newb

melizabethp

I'm expecting a "who are you?" any minute, so quickly...

I joined the site a couple years ago to help plan a wedding, but didn't do much with it. Now that I'm in my best friend's wedding this year and helping her with some planning (and I do so enjoy wedding planning-type things, having been to a couple dozen weddings in the last several years), I'm cruising around again. This board's name caught my eye. Based on my extensive lurking, it seems like a fun, friendly place.

I'm in my late 20s, and I'm a journalist in west-central Illinois (not the Chicago suburbs, but thanks, TK). I enjoy creativity, nerdiness (especially Doctor Who) and snark. I hate idiots. My work brings me into contact with many idiots, but it also allows for LOTS of creativity, nerdiness and snark, so it works out well. (It also explains why I originally joined this site as Press and had to put in a dummy wedding date that I can't get rid of now -- RAGE FACE.)

SO & I have been together almost three years. We met and became friends at church in our hometown (St. Louis), but didn't start "talking"-talking until we reconnected on Facebook several months after I moved out of the area for grad school. We've been long-distance for most of our relationship (his work allowed him to join me for several months when I first moved here a couple years ago); we're currently separated by most of Missouri while he pursues his master's degree in political science in Kansas City. We have a lot of fun together, though, even when we're just BSing on the phone at night. "We go together like a wink and a smile."

So! Hello. I look forward to chatting with y'all.

eirwyn

Hi! We go through western IL and KC pretty often. BF moved here from Albuquerque, so we take Amtrak's Southwest Chief out there to visit his family/friends a couple times per year. We also used to ride it when we were dating, before he moved here. I love trains.

How much longer until you can be together? Are there any plans for him to move to you (or vice versa)?

I know what you mean about the city names. I'm in Kalamazoo, not Grand Rapids, but I think they lump everyone in SW Michigan into "Grand Rapids" since it's the largest city.

tdwpg1984

Welcome! I kind of wish I could be some sort of writer, like a journalist or novelist, I just don't think my writing is good enough. What kind of journalism do you do? Like mainly crime, local, interest, sports? Do you have your on column or just write random articles as assigned? Do you write for a daily paper or a weekly/monthly magazine?

tuarceatha

Hi.

"Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here." LOVE.

Welcome!!!

thejucheidea

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_newb-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:f0380cf7-7ad3-4919-8ede-2bb4908f1540Post:393e5cab-3016-4a28-97e4-be42df846fc0">Re: newb</a>:
[QUOTE] I know what you mean about the city names. I'm in Kalamazoo, not Grand Rapids, but I think they lump everyone in SW Michigan into "Grand Rapids" since it's the largest city.
Posted by eirwyn[/QUOTE]
We don't even get cities! It doesn't matter in which city you live in Tennessee -- to The Knot, we're all just in the state of Tennessee despite three hugely different regions within the state (maybe even four, if you decide to split Chattanooga and Knoxville).

bethsmiles

Welcome!

melizabethp

Ah! Wow! Replies! Questions!

We're both trying to get back to St. Louis. SO graduates in December and has a very good job prospect with his longtime union in STL (i.e., as a member of the local's professional staff). The plan is for us both to be back there when 2013 begins, although I'm hoping to move back much sooner (for personal and professional reasons) and he'll most likely be working in STL for the summer. 

As for moving closer to each other... I have to give it to him, he did do his best to find work up here, but everything in his field around here is fairly temporary, and our town was not a good fit for him personally anyway. (It's not a great fit for me, either, but in this job market, it is what it is.) I did consider moving to KC, especially after the first time I visited because it's a lot of fun, but knowing he'd only be there two years (and this was before he decided to graduate early) made me decide to just tough it out. I've got a cousin who is career military, as is her husband, and their long deployments away from each other make me think SO and I can handle anything.

I write for a daily newspaper here, mostly covering the nine counties in Missouri that are in our circulation area (since our town is on the Mississippi River). Lots of local government, schools, features/human interest, etc. I more or less just write stories as they come up, although I do write a column every couple months. Keeps me very, VERY busy!

If you're on the Amtrak Southwest Chief, you pass about an hour north of where I live, although the Illinois Zephyr comes straight here from Chicago (which is nice). Amtrak is wonderful.

And my sig is a line from As Good As It Gets, which is a fantastic movie.

melizabethp

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_newb-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:f0380cf7-7ad3-4919-8ede-2bb4908f1540Post:fb816ebf-731e-4ac0-863e-aac65a2e8f54">Re: newb</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: newb : We don't even get cities! It doesn't matter in which city you live in Tennessee -- to The Knot, we're all just in the state of Tennessee despite three hugely different regions within the state (maybe even four, if you decide to split Chattanooga and Knoxville).
Posted by ahstillwell[/QUOTE]

<div>Whereabouts in Tennessee are you? My favorite aunt/godmother lives in Nashville, and it is very dear to my heart.</div>

thejucheidea

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_newb-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:f0380cf7-7ad3-4919-8ede-2bb4908f1540Post:930a9e70-2de4-4144-b99f-1bc2bc55aa89">Re: newb</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: newb : Whereabouts in Tennessee are you? My favorite aunt/godmother lives in Nashville, and it is very dear to my heart.
Posted by melizabethp[/QUOTE]
East Nashville :D

melizabethp

Sweeeeeeeet! My aunt has lived in Bellevue for close to 40 years. We spent every Thanksgiving and at least one other long weekend a year down there for close to a decade. I haven't been since 2007, though. I really wanted to go down and help out after the flood, but it happened two weeks before my graduation from grad school. It upset me so much to read all the news reports...and I cried unreasonably hard when I found out the Grand Ole Opry circle had survived. You guys have an amazing city down there. Like I said, very dear to my heart.

thejucheidea

We live right near Shelby Bottoms, so the waters got up to a few feet from the front door of our house. Fortunately, we were living in Brentwood at the time, so we didn't have to live through that butt-puckering, but if there's another flood, at least we can feel comfortable that we're good.

The floods were on my birthday, heh.

melizabethp

"butt-puckering"...bwahaha. Heck of a birthday present.

My aunt lives on a steep hill, so the flooding in Bellevue (I think there's a small river that runs through that area that flooded horribly) didn't really affect her, other than, you know, trapping her on the hill. Like you, I was reassured that if there's ever bad flooding again, she's safe.

thejucheidea

Dude, Bellevue got totally boned. I had a classmate and a professor who lived in River Plantation and their townhomes were complete losses.

melizabethp

Haha, thanks. I realized after posting that that I had neglected that detail.