RL! *gasp*
Apr. 26th, 2011 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunasarielYeah, I know; a deluge of crazy fangirl posts lately. Don't worry, this one is only mildly insane!
The big RL news du jour is that UC acceptances are coming out, and I've been astoundingly lucky. I applied to Berkeley, LA, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Irvine, and so far I've gotten into UCLA, UCSB, UCSC, and UCI, with UCB decisions coming out on the 29th. Really, I'm amazed. Last year, I applied to Santa Cruz and Irvine, and was rejected by both. I expected things to be even worse this year, with the entire UC system in a budget crunch and all.
As far as the colleges themselves go, I've only ever been truly interested in LA and Berkeley. Santa Cruz has always been my last resort, since their focus on English and the liberal arts is...minimal at best. I took a tour there last weekend, and it's cool that your chancellor is an astrophysicist and you were the first to map the human genome and all, but that's not especially helpful when all I want to do is hide behind a stack of books by and for dead white men, with a few dead white women thrown in for flavor. I applied to UCSB on the advice of my neighbor, who went there and said that it had a good liberal arts program. But I've never actually been there, and I don't know much about it. The same goes for Irvine: it was recommended to me by a friend of the family, and it sounds nice, but nothing really jumps out and screams, "this is the college for you!" I applied to Berkeley mostly just to see if I could get in. It would also be kind of cool to go there, but UCLA has always been my real goal.
There are only two schools in California accredited by the ALA to give out library science degrees. UCLA is one, the other sucks. So I can carry out my plan of getting a bachelor's in English and then moving on to a master's in library science, all without having to go through the whole application/transfer process again. Also, I just love UCLA as a place. Both my mother's parents taught there: my grandmother was a professor of philosophy until her stroke a few years ago, and my grandfather was head of the Department of Animation until he retired, about four or five years ago. My parents met there; they took a chemistry class together (my dad for his biochem degree, my mom for pre-med) and my dad brought a Swiss chard sandwich for lunch, which my mom thought sounded funny. My favorite uncle got *his* library science degree there, so it gets his stamp of approval. So I've been hearing about how cool UCLA is for a while, and my grandpa, who's been teaching there since roughly the Paleolithic Era, has walked me around a few times. I think the campus is nice; it's good to have a lot of green around. I also, oddly enough, like how big it is. Normally, I'm a pretty shy person, but I'm looking forward to really expanding my horizons in such a gigantic, multicultural environment.
The planning for H's wedding continues apace. I've got the bachelorette party pretty much planned out (it'll start out with a bride/bridesmaids vs. groom/groomsmen laser tag match [this was H's idea], followed by just us girls going out to dinner at Benihana in San Francisco), but I'm somewhat hampered by the fact that my opposite number among the groomsmen, K, isn't exactly Mr. Organized. We're little more than three months away from the wedding itself, so I've been trying to secure the date, both among the bridesmaids and with K, who presumably will do the same with the groomsmen. I hope.
Of course, we've got two bridesmaids coming in from out of town, which has complicated things even more. One, Christine, lives only about an hour's drive away, up in Humbolt. I just met her for the first time last weekend, and she's really nice. Very bubbly and cheerleader-y, but in the best way possible. The other bridesmaid, JP, is attending a sailing college in New York, and so is either three hours ahead of me, or three hours ahead of me and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Suffice to say, it's been a bit of a hassle getting ahold of her. And I really, really don't want to screw up with her, since she's the groom's sister, and the groom's family has always disliked H. Making JP a bridesmaid was basically H extending the olive branch, so I don't want the legendary Davis-Paxton War flaring up again because JP missed the bachelorette party because I didn't get in touch with her in time.
As you may be able to tell, JESUS CHRIST PLANNING A WEDDING IS COMPLICATED! And I don't just mean the billions of little details that have to be worked out (what kind of flowers are there going to be? Are any of the guests allergic to pollen? What are the wedding favors going to be? I didn't even know that "wedding favors" existed!). No, I'm talking about the diplomatic angle of things. Both the bride and the groom have enormous families, and both families hate each other. Even within the families, there are factions and sub-factions. For example, the wedding will be taking place in a nominally Christian church, and will be performed by a pastor who's an old friend of the family. But H and C want to include a few elements of a Pagan handfasting ritual in the ceremony, which the pastor is cool with. H's grandmother, on the other hand, is a fundamentalist Christian, and might or might not freak out, but will certainly Disapprove. And as the matriarch of the Davis clan, her Disapproval is worth something. So how to both appease the grandma and have a wedding that remains true to the bride's and groom's beliefs? I sure as hell don't know.
What's worse is the wedding party itself. Here's a short rundown:
H. Bride. A's sister, K's pseudo-sister, used to have a huge crush on both P and M.
A. Maid of Honor. H's sister, K's pseudo-sister, C's pseudo-sister.
JP. Bridesmaid. C's sister, doesn't know and/or dislikes everyone else.
L: Bridesmaid. Used to date K and P. Now dating other guy, who will be at the wedding, although not in it.
Me. Bridesmaid/functional Maid of Honor. Used to date J. Some lingering tension with S, since he's J's best friend.
Christine. Bridesmaid. Has dated K and P.
C. Groom. JP's brother, A's pseudo-brother. Used to be J's best friend, but they've drifted apart.
K. Head Groomsman (I don't know if there's an official term for this). Pseudo-brother to H and A. Used to date Christine and L. Now has child with other girl, who won't be at the wedding, and is dating other other girl, who will.
J. Groomsman. Used to date me. S's best friend. Used to be C's best friend, but they've drifted apart. Long-running mini-feud with H.
JK. Groomsman. J's pet freshman. Don't really know why he's in the wedding, except that we needed one more guy to round out the numbers.
S. Groomsman. J's BFF, used to work with C.
P. Groomsman. One of C's and H's friends from the summer camp where they act as counselors. Dated Christine, but it ended amicably. Don't know much else about him.
M. Groomsman. Copy and paste P's info, except M didn't date Christine (as far as I know).
Given all this, I'm expecting a pretty fireworks-filled wedding; hopefully none of it will spill over into the actual ceremony.
Of course, there has been plenty of nerd news, but I'll save that for another day. I occasionally like to have an entirely RL-related post that *isn't* a rant now and again, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled nonsense.
The big RL news du jour is that UC acceptances are coming out, and I've been astoundingly lucky. I applied to Berkeley, LA, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Irvine, and so far I've gotten into UCLA, UCSB, UCSC, and UCI, with UCB decisions coming out on the 29th. Really, I'm amazed. Last year, I applied to Santa Cruz and Irvine, and was rejected by both. I expected things to be even worse this year, with the entire UC system in a budget crunch and all.
As far as the colleges themselves go, I've only ever been truly interested in LA and Berkeley. Santa Cruz has always been my last resort, since their focus on English and the liberal arts is...minimal at best. I took a tour there last weekend, and it's cool that your chancellor is an astrophysicist and you were the first to map the human genome and all, but that's not especially helpful when all I want to do is hide behind a stack of books by and for dead white men, with a few dead white women thrown in for flavor. I applied to UCSB on the advice of my neighbor, who went there and said that it had a good liberal arts program. But I've never actually been there, and I don't know much about it. The same goes for Irvine: it was recommended to me by a friend of the family, and it sounds nice, but nothing really jumps out and screams, "this is the college for you!" I applied to Berkeley mostly just to see if I could get in. It would also be kind of cool to go there, but UCLA has always been my real goal.
There are only two schools in California accredited by the ALA to give out library science degrees. UCLA is one, the other sucks. So I can carry out my plan of getting a bachelor's in English and then moving on to a master's in library science, all without having to go through the whole application/transfer process again. Also, I just love UCLA as a place. Both my mother's parents taught there: my grandmother was a professor of philosophy until her stroke a few years ago, and my grandfather was head of the Department of Animation until he retired, about four or five years ago. My parents met there; they took a chemistry class together (my dad for his biochem degree, my mom for pre-med) and my dad brought a Swiss chard sandwich for lunch, which my mom thought sounded funny. My favorite uncle got *his* library science degree there, so it gets his stamp of approval. So I've been hearing about how cool UCLA is for a while, and my grandpa, who's been teaching there since roughly the Paleolithic Era, has walked me around a few times. I think the campus is nice; it's good to have a lot of green around. I also, oddly enough, like how big it is. Normally, I'm a pretty shy person, but I'm looking forward to really expanding my horizons in such a gigantic, multicultural environment.
The planning for H's wedding continues apace. I've got the bachelorette party pretty much planned out (it'll start out with a bride/bridesmaids vs. groom/groomsmen laser tag match [this was H's idea], followed by just us girls going out to dinner at Benihana in San Francisco), but I'm somewhat hampered by the fact that my opposite number among the groomsmen, K, isn't exactly Mr. Organized. We're little more than three months away from the wedding itself, so I've been trying to secure the date, both among the bridesmaids and with K, who presumably will do the same with the groomsmen. I hope.
Of course, we've got two bridesmaids coming in from out of town, which has complicated things even more. One, Christine, lives only about an hour's drive away, up in Humbolt. I just met her for the first time last weekend, and she's really nice. Very bubbly and cheerleader-y, but in the best way possible. The other bridesmaid, JP, is attending a sailing college in New York, and so is either three hours ahead of me, or three hours ahead of me and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Suffice to say, it's been a bit of a hassle getting ahold of her. And I really, really don't want to screw up with her, since she's the groom's sister, and the groom's family has always disliked H. Making JP a bridesmaid was basically H extending the olive branch, so I don't want the legendary Davis-Paxton War flaring up again because JP missed the bachelorette party because I didn't get in touch with her in time.
As you may be able to tell, JESUS CHRIST PLANNING A WEDDING IS COMPLICATED! And I don't just mean the billions of little details that have to be worked out (what kind of flowers are there going to be? Are any of the guests allergic to pollen? What are the wedding favors going to be? I didn't even know that "wedding favors" existed!). No, I'm talking about the diplomatic angle of things. Both the bride and the groom have enormous families, and both families hate each other. Even within the families, there are factions and sub-factions. For example, the wedding will be taking place in a nominally Christian church, and will be performed by a pastor who's an old friend of the family. But H and C want to include a few elements of a Pagan handfasting ritual in the ceremony, which the pastor is cool with. H's grandmother, on the other hand, is a fundamentalist Christian, and might or might not freak out, but will certainly Disapprove. And as the matriarch of the Davis clan, her Disapproval is worth something. So how to both appease the grandma and have a wedding that remains true to the bride's and groom's beliefs? I sure as hell don't know.
What's worse is the wedding party itself. Here's a short rundown:
H. Bride. A's sister, K's pseudo-sister, used to have a huge crush on both P and M.
A. Maid of Honor. H's sister, K's pseudo-sister, C's pseudo-sister.
JP. Bridesmaid. C's sister, doesn't know and/or dislikes everyone else.
L: Bridesmaid. Used to date K and P. Now dating other guy, who will be at the wedding, although not in it.
Me. Bridesmaid/functional Maid of Honor. Used to date J. Some lingering tension with S, since he's J's best friend.
Christine. Bridesmaid. Has dated K and P.
C. Groom. JP's brother, A's pseudo-brother. Used to be J's best friend, but they've drifted apart.
K. Head Groomsman (I don't know if there's an official term for this). Pseudo-brother to H and A. Used to date Christine and L. Now has child with other girl, who won't be at the wedding, and is dating other other girl, who will.
J. Groomsman. Used to date me. S's best friend. Used to be C's best friend, but they've drifted apart. Long-running mini-feud with H.
JK. Groomsman. J's pet freshman. Don't really know why he's in the wedding, except that we needed one more guy to round out the numbers.
S. Groomsman. J's BFF, used to work with C.
P. Groomsman. One of C's and H's friends from the summer camp where they act as counselors. Dated Christine, but it ended amicably. Don't know much else about him.
M. Groomsman. Copy and paste P's info, except M didn't date Christine (as far as I know).
Given all this, I'm expecting a pretty fireworks-filled wedding; hopefully none of it will spill over into the actual ceremony.
Of course, there has been plenty of nerd news, but I'll save that for another day. I occasionally like to have an entirely RL-related post that *isn't* a rant now and again, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled nonsense.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 03:13 am (UTC)Also, OMG, that's a complicated wedding party! I've never planned a full-scale wedding (not even my own -- we didn't have bridesmaids or groomsmen or wedding favors or anything of the sort), but it sounds like a huge headache, especially given all these special circumstances you're dealing with.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-27 04:55 pm (UTC)Dude, that *is* Old Man Willow! I hope they have Tom Bombadil come around every so often and rescue hapless tourists/student/faculty. You all look like you're having a great time, nonetheless. Your kids are adorable, btw! Berkeley seems to be a great place to let proto-humans off the leash for a little while.
Ugh, complicated wedding party is complicated! If and when I get married, I plan to keep it as small as possible. Kudos to you for keeping away from the giant migrane inducement that is planning a full-scale wedding!
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 02:30 am (UTC)I hope they have Tom Bombadil come around every so often and rescue hapless tourists/student/faculty.
Haha, they might! If there's one place I would expect Tom Bombadil to blend in, it would be at Berkeley :P
Your kids are adorable, btw! Berkeley seems to be a great place to let proto-humans off the leash for a little while.
Thank you! :D (It was actually pretty amazing to look back over the pictures, from two years ago, or maybe two and a half, and see how much they've changed in that time.) They really did enjoy the outing (I was sick and hopped up on DayQuil, or maybe I wouldn't have looked quite so deranged.)
Husband and I planned our wedding in basically two months, in between me taking finals (I was in my last year at uni) and him teaching, but I never regretted not going for a larger affair. (Although I have to admit that my best friend's wedding at the San Francisco Zoo last year was nothing short of amazing, and well worth the incredible effort that went into it.)