I like praise......

Ok, I admit it. Sometimes I like hearing a little praise and yes, praise will actually make me want to work harder, do better, etc. Not that I completely disregard my job without praise, but it does spur things along. It doesn't take much, really. A sincere thank you, or a quick 'hey, that looks great' are usually all I need to keep me going. But every once in a while, I'm lucky enough to get a moment of pure unsolicited validation that makes me forget every single annoying thing about working in public service and reminds me of why I choose the career that I did.

Yesterday my former place of employment hosted their annual luncheon to recognize Baltimore City public school students who are either already in or about to go to college. It's also an opportunity for the donors and businesses that financially support the organization to actually meet some of the students they're helping with their $$. Since my current job works with some of the students my old organization helps, I decided to go to yesterday's shin-dig to say hello to old colleagues and maybe catch up with a few former students I thought might be there.

It turned out one of my students who graduated from high school in 2003 and is not about to start his junior year of college was the student speaker. I've kept in touch with him since he graduated, but our emails have dwindled to about 2 or 3 times per year. I usually send an email once per semester to 'check in' and see how things are going and it's never a surprise to me that he's always doing well and involved in more activities than I would ever have the energy for. He is also a phenomenal public speaker, so I was happy to see my old employer had picked up on that an invited him to speak in front of such a large audience.

What I didn't know, was that he planned to spend a good portion of his speech speaking directly to me. After asking me to stand up and for the audience to give me a round of applause, he went on to thank me. He said if it hadn't been for me, he knew there was no way he'd be in college, and that while they might not say it to me, he knows a lot of his former classmates feel the same way. He wanted me to know that he looks forward to my emails because they're reminders that should something ever go wrong, I'm still around to help. He talked for a good minute or so, while I fought back tears and began to fiercely miss all of my former students.

That's the kind of recognition that embarrasses the crap out of me, but that deep down, I appreciate more than this student will ever know. This doesn't apply as much to my current job, but in my old job, sometimes things became so draining, it was easy to think of reasons the job just wasn't worth it. But something like what my student said only re-affirms the reasons I worked for my old organization.

Afterwards, I gave him a big hug and told him how proud I am of him. He just has one more year of college and then he graduates. Wow....it's so gratifying to see and hear about all of these students I used to know as high schools seniors making their way through college. It also makes me feel a little old. :)

Am I lucky? Heck, yeah!

This week was awful. It was a crappy, terrible, awful waste of a week. I was stressed to the point of tears, exhausted, and just plain frustrated with numerous things, all of which individually probably weren't such a big deal, but together drove me a little bit off the deep end. As a result, I was in a bad, cranky, and depressed mood all week. Until last night, that is.

I started my 2nd summer class this week, and the schedule for this one, while short-lived is way more intense than I expected it to be (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights). So not only was I not in a great mood, I was coming home late every night, too exhausted to spend any real time with the fiance, thereby compounding my stress and frustration even more. Last night however, I came home to find the fiance cooking dinner for me because he "thought it might cheer me up". Sweet, you say? Absolutely, but what makes this even sweeter is that he was cooking a full dinner at 10:00 PM, when I get home from class. Oh yeah, the "I'm-a-good-fiance" meter was off the charts as I smothered him with kisses for being such a great guy. Sigh, I'm so, so lucky.

Not that I needed to be cheered up even more after that, but the moon must have been in the 7th house and Jupiter aligned with Mars because I bought my wedding dress this morning!!! I made a random call to the bridal shop that I really loved working with inquiring about sample sales and yammering on to the owner about how much I'd fallen in love with this dress, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay full price for it, and I figured my best bet at getting THE dress was to hold out for a sample sale. Wouldn't you know, she knocked $400 off the price right there on the phone and gave me 24 hours to get in there and pay for it! You bet your behind I blew off work this morning (ok, so I actually asked my boss' permission and knew she'd probably say ok) and coerced L to metro into the 'burbs (ok, so there was no actual forcing involved) so I could try it on one last time and put some $$ down. Holy hannah, I am one excited bride! If the fiance didn't check this blog every once in a while, I'd post a huge picture of it just so you all could see how gorgeous and sparkly it is! No joke, I put that sucker on this morning and teared up as I thought about what the fiance might think about it and how excited I am to walk (or maybe run) down the aisle in it.

So, this is where we stand:

Engagement pictures, check
Wedding rings, check
Wedding dress, check

And....that's about it, so far. Hey, at least they're all fairly big (and mostly necessary) things that are done. Now if only we could finally figure out where and when.....

And back to the grind.....

What a weekend! I feel like so much happened, yet it was so relaxing, and I'm not sure how that ended up happening, especially since I seem to find it particularly difficult to just do nothing nowadays.

The biggest news, the news that has me smiling and giggling incessantly every time I think about it, is that we bought our wedding rings! You'd think that just knowing we were getting married would be enough to send me into a fit of overwhelming joy, and it is, but with every wedding thing we check off, it just gets more real, and the rings are probably the most symbolic part of the whole thing. It's only fair that buying them and having them to look at over and over (and over) again.
The fiance's ring is awesome; I love it. It's so him. My ring is obviously pretty simple (and much less yellow than this picture), but that's ok because it really looks good with my great-aunt's antique engagement ring. I literally cannot wait for the fiance to put that ring on my finger and vice versa. Yay for getting married!!

I also bought a new car! Ok, so under normal circumstances this would be THE big news, but frankly, weding rings trump a new car any day. It is still exciting, thought. Say hello to my new sapphire blue Nissan Sentra 1.8 S w/ Special Edition Package! I love it, I love it, I love it. And I have to say that it is so much
more fun to buy a car when I have a.) the fiance and b.) my future brother-in-law (and ex-car saleman) with me. I'm sure those boys at the Nissan dealer hated us by the time we left, but I also feel confident that we got a really good deal and I didn't get screwed. Sorry to all feminists who now hate me for being such a girl.

And the final word about my wonderful holiday weeked: go see Superman Returns. Right now. If I ever have a celebrity affair, I hope it's with Brandon Routh.