I have this tendency to focus on very small things in times of stress. It's an obnoxious habit to the people around me, an irritating one to me, but nonetheless, in the face of a move, a job we STILL don't know about, and cabin-building, not to mention my undetermined career, I find myself obsessively coordinating an operation to move the furniture my grandmother left to my incapable father which currently resides in storage. The partners? A sulky teenage sister, a grumpy husband, a fugitive and mentally unpredictable father, and my least favorite aunt.
Everything is set up now. We'll see if it happens. But I finally realized that if it doesn't, it's ok. Because the only reason I'm worrying about it is because I'm a nutter with a burning need to focus on the very small nuts.
Nearly a year ago (ok, a month and nine days), I was slicing lemons and limes in my mother's kitchen at midnight. Because my wedding would NOT be complete if there were not PERFECTLY ROUND slices of lemons and lime to float in the water pitchers (despite the fact that I hadn't yet MADE the bouquets, boutineers, or table arrangements. That came later. With Mom and Nastasha, bless their hearts.) Before I climbed into the Packard for the church, I left a very detailed note for the caterers, telling them exactly where to find said lemon and lime circles.
At the reception, sitting finally married next to K., I saw the lemons and limes, thrown on a plate, shoved on the furthest corner of the beverage table, nowhere near a pitcher of any kind. And I didn't care.
Well, I cared a little. But relatively, not that much, especially compared to K., who kept jumping up from our table like a jack-in-the-box because his pet project, the wooden barrel of wine with a spigot, kept not being fully turned off by silly drunken people. The slight stream of wine was like a knife thrust to his heart. (Somehow, neither of us stressed out about the fact that the lights strung between the trees were going off and on as the fuses blew. The groomsmen, bless their hearts, handled that.)
Point being.... well, disasters may come, and crises may mount, but you'll find me in a corner, polishing the smallest nut on my shirt, worried that perhaps it's cracking or getting old or has nut disease.
I'm stretching here, I know, but lordy, it's FUN making these analogies work hard.
Switzerland 2020
3 years ago
2 comments:
Who in their right mind leaves the wine tap running onto the ground?? Even a drunk person would see the value in preserving every last drop of wine for future consumption.
That wine was personally delivered by the vineyard owner from a small vineyard up near the Great Lakes. I bought the French Oak barrel for hundreds of dollars, built the stand for it, and put the wine into the barrel on the morning of the wedding, so that the strong oak flavor of the barrel would be no more than a faint overtone. And people couldn't be bothered to close the tap!!!!!
That was on par with the little racals who drank all the remaining Izze while we were on honeymoon.
Schnookums, most of the time I think it's endearing, and have come to rely on your concern for, say, dusting the tops of the pictures before we leave for vacation.
Sometimes, however, when we are moving out of town, to somewhere else, maybe or maybe not unemployed, visiting: John and Sarah and Adam and Elizabeth and Johna and Tom and Rachel and all the other Pierce associates, moving up to Vermont and planning the construction of a cabin and worrying about health insurance, maybe it's not the best time to throw a 10 hour drive, a whiny, uncooperative teenager, a father, and an unfriendly aunt, not to mention loads of furniture, into the mix.
Glad you think so too.
kiss!
Whatever it takes to get you past the hump in the road----but know, chile,things are going to get easier--and harder---and back and forth --and you'll navagate it all!
It was a a beautiful wedding, because of all the love around---all those manical little touchs we all did that added up to a wonderful whole--oh yeah, and the moon--
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