Good Spaghetti and other stories / 7 Quick Takes

Merging my usual meme with the famous one by Jen at Conversion Diary, because all the other Catholic girls are doing it. ;) I plan on keeping my "...and other stories" though. I like it.

But seven takes! This means I could be going on for a while. Mua ha ha.

* 1 *

Five years ago tomorrow, this noble, respectable young man:

...went willingly into matrimony with a nervous, gangly, sentimental geek girl who was prepared to display her Harry Potter books alongside his de Lubac. Possibly because she made good spaghetti.

Or possibly because sappy, domestic-souled geek girls turn out to be good companions for good-natured, devout, philosophical men who say—or sometimes sing—their prayers in Latin. Geek girls love Gregorian chant, too.

Also, getting crammed into the choir loft stairs
with cute men.

Anyway, it was a happy day. I'm looking forward to reliving it. To celebrate, we're singing with our mixed schola, going out to a nice dinner, and possibly picking more apples. (Please God, neither of us will fall off a ladder.)

All wedding photos by Casey Karbowski.

* 2 *

Five years ago today, Lou was best man in his brother's wedding, which I attended in a spirit of manic delight and anguish.* If you tell me things about Andy and Lindsey's wedding, like the fact that it was humongous and they had incense and everything, I'll usually remember. Otherwise, I'm hazy. My clearest memory from the day was that Lou and I got separated for twenty minutes at the reception, while I was in the back getting our decorations together, and owing to my proximity to the dance music I missed a couple of calls from him. We had a tearful reunion in the parking lot, hugging and murmuring things I don't remember. And then we went in and danced to Shania Twain's "You're Still the One." It's just about the only time he's ever danced with me in public. And I sang with it, over his shoulder, because I am a big dork like that.

We went to Mass afterward, and then he went back to our new apartment with some college buddies. I went to my parents', where I'd been staying in the pre-wedding weeks, and walked in the door to discover that Beth and Mom and MissPhotographerB had done up the flowers while I was out. It was all so much more beautiful than I'd ever imagined—and I was so keyed up—that I burst promptly into tears and did the laughing-and-crying thing for a while.

After that, I know I couldn't sleep much, and couldn't eat much the following morning, but there was a lot of laughter and and a lot of everybody being so sweet to me—and if anyone got bored or frustrated with the proceedings, no one showed me—and Beth curled my hair and put on my makeup, and MissPhotographerB hung out in the bathroom with us and laughed and talked, and Mom and Beth got me into dress and veil.

And I remember that when Lou walked in for our first wedding-day look, I tried to say hello and couldn't make a sound. And if I write any more about all that, I'll start crying. Happy tears. It was a good day.

* 3 *

Good heavens. The apples.

9 quarts juice plus however much my mom froze
9 pints applesauce
10 half-pints apple syrlly**
4 pints apple butter plus one crock pot currently full and bubbling
2 shopping bags full to the in-laws
5 shopping bags full to the neighbors (hey, they said they would take what we couldn't use, but boy, were they surprised)
1 bag still sitting in the garage

And the tree still looks like this:

The top third of the tree is still loaded, and so is the ground.
Even though I picked up all the windfalls yesterday.
Also, Washington State lawns are never that brown.
The East Coast has been getting all our rain.

* 4 *

This picture has been circulating around the interwebs this week:

Source.

That's Britney Spears, attending church with her boyfriend. The commentary has primarily been: Whoa, surprise, Brit Brit doesn't dress appropriately for church.***

Three rejoinders from me, interwebs. One: That guy looks remarkably normal. I hope he's decent and good-natured and treats her well. Two: Cute boots!!! Three: You just keep coming to church, sweet girl. You're always welcome.

* 5 *

Perhaps my favorite thing about my new haircut is that I can now put it up in a messy half-pulled-through ponytail. I've not often been able to do that before. Not without looking like something exploded at the back of my head.

It's rather cute down, too, if I do say so myself (thanks, Mom!):

I think that's my "flirting with the camera" look.
Well, I never said I was humble.

* 6 *

Music of the week: It's Geek Week on YouTube, and it doesn't get much geekier than a dancing violinist and a human-voice-as-backup-band expert (sort of like beat boxing...) making an independent Star Wars music video together. Complete with light sabers and Ewoks, of course. And Leia's hairstyle.

* 7 *

Maia sunning:

Photo by Lou.

Kinda wish I were doing that this afternoon instead of cleaning house and canning. But ah well.

Happy weekend!

* Delight, for obvious reasons. Anguish, because my wedding was the NEXT DAY and I was SO EXCITED and I just could NOT SIT STILL.
** Half jelly, half syrup. It almost made it to what it was supposed to be. I went out and bought a jelly thermometer after  that batch.
*** Let me never disparage modesty, though conversations about it are often flatly legalistic and over-focused on male lust when respect for self and God and society and others seems to be a bigger issue. (Deep breath. I could talk about that for a while.) But still. I kind of hate it when people pick on someone like Britney. She's about the same age as my baby sister. And she was sucked up into a particularly amoral sort of fame long before she was old enough to comprehend and deal with it.