I have a new last name now. WOO HOO! I am so happily married, and I am so blessed and so thankful! Charles and I are home from the honeymoon now, staying in Knoxville a few more days so I can drive my dad to his doctor's appointment, and then it's HOME to our apartment in Murf. :) I am so happy. The beach was great. I'll post pictures when I have them!
Kenobi grew while we were gone! Oh my gosh! And I haven't been to see Frodo yet, but I can't wait!
Everything is perfect. Thank God!

Charles remembered my birthday! and so did some of my friends! :) :) That is all I wanted, but Charles outdid himself and got me an iPod Shuffle! :) :) :) he offered to get me an iPod mini instead, but i think the shuffle is great. it is my first apple product ever. :) I am so excited. I named it "Zilp Spee". :)
We are in Knoxville getting ready for the wedding... things are crazy. I'll post pictures when I have some! :) :) :)

I am thinking about birthdays. Mine is coming up, and my family used to celebrate birthdays, but after my mom died (many moons ago) my family just sort of...stopped. I don't really mind so much that the family doesn't celebrate because things like that are awkward and painful. I am sure my sister will get me something, and I will get her something in a few weeks when hers rolls around. And I don't even want presents... all I want is for my closest friends to remember. I don't want a party, or gifts, or cake, I just want my best friends to remember. Charles is the greatest living man on the planet, but he has a bad memory. It doesn't really matter if he forgets my birthday, except for the awkwardness that will come when he remembers that he forgot. Oh well, no matter what happens, it will be the best birthday ever, because 2 days later I will become Mrs.Charles Galyon. I am so blessed to have such great people in my life. :)

I will be married in a week. :) One week from today. I have a lot to do. I also need to buy some birthday presents for some people. Wheeeeee!! I can't wait to be Mrs.Charles Galyon. :)
He's a hottie. :) :) :) :)

I just don't know if I am cut out for research. I kind of entered this program to get my foot in the door and with the hopes that I would learn to like research and that I would learn things that would help me later on. Well, I definitely feel like my interest in reading other people's research has developed, and I feel that I have learned a lot so far (honestly more than I expected to!). I like Dr.B and my classmates, but the thought of actually doing research is terrifying to me. I am trying to do something for my literature review this summer and I just freeze up when I think about running an experiment. It is scary and not at all fun.
Well I guess life isn't about fun, is it? Things in life are great now though so I have no room to complain. In less than two weeks I'll be MARRIED. :) I am very excited. Things are going great with Charles's work, too, so that is really nice. I am a very happy person right now, just a little stressed about the career aspects of my future. Money is by no means the most important thing, but it seems that a lack of money can remove a disproportionate amount of joy and potential from life. Bethany, i *might* try going to your church this weekend... if I can get up the courage, I think it would really lift my mood. But I warn any Belle Aire people now, I don't have any "nice clothes" so I hope I don't look too slummy.

I am trying to make honeymoon plans, and everything is heartbreakingly expensive. That's all I've got to say about that. :/

It is almost time to go back to Knoxville. Charles is getting very tired of the drive. I love going home and seeing my dad and sister and the kitties, then hanging out with our friends. We don't have too many friends here in Murf, we pretty much stay home all the time. The other day we did go to lunch with Stayc at Toot's. That Toot's burger was AWESOME by the way. Bethany it is too bad you couldn't come. I have a wedding invitation to give to you if I can see you sometime.
Well I guess I'd better start getting ready and then I'll wake Charles up. Hopefully today will be a good day, and hopefully Kenobi won't meow all throughout the 3 hour drive.
Oh, one more thing, Dr.B introduced me to an undergrad girl named Michele that has similar research interests as I do. She is going to take me on a tour of Mercy Ministries in Antioch, and if I like it, I am going to try to volunteer there after the wedding. It is a Christian Counseling home for girls with various problems. I am excited, so I hope it works out!

I am not Baptist, but I was thinking of trying out your church sometime, since it is almost across the street from where I live and cause I need more good in my life. Is there a Wed. night service I could go to? If so, are new people allowed to go, and if so, when and where is it? I have just been a little overwhelmed and lost a little focus, I thought this might help. Anyone?

Charles and I went to a friend's wedding this past weekend. It was beautiful. Weddings are awesome. :) There were some surreal moments though-- things just didn't seem real. Charles was a groomsman, and the bride (who is from Taiwan) had her Taiwanese friends as bridesmaids, so somewhere there are going to be a lot of pictures of Charles with a cute Asian girl and I'll just have to try not to be jealous.
There was a lot of stress over the weekend, due to talk of bachelor parties, and the occassional evil person trying to force Charles to see strippers, boobies, or porn when his turn comes around. It really hurts my feelings when people that are supposed to be our friends want to corrupt us, or when they disregard my obvious unhappiness with the bachelor party situation. So Charles and I had a series of long talks and lots of stress. Well, there were several uncomfortable moments, but all in all I count the weekend as a success. Seeing Michael and Jiun-Fei get married makes my own wedding seem so much more real! I am looking forward to it so much. :)
The introductions of Frodo and Kenobi are going slowly but well. Hopefully that will keep up so that eventually we can all sit happily in the same room together. :)
I have been thinking a lot lately about creepy things- ghosts and things like that. I have been wondering whether the devil really takes an active role in trying to misguide us, or if it is more of a passive stance. The bridesmaid that Charles escorted at Michael's wedding had a severe injury from Taiwan- she was walking through the city, and a woman jumped out of a high building to kill herself, and landed on this girl. She was in the hospital for weeks, is traumatized, and has nerve damage. It really bothered me to hear that, because suicide is so harmful anyways, but to hurt someone else is so careless. :( That poor girl. It has been on my mind a lot, so I am trying to be more positive. Some things are so sad. :/
Well I'd better wrap this up and get ready for the day.

Today I found out that Stacy is moving to Indiana. Blah. Hopefully she and Bethany and Charles and I can get together to eat next week. This weekend I am going to Knoxville for a good friend's wedding- Charles is a groomsman- Michael is the one that introduced me to Charles, and they have been friends for.... over 15 years I think. The thing that had me really upset was that there was going to be a bachelor's party. I can't handle that well. The thought of strippers or porn just makes me nauseous and insecure. Luckily, Charles talked to the guy that is throwing the party, and the guy *who is a friend of ours* agree to let girls come along and we will just be doing geeky things- good clean fun. I hate how insecure I am, but I am glad that the situation worked out. So this weekend I will be in Knoxville for the rehearsal, bachelor party, and ceremony. Then it's back to Murf, and then back to Knoxville NEXT weekend for a baby shower. Bethany, if you read this, can I have your mailing address please? You can e-mail it if you don't want to post it for the world to see. ;) Thanks. Hope everyone else is doing well. :)

I just watched TV for a little while and now I am scared that my loved ones will die. Sometimes I just get that way. :/ I hope everything goes OK and that I am next to die.

Anyways, today I went to my first bridal shower. I got some very nice gifts, everyone was really nice, the food was wonderful. All the same, I felt very uncomfortable. Everyone was looking at me, and I don't handle that well. I feel very awkward around people. It went better than I expected, though.

I took Kenobi to the vet where I used to work in Knoxville. He has an upper respiratory infection, and so they gave us antibiotics and an antihistamine. They also said he couldn't take in enough fluids, so they injected fluids under his skin, giving him a bit of a camel hump. :) He is supposedly going to get better soon. We have been really worried about him. The vet gave him a lot of compliments, many people loved him.

Well, I am gonna go surf the net and maybe play a little World of Warcraft.

photo from captainkira


Here is Kenobi after we got him home yesterday. He was still drugged up from being neutered. He has livened up quite a bit since this was taken. He is great so far. :) I'll post more later about some other things. Have a nice day!

Charles and I went out last night with two friends of ours that live in Antioch. We went to the mall out there and had a good time. Charles looked at wedding bands, because we have already bought mine but we haven't ordered his yet. We discovered that you can get wedding bands made out of tungsten, and he is very intrigued by this. So we looked around for awhile, saw things I wish we could afford (I need a new purse, because Hello Kitty is getting rather ratty!), and had a good time hanging out with our friends. Then we went back to their apartment and watched a little TV about serial killers. We came home and researched tungsten wedding bands on the internet, and Charles found one that he really really really wants- its engraving matches mine, so I really like it too. It is a little expensive so we are gonna start calling places to see if we can get it any cheaper. Then I went to bed and had nightmares about serial killers. Then I had a dream that Charles and I went on our honeymoon and neither of us could remember getting married, and it turned out that we had decided to skip our own wedding. :/ I guess the stress is maybe getting to me in real life? I can't wait to be married, but I think planning a wedding in my first semester of grad school was overly ambitious. Don't get me wrong, I am happy and things in life are far more good than bad. I just don't want to buckle under the stress. Grad school looks so easy for everyone else. Everyone just smiles through it like it's no big deal. Maybe I'm not cut out for it. Oh well, we'll see.
Tomorrow we pick up Kenobi from the vet, and we are going to Knoxville for part of next week, so I will have lots of time to think about things. Have a good day everyone. :)

I went to the shelter today and adopted the cute little kitten! We get to pick him up on Monday afternoon. :) WOO HOO!!!!!! I can't wait to introduce him to Frodo. :) wheeeeee!

In other news, I haven't gotten my grade for Group Dynamics yet because there is a hold on my account. Goodness. I don't know why there is a hold, but I am guessing it is because Charles got a parking ticket, and the parking tag is in my name. Would that cause a hold? Cause I swear I have not committed any other offenses. I really really really want an A in that class. I doubt I will have an A, though, cause I didn't do well on my graduate paper, and so I am guessing I won't do well on my group analysis paper either. And even though I want an A really badly, if I get an A and Justin doesn't, I will never hear the end of it. GO JUSTIN- GET AN A!

I hope everyone else is having a good day. :)

photo from captainkira
Tomorrow Charles and I are going to try to adopt this kitten from the animal shelter. We have been wanting a kitten for a LONG time, to play with Frodo and to love. We were planning to wait until after our honeymoon so we wouldn't have to find a pet sitter, but we couldn't help ourselves. We found this one today on line, then drove out to the shelter to look at him and some others. We totally fell in love with him, but before we can adopt him, the shelter has to call our landlord and ask if it is OK. The apartment office was closed, so we have to go back tomorrow, and they wouldn't hold him for us, so we are afraid that someone else may take him. :( If we get him, we are naming him Kenobi. He is nine weeks old, and he is a polydactyl cat-- he has six toes on both front feet. :) I already love him, so if all goes well, we have a kitten very soon. If someone else takes him, I will be sad that we missed out, but we would probably get another kitten, so the worst case scenario is that TWO kittens would have new homes instead of just one. We hope Frodo adjusts well to his new little brother. I've got my fingers crossed!! :)

photo from captainkira
Sometimes I feel like doing the dance of joy... just like Larry and Balki do.

Nathan asked to be my friend! This is so exciting. Hi, Nathan. I don't know you, but I am guessing you are related to Bethany. :) Hello. This site is awesome.... when I have a little more time, I'll add more pictures. For now, I can be seen at my super-cheesy website, www.captainkira.com. :)

Hidey Ho! I learned about this site from Bethany. I will tell others about it, but for now I will just post private stuff. Today was a good day- ate lunch with friends that I would like to get to know better, met with a professor, and spent time with Charles. Things in life are mostly good. I am grateful to have what I have and have been thinking a lot about marriage. Can't wait til July. :) :) :) :) :)
That is all for now.