I Will Survive

All week I was a little on edge about this 'Preparing for Marriage' workshop on Saturday. What was it going to be like? Were we going to be working just together or with other couples? What if the head counselor has some inkling that our marriage is doomed - would he tell us? Or would he just laugh at us and think, "I can't believe these two schmucks have lasted this long"?

We agreed that we needed to be out the door by 8:30 on Saturday morning and that Friday night couldn't get too crazy. One of Bryan's colleagues was having a going-away party at a dueling piano bar in Marietta. For me, flashbacks of Jake Ivory's in Boston rushed back into my head and I envisioned the night getting somewhat wild. "It can't happen," we agreed. None of that staying-out-til-6-in-the-morning stuff the night before this workshop. We needed to be well-rested and to present our most fabulous selves.

I found myself at the mall on Friday after work. For anyone that knows me, even though I'm about 90% tomboy, the other 10% of me has a serious love for BCBG dresses. I strolled into Macy's and immediately found myself lusting after a short, blue leopard print number. (The humorous part was me putting on the dress at home and Bryan asking if it was new. I've got a new response, "Define new." Hey, it was a couple hours old at that point!) So yes, I bought an incredible dress that I didn't need, but it is easily tied for the best dress I own (with that hot pink, Bachelorette dress). And I plan on wearing it on our honeymoon, so Bryan was appeased.

The piano bar was different than I expected mainly because it doubles as a tapas restaurant. So you eat dinner while watching these guys - which was also just plain loud. When we arrived, many at the party were drinking Dirty Martinis. "Hmm, I haven't had one of those in a long time," I thought. Two martinis in, I had a healthy buzz and was ready to party - as were the patrons of this piano bar, but our party was sort-of breaking up a bit. This led to me sending a barrage of text messages out into the world. I haven't re-read them again today, but I'm pretty sure I told everyone I wanted to go out in my new dress!!! Whoo-hooo, party!!!

A blast from the past got back to me: a couple that Bryan and I used to hang out with a lot, and interestingly, they were at a bar not too far from where we were. So we headed over there. The Patron (the tequila) came out, a few beers, and it was 2:30am.

I don't even remember coming home due to the fact that I fell asleep in the car. So this morning, the alarms started going off at 7:30 and I seriously regretted every drink from the night before (but not really). We hit the snooze and found ourselves cursing an hour later when we woke up again. 8:20!!! We were supposed to LEAVE at 8:30!!! My reaction? "We'll never make it" Bryan's? "Move, move, move, we've gotta go!!!"

We ran out the door to the apartment around 8:45 when I noticed that, going down the stairs, Bryan's pants were falling down. The exchange to leave the premises went like this:

Me: "Honey, you need a belt!!!"

Bryan: "Oh no, my pants are falling down...do I really need one??"

Me: "YES!"

Bryan gives me the car keys to which I say, "Ok, I'll pull up and you just hop in". He takes off running back up the stairs to get a belt.

Once outside, I realize I can't find the car and I have no recollection of where the car was parked from the night before. It wasn't on the street. Was it in one of our two parking garages? Which one? So conflicted...so instead of actually moving and looking for the car, I stood outside.

Bryan comes downstairs.

Bryan: "Where is the car?"

Me: "I don't know, where did you park it?"

Bryan: "Is it in the garage? Dude, where's my car?"

So we go into the garage, walk up 4 levels and decide the car is in the other garage...possibly...but we don't know.

Me: "Where's your car, Dude?"

Bryan: "Dude, where's my car?"

Yes, we were late, but we got a GIANT kick out of this.

Bryan: "Stay here" So I stand there, somewhat nauseous, in the garage without my cell phone. So if he was to find the car, how would I know where to go meet him? He's going to come pick me up in the garage? I don't know how much time I let pass before I decided this was stupid and started walking outside again. Finally, Bryan and his car were reunited.

We ended up getting to the Church at 9:15am to find that there was no parking due to the Farmer's Market in the lot. We had to park across the street and got into the counseling session closer to 9:30. I was horrified. Here we were supposed to present how wonderful we are as a couple and instead we're strolling in 1/2 hour late. Impressive.

The head counselor was still introducing the topics of the day (which leads me to believe they started late) and asked us to go around and introduce ourselves. The big surprise to us? 5 of the 9 couples had met online! So if you have any friends that still think this is a cliche, it's obvious that online dating is really working (Bryan and I have many friends that have met online and either gotten married or are happily on that path)!

The group was a diverse one - people that had moved to Atlanta from all over the country and a wide range of ages. But overall, we did most of our discussions together as a couple. While I wish there had been more time to really get into some of the topics, it seemed that the goal of the day was to just get us talking about some of these things (i.e. financial management: "Tomboy Bride, stop buying BCBG dresses, we have a wedding to pay for). And granted, most of it has come up before - we've done lots of talking about kids, money, and faith - but there were exercises we did that were great. One was we had to write down 10 things that we think cause frustration for our future spouses. Then we switched papers and each partner had to rank the things that the other person had written. I found this really helpful as there are things that I know Bryan doesn't love (I'm on the computer WAY too much at home), but I didn't realize how much some of these things bothered him. It was really productive! And it gave us a lot of ideas on what we need to work on as we continue to prepare for the wedding and then of course, what we'll have to work on beyond the Big Day.

The day was over at 3pm and we were both completely exhausted (and I was just flat-out nauseous). I am not 23 anymore, that is for sure.

On our agenda the rest of the weekend: we're going to finish the programs tonight (I keep saying this, but it's really gonna happen!) and then we've got a round of house-hunting tomorrow. If you're curious about the house we love, I honestly have no news on it. So hopefully we'll talk to our realtor tomorrow about this. Bryan mentioned in almost every answer today, "I want a house, I want a house, I want a house". Then of course, we're watching Football!!!!

Until next time, Go Falcons!!!!