Cast of Characters

How about a little Who's Who of my life?

Me

My name is Brianne. I'm 24 years old go to college at IUPUI in Indianapolis, IN. I will be applying to a moderately-competitive BSW (bachelor's in social work) program soon. I volunteer regularly in a daycare, being hugged and snotted on by a herd of three and four year olds, partly to help the application process for the BSW program and partly because I love it. I love photography and I plan to cram every photography course that I can into my electives - if my school offered a minor in it, I would be, but alas. The road to college was not a smooth one for me, possibly more on that another day.

I spent several years working in veterinary medicine, and I miss it terribly and have considered going to school for my DVM, but at the end of the day it's not the best thing for my life. Veterinary medicine is can be pretty life-consuming, and I want to get down to the baby-having pretty much as soon as I'm married.

Speaking of married, I'll be that way in November of 2012. My fiance, Eric, proposed on May 27. Wedding planning isn't the main topic of this blog, but it comes up.

I was born and raised in Indiana. I have two parents and a stepmother. Twin siblings, Katie and Corey, who are 22 months younger than me, and two sweet and beautiful nephews, ages 3 and 1.

My hobby list is painfully chickly: scrapbooking, taking pictures, reading, assorted crafty crap.

Eric

My betrothed.

He is 22, and also at IUPUI. Yep, I'm dating an upperclassman. He's been there for quite a while longer, and is studying network engineering. He's a smarty-pants.

He likewise has a background in veterinary medicine, which is part of what brought us together in the first place. It makes for some lively dinner-time debates and gross-out anecdotes.

He was also born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has a mom and a 16 year old brother.

He's pretty into dog stuff: competitive frisbee, agility, obedience. He's super-outdoorsy (my super-indoorsiness is a constant source of chagrin for him), he likes hiking, camping, walking the dogs, anything that does not involve water (which is, incidentally, the only outdoorsy thing that I love). He follows politics fairly avidly and is fond of football, specifically the New England Patriots.

Violet

Violet is my Collie, my friend, the best part of my day, the household clown. She's the best dog I've ever had. She was born March of 2011, so she's about 11 months old right now. She loves to talk, do somersaults, learn new tricks and commands, dismantle rope toys, zoom around lakes, splash in water but never actually swim. She loves the frosting on cupcakes, playing fetch (or her preferred version, chase the ball, touch it with my nose, run back empty-mouthed). She hates thunderstorms and her sworn enemy, the vacuum cleaner. She has no time for that vile machine's tomfoolery.

Mary

Eric's mom. She's a pretty cool chick. She's a social worker, so that puts her at the top of my Hero Worship list, and she's all around fun to be around. I lucked out in the mother-in-law department. We live with her while we're in school and saving for a house, and a wedding, and some grandkids for her, and perhaps surprisingly, it works out just fine.

Adam

Eric's little brother. He's 16, a sophomore in high school. He's a good kid. Needless to say he lives here with all of us. He's a kickass bowler, a WoW player, and is nearly undefeated in every board game we ever play. He has some kind of ninja mind-powers that make him impossible to beat.

My Parents (Mom & Dad & Marla)

My parents have been divorced for 22 years, but they're both very much involved in my life and friendly to each other, in a "Tell that old bastard I said hello" sort of way.

My mom works in medical billing, and lives next door to my grandparents with her black and cream long-haired dachshund, Jack. Every other weekend, she heads next door, and Eric and I go there too, for family night - dinner and board games. Hopefully soon we'll be carting a grandchild over there. Mom can almost always be found with her best friend Reatha, and she enjoys MadLibs, collecting vintage items, reading, dachshunds, and cracking me up on the regular. She is also a bomb-ass photographer.

My dad lives about 45 minutes north of us, but he definitely has a southern mentality. He is truly a piece of work. He loves cooking, grilling, harassing his wife (my awesome stepmother, Marla), harassing his neighbors, harassing his family, working on his house and maintaining his pool, drinking beer and talking smack with his own unique brand of off-color humor. He has a pretty sweet rec room that he enjoys having people over in, and probably expends a lot of energy on the never-ending battle in his house - he is a Colts fan,  Marla is a Patriots fan. Somehow they find harmony. Dad drives a commercial trash truck, Marla works in medicine. They have a bulldog named Mojo. If you go to their house, I can promise you will have fun.

My Grandparents (Gramps & Granny)

They got a mention earlier, but we're super-close. They lived in Michigan until they moved here just last year, and it's been wonderful having them so close. My grandmother will probably be one of my bridesmaids. They both enjoy going to church, and my grandmother has a very dry, sharp wit that sneaks out when you least expect it. We are Pictionary champions, our team of two cannot be divided and can very rarely be conquered - we like to share that she once drew "soul," and I guessed it long before the timer went off. Think about it, how would you draw soul? Don't know? I didn't think so. We are the champions.

Gramps is a movie buff and is particularly fond of interjecting "Now, I have a question" into conversations and revisiting conversations that in theory ended weeks ago, apropos of nothing. He's quite the character, as well. You know what? I've said that about almost everyone on this page. Does that tell you anything about my family?