2008 November 24

I started writing early enough that I could have made the new quota, but I kept distracting myself online so today's requirement is 300 words more than it would have been. If every day through the month had been like this as far as word count I'd be set.
20% left of the month in which to write, 45% of the novel left to write. Not a good ratio.

Words today: 1693
Total for the month so far: 27,411

Surprisingly I was informed that I would be able to tell Veronika about almost everything after we were wed. All the spouses were allowed to know what was going on, it had been decided early on that keeping secrets wasn't good for the relationships. He also told me that there was a possibility that I was going to need to be present a lot more out of work hours than I had been for a while. With the new staging area there had been a decision made to try and figure out where the wormhole was going each time and they didn't really know how to work that out. I wasn't expected to figure it out myself but Kevin and the guys figured that with me noticing simple things they'd overlooked I might manage other insights.

I wasn't given any more indication of when the tests were going to be happening so I asked if the coming weekend was likely to be one of the test days. The fact I was asking prompted Kevin to ask what I had planned, every other time I had just come in when asked without concern so he could tell something was up. When I mentioned being somewhat obligated to meet Veronikas family on the Saturday he told me I could pass on the testing if it happened, I wasn't really essential for the experiments after all. Before leaving I did make sure to clarify how much I was able to tell Veronika, if I was going to be able to tell her things I wanted to share what I could. All I was allowed to tell her was that the tests were going well and I'd been given an indication that in time she'd be allowed to know.

My sleep over that week was less restful than it had been before I popped the question, I was less sure of her families opinion of me than I had been of her likely response. It got so bad that on the Friday night she told me to go lie down on my bed and rest while she dealt with our meal. When it was done she came through to wake me up and found me just lying there looking up at the ceiling. It wasn't my favourite meal, we hadn't had the requisites for that, but it was very well prepared and I enjoyed it more than I did most meals. When I started clearing away dishes I was dragged away from the table and taken back to my room where Veronika forced me to lie on my bed again, this time face down. She had rubbed my shoulders on occasion before that, but never had she gone to the effort of massaging my back, neck, shoulders and arms. I melted. And woke up a couple of hours later feeling bad for having passed out on her. When I found her reading in her room I started to apologise and was told to shut up and return the favour. I had no idea what I was doing when I started, the other times I'd tried to massage her shoulders had lasted less than a minute as she stopped me because it wasn't good. Presumably I'd picked something up since then though, I was allowed to work on her kinks for at least half an hour before she suggested that we have an earlyish night.

I still didn't sleep particularly well that night, although I did stay asleep longer than I'd expected, but I felt sure it was better than it had been otherwise going to be. Veronika looked great when I came into the kitchen, well rested and hair tied up. As though she was wanting to leave right away. I was given time to eat, shower and do all the little things that seem necessary before going out to meet the parents but it wasn't long after I got up that the two of us left to go meet my future in-laws.

That family meeting was different to how things had gone with my family and I'm sure that wasn't just the different perspective of being the outsider this time. For a start they already knew the news so there wasn't the immediate speculation about Veronika being pregnant. I did hear her mother ask when the two of them were alone for a moment though, presumably because she'd thought that would explain why we had decided to marry instead of just continue to live together. We did get congratulated by all present, and Veronikas grandmother had even got an engagement present for the two of us. She'd got a photo of us during one of the two times we'd visited her together and at some point over the week she'd had it blown up and framed.

The food situation was different as well, instead of piles of meat and bowls of salad, there was simply a number of plates of finger food, like you find at receptions. Veronikas mum was not exactly posh, but she had aspirations and they showed in the way she kept the home. We didn't all pile onto couches and huddle either, everyone sat on their own seat or portion thereof and the discussions were never loud. It always struck me as oddly formal, which had been part of my reason for not going with Veronika every time she invited me to visit her parents. The nearly hour we had to drive had also kept me from tripping out as often as I possibly should have but I did make sure to go with Veronika on both the occasions she'd been out since shifting into my place.

Over the afternoon Veronika and I were again asked most of the same questions we'd been asked the weekend before by my family, although with an extra week to think about things we had come to a few more conclusions. We didn't want a church wedding, but did want photos taken somewhere that was old. Both of us appreciated the buildings from our great grandparents time and liked the idea of having our wedding photos in that sort of location. Neither of us wanted to marry immediately but there was no way we wanted to wait as long as a year so to avoid winter we were looking at about six months hence.

With the questions dropping off in a similar manner to how they had at my parents place the talk drifted to other topics. Most of which had to do with various extended family and what they were up to, who was pregnant, shifting, fired, hired or the like. I was surprised at how many of the names I recognised but not at all surprised to have no clue what was so shocking about Aunt Deirdre starting to work in a supermarket.

Veronika called our visit short not long after the second round of drinks was served and so we headed back into the city. She'd wanted to drive and I'd taken the opportunity to drift a little while we headed home, as such I was surprised to be prodded awake and look out the window to see her old flat. Laura had arranged a small get together of some of Veronikas former colleagues and the flatmates she'd left behind. I never did find out whether Veronika had been in on it to any extent or if she'd been contacted while driving back to the city but I was glad to spend time with the friends we hadn't seen much of over the past months. Less of the questions we were asked there were about the wedding specifically compared to the questions our respective families asked. Far more were about how we were getting on together in my house (which I made the effort to correct to our house), what Veronika was thinking of her job, how the two of us liked working together (which we had to explain wasn't actually the case), and whether people hearing we were engaged were assuming that one of us was pregnant.

That ended up taking up the rest of our day, in a welcome but tiring way, so after people started heading away Veronika and I did as well. After we arrived home we had something of a free-for-all regarding getting ready for bed, I'd be brushing my teeth at the same time she wanted to and so on. I was given another change to massage her shoulders and seemed to manage better than I had the night before. She remained awake enough to tell me she wanted to sleep now and even with me leaving fairly quick I heard very light snoring before I was turning out the light.

There was nothing planned for our Sunday morning so we both got up early, I never understood why but whenever either of us had plans the other would be the first one up, and if both of us had plans, or even the same plans we only just got up early to do the essentials before we needed to leave. When neither of us had anything on we must have both been worried that we'd forgotten something as we would both rise about the same time as we did for work.

We had, with input from a few people, made a list of things we were going to need to do before we got married and there were copies of it spread throughout the house. As we sat down to breakfast, which I'd interfered with more than helped make, I picked up one of the copies and started looking through the items to see if there was anything obvious we could do that morning but that wouldn't require a lot of effort. Finding "guest list" on the list seemed like a nice simple one to deal with, at least on an initial level. I realised that over the coming months there could be a lot of changes between our initial intentions and what actually happened. Suggestions had been entered into with regard to who we would be inviting from outside our respective families.