Something Beautiful

Funny things about Bethie's wedding (including prep days):

-It seriously wasn't just knowing that Derek and Bethie and Bethie's family had watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding: if you look at her in a quick-glance sort of way, Derek's mother looks just a little like Ian Miller's from the movie (though younger). She is, however, much more fun to be around. I had thought that Derek's dad might be sort of quiet and reserved by comparison, but that was before he shaving-creamed my car door handle. He is also a very funny dancer.

-Kevin, Derek's brother (and the best man), is very geeky, and almost certainly proud of it. He spent almost the whole post-rehearsal dinner (which was lots and lots of pizza) playing Donkey Kong on the big arcade machine. He also, if my guess on what he was scribbling is correct, didn't write his reception toast until the photos were being taken after the actual wedding ceremony. It was very cute, though. (Relatedly: I do actually know who Sandy Duncan--the one who, along with "the man in the toilet," Derek feared as a child--is, though I didn't think I did. She was in Season One of the Muppet Show; I saw her episode at the end of Christmas break this year.)

-Bethie's paternal grandmother, despite being in her seventies, dances like nobody's business (and, as Bethie's dad is quick to imitate, has a voice not entirely unlike that of the Godfather, thanks to decades of cigarettes).

-Her new little cousin Viktor was a continual source of amusing cuteness. He's five years old, recently adopted from Russia, and introduced himself to Bethie's dad shortly before the wedding ceremony, via clamping onto his leg and refusing to leave his side (except, I guess, while Bethie's dad walked her down the aisle)...which at first confused me, as I hadn't seen the whole merry meeting and therefore couldn't figure out why I could hear a small child singing directly behind me, instead of just Bethie's parents, as expected. He also reportedly sang out, after the wedding, that he'd been a good boy and so was going to get ice cream. At the barbecue the next day, for the extended-family members still in town as well as the neighbor-types who couldn't come to the ceremony/reception, he would run up to people, hug them around the legs in similar fashion to the day before, then run off.

-Bethie's dad's experience of picking up the tuxes and trying his on and finding it was five inches too short. "You're familiar with Michael Jackson?" he deadpanned.

-The guy at the wedding reception--who is he, Bethie? I never figured it out--who went around (and apparently goes around, a regular thing) taking pictures of groups of people with their arms in the air going, "YAYYY!"

-Dancing at the reception to "I Would Walk 500 Miles." Enough said.


Weather-related things about Bethie's wedding:

It had rained hard all week--so hard on Wednesday that they actually closed down one section of I-490, about twenty minutes after I'd driven on it. It hadn't been a frightening thing exactly to do, if only because I had at least a little visibility, but my intrigue came through very wide open eyes. Flash-flood warning for Monroe County, the radio informed me once I'd made it to the Thruway.

But when my eyes opened on Friday morning, the day of the wedding itself, the brightness alone of the sky told me that Bethie and Derek had probably gotten the clear day the weather channels and sites had promised--and they had. A few small clouds, but all were white, and stayed so all day and into the next.


Food-and-drink-related things about Bethie's wedding:

Bethie makes some pretty rocking random-fruit smoothies.

The reception place had pretty much the best store-bought strawberries and pineapple I've ever tasted. The hors-d'oeuvres were pretty much all great, and all the dinner food was good.

And yes, for all of you who have small monetary bets riding on the prudiness vs. courtesy question, I did drink about three small sips'-worth of champagne for the toast. Two of them were, no lie, to make sure that it really was as awful as I initially thought it was. No offense to whomever picked it (I'm just not a drinker), but answer: yes.


Girly things about Bethie's wedding:

-Bethie's dress was lovely on her and looked in texture like the sheets of fondant that they lay over wedding cakes before they put on the frosting--so smooth, so white. There was a cummerbund-thing in the front and a big bow in the back (which was hard to tie, but, thank goodness, the tying thereof was not my responsibility). No beadwork; short train. Very simple and pretty and Bethie-like.

-Since I was the only bridesmaid, there wasn't much to coordinate, so I wore my prom dress and jewelry from senior year of high school. The best part, however, was having longer hair than I did then, and therefore getting to have lots and lots of curls hanging down...which were held in place by much hairspray and, I kid you not, thirty-two bobby pins, which I counted the next morning when I took them out of my hair (the pins were pretty skillfully placed; I slept with my hair still done up but didn't particularly feel them). Bethie had curls, too--bigger and arranged around her veil (which was pinned to the back of her head and drawn over her head so's to cover her face). We don't know how many pins hers took, though, heh.

-On Thursday night (the wedding was late Friday afternoon), we tried in lieu of a bachelorette party to have a girls' ice cream thing, but it kind of degenerated into a bunch of Bethie and Derek's relatives of both genders coming out to Friendly's, which was nice enough, but not exactly get-togethery because we couldn't all sit together and take our time. What worked much better was trying on our dresses, which we later did so's to make sure all systems were go (and because Bethie's neighbor wanted to see). It was quiet and precious and bathed in soft light (at least in my memory, but I think in real life, too) and everything went well (except for my zipper almost coming apart, but the necessary sewing was accomplished quickly, and after that the dress fit better than ever). After that, we got into pajamas and drank warm milk with cinnamon and watched Firefly until just after midnight. (Bethie and her mom are right: it's geekily worth watching. I have only seen three episodes, so don't spoil it for me.)


Sweet things about Bethie's wedding:

After whispering to Bethie that I'd see her at the end of the aisle, a little past four on Friday afternoon, I managed, a wonder in itself, to get in step with Kevin as we went down together. Derek was standing there. I think he was smiling. I think I was smiling at how he looked. I think I was trying to smile in general, lest I look dazed.

And then came Bethie, and between being so tired and her being so gorgeous and the way the sunlight framed her and the way I could see Aneya, in one of the pews, clap her hand to her mouth all teary as she held up her camera, I had to figure out how not to cry.

Somehow I managed it, more or less. It was easier later, when they exchanged the rings; it was almost worth a giggle just to know they'd made it safely out of Kevin's pocket (they almost gave me charge of one of them, to wear on my thumb, just in case; Kevin's not necessarily known for his presence of mind).

And after the ceremony, after the receiving line, they came out of the church and down the big stone steps in a shiny floating cascade of blown soap bubbles. And then there were dozens of snapped pictures back inside, relatives and friends brandishing cameras.

And Bethie and Derek hung together in the bloom-filled garden at the reception house in the late-afternoon sun. And Bethie's uncle announced my toast about half an hour before I expected it, and the writing on my page, printed from Notepad, was too small and the paper too crinkled, and I did it mostly from memory--mostly blowing the segue line from Part A into Part B and having to try to subtly explain the connection several sentences later--with my voice finally, inevitably breaking at the second-to-last sentence, as it had when I'd first read it aloud to myself two nights before. And we had dinner, them happily kissing for that intensely-awkward glass-clinking ritual. And the two of them danced to Frank Sinatra, the wait-staff girls trying to both clear plates and still see them pulling dips and whatnot, and I reflected on what a good idea the upbeat tempo was, making it into the most playful couple dance I'd ever seen. And we danced to the most danceable, mostly-oldies-oriented wedding reception music of my wedding-attendance experience. And danced, and danced, stopping only for more pictures and to drink lots of water. And after wrapups and busyness and all else related, I came back to Bethie's house, which has had the same cinnamon-apple scent for all the time I've known her, and in their guest room, across from Bethie's empty one--the veil no longer draped, as it had been, prettily over her chair--I got into pajamas and sank into sleep.

And so Bethie's wedding, the first among my childhood friends, was something beautiful.

<mood src="sleep deprivation">

So I've been really tired lately, partly because I've often been reading blogs, Facebook, etc. instead of sleeping on time, showering on time, praying, etc. I mean it, I've been notably immature. Therefore, I've been subsequently crabby, and therefore, subsequently and ungratefully, much of the blogosphere and Facebook have started to annoy me. (Not really you guys, though I do still have to admit to being overly distracted at bedtime by your stuff.)

Therefore, I'm running away. Relatively briefly, in this case. Starting tonight and extending to about August 1: no blogs, no Facebook, and no AIM 'til after Bethie's wedding. I might post here about said nuptials before the 1st, but that's going to have to be it. But I will be checking e-mail and keeping my phone on, so people who might need to reach me (esp. Bethie) should find me accessible by all the means we've been most often using.

My apologies to my reader(s) who hate the word "blog," by the way.

There is joy in the Lord, there is love in His Spirit

Things I feel thankful for today (though I'm sure some of these got listed last time I felt like being joyful):

My perfect imperfect church family. My friends. My biological family. The Kennedy and Dean kids. Free grace. Butterflies. The color blue. Hills. Stars. Music. A car. The internet. Coconut. Shrimp. Curry powder. (You can guess where those three are going.) Books. Vanilla chai. My forty prospective students, God help them. Strong and workable limbs. Weighted contact lenses.

Off to make coconut shrimp (later edit: this is harder than it looks if you aren't following the recipe directly...I tried it with bread crumbs, instead of the recommended Shake 'N Bake breadcrumb mix, with very uneven success, but at least they tasted pretty good anyway) and listen to Says You! and write to Ananda and see if Bethie's wedding favors are in the main office so I can pick them up and assemble them. Tallyho!

Finished, 7/18, for the Summer Challenge...

...Dave Eggers's You Shall Know Our Velocity!, which was Christina's pick. And, because I promised a very brief review of each: It's a bizarre story, but well worth reading. I really liked Eggers's use of simile.

On God's Sacrifice Being Open to All

I took down the poem so's to rephrase misconstruable points, or at least stash it until I gave up on trying to rephrase them, but quickly realized that I'd forgotten to copy-paste it somewhere first. So it's gone. That's okay; I should leave the religious free-verse to, I don't know, Micah or someone.

The last entry is gone, too, being a waste of space without the plea for poetic surveillance.

I've been half entranced by You Shall Know Our Velocity!, but here around the two-thirds mark it's gotten really weird, so I'm laying off it for now in favor of sleeping soon. I also finished rereading A Man For All Seasons today, though, and like it even better now than I did when we read it for Mrs. Stenglein in the tenth grade.

I really need to spend this weekend doing things I've promised to do.

First Trade/Making Myself Still More at Home at Good Shepherd

Swapped: My copy of House of the Sleeping Beauties for some guy in Alabama's copy of G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man. Getting rid of an old book and getting a new one: $1.85, all of it for shipping.

*

Joyce found me lying on my stomach on the countertop this morning in the Good Shepherd kitchen, eating a bowl of granola. Some of the church ladies would probably raise an eyebrow at this, but instead Joyce, who was herself trying (not hard) not to laugh, commented, "You make an unusual centerpiece!"

I don't know, it amused me (click to enlarge if desired).

What I've Done Today

-I baked cupcakes at quarter to nine this morning for Good Shepherd's ice cream social. I was going to do it last night, but then I ended up playing a long, fun, and Chinese-food-filled game of Parcheesi ("the royal game of India!", Carrie kept emphasizing) with Carrie, Ife, and Mike, which didn't end 'til nearly midnight and in which I came in last, but not by as much as I might have (fellow Parcheesi-newbie Mike won).

-I spent nearly three consecutive hours painting children's faces, with help from some of the junior-high girls, at said ice cream social. It was kind of like Leo Club all over again. It was nice. It meant, however, that I had nothing but ice cream, a cupcake, and orange Hi-C for lunch (well, if you count my turkey burger at 11:30 as breakfast, since it was the first thing I'd eaten all day besides cupcake batter). Today? Not a big day for nutrition.

-I joined SwapTree.com (like eBay, but less skeevy and no money except postage involved 'cause you're trading media for media) and am hoping against hope that someone will want, say, my copy of Trainspotting from Professor Schneider's class in exchange for, say, their used Riverside Shakespeare.

-I should be doing work for Carrie, but instead I'm going to do laundry/cleaning and radio-broadcast-listening first and maybe, if I feel particularly virtuous sane, call her later to figure out what I need to know before I continue.

I'm not quite this bad yet.

The collect (it's a type of prayer) for this Sunday. So right.

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

What more is day-to-day following after God than listening for what we ought to do, then, granted His grace and power, doing it as best we can?

It's hard to think of something so simple in theory that needs so much help from God in practice.

Haha, grammar tyranny triumphs again!

Weather.com has changed its phrasing to, "Having a cookout? Check the weather," instead of what was there a few weeks ago. I seriously didn't e-mail them or anything. I'm only verbally sticklery around people I know. Aren't you all so glad to know me?

Chipmunk salesmen. Awesome.

Sky.fm (they do a couple of the iTunes radio stations) appears to've come up with a clever way to minimize its commercial-break time: they've been playing this one insurance commercial at double speed. I don't think the company recorded it that way on purpose, 'cause there's no punchline, but it's awkwardly fast and, of course, chipmunky. It just plays. Then they go back to the music. No explanation offered.

Altogether Vanity

Whoa! If you search for ENG 115 on BU Brain, my name now comes up as an instructor! It's true, then--they're not going to take my classes away after offering them (well, unless I register fewer than ten students--see below; then they might); I really am going to teach. All this time I've been a little suspicious.

It can't be true, though, that I only have space for eight students across two sections (much as that'd simplify my life); they appear to be signing all the incoming freshmen up as their paperwork comes in or something, 'cause goodness knows every class will probably have to be taught at 15-to-20-person capacity, and right now Sarah J. has only been "given" three students, which can't be right; they wouldn't give an MA (me) more students than a second-year Ph.D (her). There're lots of examples like that.

Anyway, that's how I found out that my classes meet at a different time than Dr. Kinney originally guessed they would. And for the better: they're not until the afternoon, which means I get more time for sleep and preparation. Yes-s-s-s.

Um, but this morning, I have somewhere to be at 10, so it's time for me to stop getting all vainly squeaky about this and start getting my act together.

Updates

So I've updated this blog's sidecolumns, etc. The long new one is that thing I mentioned, the picking-ten-people-to-each-assign-me-a-book-I've-never-read thing. Like the Newbery Project, I will never get it done on time, but I'm leaving that list up there to bug me 'til I do eventually get it done.

Fourth of July weekend was all right. I went home. Sean was there, too. Today he and I and our parents went to Thunder Island, this tiny, localish water-park-on-the-cheap with (get ready, Six Flags fans) exactly four water slides, a (very small) lazy river, a kiddie area (they got a couple of slides, too), and unlimited miniature golf. Well, and a Ferris wheel (supposedly the same one that was in the movie Big), but we didn't ride it. That was it, save the concession stand (with adjoining dining tent) and the go-kart track, both of which cost extra. (The go-karts were worth it, though. I love go-karts.) The park was pretty funny, but a good way to spend four hours, except for the fact that, despite all efforts, I got patchily sunburnt (and am out of aloe...it's high time for a grocery trip anyway, so I guess that'll be tomorrow).

I almost forgot to mention: I went folkdancing on Thursday night, back in Syracuse (which is also the last place I folkdanced, back in...January, I think). It was good to see them, and they were happy to see me. It was fun, though it would've been a little more so if I hadn't been wearing my new glasses, which I'd only had for threeish hours and had been actually wearing for much less than that, so everything felt a little like I was underwater. If I ever get the chance, I should try to teach Alfred's group "Nabrala Je," since I remember it better than I thought I did.

What with Red Cross and church stuff by day, VBS-helping by night, and another ruddy trip up to the eyedoctor's in Syracuse (about the contacts, not the glasses) on Thursday morning, this week about to start will be, shall we say, action-packed. I guess that means I should get some sleep.

Farmhouses and Butterflies

So I did, in fact, go to Alfred this past weekend to attend the party at the Pryntz-Nadwornys' dome, which still isn't completely done, but which's mostly so. It was lovely. Even lovelier, I have to say, was Monday, when (before I left that evening to come back here) I visited, at length, the IV staff, as I haven't gotten to really do to my satisfaction over the past couple of trips there.

I don't think I'll come up with the time or inspiration to write more little scenes or whatever before everything fades into impressions, so let me just mention things, in no particular order:

-Pastors Dan and Matt ought to meet, in the way that two smart people of the same trade ought to know each other. I don't know what would happen, but I bet it would be fascinating to watch. And probably amusing as well.

-Micah McClain is three months old now and pretty much shaped like a peanut M&M. A hefty, cute peanut M&M. Justin is nearly three years old and is in this linebacker-ish phase where he gets a running start and then just kind of plows into your legs with no explanation offered. Him being reunited with Tom after so many months was a cinematic moment.

-The Snyder/McGraw houses are just as surrounded by beauty as I remembered. As Bev and Emily and I were sitting on the Snyder porch, almost the only thing needed to complete the idyllic scene was given: a butterfly floated lazily by at the porch's back corner. I don't think anyone saw it but me, but it was yellow and black and pretty much symbolizes that whole moment now.

-The staff has not changed--would they anyway, in but a year?--which is a deeply-comforting thought.

-I've been trying to explain this since Hot Dog Weekend, and I keep deleting it before people see because I don't want to imply that it's going to be like this for them as well: Alfred has this odd quality now of still being as wonderful as ever, but becoming less and less something I can still consider mine. I want to say that possession is not the point, but that would be lying. It is the point, as one wants to be "part of" one's closest friends, as one wants to be able to say my town, my school, my church: I belong here. IV-A chapel in late April, in the midst of the paper-writing torment that was Binghamton, was the worst moment--I couldn't sing the hymns, from behind my hair where I was trying to hide (you know what I mean...if I tilt my chin down towards my chest, my hair doesn't close me in, but it kind of hangs forward on either side), because I couldn't stop crying long enough. It's not quite like that now that my everyday life is more pleasant, but it's also essentially impossible to be truly content in Alfred now. There's much joy. There's little contentment.

-Sonora's is still in business on Main Street. For now, I'm tempted to add. I can't help but be skeptical, much as I really like the place, because I'm so used to the eventual, inevitable sinking process of any restaurant not owned by the Ninos family.

-I asked Sandy about the stories Harold's been telling for the Alfred Sun. Turns out they're not for the Sun--most of them got written down in the 80s for his grandchildren, and some of them are being run as columns. Some of them are actually new. It must've been going on for much longer than I knew about it, though, 'cause Sandy mentioned that CB had complimented his writing, I guess sometime earlier this year.

-Okay, weird thing about the Alfred State bells: sometimes when they chime the hour, they line up with my watch exactly. When they don't, they're six to seven minutes off. How is that even possible?

-I have been in more cities' branches of Wegmans than many people have, and I have to say, Hornell appears to top them all for the quality and variety of their potted herbs (you know, like the ones growing in my window), and probably for the rest of the plants, too, except I don't know enough about much besides herbs to know.

-The new Alfred State townhouses are very well done--I wish my apartment were like one of them, honestly, though I appreciate the superior kitchen space here.

-Gracious, but Kaniel Pryntz-Nadworny is way taller and nearer to adulthood than when he last graced us with his presence. And Doriel isn't all that far behind--no more long, curly locks for him. Avi and Rafi look practically the same age as ever, comparatively. Avi's grown a beard-thing and is calm and content and friendly--I think he always was, but now it's amplified. Rafi is a little more laid-back than he was, though probably no less energetic, and hardly left Tom and me for a minute as soon as we got there, which was nice, considering that he also had other friends around as well.

-It's getting to the point where everyone knows how to go to bed at a decent hour but me. I may never break free from this sleep deprivation--even without napping, I can't fall asleep on time. I can't--or sometimes won't--shut my mind off long enough.

-I ran into Sophie Westacott by chance as I left town. I'm still surprised and flattered by how excited she always is to see me. She's going to Smith College this fall, where I went with Luanne et al. for ACDA in March 2005. Though, as I pointed out, it's not a place in which I would have been happy, I think it's a great choice for her. I hope she has a wonderful time--and finally, after trampling all her Alfred-Almond classmates, finds someone to challenge her in debate!

-As I was in the dollar store, of all places, I got this sense that my dream of just living in Alfred forever won't be realized, but that if I keep on and follow God well, somehow I'll get something even better. Which I honestly can't imagine right now, but that doesn't mean I don't at all believe it. It'll be interesting to see.