Myra Lee

2005-06-27 - 10:03 p.m.

I had the most lovely and fun bridal shower ever. That�s certainly a sentence I never imagined myself typing, but there it is. Brandis made everything beautiful and sweet. So many thoughtful friends helped. The vivacious ladies of Erik�s family handled the games portion and won hearts and minds. It was the first time my friends, my family, and Erik�s family had been thrown together in the same place, so I felt pulled to talk to everyone and introduce people. And I still don�t feel like I spent enough time with anyone�I suppose that�s a microcosm of how the wedding will feel, as there will be about 100 more people there.

I should also mention that the food was delish. And there were mimosas and scrumptious sangria and straight-up champagne for the wild ones. My brother�s lovely lady (now his betrothed) made a helluva giant red velvet cake. And then she made a smaller normal-sized cake, just in case. When she queried my brother as to what she should write on top of the secondary cake, he told her: PEDERS 13, 1+1=5. What is that, you might ask (as did every single attendee at the shower). Well, it has something to do with me being a weird kid and writing those words on a white throw pillow with a permanent marker and then making up a song to go with the pillow. And then singing that song all the time while throwing the pillow at my brother. There�s more to the story, but even my nearest and dearest just looked puzzled as I tried to explain it.

Since I can�t begin to describe each thoughtful detail of the shower, here are two snapshots of the paper crafts that Brandis, Mrs. Poor Elvis, and KT handcrafted and hung from the trees and from strings of lights:

The older I get, the more touched I am by people doing loving things like that. I think it�s because I know what a pain in the ass it is to do such things. And so I say: here�s to loving things that are a pain in the ass! No, that doesn�t sound right.

Basically, Brandis is the sweetest person on Earth, and I'm lucky enough to have her as my dearest friend.

And the very next day, we played kickball! Can you beat it? Back-to-back bridal shower and heated kickball match! About 40 people turned up, and most of them had the love of the game in their eyes. I knew it was going to be aggressive, but even I was a little taken aback by the fierceness. Since I also can�t come up with a description for Sunday�s kickball ballyhoo, I will share the summary that my friend Tony Joe (the official Long Beach Kickball Coordinator) e-mailed to the teams today:

All right, all right.
Last Sunday�s kickball game was awesome.
Thanks to everyone who came and ruled it.
Especially Team Rad.
They really socked it to Team Virgin Killers.
Congrats you guys!
If you took photos, please send them to me so I can post them.
For those of you who didn�t make it, you missed out on:
Dave morphing into Pig Pen.
Brandis diving into the perfect center between home plate and first.
A hot sweaty man rumble love triangle with Matt Howze, Brad, and Erik.
Matt Guy�s personal cheerleading squad.
Tony Joe�s David Lee Roth �I might as well Jump� splits to avoid being tagged on his way to 3rd.
Emily schooling all the guys.
A Pegasus.
Dogs sniffing each others� butts.
Beer and pickles.
Mike�s patented lord of the dance windups.
A healthy dose of trash talk.
A bunch of other stuff.

[I would just like to mention that I played for Team Rad and had one RBI.]

After kickball, we headed to the Sunday afternoon bbq at Alex�s bar, hopped on down to the more slow-paced Auld Dubliner, and followed that up with a Batman viewing with a pack of kickballers.

Today I called in sick, worked on freelance for the company formerly known as Dream Company, and wrote thank-you notes. Somehow, that occupied my whole day. Life is moving too fast right now. I need to slow down and savor these moments because they�re so good. So good! I wish I could bottle this feeling.


<< Previous - Next >>

here are some words |older words |say hi |here i am |the land

art by Ida

design by K. Maria