caerula's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- a Barbie Dream Wedding, and other random stuff (Started at 11:30 am) Grr. Disability benefits. Almost as bad as Evil Insurance Company, although this is through a completely different one from the evil HIC. They aren't paying out for the two weeks I was on disability when I was in the hospital because they have been "unable to contact [me] or [my] attending physician." Since I haven't received any phone calls or messages, I would say they have NOT actually tried to contact me, which, admittedly, does make the actual contact difficult. And the woman I just talked to there told me she's filling in for someone else, and she thought all this was still about my broken foot, which was back in May. Why the fuck would she thing I was in the hospital at the end of June for a broken bone from May, and in particular in the psych ward? Gee, this cast is driving me crazy. So I haven't gotten a paycheck, basically, since the third week in June, and no telling when the disability check will actually show up at this point. I now have a form for my psychiatrist to fill out, but the office is closed until 2 today so I can't even call and ask them when he will be in this week. Because of course, if this form isn't back in 10 days they will cancel my claim � because you know, doctors have so much free time and are so helpful about filling out insurance company paperwork. Thank god this is pay week here again and I've been back long enough to get paid for the past two weeks. Blue's had two in the meantime, but frankly, two of his barely make up one of mine. The boy has got to go back to school, that's all there is too it (but that's another rant, for another time). We had the cousin's wedding to go to Saturday night, so we wrote a check and stuck it in their card and hope they don't cash anything until they get back from their Hawaiian honeymoon. Had to go out Saturday morning, too, to mail some Ebay and Amazon packages and get some dress pants for YMB, since he's outgrown everything this summer. I don't even want to think about school shopping. Gah. Fortunately we were able to find dress pants for boys at the ever-helpful local Target which, although it does not have sushi like Angelbutt's does, does have good selections of kid's clothes. I do wish we had a Super Target around here � though not for the sushi, that really doesn't actually appeal to me � it's that the thought of doing my grocery shopping and deli stuff and everything at Target is soooo appealing. Although it would probably bankrupt me, as well, so never mind. And now, A Wedding Story. The wedding was, well, interesting, and I'm sure many people thought it beautiful. I've been thinking of it as the Barbie Dream Wedding �, which is not very nice of me, I suppose, but when has that ever stopped me? The couple is maybe 22-23, high school sweethearts, and Dream Bride Barbie, tall, tan, blond, has obviously been planning this forever. (She is a nice person, by the way, but then I'm sure Barbie is too. It's not her fault she is tall and blond and naturally skinny.) It provided me with a huge distraction from our latest woes, since there were so many things to snark about. I found myself during the ceremony wishing I had a pen to take snarky notes on the program, since I felt it was inappropriate to whisper at Blue, seeing as how Dream Bride Barbie is his cousin and he really didn't understand what I thought was so bad about this very carefully planned ceremony. Being a guy, of course he couldn't get that it was the entire lack of any kind of spontaneity or personalization that was missing in the first place. The groom didn't really fulfill the role of Dream Wedding Ken as well as DBB did, as he was not tall and blond and hunky, but rather too skinny (his tuxedo vest was doing that unfortunate poochy thing that vests do on skinny people) and had acne, but since he seemed secondary to the proceedings, I don't think that mattered. Everything was very orchestrated: this was clearly a girl who started planning her wedding in kindergarten and has spent the last year or two taping The Wedding Story on TLC, and the only thing holding up the wedding was finding an actual groom. Bridesmaids in red with white flowers. Junior bridesmaid in a miniature (and inappropriate for her age) matching dress. Bride in Dream Barbie white strappy flowing train seed pearls etc with red flowers. Bride's mom in gold; groom's mom in bronze. Candelabras lit by groomsmen. White carpet rolled out by groomsmen. It had the timing of an extremely well-rehearsed tv show, complete with film cameras and us as the studio audience. Bride cried prettily as she walked down the aisle. A bridesmaid sang an appropriately sappy Celine Dion song as the candle-lighting ceremony took place; complete, of course, with the minister explaining that they were now one person, not two, as they blew out their individual candles. (This being one of the many reasons we did not have a candle lighting thingy-do at our wedding; um, I still like to think that I'm an individual human being, thank you.) The inappropriately intense kiss. The minister introducing them as Mr. & Mrs. Groom's First Name Middle Name Last Name (another thing that purposely did not happen at my wedding, although I think Blue wouldn't have minded). Photographer right up in their faces during ring exchange, flashbulb popping; videographer directing people where to stand during candle-lighting. Wedding at 4 pm. Reception starts at 6. In between, we go to Burger King as Blue and YMB are of course starving, and dinner not til seven. Turns out to be a good thing, as bridal party doesn't actually show up at reception until 7:30 or so; apparently they took lots and lots of pictures at the church and then drove around in rented Corvette and party bus for an hour honking and drinking and stuff. Every single couple (all 6) is introduced, and bride and groom, to theme from Rocky; b & g immediately go to cut Barbie Dream Wedding Cake (white, red roses). Ice sculpture is of groom's dirt bike. Finally, by 8, everyone is seated and the wedding party is served; it's a buffet, of course, so it takes an hour for everyone to get dinner. Blue actually had to leave at 9:15 so he could get to work. He did get to eat dinner and have some cake, but missed out on any dancing. YMB & I decided we wanted to stay, so FIL said he would take us home; turns out to be a mistake. After cake is served, we start, not the dancing, but the trendy film accompanied by sappy music featuring baby-to-now pictures of b & g. And then, since they've been dating since like 10th grade, we get a zillion pictures of them together, with the friends from HS that make up the wedding party, prom pictures, family pictures, blah blah blah. This takes forever and features such lovely song choices as "Butterfly Kisses" and "Memories." Really. And was followed by a loud blaring filmed ad for the place that had done the video. Really. Mark left shortly thereafter, and half-an-hour later, finally, there was the b&g dance, to a song that I didn't even recognize, so I'm sure it's a trendy pop song. Bridal party dance to "Lady in Red" � they couldn't have been older than what, 6, when that came out? Then a song set, then the father-daughter dance, then the mother-son dance. Seriously, it was very much in the "we must draw this out as long as possible." Oh and when the dancing started � and you may not know this about me, but I love to dance, despite bad ankles and stuff � it was awful. YMCA and the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey AND the Macarena AND the Electric Slide and several line dances that again must be new bc I didn't recognize them at all. Did get to dance to some Bob Seger that one of the older cousins requested, and "Brown-Eyed Girl," and the cheezy 70s pop that is so fun to dance to � "I Will Survive," etc. I did participate in YMCA, I admit. And then there was a lot of country music. YMB kept saying he wanted to dance and wouldn't. Finally, about 11:30, FIL decided it was time to go, and then got lost on the way home, so we didn't get home and to bed until 1:30. Gah. Slept in until 9:30 yesterday, though, which was nice, and YMB slept til past 10. Of course, when he got up he promptly turned into monster child, and Blue was sleeping, so I put up with a little bit of whining and "I'm boooooored" and then turned on him. Just because I'm glad he's back doesn't mean I'm going to put up with the kind of behavior the Dementors do (which he knows, but he'd only been back two days, so I'm sure he couldn't help testing us). I told him when he got up that I really had to work on the quilt most of the day, and that he needed to play quietly until Blue got up around 3. He whines about how horrid it is to be an only child, with no one to play with. I encouraged him to go see his friends in the neighborhood who have been asking us every day when he was going to be back. He whined about his bike tire being busted. I pointed out A) that one of his friends is next door, which would take all of 5 seconds to get too, and B) he now owns 1. roller skates 2. a skateboard and 3. perfectly good sneakers. He whined about not wanting to go outside, it was too hot. Yesterday actually was the one day of the past two weeks that it hasn't gotten up to 90, so that was no excuse. He whined about having nothing to do. I pointed out all the birthday presents that he hadn't got to check out much because he left the day after his birthday. He picks the one thing that requires adult help � some clay model thingy, that must be baked in the oven -- and I explain again that I am busy all morning, but perhaps later after Blue gets up we can do that. He says that's the ooooonlyyyyy thing he wants to do. I told him in that case that was very unfortunate, but perhaps he'd like to go tidy up his room? This is when he goes to his room, slams the door, and turns loud music on. (Not looking forward particularly to the teenage years, btw.) Oh, but then we have a huge thunderstorm, and he has, for some reason, developed a huge fear of them lately. I turned off the sewing machine since it was lightning and I didn't want to burn it out, particularly with 4 days to finish the damn quilt, and go into the living room, as the sky has suddenly gone almost black. Suddenly there is a huge thunderclap, and YMB shoots out of his room and into my lap quicker than those kids in The Sound of Music learn the words to "My Favorite Things." He sucked up the rest of the day, just in case, I think, there were more thunderstorms coming. Fortunately the power never went out, but I had to reassure him a zillion times that it was a thunderstorm, not a tornado, and if there was a tornado warning, we'd hear the siren and go to my parents' house and to their basement, and we would be perfectly safe whichever place we were. Sophie freaked out too and started shaking. Then I HAD to go to the bathroom, but dog and child both were clinging to me and YMB didn't want me to go anywhere. So I told him to go lay down with his dad (still sound asleep despite house-shaking thunder) while I went to the bathroom. He did, Sophie followed, and then we couldn't get Sophie off the bed, so she ended up waking Mark with the shaking and the whining, and we all huddled in bed and turned the radio on in case there really WAS a tornado warning. There wasn't, and the storm passed, and Blue went back to sleep, and YMB eventually relaxed, and I sewed some more, and things calmed down. I did have a mini-panic attack after Blue got up; I started shaking a little and just feeling upset, no doubt just a throwback reaction to dealing with YMB all day, and the pressure to finish Damn Quilt, and tiredness and feet and shoulders hurting from hunching over the sewing machine. But I did my deep breathing and my relaxation exercises (actually ended up going to sleep for an hour or so) and felt better after that, and got through it without taking a pill. Which is good. Yay me. And the storm had cooled things off nearly 20 degrees, so we went for a nice walk and pulled some weeds and it turned out to be not too bad a day after all. And now it's 2:20; I've been working on this off and on all day as I have a fairly insane groups of records I'm trying to sort out and I am needing frequent breaks. Not that sharing the Wedding Story with Cyn, and holding a mini-rant re women's rights and health insurance and stuff in my cube with several coworkers, and turning everything backwards in the cube of an unfortunate vacationing co-worker (it's a tradition, and it wasn't my idea, but c'mon, it's funny!) have been like working all day. But still. Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to mention: the DBB was very un-Barbie like in one way -- she has a Red Wings logo tattooed on the back of her shoulder (um, big fan, I guess). I thought, sitting at the back of the church, that it was a birthmark or something, but at the reception realized it actually was a bright red Red Wings tattoo. That was vastly entertaining. I wonder if they'll airbrush it out of the formal pictures? 2:41 p.m. - July 22, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||