Wedding Spectacular

This is what pure bliss looks like.  This was my sister in the moments before the wedding began.  Sheer unadulterated joy.  If you had been there, you would have been beaming in exactly the same way.  It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement and give in to the feeling of what must surely be what perfect happiness feels like.

Her wedding was beautiful, in all respects.  There were a few tiny hiccups, and probably a few things I’m not even aware of, but for the most part the wedding went off without a hitch.  The ceremony was great — the pastor gave an interesting speech analogizing marriage to a hammer, made sense at the time — and it was over practically before I had blinked.  I gave a recitation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, which I have had memorized since high school.  As she is my sister, she had the sonnet memorized as well.  While I was reciting the sonnet that is practically a part of my very being at this point to around 240 people, I glanced over at my sister and giggled.  She was mouthing all the words along with me.  She may not share my last name anymore, but she will always be my sister.  It was probably my favorite moment of the whole wedding.

The reception was epic.  I’m not even sure its possible to describe a reception as fantastic as hers was.  The band was perfect, they played a great mix of songs.  I helped whenever possible, and was able to help the band’s singer sing “I Will Survive” because everything I do is memorized…I kinda forgot I’d done that til just now 🙂  My sister was shy and didn’t want to make a big deal about throwing the bouquet, so I told her to just throw it at me.  The other single girls were dismayed to discover they had somehow completely missed the bouquet toss…hehehe.  It still counts, I don’t care what you say.  It may even be possible that I danced every dance.  Simply amazing.

My sister is now on her honeymoon with her fiancee in Lake Tahoe.  They are a perfect couple.  As my final act as her bridesmaid, I am taking care of a cat they decided to adopt until they return from Tahoe.  Unfortunately, the cat had to make the three hour car trip back to my home in order for me to take care of it.  We made it though, and the cat “Jill” is doing splendidly.  She is anxious to be my sister and brother in-law’s first baby.

Oddly enough, I now have to go back to doing normal things.  Something HUGE has just happened, I mean, I now have a new person in my family — but everything else keeps moving as well and I’ve got to keep up.  Back to the “grind” as they say.  Its going to be strange at first for my family to switch gears — the conversations no longer have to center around the upcoming wedding, no one has to tip toe around all the various disagreements concerning details of a wedding that ultimately wouldn’t have made a difference in the first place, and not that I was jealous or anything, but now it will be okay for me to tell my family about my life again!  The center of the universe has been thankfully put back on an intangible thing — I’m not sure what the center of the universe is come to think of it.  All I know is that it no longer has to be my sister 😛

I jest a little, but all in all I am glowing with the happiness that I feel for my sister because I know that she has found her one and only.  Amazing.

Parviscient

First of all, I have never seen a word with so many synonyms as “parviscient.”  Seems like it could mean any number of things, from ‘shallow’ to ‘rude’ to even ‘weak in the upper story’.  Whatever that last one means.  According to thesaurus.com, “prescient” means having foreknowledge, “parviscient” is having little knowledge, and “nescient” is lacking or disclaiming knowledge.  Interesting alteration in the word, considering its the beginning of the word that keeps altering instead of the ending to conjugate.  Ah well, in any case, I chose Parviscient as the title for this entry because today marks the eve of my last year of law school.  Meaning, I have little knowledge of what is to come.  This weekend indicated a few rather odd turn of events amongst my friends — making me extremely uncertain what this coming semester has in store for me.

Parviscience extends to the way I handle my relationships.  I am inclined to believe, perhaps even predisposed, that everyone can make a change for the better.  This weekend I was confronted with a person who seems to defy that logic/belief.  I have a terrible tendency, although I suppose it is not much worse than anyone else’s, to both try to fix people and at the same time to make judgment calls about when someone is beyond my help and give up on them.  I give myself a lot of importance — which I also know is vain and ultimately wrong.  Its an overwhelming sense of helplessness that floods through the core of my being when I have decided someone is irredeemable.  When I can no longer understand why someone lives their life in a way that I deem immoral or psychopathic, I decide they are not only “lost” but also not worth being friends with.  I am beginning to feel this making me extremely closed-minded.  Judge me as you will.  I’m just not sure how to fix this aspect of myself.  The instant I feel myself losing respect for a friend, usually because of something they have done, my friendship with them begins to wither away.

Obviously I need to become more understanding.  Yikes, I might need therapy. :S

Truly Giving

This afternoon I was in the process of cleaning my apartment head to toe (friends coming over tonight to see the place for the first time since I moved in!) and I ran into a dilemma with my area rug.  My apartment is carpeted, but I had this area rug that I have been toting with me from place to place for the last 4 years.  Its a decent rug, but as I mentioned, its around 4 years old.  Not that age makes something inherently bad…getting off subject.  Anyway, the problem with it was that it is basically the same color as my apartment’s carpet but with a white design on it, and to me it just made things look really bland.  My apartment looked like oatmeal basically.

The Solution:     I started thinking about trying to sell it, but I really wanted it out of here immediately.  Then I thought of Craigslist.org and realized that they had a “free” section.  This rug was kept in great condition, originally from Target, and I probably could have sold it for something.  The thing is, I just felt like it needed to be given away.  Stuff that is given away is usually some really trashed stuff, things that should have been thrown away but somebody thought they were being conscientious by giving it away.  One person’s trash, another’s treasure.  So, long story short, I posted it on Craigslist.org under the free section.  Within minutes I had like 12 responses asking to take it off my hands sight unseen.  I decided to be egalitarian about it, and gave it to the person whose email I received first.

When she came to pick up the carpet, she looked at it and practically started crying after she saw it.  She asked me why I didn’t want any money for it.  I struggled for the words, and momentarily considered saying “well maybe I should, what’ll you give me?”  Then I remembered that it was because there are those less fortunate than myself, and that putting a carpet on top of a carpet is incredibly redundant.  I put the carpet in her car, and she gave me a hug.  I was kind of confused, but pleasantly so.  What an incredible feeling from doing something that appeared so insignificant to me at its inception.  She obviously needed that rug a lot more than I did.  I’m glad its going to a good home 🙂