Settling in

First, this is the only semi-decent picture I have (it's the same one I put on Facebook.)


I can't believe that absolutely no one has sent me any pictures. If I hadn't given my camera to a friend for the ceremony. I wouldn't even have this.

Two quick tidbits today, one also alluded to on Facebook. When I shop, if I see something small that I know one of my daughters would like, I pick it up. Like world flag pushpins for the bulletin boards in K's classroom. A $3 DVD of a movie I know R loves. A cute t-shirt or funny slippers. A candy bar.

I was in Target this morning at 8:02, looking for a few things, and I stopped for a minute to look at the character-shirts in the men's department. At last! A boy to buy stuff for! (One does not gve the Hubs random gifts, or even birthday gifts. It makes him mad. [sigh]) And now someone new to get to know to get stuff for. What candy does he like? Would he wear a Kermit t-shirt? And so on.

(BTW, even though he really is my son-in-law now, I've decided to stop referring to him as the SnL. The pair of them together are now R/E. He alone is /E. In my head, I say this as "and E", and so I could just refer to him as Andy, but that would just be confusing, especially since Andrew is his middle name.)

Second cute moment of the morning. Coming home from Target, I passed the elementary school down the street, and of course, the kids are all in costume today. Every child is accompanied to school by a parent, or multiple adults, today in particular. (We have no busing in Bizarro Town, so every child is expected to walk -- all the schools are within walking distance of the kids who go there -- so most parents accompany them.) Anyway, I couldn't help but notice the looks of confusion and awe on the faces of the Russian grandparents this morning. If these people are in their sixties, they probably don't work in this country, but both grandmas and grandpas provide childcare for their double-income hardworking children. And you can be sure that they saw nothing like Halloween at school in their USSR Cold War childhoods. I saw one man whose face seemed to say that he couldn't decide is this was incredibly cute or incredibly ridiculous.

Nearly ten o'clock, which means more stores are opening and I have more tasks to do. When I wake up at four, I have to wait and do things in the house, but sometimes I need to get something to finish what house thing I have to do. Thanks for Home Depot, which opened at seven this morning!

The Madness Has Ended

It really was a lovely wedding and a great weekend. I'll share more details later, and better pictures, when I get some. (I have nothing good of the bride, at the moment, but I should have some soon.) For now, I have two strips of pictures of me from the photobooth, which was the "favor" at the wedding.

With my eldest nephew, who flew in from San Diego, where he is a musician and general community personality, from what I gather.


and with my baby, K, the maid of honor par excellence:


As for me, what can I say? I am not a troll, but my facial paralysis only ever really shows in pictures, so when I see pictures of myself I always think "Gah! Is that what look like?!" The answer is that actually I don't look like that. In person, moving and alive, I actually look better. Yesterday, I probably looked better than have since my own wedding.

The Madness Begins

So if we've had since last Thanksgiving to get ready for all this, and we are nothing if not people who prepare everything in advance, how come we're down to, like, a day and a half, and all of a sudden there's too much to do in the time that's left and not enough ways to do it? I'll leave you with these few words until I return to the land of the sane people some time next week:

centerpieces.
rental van.
ipads.
sister.
not packed yet.
oy.
vey.

Three Days to Go!

It's Thursday. Morning. I'm waiting for the guy to come and fix the dryer and the guy to check the furnace for the winter heating season. Oh, and my kid's getting MARRIED on Sunday!

(It would be weird, wouldn't it, to say "My kids are getting married on Sunday"? SnL is already like my own kid, the one with upper body strength and height; we just didn't meet him until a couple of years ago. We love him, he loves us. Couldn't be happier until K finds her match.)

Anyway, I have been busy with a capital B (so to speak). Last night, the immediate my side of the family was here, including my Colorado cousin + her hubs, my sister + her hubs, Wonderful Niece + her hubs, my hubs, all my kids, and last but not least, Good Guy nephew, who came without his wife because it was her father's birthday, so she was with him. And GG brought with him the latest sonograms of the Little Peanut, who will be joining our entourage in the spring. YAYAYYAYAYAYAY!!!! Somebody is finally making a baby for me to fuss over!

Anyway, the thing about last night is this: I have not entertained in years and years. It felt very good to do it, to know I did it right, and it was all fun and not stressful. Another nice development for me.

After this morning's service people finish -- or blow me off, whichever -- I have many tasks to get done, including a trip to the wedding venue to get a gift card or whatever they do there for our hairdresser. We've been going to him for nearly 20 years, so that's most of the kids' hairstyling lives. On Sunday, he's coming to the hotel at 7:00 am to do our hair and is not charging for the three of us: R, K, and me. So a nice gift is in order. I also have to get to the bank to get cash for tips for the various other people: photographer, florist delivery, etc. And recycling, and the cable place to exchange a remote, and on and on and on.

Tomorrow: massage, then nails. Then girls passing through on their way to and from hair, nails, here and there. Friday: a nice relaxing pedicure with my sister and my Colorado cousin.

Saturday: Madness! Must check into the hotel by 3:00, must leave the hotel by 4:00 to get to the rehearsal dinner. Back at the hotel, hang out with the cousins or the ILs who are there. Must somehow transport the entire centerpiece forest as part of this operation, but I think that R has signed up Wonderful Niece's Wonderful Husband for this project.

SUNDAY!!! Waking up at the ass-crack of dawn, must do my hair and make-up by 7:00 am and then cover up with a robe so I don't destroy the dress. Then help R as necessary and wait for my hair turn. Then pictures, and then, I believe, crying happy tears for a couple of hours, and then more food than I could even imagine -- R read us the menu last night -- and I remember the food orgy at this same place when I got married 33 years ago.

I am reminded now to look for the handkerchiefs that were left to me by my grandmother (50 years ago) because that would be the best thing to catch my happy tears with, yes?

I will post whatever pictures I can, promise, at the very least one of me.

Good weekend, all! (But probably not as good as mine!)

Warning: Underwear Based Entry Follows!

As I believe I have already mentioned, the reach of Wedding is long and sneaky and surprising. Consider the shoes. And the underwear. (No pictures with this entry, btw.)

I have tried on my dress several times. I have had my makeup done; I wrote down every step and have been practicing so that it will be right on the day of Wedding. I had my hair done the way it will be on Wedding day. I have figured out what jewelry I will wear, and bought what I needed and didn't have. That left only two things to be practiced: shoes and underwear.

Yes, I am wearing heels, and the shoes have what I think is obnoxiously called a "peep" toe. I got a practice color on my toes the other day -- pale pink -- and it looked good. I wore the shoes all day yesterday (with my jeans and t-shirt; I looked ridiculous) and they were pretty comfortable. So I'm guessing I can live in them for a day, although I also got flats, which I will test tomorrow.

*sigh*

Probably because I am at a level of insanity reserved for mothers of imminent brides or grooms, I decided that an ordinary bra would not do. My dress is all lace, but it is lined, so really, nothing special is needed, but if I shift the wrong way, my bra straps will show, so I decided that I had to have a strapless bra. Also, I've been toying with the idea that a good strapless bra will take some pressure off my shoulders and consequently I'll have less neck pain. So yes, I walked into a store and asked for a strapless bra in size 38DDD.

Long story short, I got it, and it was amazingly comfortable, and I've been wearing it all day (under a t-shirt) to see if I can live in it. It's strapless, but goes down to about my waist, which causes the world's biggest muffin-top thing to occur, so I have to wear a waist-cincher, or some such thing, under the bra. My posture, as you can imagine, is ramrod straight, and my belly looks fla-a-a-a-a-a-t, which I love. My bra parts, or, "girls", if you will, have never been happier, because there is only support, no pinching or anything, and they don't spread out to the sides or drop out of the cups or sag or anything. However, when I was trying to do dishes before, standing at the sink, I could not see the dishes. I can barely bend or lean, and when say support, I mean that my girls somewhat resemble Jayne Russell in the fifties. (Okay, here's one picture.)

I feel like I'm wearing an exo-skeleton, which is to say, like my own puny body is encased in Transformer-like armor that holds it up. I feel like if I take it off, my flesh will collapse to the floor in a puddle of goo.

I promise that I will post pictures of myself, at least, after the Wedding, and you will see, hopefully, that it all came together and I remained upright for the requisite time. Two weeks from today, folks! In fact, two weeks from this very minute, it will be over! (Except the brunch, which is the next morning.)

Okay, gonna go take off my Borg components and turn myself back into a human being now.

The Great Centerpiece Caper

Like most things in life, experiencing the hoopla surrounding one of your kids getting married is one of those things you really can't understand until you experience it.

Centerpieces. R had an image in her head, based on the $300 apiece centerpieces she was shown by her mother-in-law's florist. She -- R -- decided that we could make them ourselves for much less. And we did. We made 18 centerpieces for about $200 total. So far.


The wedding is October 24, so we have an autumn theme here, yes? All assembled, all done nicely except for one thing:

It's a little ... blah. What's missing is the pizzaz. We have tried all kind of things from silk leaves to using family photographs cut into leaves to stems of real flowers to just the blooms of real flowers ... you get it. All this time, I've been snapping pictures with my phone and emailing them to R, my friend Betty (the art teacher) in Maine, and my crafty sister-in-law. Finally, the SIL suggested last night that go to Pier One, where they have all kind of neat embellishments. Here's what I got, to try:


I don't know if you can tell, but the leaves on the left and pods on the right are very glittery fall colors.

Anyway, the pictures were generally coming out like crap, so R said to me last night "Why don't you use a camera?" Duh. Instead of the phone. So this morning, I took all the stuff onto the front porch to get some natural light, and I took my real camera and I snapped these pictures, as tests. None of them are finished samples, this is just to see if we like them.





You can't see the pods very well (the first one) but I like this best. I'd like to put two stems of pods in each one. Now, R has left this all up to me because she doesn't want to deal with it anymore, but it better be something she likes, yes? So I'll send her the pictures.

Which led me to my next crisis. My trusty Nikon is at least ten years old, and is fine for me. When I took out the memory card to transfer the pictures to my computer, imagine how surprised I was to find that neither my new computer nor printer has a slot that fits a compact flash card. Why? Because it's old technology. And I didn't have an adapter because I never needed one, since my old printer had a slot for it.

Oy. So, off to the giant computer store for an adapter. And while I'm there, a new camera that uses technology that's compatible with what I've got. Not an expensive camera, but still. I'll have to add that to the unexpected costs of the whole wedding experience.

Thank god this is not a monster, over-the-top wedding, and that R is about as far from a bridezilla as one could be. So this is what a moderate-type wedding costs.

The Hubs was right. The first time he held her after she was born, he cooed to her, "We're going to start saving for your wedding now." "Her wedding?" I said. "I expected you to say college." He shook his head. "Oh, she'll get a full scholarship to Georgetown [his alma mater]. But we'll have to pay for the wedding." Needless to say, no scholarship, no Georgetown, no saving for a wedding. Huh. You live, you learn.

My City Adventure, In Brief

• On Wednesday night, PBS will be showing Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart, on Great Performances.
  
• Last night, a screening of the film -- its premiere -- was held at a theater in New York City, with both the director and the star in attendance.
• My firstborn was given two tickets to attend said premiere and knew better than to take anyone with her but her mother.
• It rained all day.
• I drove down to Woodbridge -- 50 minutes -- to take the train from there so that the two of us could take the train home to there (near where she lives). I would take the train and meet her in the city, where she was already because she works there.
• Got lost on my way there but made it in time, parked, got on the train, Facebooked it, and got into the city.
• Met up with the kid, took a cab to the Paris Theater (adjacent to the Plaza Hotel.) I saw Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet in this theater when I was 16.
• We were early, so we killed time at the Great Apple Mothership, the Cube Apple Store.
  
  
  
• This picture was taken from inside, looking up through the cube. Here's what it really looks like.
  
• Went back to the theater, and downstairs to the ladies room before taking our seats. Older style plumbing, pipes exposed behind the toilet. When I pressed the handle to flush, the top cap of the upright pipe exploded off, drenching everything in sight and flooding the bathroom floor immediately. Once I figured out how to escape the stall, I dried myself off with copious amounts of napkins -- the refreshment stand was right there -- and we found seats.
• R's boss dropped by to say hello and asked if we had heard about the water explosion in the ladies room. "Oh, really?" we answered. "It was fine when we were down there earlier." Ahem.
• Patrick Stewart spoke before the screening, but alas, I had no opportunity to see him up close or get an autograph or run away with him.
• Macbeth was very good. Watch.
• Took a cab, took the train, drove home. Did not get lost, even though it was dark and raining.
• Slept late this morning.
• The End.