Becoming Left-Handed

Dress Rehearsal: Mail Call

Last week Steve and I received a beautiful wedding invitation from a friend in California, and it reminded me of the hours and weeks of work we put into getting our own invitations just right. In fact, I have another friend who just finished putting his invitations together, and I gave him the advice I'm about to give you: mail yourself a test invitation before you entrust that huge batch of heavy envelopes to the good old USPS.

Think of it as a dress rehearsal for your calligrapher, the postal service, the postage you've paid, and your RSVP cards. If you get the invitation with no problems, and are successfully able to send yourself an RSVP card, you will know you are in good shape.

We had the exciting idea to tie our wedding invitation cards together with a bow and attach a sterling silver wine charm as a small token of our winery wedding. When our test invitation arrived, the wine charm had ripped through the envelope and scratched the invitation card stock.

We were so glad we'd mailed ourselves a test and discovered the oops! Not to mention how much fun it was to see what it would be like to receive one of our glittering orange metallic envelopes.

Now, if you're like us, you're cutting it close on timing ... but do the test invitation anyway. The extra 2-3 days could save you many headaches in the long run.

Changes at Becoming Left-Handed

This might be a record for the length of time a blogger has been silent ... I doubt many of my original readers will still follow me here but there are new betrothals happening every day, new women experiencing the incredible swirl and heady excitement of being engaged.  Perhaps some of them will appreciate Becoming Left-Handed all over again.

After Steve and I shared the best day of our lives with family and friends in the Finger Lakes, I blogged a bit about the newlywed days of changing my name, getting our pictures, and writing thank-you notes. But I was more interested in my new blog, Becoming Write-Handed, and I figured since the wedding was over, I was done with this bridal blog.

Here I sit, 18 months after our wedding, a happy "Mrs." with a baby on the way, and I realize that my bridal blog is anything but finished.

In fact, I have big plans for BLH!

First of all, I've redesigned these pages to be a bit more user-friendly.  I've re-organized the content around topics like "The Dress," and "The Soundtrack," and "For Brides Only."  And, behind the scenes, I'm turning BLH into a book.

In the meantime, I hope to encourage more and more brides to read these stories and share their own. I firmly believe that expressing my creativity and my fear and my frustration and my joy throughout my engagement helped me to become, well, if not left-handed, certainly ready for that incredible autumn day overlooking Keuka Lake. I believe women hold vast creative power, and  we should share it with one another.

Christina Baldwin, whom I had the great pleasure of meeting during one of her Storytelling as Leadership seminars at Ohio State, says that we make meaning of our lives by telling our stories. The first chapters of Becoming Left-Handed were my story, but I hope that as this blog and eventually the book take shape, other women can start to see themselves and find inspiration for their own creative journey through engagement and marriage.

Heart Attack

I thought I was having a heart attack tonight. I really did. The phone rang while I was sitting in my basement, next to a cozy fire, talking to my Dad (visiting from Windiana) and my sister, Rachel. I was explaining that Steve and I have been keeping a difficult secret for the last 13 days - we got a sneak peek at our wedding photo slide show at New Year's and we've been bursting to tell family and friends to go visit Frank DiMeo's blog to see for themselves.

Well, the phone call was from my Mom, who called to tell us that the blog post was up on Frank's site and we could all visit ... there I was, spilling my secret and having the need for secrecy cancelled all at one moment.  My chest started hurting and I had to just breathe.

My dad walked over to me and said, "Marti, I think you need to handle all this emotion in the write way."

So here I am, trying to process all this excitement in words. In a way, the photos are more real than the wedding day itself. I have watched our slide show every day for almost 2 weeks, and every time I see something new and feel something more. I am so grateful to Frank DiMeo for his talent and his incredible heart, and now I know why Frank's heart is so overworked! He must get those fluttery chest pains all the time!

The next few days will be as exciting as the few days following the wedding, as we share with family and friends and enjoy everyone's reactions...these are probably my last few days as a "bride" and I intend to enjoy them to the fullest!

This is also the first (and perhaps only) time I'm posting simultaneously on Becoming Left-Handed and Becoming Write-Handed. What a wonderful way for my two blogs to intersect over the happiest day of my life.

A New Blog is Born!

Today's a really exciting day for me as I launch my new blog, Becoming Write-Handed. 

First of all, thanks to all you faithful readers of Becoming Left-Handed.  Your comments have meant a lot to me as I told my story of being engaged and planning a wedding and getting married.  And thanks to all of you who submitted names and voted on names for the new blog - that was so fun!

Now, just 2 months into my married life, I am using my blogging experience on Becoming Left-Handed to launch a whole new blog focused on writing and my experiences as a ... well, just as me.  I hope you will enjoy the new format, the new stories, and the new voice.

I will still write on this blog from time to time, as I will certainly have "wifely" stories to tell about being a  newlywed! 

Another exciting development is that I was able to buy the domain names for both my blogs, and they are now mapped accordingly.  So, you can add www.becominglefthanded.com and www.becomingwritehanded.com to your bookmarks and you don't have to remember that long address that includes "typepad" in it (although of course that will still work!)

Please tell me what you think of the new blog and tell your friends, too!

I got a dot-com!

Okay, I'm really excited about this - after a year of blogging and a month of scratching my head, I found out how to get the address www.becominglefthanded.com to point to this blog.  No more .typepad in my address!

This makes it look so official!!

I am working on my other blog, soon to be open for you to read.  I've already started writing there and now I'm just working out the gritty details.

Weeee!!

Wow, blogging is complicated

I'll keep this short, since I'm at work and that means I should be thinking up profound statements about blogging, rather than sitting here on our first snowy day of the year, blogging.

I am trying to start Becoming Write-Handed as a new blog. So I optimistically upgrade my Typepad membership and start the process.  I choose a layout, a theme, a color palette, and a new photo. I get all the way to the part about choosing my domain name, and bam!  This gets hard.

I want becomingwritehanded.com to be my new blog.  But Typepad doesn't actually allow me to buy that domain name. I have to buy it somewhere else and point it to Typepad, or I have to end my relationship with Typepad and start a new site on host site like BlueHost that will also support blogging.

I am turning 2-3 hours of computer headache into 2-3 paragraphs, and making it look pretty.

Anyway, just know that I am working on it, and I am overwhelmed, and I really, really want to launch my new pet project ASAP but it's taking me a little while.

Thanks,
Marti

Get Out the Vote

Frank DiMeo sent me a few more preview images and said he couldn't decide whether he liked this photo better in B/W or color.  I can't decide either.  What do you think?  Post your votes in the comments and let's pick a favorite!

Sneak a Peek (A-Boo)

Coming soon in a holiday card near you ... one of these preview wedding images from Frank DiMeo!

Frank let us take a quick look at some early images so we could use one for our holiday mailing.  Thought you'd like to see them, too.  Frank's hard at work on 2 other weddings and an engagement shoot (not to mention recovering from surgery in the midst of the holidays) before he can really tackle our wedding shoot, but we know it's worth the wait and we are just so grateful for this preview.

Thanks, Frank. 

Oh, and special thanks to the Goddess of the Wind, a.k.a. Rachel, for "blowing" my veil just so!

Becoming Thirty

Today is my last day to be 29.  The last day of my 20s.

My 20s. In the last decade, I have met and worked for Hillary Clinton, I have gained and lost the same pesky 15 pounds, I have held more than six different jobs, I have been in love three times and married my best friend and man of my dreams, I have made friends with professors, bankers, interns, and rogues, I have traveled to Great Britain twice, I have lived in the Snow Belt and on the beach, I have adopted three cats, I have lost and found my way to God, I have raised money and lost money, and along the way, I have written about 1,000 pages of ... stuff.

I've been bravely telling everyone (not really everyone, only those nosy enough to ask how I feel about turning 30) that I'm better at 30 than I ever was at 20-anything.

I like to think that's true. But in reality, I think I'm still me, much the same as I was at 20-everything. The real difference, I think, is that I have found my voice and I am becoming the writer I've always been.

What's In A Name?

In the midst of unpacking and doing laundry from our honeymoon, organizing and putting away our wedding gifts, writing and co-signing hundreds of thank-you notes, traveling to and from LA for work, hosting houseguests 2 weekends running, re-decorating our bedroom with new curtains and comforter, and posting photos and making albums of the wedding, I had to buy a $4 money order.

This should not be a big deal, but for some reason, buying a money order is about as convenient as buying a house. It took me a total of 3 weeks to a) find out from the marriage license office (who referred me to the probate court's office) what the process was for getting my certified copy of our marriage "abstract"; b) fill out the required form, which I carried around in my purse for days; c) buy said money order; d) self-address a stamped envelope for the paperwork, and drop it in the mail.

So, finally, yesterday I received two thin green slips of paper with the raised seal of the Franklin County Probate Court that say, according to the Ohio Department of Health Vital Statistics, that Steven Walter Post and Martha Marie Bledsoe are in fact married. This little piece of paper allows me to start the legal name-change process. I feel compelled to tell you, though, that when I marched into the bank yesterday with my hard-won little green paper, they never even asked to see it as they changed my name to Martha Post on all my accounts. So much for process!

All of this got me thinking about what's in a name. It does seem (as much as I am complaining about it) that changing a name is a grave undertaking that should require many steps. I mean, a name change represents  a new identity, and new identities shouldn't just be lying around for people to assume, despite the bank's cavalier attitude.

And so, dear reader, as I have been giving the name-change issue much thought over these last weeks, I have decided that it is time to re-name Becoming Left-Handed. It seems fitting that my little blog should change its name at the same time I do!

In the one year and five days that I have been writing here, I have realized how vital writing is for me. It is just as important as breathing, perhaps more so. The days I don't blog feel somehow short of oxygen and my lungs feel rather cramped.

You might be thinking that I want to expand my blog beyond "what it's like to be engaged." and write about what it's like to be married. And that's true. But I also want a place where I can write about what it's like to have a love-hate relationship with your job, or what it's like to have your brand-new car in the shop for 9 days out of the month, or what it's like to drive through a writers' picket line in LA in the midst of realizing how much you love writing!

These are the stories I want to share with you. And eventually I hope these stories become a springboard for larger writing dreams, like a freelance career and a couple of books.

In the meantime, I need your help.  What should I call this new blog?

Here are a few of the suggestions I've heard from family and friends. Would you care to post a comment and vote for your favorite, or suggest another option?

Being Left-Handed
Becoming Write-Handed
The Daily Post
Posthaste
Post-Script

What do you think?