Six Years and Counting

So, as of today (roughly--we celebrate our anniversaries on Valentine's Day just to not have so many holidays smushed up against each other, as both of our birthdays and our Mom's birthdays are around Christmas/New Year's), H. and I have been together for six, count 'em, SIX years.

All I can say is, Wow. It's the longest I've been with one person (my next-longest relationship was four years long) and I have to say, maybe it's just because of the novelty and fun of wedding planning right now, but I really do feel like our lives together, our relationship, has just begun (cue Carpenters song here). It's been a fascinating, lovely, romantic, crazy, emotional, challenging, moonlight-flooded, intense, fun, laughter-filled, sexy, sometimes volatile, sometimes chaotic, beautiful, musical, sunlit, frustrating, enlightening, at times overwhelming but overall extremely satisfying six years with H., I have to say, and I'm only looking forward to many more years with him as we start this next phase of our life together as a married couple.

Thank you, H., for all that you've brought to my life, to my healing and to my community of friends and family. You are my everything, and I love you.


Me and H. letting the little kid in both of us come out to play.

The Search is On!

The final (hopefully) stage of our wedding reception venue-search is officially on! We have a fairly new and long list of potential spots for the reception, including a Unitarian Church in Oakland that H. and I have been to a lot for community events, another community center near Jack London Square, and a couple of spots in San Leandro (next city over from Oakland to the south) that hold some promise. Two of my wedding party members--A. and A.--are helping me by putting their own formidable event-planning skills into play and helping me scout out some spots. It's so great to have friends helping us out on this; it makes the whole process feel less stressful and more fun and interesting.

So wish us luck! I hope we can find something that's affordable, close to our ceremony location, pretty/decoratable, flexible and big enough to accomodate our mid-size (200 people) wedding.

Oh yeah, and we just sent out our save the date cards and have started to get some sweet messages from friends and family about coming to the wedding. As our friend B. said, "Once you send these out, it's really going to be real." And by 'real' that doesn't mean 'bad', it just means that now our community of folks is going to know that we are moving forward on this path and that we really mean it. It's a big step to take, and I'm takin' it with H., face forward and head held high with pride and joy.