Hi.

I didn't mean for the first two weeks of the new year to go by without an entry, but things have gotten very busy around here. It feels like Penn and I are playing a game called Create Your Life.Except that it's not a game, it's real. We're making all of these decisions that we're going to have to live with (or, in some cases, hoping to live with) for the next, oh, I don't know, five years to FOREVER. Needless to say, those decisions take a lot of time and energy.
For instance, we've started to look for a wedding venue. You'd think this wouldn't be a big deal and, in the grand scheme of things, it's not. But at the same time, I only want to get married this one time so I don't want to mess it up. And I know logically that I can't mess it up. As long as we're married that's what matters, and who really cares what happens at the party. At the same time, though, it would be nice if I could spend the rest of my life looking back fondly on my wedding and not regretting that I did A, B, and C (or didn't do A, B, or C). I know there's no guarantee that it won't somehow turn into a disastrous debacle anyway, but I do feel like I can at least plan things to go a certain way that we'd like and then hope that everyone else goes along with the plan and gets along and has fun and all the other things I think we'd all like for our wedding day. Anyway, this all means that I have to really think about my ideal wedding, and since this is something I honestly never thought much about, it's kind of hard to suddenly decide if I'm a ballroom person or a historic inn person or whether I want classic or quirky or even daytime or evening (although I think we have at least decided daytime for that last one). Anyway, I'm certainly not complaining about having to make these decisions because although it takes up a lot of time it's also really fun. I'm also really lucky to have a dad who wants to throw a big, cool party so I have the freedom to make these decisions in the first place, which is great. I just never really realized exactly how many decisions there were going to be, and making them add up to a cohesive party with some sort of design is definitely a challenge! Just to reiterate, though, not complaining!! There's nothing more fun than reading wedding design blogs and legitimately being able to call it research.
As an offshoot to the wedding venue search we also decided it was time to go back to our church search. We both want a church wedding, and it would be even better if the church was already our home congregation, so we're trying to find a place where we can attend regularly until and after our wedding. Two weeks ago when we went out looking for a church we couldn't find one. I don't mean that in some metaphorical way, I mean that we had google mapped directions to two churches and then we ended up not being able to find either of them! So we gave up and drove around looking at houses for sale instead. But last weekend we had much better luck. We visited a church that we both liked. It had a good amount of people at the service, the pastor was friendly and has a sense of humor (that goes a long way with me), and they have an active Sunday school with a lot of kids (which doesn't matter at the moment, of course, but hopefully will in the future). It struck me as a fairly liberal, friendly place with enough technology as part of the service to show that they're willing to embrace the future without, like, using electric guitars or hiring a lighting designer (which is fine if that's your style but it's definitely not mine). It's a Methodist church, which has enough singing and pomp and circumstances ritual to make me happy but not so much that it makes Penn uncomfortable (I was raised Lutheran, where there is a lot of ritual-I always called it Catholic lite-and Penn isn't a fan of too much symbolism in his church services but I love it so we have to find a compromise). Anyway, I have been doing a lot of research on the Methodists and I feel comfortable enough with it to try it out. My main criteria is that we go with something mainline Protestant. I just can't handle evangelicalism (is that a word?). The whole "born again" thing just does not sit well with me, nor does the overzealousness and hypocrisy I've noticed in so much of the evangelical community. Not that I am bashing the evangelicals and fundamentalists. I have friends and future family members I like and respect very much who hold those ideals. I've just been very soured on the movement as a whole, though (Did I ever mention the time a Fundamentalist Baptist chased me down the street in college shouting "God is gonna get ya!" or the time I was told I was going to hell because I was wearing a Halloween costume?). On the whole I'm sure many evangelicals are quite sane and rational and many mainliners are Bible thumping nut jobs. But on the whole mainline Protestants strike me as more tolerant and accepting and rational, and that's what I need in a church. I want an open-minded, open-hearted community of people who like to talk about how we can use our faith in God to help the world, not how we should use it to make ourselves feel guilty or condemn others who don't share our beliefs. A major plus would be finding a group of people who can take lessons from the Bible without taking it literally, something else I think i'm more likely to find with the mainliners. So, yeah, that's what I'm hoping to find, and I hope when we go back to church again this week I'm not disappointed. By the way, a church member delivered a homemade loaf of banana bread to our house on Wednesday as a thank you for visiting the church on Sunday. What a great recruiting tool! If I hadn't already decided to go back next week I think we would have to anyway after that. I mean, you can't eat their bread and then never show up again! Sneaky Methodists.
Anyway, the other big thing I sort of alluded to above is house hunting. We're sort of hung up on the loan approval process right now for various stupid reasons I don't have the time or desire to go into here (why can't there just be a database with all of your credit and banking info filed electronically under your social security number?) but we're going to try to get approved for a loan next week and then see how things go from there. It's possible we won't find anything we like and I am sort of dreading being house poor for a while (having to spend all our extra income on home improvement) but mostly I am excited about this, too.
Oh, and did I mention. I have a thirty page article due next week and my prospectus due two weeks after that? So my apologies if I drop off the internet again for a while. I always have another random update to give eventually!