Girl, Interrupted

Just a brief interruption on this training blog to announce that there was a shiny present for me on Christmas Eve.  Nick asked me to marry him.  And, after some crying and hugging, I said yes.  Everyone is asking if I will be getting married in the summer, but the answer is no.  People, we have a Half Ironman to get ready for in July!!!!


I'm making a promise to you and myself that this will be my only post about wedding planning....  So for those of you that have asked questions and my answer was, "We don't know yet," then keep reading.  For everyone else, Happy Tiki might actually want to ride on the road soon, so check back for an update in a few days.


No date set, but it will be in the fall 2012.


What is the silver lining about planning a wedding when you're older?  You've been to so many of them that you know exactly what you want.  I know the Sun Devil is in the details, but after only a few hours of perusing the Internet, we've made several big decisions and know what WE want.  Of course, priority is to find a venue and set a date.  Fortunately, we have a lot of people that love us.  Unfortunately, that means they all want to come.  My family has tentacles with three dads and siblings galore.  Nick is Chinese Thai.  Have you been to an Asian wedding before?  They have 400 people there.  Do we want that?  No.  Even 200 people is a compromise yet hours of research has produced very little results and all of those venues are already reserved.  Yes, there are banquet halls, and hotels, and event centers that will easily accommodate that many people, but that isn't what we want (nor what we want to pay for).  Move it to the winter.  Wait until 2013.  Destination wedding.  No, no, and most likely no.  


There is a magic number that would still give us OUR special day to make that commitment to each other with our best family and friends to share the occasion.  I love my badass brother.  Of course he will be at the wedding and will play a role in it.  But if I need advice or hit a rocky point in my relationship, am I going to call him?  No.  It will be a friend.  If the true spirit of a wedding is to be surrounded by witnesses that will help you share your love and will be there to remind you of that love when things get tough, then where did this obligation come in that families come first? We have to quickly decide if we give up what we want to get everyone there, or we each make the difficult decision to exclude some friends that are a part of our lives, but maybe not as close to as we used to be.  We didn't expect to have to make such difficult decisions straight out of the gate.


Over the past year, there were many instances where I said to Nick, "OK, no more talking about Ironman" or "Let's not talk about training anymore." The same rules will have to be applied about a wedding. We're already tired of it and it's only been 3 days (although that's because I am pushing to get some stuff done now before I start working full-time again next week).  In addition, knowing me, I absolutely will have to set limits on myself that anything wedding related cannot be touched until after the day's training plan is completed.  Period. Unlike Ironman, I actually have a time goal for both Lavaman and Vineman, which means hopefully getting my foot fixed and getting faster. Training for Ironman exhausted me physically and challenged me mentally.  This is going to exhaust me mentally.  Who knows? I might even look forward to workouts just so I don't have to think about the ubiquitous to-do list.  *gasp*