Better Mornings, Courtesy of the Keurig

I am not a morning person. At all. I'm a night owl and I've always preferred to stay up late than wake up early.

And since I haven't had a set schedule in quite a while, my dislike for mornings is stronger than ever and I'm out of practice when it comes to getting up to an alarm. (Even during grad school, my classes were at night so I was always up late and sleeping in.) But I do try and force myself to get up to an alarm and not stay up 'til all hours of the night.

Thanks to Santa, getting up in the A.M. has gotten a little easier since Christmas. I found an awesome Keurig coffee maker under the tree for me. With the Keurig, I can make one perfectly-brewed cup of coffee at a time. I will admit that I've never been great at making coffee so it's nice not to worry about measuring out the coffee grounds each morning and then wondering how my coffee would taste. It's also less wasteful since it only makes one cup at a time; I'm not brewing half-a-pot of coffee and then dumping most of it out after only drinking one cup. There's a great selection of flavored coffee K-Cups, too.

All right, now I'm starting to sound like a commercial when I really just wanted to salute my Keurig for making my mornings easier. And I guess I should salute "Santa" for giving it to me, too. Thanks Mom & Dad!

The End of Wedding Season (at least for now)

This weekend, we were in New Hampshire for a lovely wedding at UNH. Saturday was the fourth (and final) wedding Rick and I went to in 2009 and it's the eighth wedding I've been to in the past 13 months. The past two summers (actually, the past three) have been full of weddings and wedding-related activities and I don't think it will be letting up anytime soon.

When I was a senior in college, one of my best friends got engaged and asked me to be her maid of honor. Once I started telling people about Kelly's wedding, which took place a year after we graduated, I kept hearing that the next 10 years or so would be jam-packed with weddings. I didn't really believe it since it seemed far off, but fast-forward a few years later and I've been to 10 weddings since college: eight in the aforementioned 13 months, plus there were two weddings I was invited to and could not attend. (Fun fact: I've been to four weddings in the last year where the groom was named Mike.)

Not that it's a problem for me-- I love weddings. Drinking, dancing, cake-- a day (or evening) full of my favorite things! I just can't believe how fast all this period of life came on. It seems like one minute you're singing "Sweet Caroline" at your favorite college bar and the next minute you're singing "Sweet Caroline" at your friend's wedding. (By the way, some of my friends have created the awesome tradition of having "Sweet Caroline" as the last song at their reception. Amazing and I would recommend that others adopt said tradition.)

I still have plenty of weddings to attend-- there are already three on the calendar for the next two years, with more to be added, I'm sure-- and I'll be ready for them. All of these weddings may have seemed to come up on us quickly, but they really are a blast.

Update(9-28-09): I'm now not just attending three weddings in the next two years, I'll be in one of those weddings! Woo Hoo!