Regarding Organization....

Today is an important marker in my life because today I bought a planner. This is momentous because it was voluntary. When I was in middle school at the beginning of each school year the home room teachers handed 0ut free academic planners that we were required to record all of our homework assignments in and then our parents had to sign at the end of each week to indicate that we showed them the planner and, presumably, our homework. This is not that kind of planner. This is a grownup planner. Undated. So I can start using it whenever I want, meaning today. I bought this planner because as I was leaving work last Friday and trying to figure out when exactly they wanted me to come back (I'm not officially on the schedule yet) it dawned on me that my purse was stuffed with sticky notes that had important dates and numbers scribbled on them. I thought that perhaps this was not an efficient system. Something needs to be understood about me; I am the most unorganized person I know. My room at school looks similar to an underground bunker that has failed to serve its purpose and was blown up. My notebooks and folders have slowly become one binder that merrily mixes work from all four of my classes and the notes themselves are usually things like "Russian Dramatists would describe me as a long necked samovar while the Greeks would say I am akin to the fair haired Aphrodite." Which actually is irrelevant in every way. The point is that me buying a planner was a mature decision to start a new chapter in my life. Right.
Related to this, I and a fellow new hire were asked to reorganize the slips in the back room. Sounds simple right? Well first of all, bridal slips are HUGE. They are giant, puffy monstrosities that are meant to be folded and stuffed into itty-bitty-tiny bags for storage. Physics dictates that this is vaguely impossible. After several catastrophic moments in which avalanches of tulle and crinoline left me crippled on the floor, we were eventually successful in creating a neat, sorted by style number and size, wall of slips. Imagine our horror when our manager walked in and asked us to figure out which slips needed new price tags. Which is exactly when I looked at the clock and realized my shift was over. Really, I did feel bad about abandoning her but I'll admit I muttered a prayer of thanks to God for sparing me the danger of further injury and then booked it.
In the wide world of the internet I've discovered a few interesting tidbits. For those of you who will be bridesmaids soon and are on a stricter budget than your bride, this is a cool and easy up-do that you can do by yourself or with a friend's help. Click here! If your hair is already straight, you can probably skip the first two steps. I also found a website that talks about wedding traditions that can be broken, like the bride's family paying for the whole wedding. I found this funny because all I can think is do people really need a list to tell them that if the bride's parents are hard up for cash it's okay for the groom's family to chip in? I love common sense. However, I did learn from it too. I had no idea that traditionally wedding guests have up to a year to present the bride and groom with a wedding gift. According to Woman's Day magazine, the deadline nowadays is closer to three months. What's wrong with bringing your gift to the wedding...?
And bringing this full circle, for anyone getting married or anyone who knows someone getting married, wedding planners (like notebooks not Jennifer Lopez) are the most brilliant thing the wedding industry ever invented. Invest in one, if only to make sure that only the family members you like get invited. ;D