If you don’t hear from the bride in over two weeks, should you assume she’s skipped town? Probably. What else could be the reason for not hearing from her after all this excited talk of planning The Wedding in less than a year? So here I am, in Maui, soaking the sun and writing to you from a safe distance.

Or so I wish.

The sad, cold truth is that chemical engineering has caught me in its clutches since last we spoke. I’m really writing to you from the dark corner of my closet, hoping that ChemE won’t find me as I send this brief message out to the world. — Shhhh! I think I hear some footsteps!

The past couple of weeks have been full of too many setbacks to get through them in the short amount of time I have tonight, but I’ll highlight a few.

Job hunting season is now in full session. Attending the career fair and corporate information sessions reminds me how serious the decision is this year. No more sampling from the menu list of employers. Now it’s time to make a decision, based on two samples and the endless list, on which one will I be happiest with for 30+ years. (Give or take some years.) As crazy as it sounds, it’s almost like deciding who to marry based on two dates. Almost.

Courses are in full swing and kicking butt. One particular course is threatening my wedding plan progress and has already brutally killed my social life. What have I been doing in my free time these past weeks? Sleeping. What about on weekends? Oh, you know, the crazy full night’s sleep that I don’t get during the week. I will probably provide a break down of the hours spent on this course some time in the future so it’s clearer, but right now I’m on borrowed time. I’m borrowing it from the first hobby I just mentioned.

The worst part of it has been the loss of momentum in the Slim Down. After buying the most appropriate shoes for running and getting over my embarrassment of jogging in public, my last weigh-in is 7 pounds higher than what I was expecting. What does this mean? Oh, just that whenever my site developer gets around to it, I need him to change the Slim Down section of this site to display ~20 instead of ~15. (Good grief, when did I acquire so much mass!)

Anyway, that’s all the updates I have. I just wanted to ensure you that a wedding is still expected in the summer of 2008. And like some of my course work, if it means pulling all-nighters to have a finished product on time, so be it. I’ll be happy with turning in a complete wedding on July 12th, 2008 and passing out that night.