Variety hour (plus weekend update)

Today, for the first time in more than four years, my coworkers found out what I do. I did a presentation at our staff meeting today, adapting a presentation I do at trainings for new people in the school districts, and for nearly an hour people listened to ME for once. And asked ME questions. And paid attention to ME. It felt really, really good, in a strange way. I've spent more than four years attending staff meetings, having to listen to other people's projects and conferences and such, never having anything to do with my job or my program. Today, it was My Turn, and I got a lot of compliments on my presentation. Woot!

I'm also starting to feel a little better, like I have enough energy to do things like go for walks and work out. Yesterday, Dan and I walked to the ice cream shop (Lik's!) because it was sunny and over 60F, a rarity for January, so we took advantage of it. His assignment for his photography class involved introducing an element of randomness into two rolls of film. So I got to choose what he shot and when, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We walked around in the park after we had ice cream (which was good, but no gelato) and watched the doggies gamboling and the kids swinging and the people playing frisbee in the rare January warmth. It's supposed to get really cold again by the end of this week, so I'm glad we had a chance to walk around outside. Today I plan to go to the gym to work off some of the adrenaline-fueled energy I have from giving the presentation this morning. Plus, I'm feeling better enough that it's about time I get back to my routine. I still want that dress to fit, after all.

Speaking of dresses, this weekend was also full of Getting Wedding Stuff Done. I found a fabric store here in Denver with an Entire Room full of the kind of fabric I need to make the bridesmaid dresses, so I had quite a bit more to choose from than I expected to have. I'm really excited to start working on these; I think they will be gorgeous. And we also met with an independent jewelry designer-type person who will be making our wedding rings. My finger feels nekkid, since she's got my engagement ring so she can make a wax cast of it in order to fit the wedding ring to match exactly. I'm so excited to see what she comes up with for our rings, which were really the last big thing we hadn't figured out yet.

Also, we took down the Christmas tree, since it was our first opportunity to do so when we both felt healthy enough to put the effort into it (and it was light enough while we were both home). I don't think I've ever seen a tree that dry before. It's been drier than usual this winter, and the tree sat in our house for a month with no water, so I'm actually surprised it managed to leave the house with any needles intact at all. I took a few pictures of needle carnage with Dan's digital camera but I will have to wait until he gets home tonight so he can show me how to upload them and I can post them for you all to see. I'm just glad we mostly have wood/linoleum floors!

Thanks for all your comments on my previous post. I found it really interesting how people's taste seemed to differ in terms of which photos you all liked best. We chose our five favorites (with one alternate that we loved almost as much) and sent the list to the photographer. I have no idea what that means (he just asked for our five favorites), but in case you're curious, our top five were: 6233, 6292, 6858, 6973, 7000. Alternate: 6896.