Had another wedding dream last night. This one didn't start out as a wedding dream—I think when it started Al and I were at the Republican National Convention (god knows why; perhaps we were spying)—but soon I realized that we were in a castle-like manor in the country, getting ready for our wedding. When I walked into one of the rooms to answer a ringing phone, I found that Al had already picked it up and was saying, "OK. Yep, OK. We'll see you when you get here, then."

I was like, "who was that??" I forget who he said it was—a friend from work and his wife, I think—but they were calling to RSVP for the wedding. Sorry we're so late in replying, blah blah blah, but we're coming. "Jeez, they're cutting it kind of close, aren't they?" said I. "The wedding's tomorrow!" It's odd, because I remember thinking that I didn't feel as indignant as I sounded.

Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the bed that's in my bedroom in Truckee (I recognized the linens), but it was out in the gravel driveway at the manor. I was wearing a long nightgown and the big, boofy Mickey Mouse slippers I had when I was in college. (I think the college cue was important, because I remember thinking at first that the large group of guys walking toward the driveway from the adjacent lawn were fraternity brothers.) I then recognized some among them and realized that they were wedding guests. I saw Matt L., and said to someone off to my right, "where's Eric L.? I need to talk to him." My voice sounded sleepy.

That someone on my right (not among the group of guys) pointed to Matt, who looked at me and smiled warmly, but did not say anything. "No, that's Matt. I need Eric." While the person who had pointed walked off to find Eric, I got up on my knees on the bed and waved Matt over. He continued to smile until he got close, and then he hugged me and said, "long time no see. I'm so happy for you." I thanked him and hugged him back. It was great to see him.

Eric then appeared to the right of the bed, and I scootched over to sit on the edge and talk to him. "Who are all these people?" I asked him. "Half of them seem to have called yesterday to say they were coming. What's wrong with them? Didn't they know we had to give a final count to the caterer last Tuesday?"

Eric replied, "You know why they replied yesterday, don't you?"

Me: "No, why?"

Eric: "Because the weather's nice. They all decided that they wanted to get away for the weekend."

Me: "I wanted to have people at my wedding that I care about, not people who want a weekend getaway! This isn't a vacation destination, it's a wedding! How are we going to feed all these people?" At this point I definitely felt more indignant than before, but at the same time that I was feeling concerned and annoyed, my body felt totally relaxed. These people might have been rude to impose on us so, but I would not be. I would be gracious and welcoming, and above all, calm.

Posted by Lori at 09:15 AM

I don't think I wrote about this before, and I wish I had now, but two or three weeks ago I had a few dreams in a row where the theme was, "this is easy!" I can't remember what I was doing in each of the dreams, but it was a different thing each time, and what all the tasks had in common were that they were so effortless.

Last night I had another of these dreams. In this one, I was driving a race car (I think it was an Indy car) around a track. There was lesson going on for beginning drivers, but I wasn't a part of it—one of the people at the track just let me drive a car. No matter how hard he told me it was supposed to be, I couldn't help feeling that driving that car around the oval was the easiest, most natural thing in the world. I was good at it!

I'm starting to think that every time I get stressed out about the wedding, god sends me one of these little dreams to remind me that if I go with the flow, everything will be effortless.

Posted by Lori at 11:14 AM

You gotta know that when your fiance starts a conversation with, "I have something to tell you that's probably going to make you mad, but all I can do is plead insanity...", it's not going to be good. What came after that sentence wasn't *so* bad, but let's just say that it added yet another curve in what I thought was going to be a relatively straight walk down the aisle. (I'm not going to say what it was, because while I congratulate myself that I've managed to strike a balance between diplomacy and complete honesty so far, there's no way to accomplish it in this situation.)

Anyway, we were just talking about when we were going to do the walk-through with the caterer and the park director, and the only time it's looking like Al can do it is on Wednesday between 3 and 4:30. I said, "well, we can always just leave work a little early on Wednesday. I have to take you to hockey for a 7:30 game, get a pedicure, and pick up Sandy from the airport that night anyway, so maybe it'll just be good to do the walk-through and then get a coffee and have some time to ourselves before all hell breaks loose. No one will miss us at work, I'm sure."

Al said OK... and then he looked at his schedule more closely. "Why can't I do the walk-through on Thursday?" he asked. "Because you'll be in the city with Lisa, Dad, and the kids that day," I replied. "Oh. [pause] I don't have any more PTOs." (PTO = paid time off.) Me: "Didn't you put in for time off for the wedding and honeymoon?" Al: "I put in for the honeymoon, but not for the days before the wedding." Me: "Would you like to plead insanity again?" He grinned.

He just called out from the living room: "Man, this is a lot of time to take off for the wedding and honeymoon." I stepped in and gave him a look that said, "buddy, you'd better have a good lawyer if you're going to plead insanity again," but I said nothing. "I'm just thinking out loud," he said.

Posted by Lori at 10:22 PM