Perpetually Unfinished
Friday, July 28, 2006
We had a wonderful time in Colorado. It was a fun, relaxing trip, even including the 2,000 miles worth of driving. I didn't really realize until we were out there that this was the first full vacation that's just been me and Alex; we've had many 3- or 4-day weekends, and a couple longer trips that've involved family, but this was a whole lot of just the two of us, and it was very, very nice.
We camped, we hiked (although not as much as we'd planned; we didn't realize how much of an effect altitude has on your ability to exert even the slightest effort!), we-- okay, I-- took pictures (check out the ones I've got up on Flickr, and there are tons more, too), we saw baseball games in two different stadiums, we visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, we drove a lot, we got rained on, we plugged the hole in our airmattress with postage stamps, we saw cute little tundra creatures, we were taken aback by the cost of long-distance payphone calls these days ($10?!?!!), we listened to a 6hr 19min baseball game on the radio that covered 2/3 of our drive back from KC to Chicago, I ate at Sonic for the first and second times ever and Alex declared me very silly for caring, and all told, it was generally terrific.
Now we're about to go on vacation again. (This sounds less weird if you consider that the trip I was just talking about ended almost 3 weeks ago.) So I figured I should get in a blog post before I go. Also because I have a very crazy 6 weeks ahead of me (not that there's any guarantee it will calm down after that-- in fact, I have the sneaking suspicion it won't for months-- just that I don't have any currently scheduled craziness after those 6 weeks). After I get back from this 9-day vacation, I'm traveling for work, then out of town for a wedding for a friend of Alex's, then hosting my family's week-long visit to Chicago, then into DC for work, then possibly going on a Labor Day weekend trip with Alex, then traveling for work again, and then going up to Wisconsin for the wedding of another of Alex's friends.
Speaking of these weddings... have I ever mentioned that I've never been to a wedding before in my life? Well, I've never been to a wedding before in my life. (Unless you count the wedding reception for my aunt when I was 2, and even then, I wasn't at the ceremony.) I'm not sure how it worked out this way since it seems like every self-respecting 24-year-old has already been to a dozen weddings or more; I think I may be somehow cursed (or maybe just bad at staying close enough with friends for them to want me to share their special day). But suffice it to say that I have been desperately wanting to finally go to a wedding, so that despite the fact that one of these weddings is for a couple I've never met, and one's for people I've only met once, and at both of them I won't know any of the other guests, nonetheless it all seems extremely exciting and I'm very gung-ho about going.
But, believe it or not, neither of them are actually really weddings. In not just one but both cases, the couple has already been married for some time, and they're just getting around to having the ceremony/celebration now. (One couple got married before the groom headed off to Iraq, and are doing the wedding now that he's back; the other did it for health insurance purposes a few months ago.) I think in one case they're trying to make it as much like a normal wedding as possible, while the other is basically just a big hey-we're-married! party.
So while "attend something that at least appears to be a wedding" will probably get checked off my list this summer, attending a real wedding ceremony will remain on it until further notice. Along with, y'know, attending a wedding in which I have an actual emotional connection with the couple in question. But hey, that's got to happen eventually... right? Right?
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We camped, we hiked (although not as much as we'd planned; we didn't realize how much of an effect altitude has on your ability to exert even the slightest effort!), we-- okay, I-- took pictures (check out the ones I've got up on Flickr, and there are tons more, too), we saw baseball games in two different stadiums, we visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, we drove a lot, we got rained on, we plugged the hole in our airmattress with postage stamps, we saw cute little tundra creatures, we were taken aback by the cost of long-distance payphone calls these days ($10?!?!!), we listened to a 6hr 19min baseball game on the radio that covered 2/3 of our drive back from KC to Chicago, I ate at Sonic for the first and second times ever and Alex declared me very silly for caring, and all told, it was generally terrific.
Now we're about to go on vacation again. (This sounds less weird if you consider that the trip I was just talking about ended almost 3 weeks ago.) So I figured I should get in a blog post before I go. Also because I have a very crazy 6 weeks ahead of me (not that there's any guarantee it will calm down after that-- in fact, I have the sneaking suspicion it won't for months-- just that I don't have any currently scheduled craziness after those 6 weeks). After I get back from this 9-day vacation, I'm traveling for work, then out of town for a wedding for a friend of Alex's, then hosting my family's week-long visit to Chicago, then into DC for work, then possibly going on a Labor Day weekend trip with Alex, then traveling for work again, and then going up to Wisconsin for the wedding of another of Alex's friends.
Speaking of these weddings... have I ever mentioned that I've never been to a wedding before in my life? Well, I've never been to a wedding before in my life. (Unless you count the wedding reception for my aunt when I was 2, and even then, I wasn't at the ceremony.) I'm not sure how it worked out this way since it seems like every self-respecting 24-year-old has already been to a dozen weddings or more; I think I may be somehow cursed (or maybe just bad at staying close enough with friends for them to want me to share their special day). But suffice it to say that I have been desperately wanting to finally go to a wedding, so that despite the fact that one of these weddings is for a couple I've never met, and one's for people I've only met once, and at both of them I won't know any of the other guests, nonetheless it all seems extremely exciting and I'm very gung-ho about going.
But, believe it or not, neither of them are actually really weddings. In not just one but both cases, the couple has already been married for some time, and they're just getting around to having the ceremony/celebration now. (One couple got married before the groom headed off to Iraq, and are doing the wedding now that he's back; the other did it for health insurance purposes a few months ago.) I think in one case they're trying to make it as much like a normal wedding as possible, while the other is basically just a big hey-we're-married! party.
So while "attend something that at least appears to be a wedding" will probably get checked off my list this summer, attending a real wedding ceremony will remain on it until further notice. Along with, y'know, attending a wedding in which I have an actual emotional connection with the couple in question. But hey, that's got to happen eventually... right? Right?
