A week ago I was so effing incredibly excited about the wedding. The Modern Love Machine and I found out our friend who is about 50 percent responsible for us meeting and also in the Navy and living in Sicily would be allowed to return to the US for the wedding. I found out I’d lost three pounds. And so many people I knew were telling me how excited they were for the wedding, which in turn just made me more excited. I’ve not been that blissfully excited about anything in a long time, and I never want to forget how I felt that day.

Work managed to ruin that feeling the next day and the day after, putting me in a royally foul mood for about two and a half days. I’ve been in Memphis since Sunday night, though, and the common refrain I’ve heard from folks since then is, ‘You seem so calm for being less than a week away from your wedding.’

Well, yeah, I’m on vacation from work this week, and since work is pretty much the most demanding thing in my life ever, I’m not sure any wedding — including my own — will ever find a way to stress me out the way that my job does. The Modern Mom and I spent all Monday wrapping up the last of the wedding to-do list and tying up loose ends. Since then I’ve laid by the pool, earned my Gym Rat badge on Foursquare, hung out with my parents, gotten my nails done, played board games with the MLM and drank wine with my cousins. Friends start rolling into town on Thursday, and we’re planning on spending the evening gambling in Tunica, Miss., the local casino mecca. I mean, Lady Luck should be smiling down on us right now, right? Seriously, there is nothing urgent left to do until Friday when we need to, you know, rehearse and stuff.

I’m kind of shocked at myself about this, but I am completely in the moment right now. Saturday still seems like a lifetime away, the days this week have gone by at fairly normal speed, and I’ve enjoyed every minute so far. Again, let me mention that I’m NOT at work, and nothing has the capability of stressing me out like my job does. Not to mention I tend to stress about little things in my life but can remain calm in the face of major, major events. It’s one of my charms.

So for now, let the record reflect that I am as cool as a cucumber and as happy as a clam.