Whew

What a Christmas it's been.

To sum up: My sister is pregnant. John and I are engaged. We drove 5800 miles in two weeks, including a 39-hour marathon drive from Virginia to California. My brain is still trying to process all these various pieces of information, but I'm making progress. (Note: a 39-hour straight drive is not conducive to clear thinking. In fact, my brain was complete mush for most of that.)

I know you're all thinking, "Tell us about the ring!" No ring yet. The proposal was casual, spontaneous, and incredibly romantic. Best of all, it was on New Year's Eve, so I got to spend the day thinking about my new life with my sweetie. And I got to tell my family in person, which was very much appreciated (on both sides). I've spent so many years thinking of myself as permanently single and unmarriageable--it's a bit of a brain shift to think of myself as a wife and a stepmom, but I like it a lot better.

Now we get to pull together a low-key but fun wedding in five months, as my sister will be too pregnant to travel after May. We're renting a big house and throwing a week-long party for our nearest and dearest, to conclude with the actual ceremony and the big festivities. I love entertaining, especially on a grand scale, so I'm really excited about the idea of wining and dining my friends and relatives--complete with cheesy movies, drunken Twister, and a wedding, of course. As my uncle said, "You can do whatever you want. We gave up on you getting married a long time ago."

But, oh, so many things to think about. Finances, life insurance, retirement planning, car and house plans, kids, short and long term goals, not to mention all the standard wedding hoopla, not to mention having to readjust the way I think about myself and my future, not to mention processing the fact I'm going to be an auntie--my brain reboots itself every 15 minutes or so these days. That's not a complaint, mind you.

10 years ago, I was starting graduate school at Columbia. In 1999, I started a new relationship and ended a bad one, went to London and Paris, moved to Memphis, moved to New York, and started Columbia. In the intervening decade, I got my MFA, had three serious relationships (and a score of not-serious ones), went to Jamaica, Rome, and Buenos Aires all by myself, went to Aruba, Hawaii and half of Europe with other people, was a theatre critic in New York for most of those years, discovered and pursued several new passions (food, wine, German automobiles), started two blogs, drove across the country not once but a few times (and all in the last six months), and finally, met my husband and moved to California. What a ride it's been. I hope the next decade is just as eventful and meaningful, especially now that I have someone to share it with.

So, faithful blog readers: last year you got to read about my road trip adventures. This year you get to read about my wedding/marriage/auntie adventures. Hang on.