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First, thanks so much to everyone who wrote after I injured my foot. A week later saw me right as rain, though not completely up to four-hour mall excursions.
Second, thanks to everyone on my Notify List who responded to my brief, addled announcement of our Big News. See what you miss when you're not Notified?
High: Life in general, pretty much.
Low: Calvin's out of town until Friday.
1) Wedding plans!
2) Finding a Promotion dress for Marie, who graduates from 8th grade in May. We searched two entire malls over the course of four hours on Sunday, and didn't find a damned thing.
The memory of Calvin dancing around to "Oh What A Night".
"...Late December back in '63..."
Messing around with the camera and taking pictures of Calvin's baby.
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April 8, 2002
Life is like a mix CD...
It's been a week, and oh what a week it's been.
Calvin and I went to lunch last Thursday, and during the course of our conversation we discussed if we should set an actual date for our marriage. Readers will recall that upon my return from Maine last August, Calvin and I decided some definite plans were in order. The conversation went a little something like this:
Me: "So, are we going to do this?"
Calvin: "Well, yeah!"
Me: "When?"
Calvin: "Uh... I don't know."
Me: "We could do it next year during my Sabbatical..."
Calvin: "Why don't we just find a Justice of the Peace?"
Me: "Um. No."
Calvin: "Well, what kind of wedding would you want?"
Me: "Uh... I don't know. What kind would *you* want?"
Calvin: "Small. Very small. Like me, you, and the kids."
Me: "Your grandparents would kill us."
Calvin: "Okay, we could invite them too."
We went around like this for a while. The upshot of the conversation was that we'd get married in June of 2003, during my Sabbatical. It would be a small affair, with just close friends and family members. We'd follow it up with 10 days or so in some tropical location (kids included - I think there'd be a mutiny if we left them behind). I left the restaurant to go back to work, my mind whirring along with plans and ideas (and of course, re-dedication toward a DIET).
We told Michael and Marie on Thursday evening, and both were excited and happy about the news. Michael was asked to be best man, and agreed. Marie was asked to be maid of honor, and agreed. Both were assured that there would be no tropical vacationing without them.
Friday morning I went to work as usual. At about 10:00 Calvin calls, which in itself isn't unusual. What was unusual was the fact that he almost immediately blurted out, "I don't want to wait that long." He wished to pull in our wedding date. He said that now that we've actually started to put plans in place, he was anxious to get married as soon as possible. I happened to agree, really. The only thing that concerned me was all the arrangements that would need to take place in short order.
Very. Short. Order.
Revised Wedding Date: June 29, 2002. 2002. As in, nine weeks away. Why? Well, one reason may center around our mental stability, or lack thereof. But the real reason is that we both have July 1, 2, and 3 off, and a work holiday on the 4th and the 5th. Prosaic of us, I know. We didn't want to push it out until the summer because of the HEAT. And we didn't want to push it into the fall for fear of interfering with AB and Mark's wedding in October.
So. Now I join the throng of on-line journalers who are getting married this year. Like Jessamyn. And Melissa. And Esperanca. And probably a bunch more that I've forgotten/don't know about.
I'm such a joiner.
******************
Here are The Big Plans:
- Location: Sedona, Arizona. Specific spot to be determined this weekend when we take a drive up there. It'll be outdoors, that's all we know.
- Minister: Acquired.
- Time: 11:00 in the morning, June 29th.
- Reception: Lunch at one of Sedona's restaurants. No DJ. No dancing. No Electric Slide. Just lunch.
- Guests: So far, less than 25.
- Photography: A professional to take some formals, and perhaps some candids at the luncheon. Depends on how quickly we run out of money. And, too, the grandparents are notorious for bringing their camera everywhere - I'm sure this will be no exception! :)
- Flowers - A simple nosegay (sp?) for Marie and I, boutonnieres for Michael and Calvin.
- Dresses - I'll know 'em when I see 'em. Simple, low-key, "non-wedding" dresses.
- Suits - Michael will probably wear his dress uniform. Calvin will probably wear a vest instead of a suit jacket (Summer. Arizona. No math required.).
- Honeymoon Version 1.0 - The kids will go with the relatives after Saturday's activities, and Calvin and I will stay in Sedona until Monday. Then Calvin, Marie and I will drive to California on Tuesday (Michael will have returned to San Diego over the weekend) and do some family-oriented vacationing until Saturday or so.
- Honeymoon Version 2.0 - The four of us will spend two weeks next June/July in a tropical location. AB's a travel agent and has all the skinny on all the good places to go.
- Honeymoon Version 3.0 - At least four years away, when Calvin and I can take a kid-free vacation without risk of mutiny (or, worse, teenage parties while the Parental Units - also called "'Rents", or just "Units" - are away).
Of course, all of this planning and decision making has spurred renewed warm-fuzziness between Calvin and I (~snort~ not that we were very short in that department to begin with). Which made it that much harder to part with him on Sunday, when he flew off to Chicago for a week's worth of training.
So we tried to make the most of the weekend. Friday night we cleaned the house (woo! we are such party animals, I tell you!), then soaked in the hot tub and listened to music. Saturday morning a salesman came by to give us an estimate on replacing the windows in the kids' bedrooms (we *have* to do this before summer, or Marie's bedroom will be unliveable). Then we went to the Art Festival on Mill Avenue and wandered around for a couple of hours (and I kicked myself for not bringing the camera - I can't describe anything I saw to my satisfaction, so your curiosity will have to remain unappeased until the next Art Festival).
After dropping Marie off at the movies to hang out with friends on Saturday night, Calvin and I spent the evening downloading songs off of Morpheus and compiling one of our (in)famous mix CD's. This one's titled "Mixiness Vol. III" (yes, there is a Volume I and a Volume II). We're not the type of folk to limit our mix CD's to one, carefully organized and logically ordered, genre of music. Not in the slightest. This particular mix CD (and the rest of them are just as bad) includes:
- "Venus" by Frankie Avalon (Calvin's going to dance with Marie at her wedding to this song, he's already decided)
- "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by Drowning Pool
- "Oh What A Night" - the version by Billy Joel
- A mix of 80's/90's dance music
- A mix of Madonna songs
- "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" by Jefferson Starship
- "Get It On" by Powerstation
- "Reflex" by Duran Duran
- "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova
I forget all of what's on Volume I. Journey, Kiss, Linkin Park, Madonna, and Enya are all I know for sure.
Diverse. Entertaining. Eclectic. Fun. Our mix CD's speak a lot about our personalities and our life.
Disorganized. Chaotic. Distracted. Short attention span. Yeah, that's about right.
Can you say "Wedding Mix"? ~grin~