End Times

The time has come for us to say goodbye to another year and hello to the next, which will most surely pass even faster than the last. The folks at Detroit Dilettante (that's just me!) would like to wish my past, present (none!), and future (maybe!) readers a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year! For me and Husband, formerly Fiance, it has been a year of extreme ups and downs. In January Husband lost an uncle much earlier than one should ever have to say goodbye to such a youthful and life-affirming person, then in April his father got sick (somewhat back to normal), and then, if that wasn't enough, Husband ended up in the ER with chest pain in May, which we honestly now think was extreme anxiety from the previous 5 months of family trauma.

The upside of this year came when Husband received a clean bill of health and then in October...married me! It was a perfect ceremony and a nearly perfect reception (what am I bitchin' and moanin' about? well, lame and insignificant stuff...weather suddenly turned very cold for day-of, band was a bit clueless about wedding pacing and etiquette though great at what they are actually paid to do, bartender was a bit of a dud). The food was great, location beautiful, the company the greatest, and everyone travelled to and from northern Michigan safely, thankfully!

The best thing was having all our friends and family together in one spectacularly beautiful place! There were a few key people missing, but they were there in spirit, I felt the love!

And now, a few months later, the best thing of all is to look at the pictures and marvel over how great my friends and family are (new and pre-existing), how wonderful that everyone is in good health and still flourishing despite the grueling journey to northern Michigan in autumn, and to realize how the silly little "problems" with the wedding fade as time passes and only the good stays lodged in this heart and mind. I cannot imagine a life better than the one I have, with its problems shared amongst an incredibly supportive cast of family and friends, and solutions coming from the grace of God/Buddha/the good earth! My only wish that I cannot accomplish alone this year (through my own grit and determination, to differentiate from other wishes/resolutions which require only my efforts) is that my circle of friends and family should expand to include usually silent neighbors, people who Husband and I should meet for reasons of fate (??), and those in need of whatever help I can offer, who I hope can make themselves known to a sometimes-blogger who thinks she understands much of what goes on in the world, but is probably more often than not guilty of living in a cloud of dreams...though with beautiful clouds come beautiful rainbows. Happy 2011!

Giving Thanks...signed, Domesticated Woman

Okay, I am feeling no more domesticated than I was 2 months ago...but as of almost 2 months ago, I became a married woman. I now, on Thanksgiving's Eve, give thanks for my wonderful, newly-minted husband, my new family, and most of all, my old family - being the family I was thankfully and miraculously (sp?) stuck with at birth. Here's a sneak peak at a future post about the fantastic wedding Fiance (now Husband) and I put together and pulled off with aLOT of help.

I am so blogonamous!

16 Days and Counting...

I have not posted since July and I won't even apologize for it. I am marrying the Fiance in 16 days, and there's still some work to do. We are on track, but that is thanks to me neglecting things like blogging, job-hunting, and networking for my firm. Okay, I've done a little of all those things but not in the focused way I had prior to the summer. I do promise to be back with some wedding pictures and my usual observations on life on the margins in no less than a month. I have not abandoned you, my lonely little blog!

Can we turn this space into a fantastic wedding reception?

The Garden of Eden

In our backyard, that is.  Tomatoes are popping up, peas will be coming soon, and we’ve been eating our own mint, cilantro, and basil for a couple weeks now.  I made a basil pesto to go with freshly made pasta last week – yum!  I will never get over the miracle of plants – if you plant them, they will grow!  We are planning on planting some pumpkin and squash seeds in an unused and very sunny side of our garage.  Our next mission is to get some cherry tomato plants at the Eastern Market this Saturday and then plant away!  I will probably post a few pictures of the yard with our little patch of paradise next time.  Yes, winter is over!!

In other news, I have been away so long due to a health scare (hopefully resolved soon!) with Fiance, which takes priority over everything else.  Before the health scare, though, we went up north to check out the wedding site and got some vendors locked in.  This may be a bit repetitive, but I am so much more at ease knowing there will be music, flowers, and other things that are kind of necessary at weddings…particularly ministers!

Hope your weather is as good as ours!

In Praise of Cohabitation

 

I just wanted to give props to my handsome, dashing Fiance, who just finished installing a ceiling fan in our bedroom!  So romantic!  He sleeps with this fan on his bedside table, and it kind of gets on my nerves sometimes, so he agreed to not use it during the winter (makes sense right?  It’s cold!).  Now that the weather is warm, though, the fan has reared its unsightly head and constant whir.  At Lowes the other day, we happened across a sale price for a ceiling fan, went for it, and despite Fiance’s recent problem with dizzy spells, he installed the thing almost immediately.  Whether it’s his love for me or his love for all things Fan that drove him to such motivated efficiency, I’m happy.  Now if I can fully wean him off the bedside fan…

Here’s to living with a Handy Man!

MishMash

The Fiance's off with friends so I am home, having some fun of my own...um, blogging....

Okay, my life is not the most exciting, but I do have some positives to discuss. First, I had a volunteer "opportunity" - it's not work, it's an "opportunity" - at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum annual plant sale. I worked as a cashier's assistant and then at plant pick-up, which is a coat-check system for plant shoppers who want to continue to shop or need to bring their cars around for loading. It would have been a fantastically good time except that it was probably 40 or colder with the constantly gusting wind chill. I was miserable. Then, on only two days' notice, I had to show up at my bartending job (not my usual night to work), which was fine because it was warm. I was so exhausted after 8 hours out in the cold (and did I mention that I worked the night before, so I only got 5 hours of fitful sleep, due to thrashing winds?) and was therefore afraid I'd snap, and unleash my exhausted fury on a co-worker or customer. I didn't, though, and that is more a credit to the nice people I work with and the nice clientele than it is a credit to me, though I am pretty nice too, most of the time.

I may have been a bit short with my sister, though, who has been discussing wedding colors and bridesmaid/flower girl dresses with me (she's a bridesmaid, her 6 year old Miss C is a flower girl). I was too tired and confused to talk dresses at the end of the day, so I hope I didn't sound too awful and negative, but I probably did. But a new week begins tomorrow, and with it, a new chance to register for fantastic wedding gifts (why is this less fun than it sounds??), a new chance to find my wedding dress fabric (in case of failure, break seal on credit card and buy a damn ready-made dress!), a new chance to find someone to marry us (did I not mention that shortcoming in our Big Wedding Plans??? Actually, I think I did!).

I've updated the book list to the right. Good stuff now, so check it out! My main book right now is Unfinished Desires, somewhat of a mystery the way it is set up...deep dark secrets, etc. Poseidon's Steed is research for a novel I will someday, God Willing, write. And Say You're One of Them is another in a series of recently (deservedly) popular books out of native African writers...well written, populated by figures that jump off the page with their human-ness, and quite foreign, which gives me a chance to learn about the world I am economically limited from exploring at this particular time. And I am still basking in the afterglow of having finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay...new book soon, please Mr. Chabon!

All is well in the world for now. I hope for the same for you, my readers.