It Was Awkward at First

The publishing world has slowed to a crawl, as it is wont to do in August. Everyone is on vacation or away doing something exciting, which leaves me alone in an empty office trying to conduct what little business there is via other people’s auto-out-of-office-reply. I guess I should be very bored, but I’m actually pretty content. I get to catch up on a lot of work and get myself a little more organized for the craze that will descend after Labor Day.

The dress fitting went fine. The shop is wedged between storefronts on 39th street; she’s on the second floor, but the only sign on the street is a sandwich board for a psychic. The woman who owns the shop, a tiny Asian woman, used to be primarily in the business of making wedding dresses, but now does mostly alterations. I changed into my dress, which was fun because it was the first time I’d tried everything on together: dress, bustier, and shoes. I thought this would be a good initial test of the shoes, to see how I felt in real high heels for an extended period of time. Okay, people? My toes actually went numb. I am trying to ignore this for now because I will be moving around for most of the evening and for the fitting I was just standing perfectly still for half an hour (not unlike…a ceremony…or something…uh). ANYWAY, I’m sure it’ll be FINE.

While I was standing there being perfectly still, the radio was spitting out some lovely tunes for my ears. Among these was “Endless Love,” and I was forced to listen to the whole thing beginning to end, with nothing to do but really listen to all the words. Man, that is one crappy song. Really crappy. I got to thinking, what if that was someone’s favorite song? I’m sure it’s been played at a million weddings, but are there people for whom this song means something special? What if the person you were in love with HAD to have that song as your first dance song? What if they really loved it? Krista said that if someone really, earnestly loved that song, that it would be an indicator of other parts of their personality that perhaps weren’t so hot.

On Saturday, I got to see Krista and J’s big NYC screen premiere in a documentary that was screened at Sundance this year. Fact! Krista and J now have IMDB listings. Fact! I have a brief cameo in the film, and it’s kinda cute because it’s before I knew any of the people in the film who I’m now good friends with. Fact! Joe is our wedding photographer. How lucky are we? Fact! J made the dioramas that are featured in the documentary.

After the screening, J went home and I went to this weird tiki bar as a continuation of Celebration Tom’s Birthday 2005. It was all tiki in the front and live hard rock in the back (is that like a bar mullet?). Upon entering the bar, I was overcome with the urge to order a pina colada, a drink I have never before felt the desire to order under any circumstances. I’m glad I followed through with the urge, as it was creamy and delicious and served up in a frosty glass with a froufrou straw and paper umbrella. There were people in pirate garb roaming around. We played an Alabama version of that game you play where you say a famous person and the next person has to think of a famous person with a first name starting with the first letter of the last name (Ashton Kutcher, Kate Winslet, Winona Ryder), except in this verson, if the last name is an H the next person can say H---- *and then next person has to drink. Highly recommended.

I hope this post was long and rambling enough to keep you occupied at work, Real Girl.

* I've forgotten the name now.
** Tom tells me it's Harmon Killabrew, correct spelling unknown.

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