The sound of Wedding Bells

There's something about an official union of two people (some call it marriage) that makes people go crazy. It makes people do obscene things like spend garish amounts of money, sending some back into financial debt that could last over five lifetimes in exchange for a single day that you will never have back. Other acts of folly including trying to accommodate and entertain a lavish celebration for hundreds of people, most of which you are only mildly related to, and the rest of which you hope to obtain a well-stocked kitchen from. Your wedding day is the day that perfection is not only perceived, but conceived, and it damn well better be or SO HELP YOU GOD.... ----- To an single outsider such as myself, this seems like pure mayhem. There's nothing better than the monopoly of tradition and the cost of monogamy. Who knew that legally taking someone off of the dating market would be such a hefty price?

I hadn't had much exposure to the subject of marriage prior to this year, oddly enough. I attended my very first wedding in 2008 and knew the bride and groom only loosely enough to say, "Congratulations....?" The only other implications of marriage occurred in the schoolyard when my peers would suggest I marry Fruit-by-the-Foot, the subject of literature, or my favorite pair of jeans. Oh, and of course, Orlando Bloom. So you see, marriage was always the punchline of a funny joke to me, something that just sort of happened to old people because they stumbled upon some bad luck or bad sex or bad something or because they had nothing better to do. Marriage was weird and far away and happened to people who were ready to exit the world of FUN so I didn't have to think about it.

And then bam.

Little did I know that 2011 would usher me into Marriage-hem. A new, and entirely insane world of wedding lingo, a newly betrothed brother and bff, invitation lists, color scheming, googling "maid of honor duties," blah blah blahdiblahhhhhh leaving me dumbfounded and wanting to elope myself, if ever in the next decades of my life I allow some imbecile to sweep me off my very sternly placed cemented feet. After wedding planning it's amazing to me that people still want to go through with the actual ceremony. More than just logistics, all this marriage stuff really has me thinking about my own prospects because, of course, my thoughts always eventually circumvent .... well, ME. Let's see. . . 22 years old, single, going away for a year, repeatedly admonishing my mother and father that they shan't see any of their hard-kept genes bequeathed, bitter, jaded ... yep, this is shaping up to be the prime years of my life.

Enough about me, however. All this marriage talk has spurred many-a-conversation with my own mother about it's necessity. Her thoughts are this:

"Men are stupid, so God sent them women to straighten them out."
-My mother

Congrats to Karen & Jon as well as Jon (my big brother) & Cheryl. I'm so excited for you four and can't wait for your big crazy days. :)

I've been busy (but honestly not nearly as busy as this girl deserves) maid-of-honoring, and a couple weeks ago, we threw a bridal shower for Karen! The problem with bestowing upon me the great honor of the title, "maid-of-honor" is that I think I take it a little too seriously. I'm a perfectionist as it is, but throw on the responsibilities to make Karen's big day go, well, BIG -- I think I torture my own efforts. The girls were all a-grin, though, especially the bride-to-be, and I take that to mean the shower was a success :)