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June 30, 2005: I Heard the Bluebirds Sing

I have a recording of Ginny Hawker and Kay Justice singing the cutest song in the world about a long-ago courtship, and I would cover it if I could only play the banjo. I want to play it at Alan and Min's sangeet (more on that later). It's stuck in my head all the time. "I met a girl out in the hills/she gave my lonely heart a thrill/her beauty was just like a breath of spring..."

I'm going to be playing an acoustic gig with Susan Hickey at The Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, GA on Friday, July 29th. We've been trying to do a double bill for a long time, so we're excited! I learned long ago that the best way to get to hear my favorite musicians play was to try to get them to play with me. (Because, you know, it's all about me.) If you've never been to The Crimson Moon, it's worth the trip; it's a fun, relaxing, multimedia experience. (You've gotta love a place where they paint the bathroom walls white and provide the markers for the grafitti.)

If you're not yet leaping for joy, then let me remind you of the Unplugged in the Park series, sponsored by 99X, in which I will be playing for the third time on Sunday, August 14th. I'll have my band there! Admission is free! There is that annoying 21-and-over thing going on, for which I apologize, but there's nothing I can do about that. We'll be playing an acoustic show, and I've heard the rehearsals, so I know it's going to be good.

OK, so I've done my obligatory music plugging, and now I can talk about my WEDDING! Wedding, wedding, wedding! I'm not too proud to admit that I have completely succumbed to my girliest tendencies and am not even trying to work on or think about things that have nothing to do with my wedding. It's a good thing Derik is looking forward to it as well, or he'd have throttled me by now. The downside to this is that there is a wedding industry that puts any other conspiracy in the world to shame when it comes to separating people from their money, and it is really, really easy to be just happily whistling along one moment and then realize the next moment that you suddenly can't possibly live without plastic plates with scalloped edges, engraved with your names and the wedding date, call the number in the catalogue, and spend another $500 before you even realize what you're doing. Luckily, a tight budget and constant vigilance have kept me from this terrible fate.

I am not the only one planning a wedding right now, so, when I get tired or stressed out from all the work there is still to be done, I can think about one of the other weddings I'll be attending. My good friend Alan is getting married in a Hindu ceremony in September, and, having never been to a Hindu wedding ceremony and having retained the fascination with Indian culture that marked my college years, I am beside myself with excitement. Every detail I learn about this wedding adds another layer of mystery. There will be turbans, a white horse, and dancing. I will get to wear a sari. The groom will have his shoes stolen. There will be a sangeet the day before the wedding at which guests will be encouraged to sing songs, play instruments, and make speeches and toasts. This is going to be FUN!

Speaking of fun, my dear sister snuck into Atlanta under cover of night last weekend and threw me a bridal shower! But not just any bridal shower. No, this was a spectacular event that combined a bridal shower, bachelorette party, and sleepover night in one! Many of my closest friends were in on the plan, and I was taken by surprise, which added to the excitement. And my friend Angie was there!

Angie, one of my good friends from college, got married several years ago in Little Rock, Arkansas. You guys know me, so you know that I pestered her for wedding planning details and made much fuss about how much I was looking forward to the event. Then - disaster! - she told me the date, and it was in May. During the Georgia Renaissance Festival, for which I had already signed my contract. Angie understood when I explained the conflict, but it still sucked that I couldn't go; I wanted so much to be there! I tried to think of a way to make it up to her.

Finally, I hit on a solution; I would go to her bridal shower! I put our mutual friend Alan (the one that's getting married in the Hindu wedding) on red alert for any shower planning, and he gave my contact information to Angie's best friend, who would surely know about any showers she might be having. I thought it was awfully rude of me to invite myself to a friend's wedding shower, but I also thought it would be worth it to surprise Angie! I made my plans in secret to drive all the way to Fredericksburg, VA on a Friday, stay the night at my mom's house, and then drive the other hour to D.C. on Saturday so that I could burst into the shower, all, "Surprise!" However, as the time got closer, I had second thoughts. If I did it that way, I wouldn't get to meet her fiance, Jake, and I really wanted to meet him. Besides, the whole point was to visit Angie, and I wanted to make sure I got to spend some time with her. So I called her and let her in on my plan, and she was excited that I was coming. We went out to dinner on Friday night with Jake and some of their friends, I attended the shower on Saturday, and then I drove the 11 hours back to Atlanta on Sunday. It was a lot of driving, but it was totally worth it.

I wasn't expecting a shower in the first place, but I definitely wasn't expecting Angie, and when she popped up from behind the couch, I literally screamed! She said it had seemed crazy to drive all the way to Atlanta for a shower but then said, "But hey, you did it for me!" Here's to crazy girlfriends!

I keep expecting the wedding craze to die down at some point, but it doesn't look like there's an end in sight. I won't be attending six or seven weddings this year, but it'll be a solid four, and, hypothesizing based on friends who have just gotten engaged this year or whom I think will probably get engaged soon, I would say I'll be attending at least that many next year as well. Perhaps The Goober Wedding Awards were not a one-time thing after all!

If this were an actual conversation instead of an online journal, your eyes would probably be glazing over at this point, so I'll stop with the wedding talk. FOR NOW! I leave you with our official engagement photos, courtesy of our friend Fausto, before I move on:

© 2005 Fausto Lee

I'd be lying if I said getting married was all delightful all the time. The closer we get to the actual wedding, the more real it becomes that I am actually doing this. I was never going to get married. Never! And yet, here I am. I love my boy more than ever, but we've been awfully busy the last couple of months. My friends who've been through this are advising me not to forget to take time out from wedding planning to talk to my fiance about things besides catering and tux rentals so that our love for each other (i.e. the reason we're doing all this) doesn't get drowned out by, "Wedding, wedding, wedding!" It's good advice, and I'm trying to keep it in mind.

We had a lovely night last Sunday. We went to a Seal concert at Chastain Park in Atlanta. Seal has been one of my favorite singers for so long that I can't believe I hadn't made it to one of his concerts before, but now that I've been to one, I definitely won't miss another. What a voice! I was tired (and a little hungover) from my surprise bachelorette party when we went to the concert, but in some ways, that was the best way to be. I was all raw, exposed nerves, and I just let the lights, the music, and the energy wash over me, wrapping around me and Derik, pulling us together. I can tell you with authority that the band was great, but I can't give you anywhere near the detail I usually can about exactly why they were great because I wasn't analyzing their performance. It reminded me of what it was like to listen to music when I was a child, before I learned that making music could be work. It also reminded me of how glad I am that Derik and I have music in common so that, when I leaned my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, he knew exactly what I was feeling. He was feeling it, too.

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