SNEAK PEEK

My new Career as a Wedding Planner

Adventures in David's Bridal Shop

The big news is that they have decided to put off the wedding until next year. I do feel like I bribed them just a wee bit, but my new assignment as a Wedding Planner necessitates that it be postponed until a later day.

Yet, we kept our appointment at David's Bridal Shop.

Some one should have clued me in.

What a racket. A sweet racket, a joyful racket, an honest racket, but a racket all the same. Bridget and I walked down the aisle of a million white wedding dresses and she picked out no less than 15 of them to try on.

We got into the back area and were hustled into a room and handed a bustier and then the work began. Somehow it felt like tying to get the glass slipper on. No, not the glass slipper but that scene from GONE WITH THE WIND where Scarlette is being laced into her corset.

It was hard work, but I finally got her snapped in. Then the dresses. Over the head or step in? We opted for over the head at first. Where oh where did Bridget go???

The first two dresses did not fit. I could not get the first zipped up. The second was better, but it was all I could do it get it hooked and zipped. I was afraid she was going to rip it. The sales person had exchanged several of the dresses for a larger size, assuring Bridget that the sizes were misleading, and people always sized up and that they truly had to fit at the top....most important thing.

The third dress was ....

Well, she put it on, stepped out of the dressing room and onto the pedestal, my heart was in my throat.

It was as if she had slipped on a dress made of magic. This was THE dress.

Then I started to cry.

BATS IN THE BELFRY

I realize that I am going through a semi-dry spell where I think my writing is crap and I have nothing to share, or say. It would be so easy to just quit and walk away for a spell while I settle down, or settle back into the groove. Whatever...as my step-daughter would say.

Crazy enough, I am listening to my MP3 player on the drive back to town from Ohio. I had just yesterday reloaded the little Zen I have. Little as in a tiny piece of hardware. It packs a wallop in every other category. I love it and use it practically every day while I walk or have long boring drives.

I have learned how to load only those songs from my CD's that I enjoy the most.

So I'm rocking down Route 37 singing the words to CAPTAIN AMERICA along with Ashley McIssac and joyfully awaiting in anticipation for Grupo Fantasma to come on next with Chocolate...which sounds like Coco-latte. A random thought entered my head. Why don't you (as in me) open up some sort of venue in Ft. Wayne that invites off beat killer International bands to perform.

The proverbial Built It And They Will Come.

Well, well, well. I did it again. Trying to find some link for this jnl....and also making certain I spelled Grupo Fantasma correctly....I see they are performing in Dayton on July 2nd at the City Fest.

Well well well.

This is certainly turning into the year of the Music concertt.

I remember!!!

I wrote a piece in the other blog about a friend of mine from the "old days". For the life of me I could not remember his last name! Shame on me.

I woke up this morning and the first thought in my head was .... His Last Name. It sounded so much like a hilarious post Saturday Night Live comic's name that I thought maybe I was wrong. I checked on-line and sure enough, there is a doctor in North Kentucky, an internist, with that name! Hurray! I remembered. I will drop him a line in the next several days. We will see what happens.

Things like this happen to me all the time. I'll be searching for the answer to a tricky question and wake up in the morning with the solution fresh in my head. I'll wake up and go, "Oh no!! I forgot to do "this or that" yesterday.

All the time.

Its a lot easier and healthier than banging my head on concrete or ice. That brings it home too. I come to seeing stars and saying, "Oh yes, that's where I left that key to the old root cellar in 1965."

I'M MISSING A GENE! CAN YOU HELP ME FIND IT?

My cousins wedding 2002
(Most the women on my Mom's side of the family.)

Joe was called in to work at Dayton this past week end so I tagged along thinking I could explore the city, take pictures galore, go to a museum and if things got too boring, Cincinnati was only 25 miles away.

My plan would have worked but the weather did not cooperate. I left the hotel at 630am thinking I could get a great brisk walk and it was raining that cold grey drizzle that belongs to April!! And it was 52 degrees.

I drove around the city checking things out and found my path to the Riverwalk blocked by several police cars. I could not figure out if someone had been murdered or if they were expecting a huge group of banner waving, slogan sign carrying protesters to advance in an unruly manner upon the miniscule festival taking place in a corner of the ground.

I drove around the streets searching for the Art Institute and finally suddenly drove past a tiny sign pointing towards the west! I made a quick "I'm from out of town" turn after traveling only a block found myself in a horrific traffic grid lock! Thinking I had stumbled into a graduation....why so many people dressed in suits and fancy threads looking anxious ....I never quite figured that out either.

The art institute was right there! Lo and Behold, a picture of Princess Diana smiled down at me. Alright, I remembered that a collection of her haute couture was making the rounds in this country. Americans always seem to be in awe of Royalty and it is a fact that everyone in the world was in awe of Princess Diana but certainly this traffic nightmare was not about that.

I went back to the hotel room and laid on the bed and flipped on the tv and entered into a marathon of WHO'S WEDDING IS IT ANYWAY" on the E channel.

And I am a better person for it. Much more informed.

And convinced that I need to hire a Wedding Planner.

I'm off to the library to check out wedding planner books. Maybe somewhere in one of them it will explain where my misplaced Gene is. You know the one. The one that I should have been born with that enables me to make a centerpiece out of paper mache, wire and some wild flowers.

I'm okay, I'm okay. I am breathing into a paper bag.

I think I have a date, August 13th. And I think we have a place. They are going to have the wedding and the reception in one beautiful reception hall in the St. James Court area of Louisville. I am going to travel there next Saturday.

With check book in hand.

We also are going to go to David's Bridal Shop.

Things are moving along.

And yes, "Diana A Celebration" exhibit is closing today. I was in the midst of a Diana frenzy.

FUNKADELIC

It seems that if I wait for inspiration to whack me on the side of the head, I will never write another entry again. I recall how I use to be bubbling over with subjects and could hardly contain myself. Everything sparked a memory or a thought process that resulted in a theme! It was once so simple to sit in front of the key board and look at the blank screen, stretch my fingers and just begin! Once time I use to write them out in long hand, then edit them into the blog. That was long ago, when our entries were limited to 2500 words and no spell check. Brevity was the word of the day back then.

This journal I used for the day to day dull stuff. As well as the drawing board and editing tool for the other blog. It has evolved into something different now and I sorely miss the carefree days of random thoughts and observations.

It was so easy when there was no one to write for other than myself.

I have been in a funk since the trip to Florida. Even the announcement of Bridget's engagement has not pulled me out, but the reverse has occurred and I am plunged even further into the dark.

I know that I can figure out most of what is causing my gloom. Someone very close to me is going through a terrible divorce after many years of marriage. Many years. Its ridiculous. She is loosing everything. Her home, her husband, her comfort. All because he thinks he is in love with someone else.

It just sickens me.

I am in a funk because I look at the calendar and see that I have crossed the one year mark of living in this part of the world. And I miss home more and more with each passing day. It is as if I refuse to be adaptable.

I hate people on bikes hogging the River Walk Way trails. Since I wear a MP3 player I do not hear them until they are rushing past me. I usually give a little yell the first time, as they can startle the hell out of you. It makes me long for the cross country paths of the open fields and hills of my favorite park....back home.

I feel that I am crossing that line that takes you from cool adult to eccentric old fuddy duddy. The other day, Matt (young stud at work) asked if I had any extra change. I opened my purse and dug out the change purse that came with the bag! I unzipped it open and dumped out the dimes and nickels and scarce quarters and began handing it over.

I felt like Grandma tipping the bag boy at Krogers!

And my stupid toe! The one that I banged up badly during the 10 mile run. That nail is going to bail on me. And I am so squeamish that I can't stand it. So, I am wearing my Crock's with ankle socks....trying to hold on the toe nail until I can take it.

How old Florida Native is that???!!

And since I am on a roll....because I am depressed I don't do much of anything. The trails are full of bicycle bullies, so I pout and rarely go. Therefore, I have gained at least 20 pounds since last summer.

I'm an over weight, sock sandal wearing, penny pinching old fart.

There I feel better.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OMEGA

The year was 1968. I was in High School. Thank God it was a Catholic prison School where it was not uncommon for our Mothers to be pregnant. My mother had her sixth and final child, the infamous Omega of many of my stories.

She, naturally, is the little red faced (burn) blond squinting at the camera. Dressed like her older sister, Kit. Dresses my mother made for them.

Omega has many concerns about being the final child of a large family. First of all, not many pictures of her. I must admit, it did take me awhile to find a photograph. And this photograph would not be my first selection. Unfortunately, it is my only selection!! So, she has a point.

Secondly, she is an over achiever which she blames on all of us forcing her to have to go above and beyond to gain any attention. She was hellion for awhile then reformed and became a brain of sorts.

My Dad was scheduled for heart surgery in the early 1970's. Before it could happen, he had to lose weight. The form of exercise that he used was an after dinner walk accompanied with either Kit or Omega, sometimes both.

On one walk, Omega and Dad were having a conversation and my Dad mistakenly called her Kit.

"I'm sorry, "Omega". When you have so many children sometimes you mix the names up."

"That's okay, Mom" she quipped back. She wasn't even four years old yet and already displaying the sharp wit inherited from Nana.

Happy Birthday to my original Side Kick!!

BEATLEMANIA REVISITED

Memorial Day 2006

I was 10 years old when the Beatles were introduced to America via the Ed Sullivan show. It was love at first scream. I really don't remember the first time I had heard the songs. I do remember the first one though, it was She Loves You.

Yea. Yea. Yea.

My first Beatle album was "The Beatles Second Album". Followed by Rubber Soul, A Hard Days Night and Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and finally Abbey Road.

My friend and fellow maniac, Judy, filled in with "Meet the Beatles" and others, of which now I can not remember. We spent hours at each others house listening to these albums along with our numerous 45's.

I coveted a Beatle wig. It was not to be. But I did manage to have a totally fab Beatle poster that was about four feet long and maybe 18 inches wide. It was red and each Beatle head was in a white star, along with extra pictures of them full length in the back ground. I also had a white sweat shirt with the Beatle logo.

Way back then it was not known as the Beatle logo. Just the name, the Beatles. Long before the Apple.

I had as many Beatle magazines as I could afford. Only one remains now. Without the cover. I think I remember purchasing that mag. I think I remember the cover. It was a "16 Magazine" special edition.

I also collected Beatle cards. I wrote an entry about those long ago...

I had a George Harrison plastic doll, about four inches in height and sporting a brown mop top. He was wearing a dark suit. He may have been holding a guitar. I remember he had very luscious lips.

I out grew my Beatle mania in time. I graduated sometime around my sophomore year in High School, after listening to the Beatle White album a million times in Suzy's secret room, to bands like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin.

Last Saturday on the belvedere in Louisville I found myself at a Beatle Tribute Festival singing the words of the songs, long ago imprinted indelibly on my brain.

75 bands, 10 stages, three days. It was fab. We wandered from stage to stage sampling all the different interpretations and imitations.

A lone guy from England performing only George Harrison songs.

A girl band from who knows where with the drummer belting out "Twist and Shout".

My personal unusual favorite, fifty people on the stage with guitars, tambourine and voices all singing RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Run For Your Life seemed to be a favorite, performed by each band.

My choice for number one mind blowing interpretation ....Nervous Melvin and the Mistakes rendition of Tomorrow Never Knows. I was spell bound and my heart was thumping as they put a totally unique sound without loosing the essence of the song.

Next year, I will be better prepared.

Camcorder.