I'd just like to start out by saying that I feel sick and crappy today so my blog is going to be less than stellar. I know, I know - super great of me considering I haven't updated it in FOREVER and there does seem to be much to blog about.

The thing is, I feel like total crap so I can't get into the nitty gritty of it all but here are some top line mentions of things I would have normally written pages and pages on but can't bring myself to do so now:

1.) Chilean Independence Day and that crazy law that is still left over from Pinochet days, where each and every property needs to be waving a Chilean flag in plain view. I believe they also have to do it BY a certain day. I noticed that our building has yet to put the flag up outside, but I'm sure it's going to appear by Wednesday. Not sure when the actual cut off is, but I highly doubt they would rather a fine than putting it up. Hmmmm, perhaps my bldg establishment leans more left?

2.) Feeling less patriotic here than I did in the U.S. I remember feeling so much pride around being Chilean, that I purposely added that not only was I born here, but that I still had the Chilean citizenship. Now? Who cares! I have no idea where this said patriotism went but it might have to do with the fact that I'm adjusting to living here and not there. I read Facebook status updates from Chileans who still live in the U.S. and GOOD LORD, their pride makes my internet pages burst at the seams. I envy that pride since I don't have it anymore. I'm thinking that I'll balance out and a year from now I'll have just enough pride to actually host an asado. By then we'll have our furniture too. It's always good to have somewhere to sit. G tells me we'll be going to a "funda" or "fonda" whatever it's called. It's a place where they celebrate the 18th apparently. I can't recall much more than that but it's supposed to be quite symbolic of the 18th here. I'll have chicha and an anticucho and what not...I'll watch the cuecas and clap along and what not...I'll let you know how it goes. Oh yeah, the one good thing is that we get this Friday off!

3.) Went to a Chilean wedding this weekend which I heard wasn't that stellar. I thought it was just me but then the groom's family (G's side of the family) were the ones who mentioned this. It helped me to realize that I don't want a day wedding because I'm all about people dancing at my wedding. And people tend to want to dance at night.It also helped me to realize that it doesn't matter how beautiful the place is...if you don't add your own personal touches to the wedding, it just turns out bland. The couple I'm talking about were fabulously in love of course, but they didn't bother to personalize a single thing (that I could tell.) It's as if the winery showed them the "standard" items and they took them all. PERSONALIZE people!!! 'Nuff said.

4.) I found my wedding venue and it's SPECTACULAR and I am so in love with it that I do a happy dance in my head when I think of it. I can't provide much info on it since G has sworn me to secrecy but I feel like this ONE picture should be fine. Since you can't really tell what it's a picture of or even if it's a picture of our venue... I'll create a picture scavenger hunt and make you guess - how 'bout that? No, maybe not. Still - this is a picture I took over the weekend. Whether or not it has anything to do with our venue is up to you to decide.



And on that note, moving on to number 5...

5.) Civil weddings in Chile. Um, they are just about the most boring, most UNROMANTIC piece of crap you'll ever come across. That is, unless, you do what most American or non-Chilean women tend to do - PERSONALIZE. I can't stress this enough. I'm all about it. If I were to opt for what the Chilean gov't insists I do at the wedding - and ONLY THAT - I'd have someone in front of me stating my full name WITH my social security number, my fiancee's full name with HIS social security number, then our witnesses' names with THEIR social security numbers and then a bunch of legal codes pertaining to the authority to marry someone. Are you with me here? Yes, that's right. The wedding ceremony sounds like a sequence of numbers from the Dewey Decimal System. And frankly, that's not for me.

Finally,

6.) September 11th and what it means in Chile. It's such a long and winded topic and there are so many sides to this political debate that I just can't physically get into it right now. But just know, that if I could, I would blog about it. Though in my time of feeling like crap, can I direct you to my friend's blog "Don't Call Me Gringa" as she does quite a nice job of laying out for you what the 11th is about and what it means in different minds. Check out the blogs I follow and you can link to hers and read about this topic, which I find she eloquently describes and tells.

7.) Becoming a bride. I realized that the most anti of anti-brides becomes a full fledged planning maniac (to some degree at least) once she has a venue picked out. From then on, as G would say, "Empezó la fiesta!" Meaning, it's full speed ahead from that point, on.

So as you can see my dear little blog follower/reader, the purpose of this blog is to list a bunch of things I would normally be super inclined to blog about but since I feel like crap today, I simply can't. This is my vain effort to show you that I still have it going on in my HEAD even if I can't get it on to my BLOG for you to read about.

Now, who has some Sudafed for me? That would be dope right about now...