Monday, June 19, 2006

ADVENTURES IN DAVID'S BRIDAL SHOP

...or My New Career as a Wedding Planner 

The big news is that they have decided to put off the wedding until next year. Hurray. 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 and off white wedding dresses and she picked out no less than 15 of them to try on.

We got into the back area and 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 Scarlett is being laced into the 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.

Monday, June 12, 2006

I REMEMBER!!

Shame on me, I could not remember Mark's last name.

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."

Thursday, June 8, 2006

OUTER LIMITS OF CONSCIOUSNESS SOUP

Have you ever had one of those moments when the mind is not engaged in thinking, or planning, or talking. Just a pleasant nothingness and then like a tiny explosion, a memory or a place or a long forgotten person just materializes on the Main Screen of your consciousness?

On the ride home this afternoon, prompted by absolutely nothing I can put a finger on, I remembered a friend from years ago, a life time ago.

Maybe it was the chicken breasts I purchased. Maybe it is the cloak of the wedding that I am wearing every day, all day. Like a tiny ball circling around looking for a hole to fall through, I suddenly had a mental picture of Dr. Mark.

I have not thought of Mark in a very long time. We met over 20 years ago, when Bridget was just a tyke and we were living on the top apartment of an old Victorian House in The Highland Area of Louisville. Our landlord lived below us. He had received a summer job of teaching high school students at the Governors Cup (?) Scholarship program at Murray State University. (small world). He had the idea that he would rent out his apartment for the summer months.

And that was how Mark came into our lives.

Mark was engaged to a girl back home. He had recently completed his internship at U0fL for his MD in internal medicine. He had traded his student loans for working several years at a clinic across the river in Indiana. (kind of like the program Northern Exposure, except it was warmer).

Cathy and I were still roommates. The absent land lord had put in an above ground pool the year before. Part of Mark's "landlord" duties was to keep the pool clean. And to have a pool party every night!

The entrance to our apartment on the second floor was next to the bottom front door. Mark would open the door and yell upstairs, "Who's cooking dinner tonight??!!"

Our favorite was bar-b-que chicken cooked over the tiny hibachi. And fresh corn on the cob. Followed by beer and a swim in the pool.

When Cathy and I had our falling out and Mark had to find other lodging accommodations due to the impending return of the land lord, I ended up with Mark as a part of the break up of the Mary and Cathy show.

He helped my brother and myself move me to another area of Louisville, Hikes Point. We remained good friends and companions for the remainder of his tenure in Louisville before returning home and marrying his girl friend.

We went to ball games together. We hung out together.We watched tv together and we wrapped Christmas presents together. He went to Oaks with me and Faye...he was the first to clue me in on what I was already suspecting, Faye was on her way to alcoholism.....

Then he moved home to Northern Kentucky, got married and we lost touch.

He was a good friend. He once shook his head at me struggling with Bridget and laughed. "Wait till she is a teenage, she will KILL you."

I'd love to share with him that I survived and that she is about to get married.

I wonder what he looks like now? 20 years ago he was tan, blonde and had an overbite and a way of standing ( I see him in my minds eye now) with his hands on his hips and his head forward and his mouth slightly open.

I bet I could find him....now that Cathy and I are reunited and she has special access to secret non-published data bases.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

WEDDING PLAN UPDATE

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their comments. I found them very helpful and insightful.

They have found a Bed and Breakfast that they like. It will cost $600 to rent for the wedding. "What about the reception?" I asked.

"Well, that will cost more!" she replied.

"It's going to cost us more anyway." I was mentally grinding my teeth.

With the late notice, meaning that most people have plans and commitments for the month of August already, I would count on sixty people max. Just family and some friends.

At least they have found a place.

I am cashing in some stocks and waiting for the checks to arrive. Once I send the "seed" money,  the die is cast.

The die is cast.

Saturday, June 3, 2006

BEATLE MANIA REVISITED

 

Memoral Day Weekend 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, 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.

I had as many Beatle magazines as I could afford on my puny allowance. Only one remains now. Minus the cover. I think I remember purchasing that mag. I think I remember the cover,  a "16 Magazine" special edition.

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

I had a George Harrison 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 recall he had very luscious lips.

I out grew my Beatle mania at an early age. Around my sophomore year in High School, after listening to the Beatle's White Album a million times in Suzy's secret room, I graduated 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.

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 at the festival, fifty people on the stage with guitars, tambourines andvoices all singing Run for your Life. (among others).

Run for your Life seemed to be a constant of 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 spun a totally unique sound without loosing the essence of the song.

Next year, I will be better prepared.

Camcorder.