We are back from a weekend down in the southern Illinois hinterlands for a family wedding that included lots of woodland charm, sparklers, good food, and much revelry, plus a 5 hour road trip journey each direction, so I have spent today regrouping and lining up my tasks for the week. Whenever I leave the city, it takes a couple minutes to acclimate myself back to general dailyness, so I have been taking today slow, answering some press emails, mailing out some packages, and working through articles on birthday parties and which table scraps you can safely feed birds. (in other words, the usual.) This week is much slower than last week, which also brought cocktails with a friend I don't see nearly enough and a karaoke birthday party for one of J's friends. I need a couple of these long, lingering summer days to get some poetry things done, so am looking forward to that. As I returned, all the technology I touched seemed to want to break, so I will be replacing my phone and one of the printers later this week as well, alas.
I am working slowly on TECHNOGROTESQUE, the June zine offering, as well as some other little content bits for here and there. These poems feel like they were written a lifetime ago, but I realize it was only last April during NAPOWRIMO. So much has happened since, and time is doing that strange stretchy thing, where some things seem like they happened yesterday and others feel like forever ago. A lot has happened since last spring, including J moving in, quitting his terrible job, finally being able to go out on the regular (previously prevented by both my work schedule and later, even when I was freer, by his.)
Another development that seems to have occurred this weekend was that we finally let it slip to a few more people about our own wedding plans for next summer, which were under wraps to everyone but J's mom, who we told a couple weeks back. The original proposal and subsequent discussions started about two years ago, but were waylaid by schedules and money (the latter is still a consideration, so a small budget is key.) Only a few weeks ago did we say, okay lets do this next June which will be our 10 year anniversary so it seems fitting. Current plans include a City Hall ceremony and lunch or dinner for a smaller group of family and close friends, then a larger barbecue-style picnic gathering for a larger group somewhere between the city and the Rockford/Southern Wisconsin region where most of my family live. As the girl who said she was never getting married, these developments seem strange and unusual even to me. But I think we mostly have spent many of the last few years of this decade thinking "Why the hell get married?" til the question eventually became "Why the hell not get married?" I do admit I already have my eye on a 1920s style art deco engagement ring with tiny diamonds and a 1930s-inspired dress that I worry will be slightly too warm for June. I have become one of those women who has a wedding Pinterest board and I am okay with that.
