Rebirth

Right now, four of my dearest friends are gathered in Richmond Upon Thames.  It's 9 o' clock in the evening and I'm sure they are gathered at Abbie's local, enjoying a fantastic pub dinner and a few bottles of Sauvignon Blanc.

Abbie's husband, Jamie, is no doubt due to pop in any minute now to join the three Scottish lasses and the lovely South African for a pint (and to try his best to keep them under control so that the next time he goes in for a drink, he won't receive another report from the bar keep that his wife  "needs to kept under control...").

Up until now, I've managed to hop the pond and be the fifth wheel on these girly weekends.  I've flown to London, Glasgow and Edinburgh to spend just a few days (or hours!) in the company of my friends and likewise, they've joined me for mad NYC shopping weekends, beach days, and cabin retreats.  What can I say? We're a package deal.

Until now.

Tomorrow morning they'll recap their night out over tea and porridge at Giraffe but there will be a coffee missing amongst those four teas.

A coffee and me.

As you know, I'm 26 weeks pregnant but it's not the pregnancy itself that kept me joining my girls, it's the expense.

With a baby on the way, we're trying really hard to watch our finances.  When Karen first emailed us all to say she would be in from Abu Dhabi on business in London, I immediately went to Kayak and checked ticket prices, telling myself that if it was under $500, I would convince Matty that I needed to go.

But the price wasn't under $500.  It was no where close; the cheapest ticket was $900 and even I couldn't justify that at this time, particularly not when we spent a ridiculous amount on our summer tickets to Scotland.

So here I am on the couch watching Oprah while my girls catch up on one another's lives: Karen's recent trip to Portugal; the status of the offer Abs and Jamie made on their dream home; Heather's rising career at the Royal Bank of Scotland; the opening of Yolandie's bistro and her upcoming move back to SA.

And I'm miserable.

I miss them so much; there's nothing, NOTHING that compares to the moments I've shared with these girls.  I don't know what it is, but there is just something special about our friendship that when I am in their company, I feel whole.

I'm trying hard to keep my sadness and jealousy in check but considering how hormonal I am, it's not easy because this is the first time that it's really hitting me: I'm having a baby and my life is about to change exponentially and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for that change.

I'll get there, I know, but it won't be this weekend.

I guess Bebe's birth will have to be my rebirth because at that point, I'll have no other option...

Alba Gu Brath, Part I

Good morning, Tobermory.

This was the third stop on our Scottish adventure

and the setting of Lynsey's wedding.  We arrived on 

the Tuesday before the Friday ceremony and quickly

fell in with new friends.  On Wednesday morning,

we hiked the muddiest trail I've ever been on to a 

lighthouse, where we met up with the groom's sister,

brother-in-law, and niece and nephew. 

Leave it to the Swiss to hike a rainy path 

with a 4 year old and 18 month old!

Our days on Mull were spent laughing and

lunching in muddy boots at posh cafes, such as 

this one (that also has a not-so-posh pub attached!)

Some chose to go whale watching while others 

stayed on dry ground for fear of heaving.

On Friday, we cleaned up for the wedding and 

witnessed a memorable ceremony at the village parish;

the Scottish/Swiss ceremony was a success, 

much like the couple itself!

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Zingg

I drove us to the reception at Glengorm Castle 

in Karen's brother's Land Rover and that was

an adventure on those single track roads!  

Upon arrival, we were met with

flutes of champagne (BeBe thoroughly enjoyed hers)

and a host of kilts and traditional Swiss costumes.

Spending time with my best friends was amazing, 

even though I couldn't enjoy myself in true Ali fashion.

The party really took off when Skerryvore took the stage

and even I braved the heaving dance floor for a few turns;

if you're familiar with Ceilidh dancing, you'll 

understand why I was a bit apprehensive to join in -

the last thing BeBe needs is to be turned into a milkshake!

This picture doesn't even look like us. Pregnancy is affecting us both!

The party raged on until the wee hours of the morn,

but Matty and I were sensible (and sober) so we drove 

back to the inn around 11pm so we could get a good sleep

in order to make the ferry to Oban bright and early.  Karen, 

however, danced the night away and was still fresh faced

at 6 in the morning despite her 4 am bedtime!  Well, almost...

Goodbye, Tobermory! We'll see you again one day, we hope!

Tomorrow, we go over the sea to Skye!

Homeward Bound

This afternoon, we're catching a ferry to Mallaig

so we can catch a train to Glasgow, followed

by a bus to the airport where we'll be staying

at the very chic Holiday Inn Express in order

to catch our flight back to Newark tomorrow.

It's quite a journey home and I'm sad to see

our time in Scotland come to an end but I'm

really excited to get back to Headquarters 

and comfort Pinkerton, who, despite enjoying 

quality time with her Uncle Erik, has been 

snubbing her nose at her bedtime snacks, 

no doubt because she misses me so much 

that she's lost her appetite.  

I miss her desperately but I've still managed 

to enjoy more than my share of haggis and 

sticky toffee pudding, although I do

 think that I've lost some weight on this 

trip (which I'll attribute to the hiking and 

walking we've been doing on a daily basis).

I'll miss the cool sea air and wearing my 

Boston sweatshirt and wellies on a daily basis

(ok, so it hasn't rained much at all but they look

so cute on me that I've been fashionably sporting them).

I'm not looking forward to cranking up the AC and 

am actually dreading the electric bill but it will be

nice to walk through Stevens Campus in the morning

sun and perhaps enjoy a midgie free outdoor lunch.

Cross fingers that we have great seats on the flight,

no airport delays, that our luggage arrives with us, 

and that Bebe enjoys the next 36 hours of traveling!

Scottish Adventures

Dearest Reader:

I can't believe it's been nine days since 

my last post; I thought I would have more

wi-fi access (and motivation) to blog on this trip

but instead, I've been happily making new

 friends like these Ba Ba Black sheep:

and having new adventures, such as the one

yesterday on the Glenelg Skye Ferry:

We have had an fab time island hopping

and spending time with our amazing friends.

My international circle has increased by two:

the lovely Swiss Nancy (one of the bride's

best friends) and, can you believe it, a 

New Jersey native from Vineland named 

Laurence who is enjoying expat status

working at Panalpina with Lynsey in Switzerland!

Most of our pics are on Matty's camera, so you'll

just have to wait until we are back in Hoboken

for the big "what I wore" reveal.  

Don't get too excited;

I kind of looked like a knocked up

 Bjork, sans feathers and insanity.

We arrive stateside on Thursday evening

and I can't wait to see Pinkerton and catch up 

with my brotha from anotha mutha, Erik, 

who's been housesitting our flat while we've

been out galavanting about Britain.  

Today's plans involve a walk along the sea

in the fresh Scottish air to one of my favorite

spots on Skye, Isle Ornsay, where the Pam Carter 

exhibition is currently showing.  We own two

of her works and are purchasing a third; the first

wedding anniversary is the paper anniversary, so 

it's the perfect excuse to add to our collection!

This is How My Summer Mornings Feel

All though I no longer live somewhere that looks like this pic, this is how my summer mornings feel during those precious moments between waking and getting swallowed by wedding planning.

That window opens each morning at 7 am and is usually closed by 11 but those four hours are the most fantastic ones of my day - and my year. I'm really sad because I only have two more summertime morning windows left here in NJ before I go back to work and am forced to put an end to my early morning routine.

No more waking up and spending the first 15 minutes devoting myself to Pinkerton's antics. No more making Matty lunch and coffee and then walking him to his train. No more morning walks for fitness up to Ogden and down to the waterfront. No more listening to NPR while walking and enjoying the sights of the city. No more stopping at Dames Coffee for a 75 cent mini cranberry scone. No more chit-chatting on the phone with Aym as I turn the corner and head to my front door. No more making myself a coffee, grabbing a yogurt, and sitting down to blog.

Nope, come September 8th, I'll have to get up 75 minutes earlier yet there will never be enough time in my day to do any of the above.

Okay, so I'm more of a glass half empty type of girl when it comes to certain aspects of my life. You probably assumed that from my post the other day when I mentioned how most girls would be over the moon with happiness if they were about to marry.

This has NOTHING to do with getting married and frankly, I'm tired of people telling me to just relax and stop thinking about anything other than that fact. Honestly, isn't that kind of insulting to assume that one aspect of a person's life can cancel out all other factors? As if we are one dimensional beings who lack the capacity for complexity?

Don't worry - I'm not the Debbie Downer you think I am. Yes, I realize that I'm leaving for Scotland on Thursday and therefore get to enjoy 12 mornings of Scottish sunrises, followed by 5 Mallorcan mornings and honestly, I can't freakin' wait - I've been looking forward to marrying Matty since the day we first kissed. Plus, I LOVE Scotland more than I'll ever love the US (sorry, I'm not un-patriotic, just honest - it's just way better in so many ways) and I can't wait to see my friends whom I haven't seen in almost a year. Mallorca is going to be insane and I'm thrilled that I'll be coming home with a kick ass Mediterranean tan!

But in terms of my life here in New Jerey, well, the next two and a half weeks don't count. Why? Because somehow, I've managed to compartmentalize the entire walking holiday, wedding weekend, and honeymoon into a tangential experience that, strangely, does not seem part of real life because it's way too lovely.

Perhaps it's because this is the latest I've ever gone abroad during the summer; maybe that fact has contributed to the surreal atmosphere that has formed around the next two and a half weeks. After all, I would usually be coming home at this point in August, having spent the summer pleasurably walking the British Isles with the girls and alone, relaxing at Alltan with a glass of wine and an episode of How Clean is Your House, and blogging from and shopping in the Kingston Upon Thames market square. It's weird to just be leaving now.

But let's be honest - what's really eating at me is that when I come home from the happiest experience of my life, I'm going to be immediately submerged in what has not always been one of the happiest experiences of my life.

Commuting two hours, round trip, a day on the NJ Turnpike is like waking up to a game of Russian roulette each morning and the thought of it beginning again - the thought of spending the next TEN MONTHS with a gun pointed at my head - is making me a little bit cagey.

So, what's La Pointe of It All? Well, that's what I need to figure out and I think I'm heading in the right direction with my recent decisions. I want every morning of my life to feel like this picture and dammit, I'm gonna make it happen.

It's Soooo ETSY: A Shout Out to Support Artists Working From Home

When is the last time you sent out a party invitation? Not an Evite, but an actual hard copy, in the post, invitation? Your wedding? A child's birthday?

Well, if you haven't recently been on the invite scene, let me tell you this - it's changed BIG TIME. Gone are the days of sitting in a bridal shoppe or at Hallmark pouring over fat, pleather bound binders; those days and ways have been replaced by my friend and yours, the internet.

It's really true - a girl can plan an entire wedding on her WiFi laptop from the comfort of her couch. I can't begin to discuss all of the remarkable changes in the wedding industry that are the direct result of the internet; perhaps I will devote a post to that once the wedding is over and I've had a chance to put my wedding planning experience into perspective, but that's not the point of today's blog.

Today I want to give a HUGE shout to one of my favorite online marketplaces, ETSY and in particular, to one of its vendors, LaurenLoweDesigns.

As some of you may know, this past week was marked by a few late in the game changes to our wedding celebrations and I've had to think fast and re-organize. Fortunately, they came on the tail end of my FML attitude and were quickly diverted and embraced by my new Zenish one. Because I am leaving the country two weeks from today (yikes!), I went to work immediately taking care of business and one of the first details was to find new invitations and someone to print them.

I considered my options and it went something like this:

• Although I ADORE our custom design invitation to our Scottish ceremony, there was no way I was heading back up to Washington Street and emptying what is left of my dwindling bank account on 3 times as many invitations (note to all non teachers: in New Jersey, there is no such thing as getting paid in the summer. The paychecks end on the last day of school and in my case, do not commence until September 15th. This is week 8 without a paycheck - not ideal when you're wedding is three weeks away).
• EVITE is EVIL. I will NEVER send another Evite, so help me god. The Evite, in my opinion, engenders procrastination and removes responsibility by devaluing the event and, sadly, by doing so, devaluing the event planner/honoree. I've learned my lesson the Ehard way.
• I checked out the big online retailers that have jumped out to me from the pages of the 23948239847 bridal magazines I've purchased over the past four months, ones such as Weddingpaperdivas, and was frankly, overwhelmed by the options and complexity of the ordering process.
• I hit up Etsy. If you're behind the Etsy curve, it's an online marketplace for mom and pop type stores and home based artisans, craftspeople, retailers, etc. and focuses primarily on handmade and vintage goods of all kinds: jewelry (check out WiredbyWhitney), clothing, decorative items, stationary, antiques, etc.

I spent about 15 minutes browsing the hundreds of vendor before making the solid decision to use an Etsy vendor. I searched by theme and color combinations and narrowed by choice down to 3 vendors. I emailed a brief request to each and explained my situation, asked if she required a minimum order and inquired as to how quickly she could have the invites on my doorstep.

Within minutes, Lauren from LaurenLoweDesigns emailed me back and said not only could she do my number of invites in a timely fashion, but she could even start on them immediately that evening! We emailed back and forth a few times (sorry Isabella and Pete for my iPhone emailing rudeness the other night while we were out and thanks for being so understanding!) and before I went to bed that evening, I had the invitation proof in my inbox!

Lauren was amazing - she was eager, efficient, and effective and I am impressed by her professionalism, workmanship and artistic flexibility.

More so, however, I am shocked by her turn around time - I sent her my initial email Tuesday evening at 8 pm and this afternoon, I received an email that she Fed Ex'd my order this morning! I'm so excited that I'm about to email her and ask if she'll do a custom design for me for another event I'm planning!

I truly believe that the internet is going to save small business persons, artists, writers, and craftsman; it's a bridge that affords artists a way to traffic their work out into the world so it can reach people like me and dammit, that makes me feel really good. I was happy to send money to an artist for the employment of her specific skill set and doubly happy knowing she was earning money doing what she loves to do from the comfort of her home.

So, the next time you need a gift for someone, new business cards, a set of thank you notes, decorations for your child's birthday party, a special dress for a party, a veil for your wedding, a storage option to organize your desk, or a pair of pretty earrings, check outwww.etsy.com and support an artist!