Wedding Stuff

Well, another six months has gone by. I guess it's time for a new post. Actually, this is a post with a purpose. Our wedding is next Saturday, and for those of you coming from out of town, I just wanted to let you know that in that gap between the wedding and the reception, Zenon's parents are opening up their house and offering refreshments for anyone who wants to drop by. So, if you're too dressed up to feel like going to the beach, feel free to stop by 52 Bridge Ave. in Stellarton and have a few drinks and a few munchies before the reception.

I'll probably be providing more wedding-related info here as the week goes on.

Christmas Time

Heidi and the moisturizing socks
Originally uploaded by likeamemoryitfalls

Hello. For anyone who's interested, I've posted some Christmas pictures on my Flickr account.

That's all I have to say right now.

The Proposal

My engagement ring
Originally uploaded by likeamemoryitfalls

Instead of writing this to everyone who asked about it separately, here is the story of how Zenon proposed.

First of all, it's important to note that for a few days to week ahead of time, Zenon had been acting a little strangely. I know, I know, you ask how I could tell. Well, he was sort of distant, and prone to random silences, which was really odd, and he was having trouble sleeping and had banished himself to the couch to sleep for a couple of nights consecutively. I asked him to tell me what was on his mind, but he just told me, "You can't help me with it." I thought that this was odd and persisted, but he just got kind of mad at me. I finally asked him, "Is it me? Are you breaking up with me?" He said no, but in that way that I didn't quite believe him.

So, Wednesday rolls around. I had been talking to my friend Lesley in the van on the way home about Zenon's odd behaviour. She reassured me and told me that he was probably just being a guy and keeping something like money troubles to himself. I was comforted, but still suspicious.

When I got home from work, Zenon came in and suggested that we go for a walk. "I saw some neat nature trails up in Thickwood when I was working on that guy's house," he told me.

I scampered off to get ready, and grabbed my favourite ball cap which I bought at Acadia. I walked into the kitchen and Zenon took one look at me and started laughing. "Take off that hat," he ordered.

I was kind of annoyed. "This is my favourite hat," I told him with an offended air.

"Well, take it off," he repeated.

"I'm having a bad hair day."

"I don't care. Put a hairband in or something. Let's go."

I put on my next favourite hat, my PEI hat. I came back to the kitchen for approval, still feeling pretty annoyed. "Is this better?"

"Yes, that's cute. Let's go."

Zenon took me out to Thickwood and parked the truck across from some nature trails. As we headed into the woods, the bugs came out. "Maybe we should have brought some bug spray," Zenon said. "Oh well," I shrugged, and swatted at another mosquito.

We walked and chatted and swatted at bugs, and I again brought up how preoccupied Zenon had been. "Actually, there's more to that than I've told you," he said.

Uh oh, I thought, here it comes!

"I wasn't completely honest with you about why I went to Nova Scotia last month." Then he stopped walking.

Crap, I thought, Whatever it is is so serious that we have to stop walking to talk about it. I braced myself for the worst.

Then he did a strange, unexpected thing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. My eyes widened in surprise. He opened the box, and there it was, my beautiful ring. "Oh my goodness! Are you kidding me???" was my lovely response. According to Zenon, I looked very happy and beautiful at this moment, but all I remember is feeling totally overwhelmed with surprise. "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness," I kept repeating.

Finally, he said in a little nervous voice, "Actually, I was hoping that you'd marry me." He seemed so nervous. I realized that I needed to say something to this besides "Oh my goodness," so I did. I said, "Of course I'll marry you!" It's a good thing that I had this answer ready, because at that moment I wasn't really capable of coherent thought.

Then he slipped the ring on my finger and kissed me. We walked back to the truck hand in hand (when not swatting mosquitoes) and he told me about going back to Nova Scotia so suddenly to get the ring, and about how it was supposed to be my birthday present, but he couldn't wait (my birthday is August 22), and how relieved he was that I said yes. He also said that this was why I couldn't wear my Acadia hat. "It's too big for you, and I couldn't imagine proposing with you looking at me from under that huge brim." I was still in shock, and kept repeating, "Oh my goodness," though at slower intervals now.

Then I had a tiny freakout for the next half hour to an hour, but by the time we went to bed that night (late, as we had lots to talk about), I had stopped freaking out and was really excited. And excited is where I've stayed, except that now planning a wedding (especially one across the country) is starting to daunt me. Zenon has been sleeping well since Wednesday night, and hasn't slept on the couch once. My bug bites (I got close to 10 that night) have all but disappeared, so all is well.

Engagement

My engagement ring
Originally uploaded by likeamemoryitfalls

So, Zenon and I got engaged. More details will come soon. In the meantime, look at the pictures of the beautiful ring that Zenon gave me.

Personal DNA

Considerate Thinker

This test was fun.

Announcement - Open House

Hello everyone. I just wanted to let you know that my parents are hosting an open house on Sunday, July 15 from 2-5pm for anyone who wants to drop by and visit while I'm home. If you are in the Shakespeare area that day, you should stop in and say hello!

If you need directions, let me know.

Rain reminiscences

Yesterday was a day of thunderstorms and intense rain. As I dashed across the parking lot from the office to my vehicle, I couldn't help but remember the last time I dashed through the rain in a thunderstorm. It was last summer when I was back home on vacation. It was one of those oppressively hot and humid days, and Ashley and I had gone to the Jane Bond for dinner. Because the restaurant was just a fifteen minute walk from Ashley's house, we had left the truck parked there and set out on foot. All during dinner, Ashley kept looking out the window and foretelling rain. I just laughed her off kept eating. It turns out that she was right, though. It started to rain just before we left the restaurant, but we didn't let this daunt us. After the oppressive heat of the afternoon, a little rain was going to feel kind of good. And it did, at least for the first two minutes or so. We kept to the right side of the sidewalk, tucked in beneath the building overhangs on King Street, and just laughed at our adventure. The problem came, though, when we had to turn off of the main road.

The sky was dark, almost black, with the rain clouds, and as we left the safety of the main street, we began to hear thunder. The rain was no longer our gentle friend, but pelted us mercilessly. I have stayed drier in the shower than I did that night. Laughing and cold and worried about lightning and the trees overhanging the sidewalk here, we broke into a run, and galloped down the street as fast as we could, not caring who saw us. We slowed down to rest a few times, but each time a flash of lightning and a loud roll of thunder would get us going again. To encourage me, Ashley told me about the hot tea that she would make to warm us up when we got home. I know that the original walk to the Jane Bond must have been much longer than our all-out dash later, but it sure didn't feel that way. My world narrowed to the dark street, the incessant rain and the threat of lightning as I jogged along beside Ashley. What a relief to finally make it to Ashley's apartment, to have Derek alternately laugh at us and fuss over us, and to change into some dry clothes in the bathroom and sit down to some hot tea while the cats regarded us with expressions that plainly said, “What on earth were you thinking? How undignified!”

Of course, making it to our vehicle after work yesterday was only the first step. We still had to drive home in the pouring rain. As my co-worker Lesley and I set out, I was reminded of when I moved out to Nova Scotia, and my mother and I drove across the country with my stuff in the back of the pickup truck. We faced pouring rain off and on through Northern Ontario and Quebec. I wasn't too worried about my stuff in the back of the pickup truck because I knew that my father had packed it, which meant that it would survive some inclement weather. My guitar and my books were in the cab with us, and they were the most important things that I was taking out. No, what I found about the rain that time was that it made the truck seem like a little cocoon. Even though we were passing hundreds of cars on the highway, the rain and the noise of it was isolating, making us feel like we were in our own little world. We had a book on tape going on the truck stereo, and as we lost ourselves in the story and listened to the rain, it was hard to believe that there was anyone else out there.
Driving home in yesterday's intense rain also reminded of a harrowing drive I had late one night as I returned home from the opening night at the Mercury Theatre in St. Mary's. I had spent the morning purchasing liquor, snacks and other refreshments for the after party (man, did I get some raised eyebrows when the liquor store attendant helped me to bring my twelve bottles of wine and my three boxes of coolers out to my trunk, which was already filled with ten cases of beer and six cases of Perrier water) and the afternoon doing last minute cleaning and preparations at the theatre.

About an hour before the show, I slipped into the dressing room and changed into my costume – a lovely and professional skirt and blouse for working front-of-house. I cleaned off the dirt and dust as best as I could (it had been a humid afternoon) and hurriedly applied my makeup before I rushed out to greet the guests and take their tickets. The show was a success, as was the art display in the gallery. After the show, people lingered and drank and laughed and discussed, and I circulated with the wine. The theatre wasn't air-conditioned, and we had the front door open to the street to get some air circulating, so I knew when it started to rain. This rain didn't start gently, but immediately went from zero to downpour. By this time it was nearing eleven, and I was exhausted after my day of running around and schmoozing. John, the theatre's owner, came over and told me that I could go home if I wanted – the party was winding down and everyone was taken care of. I smiled gratefully and turned over the money box to him. I found my few friends and said goodbye, and rushed out into the rain to start home. I was warned that I should perhaps wait for the rain the die down before setting off, but I was so bone tired that I waved off the suggestion with a smile and a promise of “I'll be fine”.

The drive was going well until I left the main road and started on the back road that would take me to Tavistock. Suddenly, it was raining so hard that I couldn't see. I felt like I was in the middle of a blizzard with blowing snow, except that the air was still extremely humid. I would have pulled off the road to wait out the downpour, but I couldn't see where the side of the road was. I just squinted through the rain on my windshield and sent up a little prayer that I was still on the road, and pushed forward. Happily, the rain eventually eased off a little, so that I could at least see where I was going. I relaxed and started looking forward to getting home and to bed. Then I got to Tavistock, where I discovered that the road I needed to take was closed because it had been washed out by the rain. I slowed down and evaluated my options. I had passed a friend's house just outside of town. I considered knocking on her door and crashing on her floor for the night. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was after 11:30pm, and decided against that. I was so tired, and the thought of my own bed was so irresistible that I decided to take a chance and follow the detour and hope that I could find an alternate route to my door. Happily, that's what happened, though I can't tell you too much about that part of the trip. I was so tired and the rain was so continuous that I think that I entered some sort of a trance. My bed has rarely felt so welcome to me as it did when I collapsed in it that night.

These memories have led me to many more that I won't get into here – memories like running through the autumn streets of Wolfville alone in the rain, just because I felt so happy and so free, and walking home at two in the morning one time in the freezing rain, and realizing what a fairy land the town had become with all the trees and buildings gilded with ice. I remember being young and at home alone on a rainy summer's day, and trying to shower in the rainstorm (this didn't work). It's funny how one little thing – driving home from work in the rain – can lead to so many other memories of so many other times and places in my life. I like it.