Bee! I'm expecting you!

Helloooooooo!  I'm Miss Hot Cocoa, and I'm new around here.  

I'm so excited to be joining the hive!  I have derived so much inspiration from this creative and talented community (I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy . . .). I really hope that I can be a helpful resource for other brides, as Bees past and present have been for me.  In particular, I am an obsessive compulsive web researcher and bargain hunter, and I hope I'll be able to save you some time and money.  I'm also psyched to be Miss Hot Cocoa.  I've been trying to insert the adjective "hot" into my name for a long time, but for some reason it hasn't stuck. Now everyone is going to have to reckon with my hotness!

I kid, I kid.  Actually I chose Hot Cocoa because Mr. Hot Cocoa found it the least objectionable.  ;-)  And it's usually quite frosty here in Boston, so a warm, comforting, marshmellowy drink (especially one that ranges from cheap Swiss Miss to luxe Godiva) seems perfect.

Alright, then.  A little bit about me and Mr. Hot Cocoa.  We are both students; he's in his last year of medical school, and I'm finishing up a J.D./Ph.D. Like Mr. and Miss Cream Puff, we are planning a Jewish-Chinese wedding, only in our case, I bring the Chinese and he brings the Jewish flava . . . for now.  I'm converting to Judaism, and Mr. HC has ambitions to learn more Chinese, so we're hoping to be fully integrated -- Chewish -- before our wedding. We live on the East Coast, but our wedding will be in Los Angeles, where we grew up and met. Well, actually, we kind of met before we grew up. ;-) We started dating in high school. (Picture below is us at Mr. HC's senior prom, circa 1994. A pity they don't make totally rad velvet boleros like that anymore; I can't seem to find anything these days that goes well with a giant wrist corsage.)

Our wedding is not until March, so I'll be around the hive for a while.  I am looking forward to hearing all of your fabulous ideas and sharing with you my research, inspirations, and shenanigans.  As a getting-to-know-you present, I leave you with a favorite Emily Dickinson poem, which seems to have been written especially for the occasion:

Bee! I'm expecting you!

Was saying Yesterday

To Somebody you know

That you were due --

The Frogs got Home last Week --

Are settled, and at work --

Birds, mostly back --

The Clover warm and thick --

You'll get my Letter by

The seventeenth; Reply

Or better, be with me --

Yours, Fly.