs and capillaries and things that are squished in there. Wow.

After that, we headed over to Hamtramck for lunch at the best Polish restaurant in town, Polonia. I had my favorite combination plate, with sausages, potato pancakes and dumplings with beet soup. We proceeded to check out Matt's office (in an amazing renovated house), Pewabic Pottery and the fancy houses of Grosse Pointe. We headed back to Ann Arbor and went to see Ratatouille at the Carpenter Road theatre. The movie was cute, light, fun, and somehow made us want to eat again. We ended the special day with dinner at our favorite local Italian restaurant, Palio.

The whole day was so planned out and thoughtful, and he kept each destination a surprise until we got there. Isn't that great? And just less than a week, I get to marry this guy.

I'm off

Leave your good luck wishes here; I'm off to Chicago for the bar. Cheers to the rest of you taking the exam!

End in sight

It's the little things that make me realize the bar and the wedding are almost here. For example, I have milk that expires after the bar exam. My next credit card bill doesn't have to be paid until after the wedding.

For now, I've only got 1.5 days left before Heather and I head to Chicago to the test. I'm going to go hit up my usual exam studying haunt -- the Artisan Bistro -- and take another practice test.

A matter of taste

Matt and I have agreed on many things throughout this registering/furnishing a new apartment process. For example, the white and orange plates we chose. (It is hard to see, but the undersides are entirely orangey-red. Lovely.)

We also both love our super-funky headboard, which is a silvery-blue fabric with velvety, chocolate brown swirls, and the awesome chocolate brown furniture we got to match it. (Okay, the headboard is hard to explain.)

Our biggest differences so far have been with sofas. I love a nice, clean, cushy, profesionally slipcovered sofa. He wants a large, dark, manly leather sofa. Thus far, we've been unable to find a sofa we are both happy with purchasing. I have visions of an incredibly silly-looking living room where we each have our own couch, neither matching the other. Either that, or we'll both be sitting on the ground.

Oh my.

I am taking the bar exam in eleven days. I am getting married in twenty-two days.

Things are happening. I'm a little nervous and very excited, all at once.

Water & air

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but Matt went to Chicago a few weeks ago and found us a fantastic Lakeview apartment for us to live in for at least the next year. It's a two bedroom apartment, with a large sort of segmented living room/dining room. It has an awesome exposed brick wall and super high, wood beamed ceilings. We have a porch, too, where we'll be able to fit a table and a couple of chairs, and a gril. We're the only apartment on the fourth floor of a four story brownstone (no elevator, but we will get buff!) on a quiet street, so we'll no longer have to deal with loud upstairs neighboors or crazy street traffic. Also, we're only a block from the happening Clark/Diversey intersection, six blocks from the lake, and within a mile of Wrigley field. It's going to be a fantastic home.

The special highlights of the apartment, though, are the dishwasher and the central air. This will be the first time Matt's ever had a dishwasher -- in his entire life! He is so excited. I do most of the dishes around the house, so I'm pretty excited too. But I'm even more excited about the central air. Our single, tiny window unit in Ann Arbor doesn't even cool down the room it is in, much less the bedrooms and bathroom. I can't wait to have it. However, I realize I have no clue how to opoerate it. What temperature do people normally set their air at in the summer, and in the winter? Do they change it when they leave the house? All these new, grown-up considerations.

Getting dumber every day

All of this studying has made me dumber in the rest of my life.

Case in point: Today, I chopped up a bunch of celery sticks, leaving the relatively inedible leafy stems and white, dirty bottoms in the sink along with a pile of dishes. Then, over my lunch hour, I attacked the dishes. While washing the dishes, I washed a piece of celery with actual soap, and then put the cleaned celery in the silverware part of the drying rack before realizing what I was doing. Seriously. I don't know if I have the brainpower to take the exam, or the required capacity to enter into a marriage contract.

Happy fourth!

This fourth of July is somewhat low key. This morning I ran a 5K with Amanda, Alison, Jackie, Geri and Meredith. (Alex was there too, though he was a good 15 minutes ahead of us!) For some reason this morning's run was super tough. I felt achy and tired, and wasn't as cheerful as I usually am during runs with friends. But we still ran an okay, race, finishing under 35 minutes.

Right now I'm relaxing at home with a Law and Order marathon and my BarBri book. This afternoon, I'm off to Detroit for my dress fitting and then to the McCourts to visit some of my favorite kids. Matt's day is a little more exciting: he's off in Amherst, Massachusetts, setting up his final 2007 fireworks show. He called me this morning and left a message reminding me that there's only one month until our wedding. Can you believe it??