Coming Out in the Wash

So I landed in some hot water yesterday with my department.  It was a ridiculous misunderstanding on my part, and I won't go into the details here.  (It's a somewhat amusing story, even if, as always, I'm the butt of the joke, so if you know me IRL, feel free to ask.)  Suffice to say, I was in a fairly bad mood earlier today, when the full scope of my faux pas came into light.  I think what really annoyed me was that the whole thing was entirely inadvertent on my part.  I don't mind if people are upset with me for things I deliberately do; I did the deed, I made a choice, and I face consequences.  But when it's something that happens through a confusion of communication, it's so much more frustrating, because it seems so avoidable.  And thus, I was in a bad mood.

 Which seemed unfortunate, because I was attending a wedding in the late afternoon/early evening.  But it actually turned out to be just the thing I needed.  A lovely lady and good friend of mine was marrying another lovely lady, and I was very happy to be there.  It was an outdoor wedding in a park, and it was fairly short (mercifully so, given the heat today and my insistence that I come fully suited).  But it packed a lot of emotional bang for its buck.  A friend of theirs officiated, and said some very nice things about marriage, and another friend recited a poem about love.  And not just any poem about love--the best poem about love, e e cummings' "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)." You may remember it, because I printed it in full here.  Now, as I've said before I love weddings (Actually, a search of my blog suggests that I've never .  I'm not fond of hearing people discuss them, plan them, or debate them, but the weddings themselves?  Awesome.  Combine that with a beautiful ceremony, my favorite love-themed poem without a metric, and a brief delay for a pigeon rescue (long story), and it was the mood equalizer I needed.

So... I guess the take-away here is that I had a good day, on average.
 ...Good night, folks.

Later Days.

I truly believe Beavis and Butthead ruined the phrase "corning" forever: Sask Trip Part 3

Ughhhhhhh. I'm very glad I got a little ahead for my classes while on the trip, because it seems I'm going to spend the lion's share of this weekend indoors fighting off a monstrous cold that I believe I picked up from certain family members during my trip back. I take small condolence in knowing that I spent most of my infectious days at a university and in airports, so at least I've spread it as far as possible.

Anyway, after the clothes shopping was done, the next phase was finding the right wedding gift. I was, frankly, dreading this part. Searching the store from top to bottom, interacting with salespeople, trying to figure out how to wrap the inevitable abnormal shape, using the user-less-than-friendly registry--all activities that are less than fun.

It was also only the second time I've ever used a registry. This particular couple had registered with Sears, which made it a bit easier than the first time, in which the registry was split between a Home Hardware and Home Depot. (And until I typed those out just now, I honestly never thought of the connection between them.) I understand the concept of the registry. It prevents people from struggling with what to buy, saves relatives who may not actually know the couple very well from... uh, getting to know the couple very well, and saves the bride and groom from receiving 50 million or so toasters. But it still feels... impersonal. I suppose there's nothing preventing me from getting them something else, or something else in addition to the registry gift. In fact, that's exactly what I did for the last couple: in addition to some fairly cheap saw or something, I included a copy of "My Best Friend's Wedding," just because:
a) I thought the bride would like it.
b) It's the best wedding movie.
c) It's the best movie period. (No, it is. Don't argue with me on this.)

But I didn't do that this time around, largely because once you count the plane ticket, my presence was all ready enough of an expensive gift. (Don't get me wrong, I wanted to go and I'm glad I went. But man, I've NEVER spent that much money on anything that didn't provide me shelter or an education.) So my brother and I searched for a 5-piece corning ware set instead. And it went very, very easy. We found kitchenware, a salesperson came up to us and identified the right set, the box was simple to wrap, and she took care of updating the registry. Admittedly, my parents took care of providing the card and wrapping paper, (thanks for that) but all in all, it was two consecutive painless shopping events.

Imagine that.

Next time: buying the book.

Later Days.