I think we can universally agree that getting engaged and getting a new job in the space of two days is enough to make anyone go a little insane.

It was so nice to se the different reactions to the news of the engagement – all were very positive, although from people who know me there was quite a lot of ‘What? Bec? Engaged? Is the world ending?’ and ‘Giggling and happy and being girly? That’s not Bec! When is the real Bec coming back?’

The real Bec is here… she is just happy.

I got so (happy) stressed that my blood pressure went up and my finger swelled. We thought I was having a reaction to the ring, but, no, it seems to be a stress thing.

So, I am calming down.

Don’t get me wrong. I am still ridiculously excited and have gone a bit mad with getting hold of wedding brochures for every local hotel (I think I have chosen my reception venue) and have discussed colour schemes (I have pretty much decided that) and the pros and cons of getting married in church and… oh a thousand and one things. We have come up with a mad and wonderful idea for our invitations and, therefore, the rest of the stationery. I am going to pick up some craft materials at the weekend and try it out to see how great it looks…

The thing is the we have decided to hold off on an immediate wedding to give us enough time to save up the money we need to do it properly. We want to give each other the time to give each other the kind of day we may never have hoped to be a part of. There is certainly a part of me which is considering grabbing Neil and running for Gretna Green but then I stop and calm down. I hope that I am right in thinking that this is forever, but I am not naive enough to believe that time and all the laws of nature will leave us alone.

I am just enjoying every day that we have.

The job though. Oh… I can see some late nights just trying to understand the complexities of the nightmare that I have subjected myself to. It will all be fine, and what is life without a few challenges!

Me? Engaged?

Yes.

Your life is going terribly and your only joy in life is making other people feel miserable and crappy for being happy, but really did you have to?

Neil and I did a terrible thing.  We joined in a bit of fun on Facebook (fun… you know, that thing you don’t have because you are too cool or whatever) for Valentine’s Day.  We both posted

To celebrate Valentines Day, change your profile picture to you and your spouse/significant other and make sure to tell how long you’ve been together!!

and changed our profile pictures.

Although this heinous crime raised not one eyebrow on my page, on Neil’s it got sneering from 2 complete fuckwits who really get my back up.  Is Neil not allowed to be happy and revel in his happiness?  Is it an affront to your world view that someone smiles and thinks the world isn’t a terrible place to live in for five minutes?

I’m not saying you should be all sunshine and rainbows, unicorns and candy-floss but if you wouldn’t mind terribly keeping your negative, and not entirely helpful thoughts to yourselves, you tossers of the highest degree.

And here’s something else that you probably want to sneer at.

From cute-n-tiny.com

Normal service will be resumed after a brief cuddle in front of the TV.

This is the one day of the week that we will spend together whether it be going to the cinema, having dinner, or just cuddling on the sofa watching Gilmore Girls it is the one day we… well, put it like this, there has to be quite the major emergency to stop ‘our time’.

Today, though, we were going to have a cleaning day.  The last few weeks has meant that we have been a little ‘lapse’ with the whole housekeeping thing.  We currently live in a four room flat – a kitchen that has no storage to speak of, a bathroom that is never warm, a bedroom that needs more storage and places to put girl things and a living/dining room that is very very full of furniture…but still needs more storage.

One of the things that I never realised about moving into a man’s flat was that… a man has lived there… for a while.

Stupid? Me?  Yes.

None of the furniture matches, and when I moved in, he had 2 armchairs but no sofa.  There is a red wall in the living room, and the bedroom is painted blue.  The rest of the flat is in man colours

Now, there is a table, and the joyous sofa, clothes are hung up and the bathroom has girly things in it.  Neil is awesome when it comes to girly things…  He has no problem with going to the shop for Tampax and completely understands the need for chocolate and chick flicks (yes, I even have him watching Glee -  his favourite character is Sue)… and he is coming round to the idea of fresh fruit.  He now steals my Strawberry Activia Yoghurt.

We were having a cleaning day but…

The best laid plans…

I got some awesome news about work and then we went on a mammoth conversation about the news and how things might change (all in a good way)  and… we got lost in the land of what if.  So I proclaimed a moratorium on the topic until the news becomes news.

Today was a very good day.

It was the kind of day where you define a word that you made up to entertain the dog.

Kasplootle (verb): to correct somebody else’s grammar for no other reason than for humorous purposes.

Since then things have quite dramatically changed.

I have moved in with Neil.

This is Neil

.

and the other addition to my life, Jack, doing their favourite weekend activity – watching football.

Jack is a Chelsea supporter.  No comment.

As some of you will know, and the rest of you are about to be told, I am a cat person.  I like cats.  They are low maintenance, easy to understand and… sigh… I like cats.

The thought of moving in with a dog.  It just felt wrong.  I did it July 1st.

Jack and I had an ‘interesting’ relationship from the start.  I couldn’t understand why he needed constant entertainment and he couldn’t understand why I got upset when he ate my handbags; I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t do anything I said and he couldn’t understand why I got upset when he ate my Skechers (only my Skechers mind…); I couldn’t understand why he insisted on drooling on everything and he couldn’t understand why he insited on eating my good bras.

Neil couldn’t understand why the pair of us couldn’t just get along.

Part of me wishes that I had blogged during that period of my life but I am actually quite glad I didn’t.  I got over my stupid prejudices (cats are still better) and decided that if I wanted my relationship with Neil to work I would just have to accept Jack and his fur…

It was a very good day.

Since then everything has been more peaceful.

Last night, however, I realised that I had gone beyond acceptance and had drifted over (potentially) into (dare I say it) like.

Last night Jack was attacked by a small yapper type dog, he got a bad bite on his tail.  I turned into mama bear.

Yes, Jack, I now think of you as family.

On February 14th Neil and I will have been together in ridiculous happiness for 9 months.

We have had a lot of terrible things happen to the pair of us during those 9 months.  We both lost a grandparent, I have had swine flu, we have stumbled from mini crisis to mini crisis but we have stumbled together.

I love my Neil and I know that I have never been happier.  This is one of the many stupid reasons I wanted to start writing in this blog again.  I wanted to let people know how happy I am… at last.

So, deep breath.  Let’s see what happens next.

Real money

Real responsibility

Real chance of getting my life back together.

It’s all so very real.

Is this why I am shaking so much? Is it all too real?

Real money

Real responsibility

Real chance of getting my life back together.

It’s all so very real.

Is this why I am shaking so much? Is it all too real?

Real money

Real responsibility

Real chance of getting my life back together.

It’s all so very real.

Is this why I am shaking so much? Is it all too real?

Real money

Real responsibility

Real chance of getting my life back together.

It’s all so very real.

Is this why I am shaking so much? Is it all too real?

I have lost my appetite and am losing weight.  I feel a little tired but am otherwise fine (mind you I haven’t been sleeping because of the writing but that’s another story) and well, I am so much more sensitive than usual.

Nothing more than a stiff breeze.  Seriously.

So, I have started another blog because there are some things you just can’t discuss on a site where your work colleagues and people who know you go to and marvel at the fact that you can drone on and on about nothing at all at an irregular pace.

I don’t even know what I’m going to write on there yet but I feel like if I don’t have an outlet for these feelings inside me I may explode… and not in a good way.

And I am tense anyway.  Job interview on Friday and I am really nervous about it.