The sweet smell of pIzza

I just got home and it's Valentine's Day. Sweetpea is busy making, yes making, pizza in the kitchen. He makes awesome pizza, special for his non cheese eating, vegetarian fiance. My red roses are in the vase he bought me last year and I could not be happier. We have Nora Jones on the stereo, a bottle of chardonnay "breathing" and pizza in the oven. By next year at this time, we could have something else in the oven and who knows what else may be happening. It's so precious, this time when it's just "us". I hope someday there will be at least one little one (I know, it's better to have two, but let me just think about one at a time, please!!!). But right now, I am really enjoying being a couple. Even when Sweetpea was not living here, I felt it was a time to cherish. The anticipation of seeing him on the weekends made that time so treasured and exquisitely tender.
Now that he lives here I can see how people take each other for granted. We sit on the sofa on our respective laptops and I hate to think that I could forget how much I used to long for his company, now that I have it all the time.
I resolve on this Valentine's Day to make sure to always value my sweetpea's company, his thoughts, his cooking and our life together. Now if you will excuse me, I have pizza to eat...
Hasta Luego,
Dr.A

It's time

Okay, time for a new post. I got a bunch of blogging out of my system and now I am stagnating. Sweetpea moved in with me!!! It's been super crazy busy, with all the packing and moving and unpacking, but surprisingly all has gone very smoothly. No fighting about what to keep and what to give away. We have really been planning this for a while, so we had discussed a bunch of giving away, throwing away and storage prior to the move. Thus, things are good! I'm so happy when I come home and see his motorcycle in the garage. It would be so nice to say 'in the driveway', but I don't have a house. I have a condo. Thankfully, it's two bedrooms. And has laundry. The one thing I did not anticipate was the increase in laundry volume. I feel like we are drowning in laundry. Sweetpea has to learn to use the machines, but I am so compulsive about my laundry (delicates, handwash, cold, warm, bleach, etc) that it's probably best if I do it. It might be a weekend seminar otherwise.
He's been cooking, it is lovely. Finally, I am just so happy that he is here. He is right now rearranging the kitchen. Soo cute. Ok sorry.
In other news: I buckled and hired a wedding coordinator. And now I can finally sleep at night. I was worried about how I would coordinate everything the day of my wedding, and not lose my mind. Everyone I spoke to said that either the best thing they did was hire a wedding coordinator, or the worst thing they did was take it all on themselves. In between there are those amazing people who can actually delegate the various and assorted responsibilities successfully, but my day will be tight on time and I don't think our friends will have time to get up there, show me the love, and also do their tasks. Nope, it's all taken care of. The florist, the transportation shuttles, etceterah.
Any new pictures? Not so much, Let's see. I am going for a trial run on my hair and makeup next week, here are some pics of how I would like my hair to look:



We shall see if the actual pictures of me look anything like this next week!
Ok, well I can't think of any other big exciting news right now, except that my favorite baby is coming to see us this weekend, and he is bringing his parents, K &A, we are making them hotdogs and french fries!
Hasta luego
Dr. A

My favorite baby

And one more post: little Pele, my favorite little guy.

He's waving to me! So precocious at only two and a half months.









Thank you Pele. We have to find you a baby suit for the wedding. Or else print up a t-shirt with our pictures on it saying 'hooray for love".
Hasta luego
Dr. A

Blog till you drop

It's February 1st. That means I officially only have six months to go. That might sound like a lot but there are at least three weekend in which I will be totally busy (Drea's bday, going home in May and hopefully Bachelorette weekend). That's scary. We have gotten a lot done, but we have so much left to do. We have not planned out our ceremony yet. "The Rabbi" assigned us a book to read. Bart is almost done with it, I am planning to read it too. Then, we can start to plan the specifics. The Rabbi gave us a book with all the different options he likes for each component of the ceremony, which is nice. It has readings and vows, etc. So it's not totally daunting, but still. Then I have to figure out how to make programs. That's what you call a DIY (do it yourself) project for most people. My version of DIY is usually paying someone to DIFM (do it for me). But I do want to try to do some things myself. I feel a huge sense of pride and accomplishment when I do it myself. Interestingly, more pride and accomplishment than I feel about finishing medical school and residency. I guess those were necessary evils, whereas wedding programs (or baby shower invites, scrapbooks, etc) are creative projects. Aka, something I didn't have to do. Something I created. It's amazing how satisfying that is. Especially since it does NOT come naturally to me. So DIY it will be. Not the invites though, I am buying those. They are quite beautiful, I don't have a picture yet. My DIY skills are not nearly there yet. Or likely ever.
Some more pics for planning:
This is the bridemaids' dress. You have to turn sideways to look at it, because I cannot figure out how to turn it upright.







This is the color scheme "paprika and chocolate"
(see below)














Wow, I got rid of the underlining. That was intense. I must have hit some button and everything was being underlined. I had to go to the Html script to delete the command. That was complicated. Whew, glad it's over.
Now back to the important stuff! The Jr. bridesmaids will be wearing the chocolate with the rust color sash. These are the junior bridesmaids, my little goddaughters, the future chefs. And I got the flower girls cute J Crew dresses in ivory with an espresso sash. Love it.



These are the flower girls: my future nieces! (H & A)


















Ah, why am I blogging, I have so much work to do!!!
Hasta luego
Dr. A

Engagement photos

I know, wedding, wedding and more wedding, but.. it IS my blog and I'll post what I want to!
A fabulous photographer took our much anticipated engagment photos session, and we had a great time. Credit to Photography by Kemmeo. Highly recommended. Here are just a few of our many fantastic shots.
Kickin back in the sunshine!

Ooh, a smoochy picture, scandalous! These are taken at the Berkeley Rose Garden
And these are from Tilden Botanical Garden. look at that beautiful Manzanita tree!
Could this one be any cute? I don't think so.
Thanks so much to Photography by Kemmeo. What an amazing photographer!!!

Dude, where are my shoes?

I know it is early to be worried about this, but I can't find a pair of wedding shoes. Seems ridiculous actually, I never thought this would be something that would so completely elude me. We have our place, our photog, our videographer, our florist, my dress, I even have some of the gifts for the bridesmaids. I ordered crystal hair pins and I have my jewelery. But no shoes. I guess the main problem is, I don't want my feet to hurt. When your feet hurt, that is all you can think about: "When can I take these F'in shoes off??" It's a form of socially acceptable torture. Pointy toes, pointy heels, too wide, too narrow, there are so many ways to abuse one's feet. And of course they have to be somewhat cute. I can't very well shuffle through my wedding in my Dansko clogs. This is almost an existential dilemma. What is more important in my life, fashion, or comfort? Initially I thought, no one really sees the shoes anyway. But, the more I look at wedding blogs and bios, the more pictures of shoes I have seen. It seems to be a classic wedding pic. Gotta snap at least ONE of the bride's shoes. Ha, maybe I can get one pair for the pictures and one to actually wear! That's so fraudulent. It says "It's not that I can't afford cute shoes, or that I can't pick out cute shoes, it's just that I choose not to wear them!"
Fortunately the shoe websites post reviews. Even the comfortable looking shoes are often poorly reviewed. Someone could make millions just producing comfortable dress shoes. I have already bought two pairs and returned them. Three actually, because I ordered one in two different sizes.
And no, I have not forgotten that the most important thing is my sweet wonderful fiance and the spiritual bond between us, but how can I concentrate on that if my feet are burning? Well fortunately I have 3-4 months to find shoes (because of course you need the shoes to get the dress altered). I know, I know, it will all be fine. I'm off to the Aerosoles store!
Actually not right now, since it is 9pm. Maybe tomorrow I will make it to the gym.

Up at 5 am

I should be at the gym. I used to go regularly at this time. I even woke up early enough, but I have not been going for two months and it so hard to kick start again. I even rolled out the yoga mat, thinking I can do that instead.. but let me check me email first... famous last words. Tomorrow is a good day for all that exercise stuff. I swear. Really.
To continue my story, the day after I got engaged was my birthday. I called my parents, my friends, far and wide. My sweetpea's parents came into town and were thrilled to learn that we were engaged (although they kept asking me why I wanted to marry him. Maybe this should have raised some red flags?). Since it was my bday, we already had some celebrations planned, one with future in-laws at Delfina and one with friends at a bar, which became engagement celebrations.
Prior to all this in the same week, my dear friend K, had a baby after a long arduous labor that I was a witness to for about 12 of the total 18 hours. It was a crazy week. Fotunately i had the forethought to take the week off. As we like to say, my 'ESPN' was working well! Hmm, I really wish I knew how to move the pictures around. If anyone actually reads this and has any advice, feel free to pass it on.
We went to Pave jewelers to have the diamond set. Sweetpea's mom helped me pick out a beautiful setting. They took five long weeks to make the ring so it was more like a Christmas present when I finally got it. Gorgeous. My baby treats me good!
When I returned to work after my week off, everyone immediately looked at my finger and asked "how was your vacation?" in a disappointed tone. It was fun to surprise them. My family at work has been waiting for this moment for years. Pam has been offering to buy a bridesmaid's dress since we met!
Ok, now I have to go meditate. I promised myself this weekend I would meditate daily. We attended a mindfulness retreat at Spirit Rock meditation center, dicusssing how mindfulness relates to the biology of the brain. The brain is essentially the tool of the mind and can be trained to work the way we want, instead of its seemingly random functioning that gets us into trouble. Or maybe I should speak for myself! My brain is a but more random than most. Oooohhhhhmmmmmmmm.
Dr. A