22

It is Friday, and we are back in St. Louis. There is a long post to come, reviewing the wonderful days we had with my good friend Kristen in Chicago. But here's where we are for now:

We had successful trips to the French Consulate! We should be getting visas mailed to us shortly. To fill in that time, I have a ton of reading to do! I have four e-mails, three multi-page attachments and one snail mail package from the Université de Nancy II that I need to get caught up on.

I am sick. I am blaming Joe, who was blaming his young students and their snotty noses for the cold he had a week ago. That means that instead of going home today, I'll be on Joe's couch playing travel-sized Scrabble, eating black bean soup and watching The Office... after a quick trip to Trader Joe's.

I'm hoping we can use a bit of the Bonus Day we got today (since I do not want to spend seven hours feverish and blowing my nose in a car) to check into some of the supplies we'll need for France–hygiene products and the like. There isn't a Whole Foods or an all-natural shop or Trader Joe's around me really, so I want to look into it while we can.

Then, this is what we're looking at...what a crazy timeline!

Saturday: Joe moves back to Evansville with his family and has a week to load up on family time before our lives go crazy.

Next Friday: Joe comes to see me. During that weekend, we'll visit with the deacon who will marry us, to finalize wedding ceremony details.

That week: I work. We spend afternoons running around, preparing for the wedding and getting paperwork done for after the wedding.

The next week: We try to calm down and think about that Saturday, the day we become the Betz family.

That's right. Three weeks. We're down to the wire, and we're so incredibly happy about it. After two months of  not seeing each other, we're realizing how close we are to never thinking about that again. Thinking about our long distance has made me feel selfish and needy. We still had it made, really: only a month or two apart, lots of phone time, possibilities for visits.

While we were at the consulate, a young woman was getting a spouse visa. Her husband wasn't with her, which was causing a bit of complications for her. She couldn't help it. Her husband had been in France since November, and she was just now able to get to him.

So there, Megan. Shut up. It's almost over. One more week of almost separate lives.