The Other Side Of The Veil

I haven't posted since... oh, well, shoot. Um, I haven't posted in a while, for which I apologize to the both of you who read this. My last post was on December 16, 2009, right before the holidays hit with an unholy (can the holidays even be unholy?) vengeance.

I was, like most White middle-class Americans with indeterminate religiosity and large families, about to be swathed in the glory of Christmas and all the baking, traveling, and manic shopping it entails. I was also right smack-dab in the middle of my very first Hanukkah (chanukkah? hanukka? I don't even know why we try romanizing nonconcatenative semitic languages, I really don't; if I had my way everything would be IPA) ever thanks to Josh The Fiance and his Ashkenazi Jewish heritage.

One of the best things about getting married, for me, isn't the party or the presents or the fancy dress - it's all the exciting new holidays. Purim? Passover? Sukkot? SIGN ME UP. I am so ready to bake challah and fry latkes for the rest of my life. Jewish holidays seem tailor-made for me and my need to feed and be fed.

But I was talking about December! On top of Christmas and Hanukkah (and the unfortunate number of burns contained therein - lighting candles every single night is hard enough, combining that with oil frying and my arms start looking like a checkerboard of festive pain) last December included the wedding of my cousin Sarah. WHICH WAS GREAT. We all cried. The officiant, who was Sarah's oldest brother, cried even more, possibly lengthening the ceremony by several times, but nobody minded because it was so nice.

There was cake! And a candy buffet! And delicious hors d'oeuvres! And hot cocoa favors! And everybody cried!!

Afterwards I lay down on the guestbed at my grandparents' house and thought "holy crap, weddings are so scary and there are so many tiny details and the schedule and the guestlist and who is going to read what and will I ever figure out if we'll have a flower girl. Maybe I will take a break from thinking about mine for a while."

And so I did.

Now it is late April, and today I went shopping for my bridesmaid dress for my older sister's wedding this August, and weddings are so fun! So here I am again, with a better idea of how this is going to go and a slightly more realistic plan. I'll still be documenting my own cheapass planning process in this blog, and that's exciting.

For now, I'm appreciating this time spent on the other side of the veil. All I'm in charge of is my own dress and my own shoes and giving whatever help I can.