If I was doing my new job right now, I'd be preparing for a staff meeting in Madrid, followed by a review in Barcelona.� I'm sure I'll get to a point where I will resent all of the travel, but it sounds pretty good to me right now.

Management is still saying that the transfer will happen October 1.� I think that I'll be completely out of things to do here in mid-September.� I think it's politics, but I suppose it couldn't hurt for me to be ready.

A crabby old man that I work with, just unwrapped the large object that was in his cube and gave an impromptu harp recital.� It was beautiful and one of the most unexpected things I have ever experienced.

I went out to lunch with some people yesterday, and one guy (known as "the Canadian" for obvious reasons) said to me "why are you bothering getting married if you live with the guy already?".� This is not the first time that someone has said this to me.� I think its one of those things that people in their 40's or older must believe, but it doesn't make any sense to me.� I responded that we were getting married for the same reason that he doesn't divorce his wife but continue to live with her.� I would have liked to go on to say that anyone who confuses living with someone and marriage has some serious issues.

I also have been asked recently if I'm going to wear white at my wedding.� In truth, I'm wearing ivory (and there's a khaki green bow on the back) (it looks a lot better than it sounds) but I think that counts as a yes to this question.� How shocking would it be if I walked down the aisle in hot pink?� You can't even buy a wedding dress in a different color.� So stop getting all up in my mix about it people.� If I was in my seventies and my husband had died, I could see wearing gold or something.� But I am 29 years old.� And I am having a huge church wedding.� So leave me be.

Anyway, isn't the whole hooha about this tied up with virginity?� I don't see people asking other brides if she is a virgin and then determining the A) usefulness of getting married and B) the appropriateness of the dress color.� If that were really the standard, we'd see a lot less brides and those that we saw would be in shades of mauve.

I'm certainly not proud of living with Leo.� I always said that I'd never do that again.� But our super long engagement kind of grew on us, and then we realized how much money we could save if we combined households.� Plus, I think it would be depressing for Leo to partially pay for a house that he couldn't live in.� And if Leo lived alone there...will let's just say that his unmitigated feng shui would be lethal.