Transplanting a Seattleite

What was the last wedding you went to? Were you in the wedding?

I kid you not: the above was a prompt for writer's block. Ha!

Well, B. and C. are married and probably on a plane to their honeymoon in Mexico right now. Congratulations to them. It was great to see J. and J., who flew out for the wedding, and were available for brunch and a leisurely stroll around the park (watching the kid climb on stuff) afterwards, before catching a flight home in the afternoon. I met lots of nice people. I saw a few I already knew (from other bridal events like the shower and rehearsal dinner and so forth). I apparently gave a really, really good toast. I did not drink too much. I had a coughing fit during the ceremony, but a cousin of the bride passed a cough drop forward (note to everyone attending weddings: have coughdrops, tissue and a water bottle handy and available to pass ahead to the wedding party in the event of similar emergency), saving me from red faced embarrassment and possibly hacking up a lung at St. Elizabeth Seton Church. The food was good. The kid had fun with the babysitter and a friend, swimming in the hotel pool, and is not overly traumatized from a very busy three-day weekend in which he spent two very long blocks of time (11 and 8 hours) away from me.

And right now, the list of people who could convince me to be an attendant again, much less matron of honor, is very, very short. Very. It's not zero, but it's fewer than the fingers of one hand. And I'm not including the thumb.

I've been a bit busy lately. Roland and I did go up to Isle au Haut on Friday, but returned a day early, on the fourth, for a variety of reasons including how his back felt after a couple nights sleeping on the leanto floor (even a winter gauge thermarest wasn't enough), but more importantly, because after mosquito bite #50 or so I just wasn't having a lot of fun any more.

The island is lovely. It is secluded. Do not do the road/trail loop around the island, at least not until it's dry, because that bit between the hills in the south end is swarming, and I don't use that term lightly, with very aggressive skeeters. Upon my return, I researched the hazards of permethrin, and then ordered up a complete outfit from Ex Officio. I'll let you know how that turns out. Skinny dippin' illicitly from the PLA dock in Long Pond was easily the high point of the trip. Tons of downed wood for fires and we made good use of it, happy it was a little damp as the smoke kept the bugs at bay. Somewhat. I am so glad I'm not allergic to pine smoke.

A day or so before our departure, I had the bright idea to ride the bike to the bike trail, and then do the bike trail, then return home, instead of putting the bike in the car, driving to the bike trail, doing the bike trail, putting the bike back in the car and driving back home. This added about ten miles, as I didn't do the three miles of the trail between the state line and Center Pepperell, and it's about 7 from home to Center Pepperell. I had to walk the last bit of hill up Old Milford, because I was too doggone tired from 30 miles on the bike to have it in me even to do one more small hill. Yowch. Lots of fun tho my butt hurt something fierce after.

For those who are curious, the PDA continues to be lovely and the phone is not bad. Yet another nearby town has put in free wifi in their library. Maybe my town will do so soon as well. Current projects include upgrading the house AC, since we're putting a bunch of people up before and after the wedding, and it occurs to us this could be an ugly situation it being August and there only being two rooms with AC.

I'll be out of town for a little over a week, heading down to DC to see cousins, and then to Traverse City (vacation meca of Michigan, doncha know. I sure didn't. I'm staying at a KOA because that's about all that was left. Even the state park is full up.) to see another cousin, then home again to survive the remaining days until the wedding, when we will discover whether all the planning was adequate, or something crucial was forgotten.

I'm currently panicking about fitting into the wedding dress. Panic. Panic. Panic.