Weekend Leftovers

For all their transience, I still love having fresh flowers around the house.

One of KS's best friends from college, AL, got married on Saturday. KS hosted a brunch for her at our house the morning of the wedding (and gets top-marks for pulling it off as she was also a co-Maid-of-Honor and understandably busy).

As KS and I were up assembling tea sandwiches until about half-past midnight on Friday, we had to laugh at the number of late nights we've spent in the kitchen in the name of being good hostesses and wanting people to feel welcome in our home.

And we love it.

I sadly did not manage to take any photos at the wedding, but KS and our fun guest for the weekend, Dani (who flew in from England to attend the wedding) brought home about eight vases full of flowers from the reception.

Dani was darling to have around and even left us chocolate that she brought over from London as a gift.

In all my admiring of the flowers, I didn't look over to the couch in our front room until later in the evening, asking aloud: "K- is that AL's veil?" K: "Oh yeah, I had to grab it before she went into the reception- it ended up in my backseat."

And now it has its own couch.

And we have flowers and chocolate.

Everyone wins.

Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fredericksburg, Texas

My friends and I woke up January 1 in the year 2010 only to pack and get going for a road trip.

I'll give you three guesses of where we were going or more appropriately, for what purpose.

...

The only reason I go anywhere is for weddings, so if you guessed anything other than that, you must be new around here.

We traveled to Fredericksburg, Texas this past weekend for the wedding of our friend KK. We got there via Secret Service detail (three black Tahoes) which transported us 280 miles southwest of Dallas. We coordinated last week which was helpful because otherwise we would have ended up with about nine cars across the state for no reason at all. If you think that's ridiculous then you have no idea what we are capable of. We listened to enough country music in those 10+ car hours and spent enough time on Texas backroads to twang up our accents and convince a less-discerning ear that we grew up in tiny triple-digit population towns rather than the Dallas and suburbs of our youth.

MK, LB, KR, BF and I were all staying at a B&B for the weekend. The owners were attentive to the point of asking about food allergies and showing us the proper way to close the icebox. We used six-inch voices the entire time we were there, but we had a great time and drank all of their coffee.

So the wedding itself was planned in eight weeks. This is a tall-order on it's own, so the fact that everyone was in place and the couple were pronounced man and wife after all was said and done was nothing short of an accomplishment. While some of our friends had wedding party commitments, the rest of us got to go to dinner together Friday night. Apparently a couple owns the restaurant; the wife is Greek and the husband is Cajun and the it's in Middle of Nowhere, Texas with Zagat ratings, so you can imagine how great the food was. Our friend AH pointed out that we made it through several bread-baskets and a bottle of olive oil with gusto, and likewise we managed quite well through salads, entrees and dessert. The place was very honky-tonk burger place looking, but if you used their same menu in any big city and put white tablecloths down, no one would ever know the difference.

The B&B girls got up Saturday morning and were served breakfast by the owners, which was great, then we went and tooled around Main Street in Fredericksburg for a few hours. The church where the wedding was to take place was about 30 miles from us, in Hilda, Texas, so we were showered and dressed and had our hair did and heels on by 2:15 PM. The church was even more remote than our restaurant the night before, but we found it and parked on the side of a narrowly paved stretch of road next to the church. Amid the gravel and rugged terrain in my patent leather heels I was thinking "why didn't I consider wearing hiking boots with this BCBG dress before?" which suddenly seemed like a valid option.

KK and her fiance had already decided they would see each other before the wedding and AH, the photographer coordinated to have the wedding party out at a family friend's ranch to take pictures the afternoon before the ceremony, so when we walked up they were taking more photos and seemed to be enjoying themselves. We made our way into the church and were shown to our seats by a bevy of 8th grade boys. NS, the groom, has been their Bible Study leader for the past few years, and one of their parents drove them down to the wedding to participate. They were very uniform in their blue blazers and even though were was some confusion over the proper way to escort a lady to her seat, they managed very well for being so young.

MG had an arsenal of bobby pins with her when we were seated because she had been on hair-duty all day with various members of the wedding party. Fifteen minutes before show-time she got another call and disappeared to the parsonage-looking house next to the church where the bridal party was waiting. The ceremony went well even despite a brief moment when the pastor put his left hand on the back of the groom's head and his right hand on the back of the bride's head to pray over them, and every girl on our pew let out a collective gasp because he was bear-clawing her chignon. I mean, thank goodness for hairspray.

We returned to Fredericksburg for the reception where we were greeted with delicious food and blue margaritas. We ate dinner and had wine and of course ended up at the table next to the 8th graders. KK's uncle and his band, who play country music from the 1960's and 70's were the entertainment for the evening. The music was great but the dancing required a partner, so after joking about it amongst ourselves I actually ran into the group of boys after a trip to the bathroom. They were sitting in a semi-circle of chairs and it did not take any convincing for me to get them out of the chairs and back into the reception room after I promised that my friends and I would dance with them. After a trip down middle-school dance memory-lane, complete with sweaty palms and non-reciprocated questions, the boys parents acting as their chaperones for the evening thanked our group saying that the dance "made their week" as the boys were finding the groom to high-five him and yelling "score!" If only guys our age were so easy.

Our night ended with a detour to Dairy Queen and a Mariah Carey sing-along before the carpool dropped us off at the B&B, only we were detained for a few moments by siren lights and a very serious police officer. Turns out MG had forgotten to turn on her lights after the DQ stop, which necessitated research that most likely included her SAT score and blood type because it took about 15 minutes and resulted in only a written warning.

On the way home the next morning CC, MG and I were driving back together, taking the scenic, non-I35 route and explained to every other driver poking along on the road or barreling through blind turns with a trailer hooked up to their Dodge Ram that they needed a seminar on road etiquette. Every time we passed one of them MG accounted for their bad driving by declaring "that explains it" regardless of the driver's gender, age or nationality.

We returned home to regale KS with tales from our weekend before crashing face-first into our respective beds. No one else crashed? That was just me? I would have taken my shoes off but my shoes were actually my Ugg slippers so there was no need. I couldn't help but think that a tornado must have whirled through my room while I was gone because surely I did not throw around the contents of my closet in such a reckless fashion on Friday morning.

I probably also thought I would never dance with another 8th grader after graduating middle school.

I love thee, I love but thee

With a love that shall not die

Till the sun grows cold,

And the stars grow old...

-Bayard Taylor

Wedding Photos

Here are a few of the pictures I took Saturday night... Enjoy!

You think you've seen the sun, but you ain't seen it shine...

-Frank Sinatra, Best Is Yet To Come

Half and Half

Half of this weekend was incredibly fun.

People started flying into Dallas late last week and KS and I decided to have our friends not in the wedding party over for dinner Friday night.

Opportunity to be hostesses? Seized.

After work that evening I prepped ingredients for salad and the pizzas we would be baking while KS nailed prints onto the wall of our small foyer and arranged a table with flowers and lovely, house-warming things. The new Michael Buble CD was bumping from the iPod dock and we were hardly speaking; the girl equivalent of being "in the zone".

KS arranged the Waterford glasses (I know, yes we have Waterford) in perfect bowling-pin formation as some of our friends began to arrive. KB, BF, JP, HR, AV and KR all came over and we enjoyed a ridiculously fun night which mainly consisted of wine refills and a spotlight on HR and JP, who entertained everyone the whole evening.

Our friends in the wedding party who were staying over at our house: AR and LB, came home with MG and also with the bride herself, HA, who was cool as a cucumber and not nervous or anxious in the least about her impending wedding the next day.

Everyone went their separate ways for the evening, and Saturday morning MG, AR and LB left for breakfast with the bride while KS and I laid on our couches drinking coffee, eating Multi-Grain Cheerios and watching College Gameday on ESPN. I was content to stay there indefinitely, until KS got a phone call from EM in Ft. Worth, reporting a sale at Neiman Marcus.

It was a false alarm, not what we were expecting, but we were there in minutes and KS consulted with her favorite Neiman's sales lady only to find out that the sale we are looking for is actually in November. We made the best of it, since we were already at the mall, and spent a solid hour looking at every single item in Anthroplogie. It was productive; dresses were purchased.

My afternoon centered mostly around picking up CC from the airport. I checked her ETA via the FlightTrack app on my iPhone (very helpful) and found that her flight was about 20 minutes late. I panicked for a moment when I realized I was an idiot and had failed to put a book in my purse for such an emergency, but thankfully I had my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in my backseat, so I was content.

CC texted me when she landed and flew threw the doors of Gate B20 minutes later wearing a dress and heels from wedding numero uno, which had been in Little Rock, Arkansas. I had her bridesmaid dress for wedding two in my backseat, and in true Katherine Heigl fashion she climbed in the backseat to transform for her next appearance, talking a mile a minute about the wedding in Little Rock (her cousin's) and asking about HA and how she was doing. Luckily CC's roommate was also one of the photographers for the wedding, so she was safe and miraculously pulled off her two weddings in two states stunt.

The wedding was beautiful- MG showed KS and I HA's bridal portraits a few weeks ago and we chose about 18 of them as favorites because she is gorgeous. Her sisters, also, look like they could be the spawn of Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

The reception was a blast- there were somewhere in the ballpark of 400 people and somewhere in the ballpark of 400 bottles of wine and beer consumed. Just throwing those numbers out as a rough estimate. If it's any indication, at the end of the evening everyone was yelling "one more song" at the DJ until he played "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. You may scoff but the crowd was loving it.

After the bride and groom left, everyone in our age bracket at the wedding moved the party over to Knox Street Pub, where dancing continued until the bar closed at 2 AM. Beyond that, some of the crowd came over to our house where KS and I made everyone potato egg and cheese breakfast tacos and everyone watched SportsCenter until 4 AM.

Seriously- the hostess gene does not turn off.

I set my alarm to wake up for brunch on Sunday morning and felt like an anvil fell on my head. It was pretty much downhill from there... and that was the other half of my weekend. Another story for another time.

Pictures tomorrow.

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

-Robert Heinlein

Grand Finale

We'll keep this short and sweet because it's Friday, it's 55 degrees and there are no fewer than four bridesmaid's dresses circulating in and out of my house this weekend.

The final wedding I will attend in 2009 is tomorrow. My friend HA is getting married in Dallas and as usual, our college pals are flying in from their various corners of the U.S. to be here. She and her fiance are the same age, had overlapping groups of friends and have been dating since college, so this will be quite reminiscent of a sorority date party.

New friends, old lovers... old friends, new lovers... me driving to the airport to pick up CC tomorrow, who is attending two weddings in two states on the same day...

Should be interesting!

Jane: You write the most beautiful things. Do you actually believe in love and marriage and just pretend to be a cynic or are you actually a cynic who knows how to spin romantic crap for girls like me?
Kevin: I didn't follow that at all, but I think the second one, the spinning crap one.
-27 Dresses

Wedding in Pictures

Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.

-Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

It's Like I Waited My Whole Life

**Editor's note: I was total paparazzi at the blessed event in which SR became SC this weekend, but since I wrote a novel below, pictures will come next... or maybe tomorrow.**

When a bride's only requests of her DJ are to play "Disturbia," "Glamourous" and "Poker Face," you should have an idea of what kind of wedding you're in for.

 

Friday I made it up to the hotel and hopped in the car with AS, KR and RM to get SR to the church for the rehearsal. SR and I grew up going to the same church, where I have been going to weddings for years. Everyone found their places, practiced the requisite processional and left for dinner. 

 

Dinner was held at a steak restaurant and everyone was packed into rectangular, candlelit tables bordering a private room on three sides. Glasses of wine were practically brimming, and a solid hour of drinking before eating made for lively conversation.

 

Back at the hotel, our neighboring rooms piled into one big bed with the bride in our new white monogrammed robes for one last night of being ridiculous. AV had a new application called QuadCam on her phone that kept us entertained for a solid hour. Easily.

 

Saturday came and we were awake with the sun, or at least prior to 8:00 AM. AS, MK and I set out downstairs in our robes in hopes of Starbucks, and while ordering our lattes, found that we were very near the pro shop for the resort's golf course. Since we were still in the 8:00 AM range, which is prime for a Saturday tee-time, we did not escape the notice of the men wandering through while grabbing packets of Splenda in the full windows of the hotel coffee bar. 

 

We all got ready and drove to a nearby family friend's house, where SR's bridal luncheon was hosted. After eating off delicate china and crystal, we walked outside to admire the backyard and discovered the in-ground trampoline. KR, AV and I headed back to the hotel while the other girls went to the salon with SR. We steamed our dresses, re-did makeup and tangled with our not-always-cooperative brunette hair. We made it to the church and changed, touching up mascara and lip gloss, then camped out with SR for pictures and the lifetime that brides have to endure on the afternoon of their wedding.

 

Afterward, at the hotel for the reception, everyone was buzzing around after a solid 45 minutes of cocktails, and all of us in the wedding party were corraled to the side of the ballroom to await introductions. The hotel staffer trying to keep us in line found that herding cats would have been more productive. Everyone was too busy making bar runs, chasing people with plates of hors de'ouvres, taking pictures and generally acting a fool.

 

We got our act together when the DJ started playing "Forever" by Chris Brown and fell into single-file like a shushed kindergarten class. The ushers decided to run in for their introductions, arms in the air, basketball-team style, but MK and I were wearing four-inch heels, so we opted for the walk-and-wave.

 

The reception was lovely and after the bride and groom's departure (which was actually back to the hotel lobby, via golf cart), the remaining 20-somethings headed to the hotel bar. Green apples, which had been used as decor in the reception, were being eaten by groomsmen in leather chairs by the time I arrived. 

 

RM had supplied us with a box of pizza rolls earlier in the day, and returning to the hotel room, MK had no problem waking up and joining us when we grabbed them from the fridge. KR had mentioned our stash to a few of the ushers, so they found their way to our room as well. 

 

Sunday morning, MK and I enjoyed a leisurely brunch, though all copies of the Times had been confiscated by earlier risers, and then made our way out to the pool. RM and his girlfriend joined us, so I gave up the idea of finishing my book and stayed outside a bit too long without wearing sunscreen. I visited my parents for a few hours, two of which were spent napping, then headed back to Dallas, where it felt like I had been gone a week.

 

SC and husband got to enjoy this Monday beach-side in Mexico... back to work for the rest of us!

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I am nothing. 

Love is patient, love is kind...

-1 Corinthians 13:1-4, NIV Bible

Starts With a "W", Ends With a "G"...

It's still summer, I still live in Texas and it is still wedding season, kids.

I feel like I should possibly apologize for all the posts about wedding and exercise but that's kind of my life right now... along with sleeping, working and trying to make my bed every day. But you know what? Never apologize... take no prisoners! Okay, confession, that was butchered hybrid of movie quotes, but there is truth in that statement (just ignore the part about the prisoners unless you are a gecko in my house, in which case prepare to die).

There are enough apologies owed in life, blog content should not be one of them. Soon enough I'll be talking about football season and you'll say, Wait! What happened to the pretty people in dresses?!

I'll be splitting from work today to head straight to a nearby hotel in the Dallas area for SR's wedding. My friends have had receptions in a variety of places, but a hotel is a new one; distinct differences being soft bathrobes and no need for designated drivers. Any wedding that wants to monopolize my weekend via hotel resort, no matter how close in proximity to my parents house (10 minutes), will get some kind of purple highlighted recognition in my Outlook calendar.

This weekend will also mark the first time since college (2+ years, otherwise known as a lifetime), that my roommates AS, KB and JP and I have been in the same place at the same time.

I'm excited for SR; she and her fiance have been together for nearly three years and have finally reached the wedding's eve. She and I have known each other since elementary school; our brothers are the same age and also friends and we spent many Saturday hours together keeping score in the sand at their little league games. In high school we were in rival cliques but mine won her over after a few years on the tennis team.

Beyond the standard busy wedding-weekend schedule, I'm hoping for some quality time in the sun on Sunday afternoon. I need some color before heading to the lake for a reunion with my college friends next weekend and I also want to finish The Time Traveler's Wife.

If there is such a thing as too much fun, I'm about to find out.

Happy wedding, SR!

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate...
-Shakespeare, Sonnet #18

Photos

Here are just a few photos taken AG's wedding weekend... 

The priest may not betray us, but we were 20 minutes late to the rehearsal after going to the wrong church, convinced we were early. 

August 15th, 2009- these two are next!

RM + his GF. (I know, don't you love that dress?) 

AG + her cousin

AG + my gin and tonic and I

Bridal luncheon

Soon (and I mean soon)-to-be mama.

Reception

BF and I

KR and peonies

Remember, to let her into your heart... 

-The Beatles, "Hey Jude"

Wedding Weekend

I have said it before and I'll say it again: my friends make the most beautiful brides.

AG tied the knot over the weekend, and barring one 20-minute long best man speech at the rehearsal, I think everything went according to plan.

The rehearsal dinner could have been a reception itself, it was beautifully done by the groom's family. His friends were rife with funny stories about him from army and West Point days- New York, Korea, Germany, Iraq... and Ft. Worth, where he grew up. My friends have been quick with the age-related jokes since AG started dating him (he is, after all, 6+ years older than all of us) and I think the toasts showed that they have lived a lot more of life than we have. The groom's father gave a toast welcoming everyone, thanking them for coming in for the wedding and recognizing all the men in the room who have fought to protect our country and our freedoms. I/everyone may have teared up a bit.

The best man's speech at the rehearsal dinner, as I alluded to, was a whopping 20 minutes long. 20. Minutes. They should have served popcorn and dimmed the lights. It was a three-part monologue that incorporated a cuban-inspired fedora, America's founding fathers and even AG's aunt, the matchmaker.

Saturday morning we returned from the bridal luncheon to the cottage where all the girls in the wedding were staying, and startled a bird that had somehow invited his way into our cottage. MK's first question was "what kind of bird is it?" I think I responded with "WHO CARES?!"

MK and I were the first ones inside, followed minutes later by SR, KR and AV, so we we gave them the FYI about the visitor when they walked in. KR threw it a piece of banana bread and watched it carefully for a reaction, thinking it was possibly dead, since who in the world would pass up banana bread? Meanwhile SR found a maintenance worker, we'll call her Helga, who came in to the cottage, got the bird riled up, causing it to fly around the living area and threatened to attack one of us.

Pandemonium ensued.

KR had skirted into one of the bedrooms and watched as the rest of us, paralyzed by fear, screamed like 14-year-olds at a Jonas Brothers concert while Helga chased down the bird. It landed on the fireplace and she picked it up with her bare hands, pretended to throw it at SR and cackled before carrying it outside. All in a days' work. We were all out of breath and once heart rates slowed down we laughed to the point of tears. One of the biggest concerns immediately following was whether or not the bowl of peanut M&Ms had been compromised by the flight of the bird. We made the executive decision that they were fine, and carried on with the hours of "getting ready" that are built into wedding weekends.

If technology ever comes back into my life in full-force, you'll get to see my cute pink dress and stylish up-do worn that evening. I warned that it would probably start falling the second that it started getting "a little bit louder now" during "Shout", but it held up surprisingly well.

Getting to the church, KR and MK took off running from my car in bridesmaids dresses and heels, not wanting to risk extra exposure in the 106 degree heat and yelling "every man for himself!" on their way into the church.

He and she said "I do" at 7 p.m., AG became AS, rings were exchanged and dinner and dancing ensued.

My parents were in attendance at this blessed event- I had about four minutes of non-whirlwind to sit and chat with them at the reception, and while walking them out through the foyer to the valet, stopped dead in my tracks when I heard an Usher song start playing, did an about-face and flocked back to the dance floor with my friends. The DJ was great, and my friends and I hardly sat down the entire night. Correction: we sat down long enough to eat what we garnered from the mashed potato bar.

I typically forget to bring a bathing suit but remembered this of all weekends, and as fate would have it, the cottage we stayed in was right next to the adjoining country club's pool. I was all for a post-midnight dip, so at around 1 a.m. AV, ND and I headed out to the pool.

We floated and chatted- conversations after weddings are always interesting- and I made the observation that AG became the first of our friends to meet and marry someone post-college. I was actually wrong, because KB did it too, but most all couple friends of mine who got together in college are either married, engaged or broke up around graduation. I know two more college couples getting married this fall, but after those two weddings we might actually be seeing a lull in matrimonial activity for a while.

The morning after the wedding I found a trail of clothes, starting with my ruffly pink dress, ending in my heels and making a detour to the bathroom to find my bathing suit. They may not have shot glasses at wedding receptions, but when did that ever stop my friends from doing anything?

Don't answer that.

We were watching TV Sunday morning, eating cinnamon rolls, strawberries, M&M's and Oreos (there was fruit, lay off), and as luck would have it, we heard another bird coming down the chimney. My friends recoiled at the noise and I moved the grate in front of the fireplace so that it was flush against the opening. Sure enough, an bird identical to the one from Saturday dropped down into the fireplace, which was quickly renamed the petting zoo, and watched him for a while until he escaped and had to be ushered outside with paper plates by KR's sister.

Birds don't eat cinnamon rolls either, in case you were wondering.

My wish for you
Is that this life becomes
All that you want it to
Your dreams stay big
Your worries stay small
You never need to carry more than you can hold.
And while you're out there getting where you getting to
I hope you know somebody love you
And wants the same things to
Yeah this, is my wish...
-Rascal Flatts, "My Wish"

It's That Time Again

My friends AG and SR will be getting married a month apart from each other this summer.

AG gets married tomorrow; SR in August.

For something as difficult as working full-time and planning your own wedding seems to be on its own, they have also been busy planning parties for and helping each other.

They grew up in the same suburban town, went to elementary, middle and high school together, both went to Texas A&M and were in the same sorority (with me), and both relocated to Dallas after graduation. They have lived together over the past few months, in an apartment that, the last time I visited, was full of wedding magazines, Lean Cuisine meals, had an elliptical machine in the middle of the living area and a copy of the book The Act of Marriage sitting haphazardly on a coffee table. I've never read it, though obviously I gather what it is about and can laugh and get goobed-out NOW, but apparently it is required reading for Christian couples. Just maybe not something you want your guests flipping through over coffee.

For all of the similarities they have from being friends so many years, their weddings will still take place in our hometown, but at different venues, with different guests and different styles that come with the personality of each bride.

At their dual bachelorette party, we joked with AG that it was also her "going away" party. She's only moving to Ft. Worth, which in all actuality is about 45 minutes from Dallas, it just feels far.

There is a picture of AG and I from the fourth grade, which is the team photo of our Boys & Girls Club basketball team, which I think we would both burn if it didn't have so much sentimental value. I would safely bet that it was the first picture of hundreds we ever took together.

I remember hearing about WS, her fiance, when they started dating. They didn't know each other at all and basically dated as friends, in the beginning. While visiting me in New York only a few months into the relationship, I recall her vaguely asking KR, AV and I how many drinks was appropriate to have on a first date. We all responded with probably one, on a first date, and she nodded, then came back with: "so three beers was too many?"

I have countless stories of her. Countless. I am so happy for her because she deserves every good thing that has come her way.

It's both strange and wonderful that today is here. Strange that we spent roadtrips to and from Destin, Florida making predictions on the sort of men each other would marry and the qualities they would possess. I would give anything to find that list. Wonderful that regardless of anything she put on paper, she found the real life version.

Happy wedding, dear friend.

Today I met the boy I'm gonna marry

The boy whose life and dreams and love I wanna share...

-Darlene Love, "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry"

Estrogen Overload

Saturday brought more showers to the DFW metroplex. Rain showers, yes, maybe even some torrential downpours, but also another bridal shower. 

I can always count on AG to comment on how my boobs look if I'm wearing anything other than a nun's robe . I wore a more low cut dress than normally would on Saturday night, attending a 100% female bridal shower and dinner for AG, and I was not there five minutes before (wait for it):

 

"Your girls look good, I like that dress!" If she was a guy, that would have been offensive and sleazy, but coming from AG, I'm familiar with it as a compliment. 

Also a compliment when there are five pregnant women in the room. 

That's right- when the sea of gifts and umbrellas and the line of women signing the guest book parted, I saw my friends SG and EL and confirmed with my own eyes that they are going to be baby mamas in only a few months. 

Looking at SG, who is due in June to have a boy, I was halfway thinking she just had a balloon under her black empire-waist dress. My friend EL, who is expecting a girl, is barely showing yet, but her bump was there too, plain as day. 

Five pregnant 20-something women in the same room as four generations of women, including one adorable two-year-old, complete with a sparkly headband. I was sitting in front of a bowl of green and pink Jelly Belly's on the couch, which she had been eyeing while circling the coffee table, and when I asked if she wanted to sit with me, she climbed into my lap like she'd known me forever. She would talk and talk and occasionally hop off my lap to grab another jelly bean, much to the disapproval of her mother. 

 

The house was completely decked out for the party and there were framed pictures of AG and her fiance everywhere. While roaming the downstairs with a margarita in hand, I noticed the juxtaposition of two photos which happened to be the same place where a basket of tortilla chips was located. One was of AG as a young child carrying her lunch box, bow in hair on her first day of pre-school or kindergarten, next to a picture of her fiance, a West Point grad, in his Army fatigues, smiling with a helmet on and carrying huge rifle. I thought it was funny, at least. 

 

While AG was opening her gifts, I was sitting on the floor in front of her and the two-year-old would come by and show me a card, take my name tag, and then started helping with the gifts. AG was sitting by the fireplace, and when the little one figured out that AG was the one with the captive audience, she climbed up onto the fireplace and started singing Mary Had a Little Lamb while twirling with her arms out. She knew literally every verse.

Spending an evening with pregnant friends and seeing a girl, not much older than us, chasing around her toddler, I know I can only speak for myself when I say that there's a mixed emotion there. On the one hand, living my current existence of me-work-me-family-me-friends-various hobbies-me, I can't imagine having a child right now. On the other hand, your maternal instinct kicks in, you see a precious little girl who looks undoubtedly like her mother, and you think "yep, I want one." 

Eventually...

"Look at my child, at the shine of her flyaway curls and the butterfly flight of her smile... I have known her for two years. But if you took every memory, every moment, if you stretched them end to end- they'd reach forever."

-Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

April Vows

Just catching up on a few things... these are photos from my friend EC (now EM's) wedding last weekend:








*Not pictured: AR in a pink taffeta dress, doing her patented air guitar... BF singing Don't Stop Believin'... several empty glasses of champagne... HR smirking into my lens after hijacking my camera.

"Brief is life but love is long."
-Alfred Lord Tennyson

Spring Fever

I am not typically this impatient for spring. I like cold weather, and since I live in Texas and the bluebonnets are already blooming along the highways, that means it is only a matter of time until the heat wave hits.

I haven't been keeping up with blogs as much in recent weeks, both others and my own, out of restlessness. I was finally catching up on some recent entries tonight and I forgot how funny and insightful complete strangers can be. I just spent the past two hours reading, so seriously... feel appreciated.

Before Easter I was doing some closet-cleaning, in preparation for my move into a house in Dallas with some friends at the end of this month, and I found myself pulling out a handful of new spring and summer dresses. They were just begging for a tan body and some face-time with the world outside of my closet. Easter Sunday I had planned to wear a new pink ruffle-collared dress, but alas, Sunday brought torrential downpours and temperatures in the high 40's.

It was not meant to be.

This Saturday, however, I have a wedding to attend. I know- what's this?- a wedding?! That's right- more friends, more flowers, more vows, and also the perfect opportunity to finally start wearing my Spring 2009 Collection.

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”
-George Santayana