Wordless Wednesday: Night Out in Athens for the Drumming Brother Edition

Wordless Wednesday Wedding Edition

Donuts, Potholes, and Tulsa Hair

I'm in the car right now, returning home from my little brother's wedding. It was a good time, aside from the obligatory wedding drama, and it was fantastic to see my brother and his wonderful friends, which isn't something I get to do very often.

It was my first time in Tulsa, OK, and I have a few observations:

• Tulsa should be voted "worst state in which to put on eye makeup in the car", because the potholes are intense! I very narrowly escaped putting my eye out several times, and spent some time with eyeliner in odd parts of my face.
• The names of businesses in Tulsa are odd. "Cowboy Sharkies" is a popular bar, and other bars include "The Dusty Dog" and "The Blue Turtle Tavern" and "Magoos Eatertainment", but I think my favorite was the office building called "McJunkin Redman". What does that even mean?
• Tulsa folks love them some donuts. There are donut shops EVERYWHERE! Not just your standard Dunkin or Krispy Kreme, either, these are donut shops of no particular brand, many of the signs just say "Donuts".
• Easily 50 % of the population of Tulsa has some variation on this hairstyle:

Now, this is not to say that it all looks exactly like that. No, there are many many ways to wear it, but it is all the same basic cut. Old ladies have that cut. Young men have the David Cook version. Girls have it wavy, straight, styled towards the face, styled away from the face... the list goes on. In my humble opinion, the hairdo is a little wacky to be so prevalent! But I have a theory. Remember how Oklahoma is the place "where the wind comes sweeping down the plain"? Yeah, it really really is. The wind is so crazy that I basically spent the trip despairing of having even passable hair. So I think the Tulsa folk have hit upon a solution- make your hair all wacky and sticking out all over the place, and then when you get stuck in a crazy windtunnel just trying to get from your house to the car, no one will notice.

Anyway, I have to say I really enjoy traveling, and seeing new places, even places full of potholes, donuts, and unusual 'dos. And this trip was worth it just to be able to share my brother's wedding with him.

Congratulations, Marion and Sarah! I hope you continue to grow in love and friendship, and your union is long and full of peaceful happiness.

Happy Birthday, Brother of Mine!

My dear little brother turns 30 today! Unbelievable. To celebrate, he's getting married. (You might remember when he proposed, back in September)

Obviously, the wedding is at the forefront of my family's collective world at the moment. Every nightmare I have involves something keeping me from attending, every conversation with a family member or friend makes some reference to the upcoming festivities. I had intended to be there already, but that's not the way my world worked out, so we're traveling overnight on Wednesday. With our toddler. Wish us luck!

My brother is under a little bit of pressure right now, obviously- he referred to himself as "Groomzilla" the other day... (prompting his best man to ask if he could instead be the "Best Mothra"). I tried to be very zen on the phone with yesterday, all calm and big sisterly. I said "You know, the thing about weddings is, they never turn out exactly how you expect, but it's all ok. Really, if your caterer didn't show up and we had to order pizza, it'd all be ok."

Did I expect him to buy that? I mean, it's true, but that doesn't mean he believes it. He pointed out that it might all be ok, once his bride stopped hysterically weeping. He does have a point there.

I must say, though, in the thick of things, on the actual wedding day, you reach a certain level of supernatural calm- at least that's how I felt. You know that by the end of the day, you'll be married, and isn't that really the point?

Our wedding was catered by my husband's godmother, at my house. (Which was about to become our house!) The food was unbelievably good, good enough that people stopped by the next day to eat more of it, but the story that features most prominently in the wedding tale has to do with what happened right before the ceremony.

I was in the bedroom, with my cousin and sister, who were frantically trying to help me comb out the super-tall country star hairdo I'd been given by a professional, when the caterer's daughter (our dear friend) came in. "Don't freak out," she said in a pretty laid back and cheerful tone, with a concerned smile, "but mom just dropped your cake on the floor."

I walked into the living room, where our sweet friend and caterer was staring at the wedding cake on the floor. "SHIT!" she was saying, "Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit." Then she saw me, smiled, and said "It's going to be FINE!"

I said "I know." and smiled back. Because I did know. And it was fine. We artfully positioned pansies all down the smooshed side of the cake. And because I'd scrubbed that floor on my hands and knees mere hours earlier, I didn't even feel bad about not telling the other guests. And at the end of the day, we were married.

And isn't that the whole point?

It's all relative, I suppose...

I dreamed last night that I drove my car into a rather large body of water. Some sort of bay. I was driving my Oldest somewhere, and realized I was taking this incredibly unprotected bridge too fast, and before I knew it, there was nothing I could do, we were going into the water.

I tried to hold on to the car with my legs as I swam to shore, and I thought I'd done it, but as I climbed out of the water I realized that what I'd been holding was a suitcase, and most of its contents had fallen out along the way. (Don't even get me started on what I believe this means about my psyche.) My husband came to help me, and subsequently was fired.

In my dream, all I could think about was my brother's wedding- how could we get to the wedding when we had no car and the Man had no job?

I woke up 1/2 hour late for work. So my first thought this morning was "SHIT! I'm late! But hey, at least my car isn't in the bottom of a bay."

Time Passages

Over the weekend, my darling little brother, heart of my heart, got engaged.
This brother, the one in my arms in this picture:



Granted, that picture is about 29 years old, but still, I feel the same way about the boy in it. And to be honest, it doesn't feel like it's been that long.

I won't tell the proposal story here, it's their story and not mine, but suffice it to say, there were roses, and candles, and a ladder was procured, there was a serenade, and a grand sweeping gesture...ahh, enough to make any old married lady swoon, much less a hopeful young girl. I'm utterly delighted for both of them, and couldn't be happier if it were my own romantic engagement. Both my adorable brothers are now engaged to lovely girls I'm excited to call my sisters.

When I told my Oldest, he said "Ah, that's cool. How do you think I should propose to S?"

How? Or did you mean, in how many decades? La la la la, I can't hear you talking about making that adult of a decision...

In other news, my Small One turns two tomorrow. At three thirty in the morning, two years ago tonight, I woke up after twenty minutes of restless sleep, and my water broke, and just over twelve hours later we welcomed this little girl, who has kept us hopping ever since.


I can't believe it's been that long, it seems like mere minutes, and I want to make it go slower, this precious time where she delights me almost every minute of the day. Every day there's a new concept, something else she's ecstatic to have learned. Yesterday, it was the concept of big and little.

She likes to point out large and small pairs of things and say "Aww, Mommy___ and Baby ___" Sometimes this is Mommy Bunny, Baby Bunny, other times it's Mommy Kitty, Baby Piggy- species does not figure into her reasoning. But yesterday, she brought me two dolls, one large, one small, and said, "Look! Mommy Baby and Baby Baby?"

This did not make sense, even to her, and her confusion was evident. I said "I think what you mean is 'Big Baby, Little Baby'." and her face brightened as she repeated it. "BIG Baby! LITTLE Baby!"

Later we were outside, and she was rolling a truck, when she stopped, and I could see the wheels turning. She said "Car!" and then looked at me like I was supposed to say something significant, and when I didn't she looked impatient and ran to her Ride-on Car and smacked it. "BIG CAR!", she yelled. Then she ran back to the other vehicle and looked at me. I said "Little car." and she grinned and said "LITTLE CAR!"

Aha! Yes, the mystery was solved. Thank you, Mom, for providing me with the correct terminology!

I'm sure it will seem to me to be tomorrow that she's asking me how she should proceed with her engagement.