Steph, it makes perfect sense that financial stuff would interfere with a cross-country trip to a wedding, all invitation-related issues aside. Money's finite and, sadly, the ability for new expenses to crop up does not seem to be. If I were getting married, having people show from out of state would be a pleasant surprise (aside from my sister, to whom I'd send a plane ticket and who'd probably walk to NC from MI if she had to to see me hitched--but family's different).

tossed back some bears

REALLY?

I totally cracked up when I read that typo, so decided to leave it.

Yeah, Bartleby might toss a bear...in his dreams. Seriously, he saw a mouse in our house once and scolded ME for not chasing it.

His arch-nemesis kitty sat 6 inches behind him, totally sticking her tongue out at him and he never knew.

My guy is no hunter.

Now a beer, he could totally murder.

Agreed. And I think destination weddings automatically lower expectations, anyway. If you want to do it, great, but you have to expect that fewer people are going to be able to attend because of financial reasons. It's a trade-off.

Heh. Bears.

Byeee, smonster! I HOPE YOU SAW THE PRINCESS.

Ha. Bears. Tossing.

Teppy, don't sweat it. As other said, it's a huge expense. I almost didn't make it to ND & Pix celebration. But did it with FF points, and couch surfing, so my only expense was food and cheap rental car. (thankfully I did the trip too, as I got a last minute job interview at my current job on that trip!)

ION- I left for work 12 minutes early, and arrived 10 minutes late. Gotta love when construction pops up overnight with no warning.

This is the first time I've left him so long. And he came in the car when my mom dropped me at the airport - so I got the Look of Ultimate Betrayal. ::whimper::

amyth, I LOVE THE PRINCESS. He is the best. Words do not suffice.

Ha. The Biscuit is brutally casual with our departures now. He loves other dogs, so he thinks the kennel is the best thing in the world. And now we've lost the kennel we really like here in town, so we hire a dog-sitter for him instead, who adores him. When we get back, he's always like, "Oh, hey!" when he sees us, but stays with his head on the dog-sitter's lap. What, no love, dog?

I love that when Calli and A. and C. take care of Lulu when I'm out of town, they send me cell phone pictures and stories about her "adventures." It definitely helps with the separation.

So, THANKS, Calli!

in about an hour, I get to be trained on how to safely drive a golf cart on campus! Woot! I know, it sounds crazy, right? But hey, if it allows me to drive the golf cart around campus, I'll do it!

Looks like I can't go to my sort-of cousin's wedding. (We're not actually related -- my mother's sister is married to her mother's brother -- but we basically treat each other as cousins, and we were on the same alternative spring break trip to Israel a few years ago and got to know each other better.) It's a Sunday night, in Brooklyn, and I just don't think that I can go to a wedding on a Sunday night in Brooklyn and then work on Monday morning in Pennsylvania.

I have been actually productive on my day off. I planned at least one day worth of classes and did a whole bunch of housecleaning. In addition to the usual cleaning stuff, I cleaned out five years worth of splatters inside my microwave (the way the microwave was positioned in my old apartment made it impossible for me to reach inside to clean it), used wood cleaner to clean all my wood furniture, and brought my bike down to the basement, which may have been way more trouble than it was worth. Next step: vacuum the living room, then clean the bathroom, then finish the lesson plan on continuity and complain to my math friends about how this textbook uses an inconsistent definition of continuity at the endpoints of intervals.