And Again

So, technically, y'all will be getting two posts on this date. Oh well. I stay up too late.

So far, I've faithfully taken some time every day, before I go to bed, to write a blog post and work on the book. It's honestly getting a little harder, but I like filling out the chart, and knowing I can each night is really cool.

I know, it's sad, isn't it?

Anyway, it's really getting good. Because I've exclusively been working in pen and paper, writing is fun again. I feel like there's no such thing as writer's block when I'm doing it the old-fashioned way. I don't sit and stare at a blinking cursor or scroll desperately to look for things or get distracted and start editing. I just write, and it feels good to be doing that again. It would probably be a whole lot quicker to only write on the computer, but that's not me.

When I'm working on the novel, I use a speckled composition notebook and a Pilot pen. I don't use anything else. I even replace the cartridges, because it is cheaper than buying new pens, and Walmart started carrying blue again. I think it's the little ritual there that feels so good, or maybe the way the ink flows so well and how the blue just jumps off the white page.

The first version of this book, for the first and second drafts, were completely handwritten in whatever ballpoint I could find, on stacks of paper stapled together. Literally. I kept the sheets in my pocketbook and I carried backups. I still have the paper, and I have no plans to get rid of them. Most of the book was written in my ninth grade World Geography class. When the second draft was finished, I typed it on my family's Gateway desktop.

Things have come a long way since then, but there's still nothing quite like putting pen to paper and just writing. Such a good feeling.

Sorta Traditional

My fiance won't be seeing my wedding gown until my personal bouncers (or ushers or whatever) open the sanctuary doors at our wedding.

Superstition!

Nope.

Every wedding magazine and every site like OffbeatBride.com and TheKnot.com and others like them are mostly focused on how nontraditional weddings are becoming. Yeah, there are some on there that do follow the conventional wedding template, with a ceremony and a fancy reception with a pretty cake and all the attendants dressed alike, but people are more laid-back about those these days, and it's sorta nice. I like looking at the funky weddings. They do give me ideas for how I'd like me and the future hubs' wedding to be. (We do draw our biggest inspirations from Doctor Who, however.)

It just seems to me like these days, if the wedding isn't held in some field or a hideous asbestos/mold-ridden "loft" in downtown somewhere, it's just not stylish or relevant. And suddenly, a normal sized wedding (or what I would think of as one) is considered "intimate" at 100 guests. Which is weird to me, because I don't think I know 100 people well enough to want to invite them to my wedding. Shoot, there's people I do know that won't be getting an invitation. This isn't because of crowding, by the way. Mostly it's from behavior I've seen in other people's wedding photos.

My venue of choice for the ceremony is my church. The reception, I hope, will be held at my hometown's first high school. It's been converted to apartments for the elderly. The stunning architecture in the energy inefficient, tree-kicking auditorum has been there since the 1920s. My dad went to school there. Now they've leveled off the floor, but the smalltown auditorium where Elvis once played (really!) is my choice. And it's pretty. And it's not outside or hazardous to one's health.

I'm making the invitations for myself and there's no recycled paper or twine or burlap involved. No folks, in my house, we actually like color. I'm having "cheap" food, but lots of it. And I mean real food, like sandwiches and chicken and mac'n cheese and all that good stuff. I'm even considering a tower of yeast rolls as centerpieces, but I haven't decided yet. I just love bread. (I think that's why I liked the character of Peeta in The Hunger Games so much...the bread thing.) But I am sorta serious about the yeast rolls, if it works out.

I just ordered my dress this weekend, and it's everything I was looking for and it's beautiful.

And my fiance will not see it until the wedding day. He won't even see a picture of it on someone else. I don't even dare describe it, because I want to surprise him, maybe with the fact that I clean up good, if I do say so myself.

Though I did send him a particularly lovely photo of me holding a too-small dress up to myself and making a wonderful face at the camera. 

I'm pretty traditional. I think that's an understatement. But only sort of, enough that I think the guys in the party should wear black Converse for the wedding, because tuxedo shoes are apparently horrible. I won't be writing my own vows because even though I'm a writer, self-written vows all sound the same. "You are my rock/everything. You've been there/stood by me/picked my nose for me when I was sick, and you're awesome/I love you." Oh my word pull my teeth now. I had briefly considered the vows from The Corpse Bride (it's one of my favorites) but really, the traditional ones are fine. I'm not marrying words, and I'll probably have a case of the giggles anyway. I laugh at stuff. I'm sure my cousin's kids will make me laugh. Someone may fart. I don't know! It's all uncontrollable.

I do love a good surprise.

And I still plan on having a lightsaber battle photo shoot with the chicks and dudes in the bridal party. Like for reals.