Ew

We got a not-so-welcome surprise the other morning. It seems something decided to have its dinner feast on our balcony. Looks like a bird-on-bird crime to me. There were feathers all over the place and all that was left were these:

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Going

Now that I'm engaged, the one question I'm asked over and over again is, "how are the wedding plans going?"

Other forms of this question have been known to include;
"What's new in wedding world?"
"What's the latest with the wedding?"
"Anything new with the wedding?"
"How's the wedding planning treating you?"
"Wedding wedding, your wedding wedding wedding?" (This one may not be verbatim, but it's what I heard)

Makes sense I suppose. People want the scoop. But after hearing it several times in a week, it gets a little tiresome.

Most of the time it's from friends who are genuinely curious about how things are going, which is fine. I certainly don't mind sharing the latest item I've checked off my list. But other times, it's from mere aquaintances who I assume have this train of thought:

Oh, there's Michelle.
I should say something to be polite.
What should I talk to her about?
I know!
She's getting married.
I'll ask her how the wedding plans are going.

It's with these people that I'm not exactly sure how to answer. I mean, other than the big details of when and where, what else do they really want to know? The latest vendor I've written a check to? Whether we've chosen the color of the napkins?

Do brides usually want to share every detail of their planning? Some things I do get excited about and will tell friends. But for the most part, I feel very private about it. Especially with people who won't be there. This may not be a normal response, but this entire process is out of the norm for me so I'm just going to go with whatever weird reactions I have.

To help deal with my adversion to these questions, I've put together a few responses that I think I will start putting into rotation whenever anyone asks me how the wedding planning is going. They include:

"I'm not sure. Dan is planning the whole thing."
"Well, we've just booked the location. I assume most people would be ok with a nudist colony, right?"
"We've decided to go with chocolate pudding instead of a cake."
"Wedding? We got married three years ago. Where have you been?"

"We're over budget. Can I borrow some money?"

"I'm having a hard time finding the perfect kaftan."

"Do you know of any chimpanzees who are authorized to perform a wedding?"

"It's pretty easy since I have my four sister wives to help me."

I think this is a pretty good start. These should get me through at least a couple weeks of questioning. After that, I may need a new strategy. We'll see...

Tina

I was flipping through the channels last night when I came upon "What's Love Got to do with it?" Good movie. A bit over-dramatic and a little sad, but the story is interesting and the costumes and set design are totally groovy man. **insert peace sign here**

A couple hours later when I was laying in bed, I had a flash of a memory. I had to have been about six or seven and I was at this after-school daycare program that my sister and I would go to while we waited for my Mom to get off work. One of the "teachers" (I put that in quotes because they didn't actually teach us anything. They were more like glorified babysitters and I didn't particularly care for any of them) was asking a group of us girls who our favorite singers were. When she came to me, I confidently answered that my favorite singer was Tina Turner. She looked at me strangely, burst out laughing and accused me of lying. "No she's not!" she said. "Why would you say that?" I was utterly confused. Still am quite frankly. In fact, after this memory flashed through my mind, I racked my brain for any possible explanation and still couldn't figure out what was so funny about it.

It would have been 1986 or so which was, as I learned from the movie, right around the time of Private Dancer and her big comeback. Would it be strange for a six year old girl to like her? I probably just figured she was an older version of Whitney Houston. Did grownups see her as some kind of joke? Maybe it was the wigs. I admit they were a bit much, but it was the 80s after all.

Maybe it would be like if a six year old told me her favorite singer was Miley Cyrus and I burst out laughing, but Miley ended up becoming a music legend 30 years later. The joke would be on me.

Or maybe my tastes were just too sophisticated for my age. I'm going to assume that is it because to this day, I have to say, I think Tina Turner is awesome. Great voice, great music, killer legs, crazy outfits and hair. In fact, I think I'll put her on the ipod right now...