Discombobulation Station

Pride

So much excitement around here lately! Countdown to New Baby is officially ON (8 weeks to go, eeeeeeeeeep), so we're trying to prepare. Step 1: Potty Training. The goal: only one butt in diapers. The method: Big Girl Panties. All the time. The results: um. Well...

OF COURSE WE DID CLEAN IT UP. Just in case you were feeling the suspense.

Yours in the battle against dirty bums, xoxo A

Un-Toasted

While my co-bloggess was off bestowing blessings at her adorable friends' wedding, a lot of other people got hitched.  Did you notice? My social media feeds were RIGHT BLOWIN UP with the wedding photos. It was a good date, I guess, hard to forget as an anniversary, a good time of year weather-wise in most parts of the country, etc. etc. 

Not one but TWO of my old boyfriends got married on that very day. If we're going to be all Rob Gordon about it, one of them was not on my top-5-desert-island list of breakups. It was Kevin, a sweet, cute, but kinda vague* guy I liked quite a lot but never took terribly seriously.  Kevin's had a rough couple of years - his dad passed away unexpectedly just after Kevin got engaged, money's been super tight given his chosen employment in the construction business...so I feel nothing but the warm-fuzzies that Kevin got hitched to a by-all-reports-really-awesome chick on a beautiful  day. He deserves that day and a lifetime of happiness just by virtue of being an all-around decent human being who loves his mom and is good to his dogs.

[*Majored in geology, got kicked out the dorms for excessive drunkeness at our local townie college when I knew him. Taught me how to enjoy pot and put salsa in my mac n cheese. Took me on my first and only motorcycle ride. A perfect summer-before-college and summer-after-I-dropped-out-of-college boyfriend. ]

The OTHER wedding of note in my list of lists, though. Hm. It was The Prince. You remember him, right? The entirely dysfunctional relationship that I had to move 400 miles away from to finally, finally, escape? God, he made me so mad in so many ways, and god, how we just simply could not end things. That was mutual. Until I met the FYD and got all domesticated. And you know, MOVED 400 miles away. That part was me.

Of course I never exactly wished him ill. We have a small raft of mutual friends so the Event was not a surprise nor has it been too short a time since we broke up or anything like that. And while I am glad that he found someone who I imagine "understands him" (his most crucial relationship need, and one that I am sorry to report I did not fulfill)   - it just feels...weird. Weird. He is my first serious boyfriend to get married.

It feels weird because we haven't been in touch once since our last correspondence (wherein I told him I would not visit NYC for a weekend, because I was getting serious with the FYD). Weird because I am sure he knows that I know that he got married;  still a good friend, his brother sent me a sweet message (albeit one that did not mention the Event) two days post-wedding.

Not really sure how to sum this up at all. I don't want to get married now, not really, I didn't imagine the Prince and I would get married, then. It seemed to me he would never get married. So maybe it is the mere fact that he did something that feels so...uncharacteristic?  that is so weird? He didn't marry the girlfriend prior to me, the 10-year girlfriend. To switch romantic comedies, maybe it's not that he didn't want to get married, it's that he didn't want to get married to ME. To the first serious girlfriend after ME.

So, readers. Here is a question. I really want to write him an email. Just a very simple acknowledgement of the Event and an offering of best wishes. Nothing to open a correspondence.  Doing nothing feels...weird.  Should I? Or is that...weird?

Thanks in advance - and may warm rain fall on your wedding day. Or something. Maybe should read that bit again.

xoxox, A

A Tribute Video

This is one of the funniest videos I've seen on youtube this year.

 

So when I found myself dog-sitting two naughty puppies last weekend, I had to give it a try. Its easier than you think, except I don't have the sad music.

 

Bad bad puppies. But so cute. Good thing for them.

E.

A Wedding Toast

From a beautiful wedding I attended last night in my old apartment. It was just perfect, so romantic, comfortable and full of love. Like a wedding should be.

E.

_______________

I first met B right in this room. I was sitting here in the window and she came in the door to meet Rachel wearing an adorable black dress, as per usual, I know, with the black and the being adorable. The second occasion we spent time together we sat up, in this windowsill, until about 4am. On a weeknight. Obviously we were smitten with each other. I was also sitting right here when she told me she had a crush on a boy. And his name was MK. MK was a bit shy to come right out and ask her out on a date, so it took a few weeks. It was in this apartment where we discussed their upcoming first date, and I made the suggestion of the venue. I think it was their third date that he came over here and brought flowers, and carried a briefcase, and then later asked if it counted as a date. Beth found this all so very endearing.

We both fell in love about the same time with these wonderful boys who also loved us to bits. We felt so lucky. We seemed to take the same trajectory, sharing our delights and our very minor complaints about the boys together. In this room. Over many many glasses of red wine. She knew pretty soon that she wanted to marry him, and he popped the question before I left the apartment to take up a new life with my boy.

It was hard for me to leave this apartment, and all its memories, but knowing that it was going to be a starter home for this wonderful couple made so much sense. And seeing them get married today in this room really makes me believe in fate. There's a reason why we met those years ago, right here, B. There's a reason why you are both here today. Wishing you the happiest of days to come, for many glorious years.

And for you both, an Irish blessing:

Happy is the bride that rain falls on
May your mornings bring joy and your evenings bring peace.
May your troubles grow few as your blessings increase.
May the saddest day of your future
Be no worse than the happiest day of your past.
May your hands be forever clasped in friendship
And your hearts joined forever in love.

May you always have enough happiness to keep you sweet, trials to keep you strong, success to make you eager, friends to give you comfort, wealth to meet your needs, enthusiasm to look for tomorrow, and a growing love to make each day better than the day before.