1 Month Report

I have often realized that one of the reasons being an adult is sucky is because we really don't have end points to look forward to that break up the phases in our lives. When we were students, we had end points. We had tests, semesters, years, graduation. In the real world, everything is ongoing. We have holidays and vacations to look forward to, but nothing that is drastically transitional, or at least not as often. For some people, this creates comfort and stability. In others, like me, it creates a sense of unrest and stagnancy.

Getting married is one of those drastically transitional times. It created a point of reference for things like, "After the wedding, I need to... [fill in given task here]." For me, I need a kick off point like this to help me make and achieve goals. For Jericho, his goal accomplishments are ongoing so he doesn't necessarily need an excuse to make a new set of goals.

Besides no longer caring about fitting into my wedding dress, I have made changes in my everyday life since being married and have made different goals that can now use the wedding as official lift off time. By 1 month of lapsed married life, we have completed the following post-wedding tasks [though this is actually shorter since the first week was honeymoon and not actual productive time]:

• Opened all presents/cards and threw away roughly 50 pounds of wrapping paper, tissue paper, and cardboard
• Returned part of the gifts that needed returning (only a few, don't get offended, none of them were from you) and purchased more apartment necessities with gift cards and store credit
• Put away all presents and categorized gift cards, cash, checks, gift receipts
• Completed Thank You card list (to date) and completed about 90% of the cards to be written
  
• Finished unpacking everything from the move and putting it in its place, hung almost all pictures
• Added me to Jericho's checking account (allowance time!) and other banking/money matters
  
• Purchased and installed ceiling fan for bedroom (special thanks to Chip and Becca and a coincidental run-in at the Lowes, purchased the correct lights for the fan)
• Implemented universal guidelines for what should and should not be washed in the dishwasher
• Read about 3 chapters of our marriage how-to book given as a wedding present. 130 more pages and we'll be marriage experts and ready to share with all our single friends the secrets to relationships
• Re-posted Craiglist ad for my car (sniff, sniff)
• Cut my hair. I love it. I have a side part and some "bangs". It's the most drastic thing I've done to my hair in more than 3 years. I blame my childhood of tomboy-short hair and sometimes mistaken gender for my psychological attachment to long hair. I almost devoted an entire post to my new hair cut but realized it's only drastic to me so the before and after pictures wouldn't be that interesting. It's still long. I haven't done the after-marriage-chop-off-all-my-hair ritual yet.
• Started going back to the gym. (And by "started", I mean "made the goal to start going back")
• Partial completion of changes in various annoying paperwork (insurance, 401K, etc)
• Decided not to get cable and are going the Netflix route so our two giant flat screen TVs don't go to waste
• I cut Jericho's hair for the first time. We have such a trusting relationship.
  

There are lots of other little things that we have accomplished but that's the gist of it right there. The first month has been absolutely fab. We managed to unpack and organize from the move and from wedding presents really quickly so we haven't been living among boxes at all. Whenever people have asked how married life is, I have nothing but good things to say. One thing that I specifically mention is that I'm grateful that Jericho and I dated for long enough that living together wasn't a huge shock of finding out uber-annoying things that the other one does. Whenever I tell this to people they say, "Oh, just wait" or "That's so cute! You're still in the honeymoon phase!" Thanks for the optimism people. It's like being a newlywed somehow translates to "bliss clouds my judgment on reality." Oh yeah?! Well how about bitterness clouds your ability for happiness! Bam!! I'm happy and I love my husband to pieces. Deal with it!!