She Didn't Say She'd Have an Army There As Well

Dr. Seuss and a red DeLorean.
Inside a Ford Focus - June 2005

Well, my last post as a free man. Tomorrow's the day. Hopefully the weather will hold out and I can eat my burger and drink my beer under a little bit of sunshine. That's all I really want. The interesting thing about this entire wedding planning thing is that no one seems to be able to allow us to not have a weddingy wedding. No matter how much Tanja and I tell people not to worry about dressing up, not to think of it as a traditional wedding, none of that, we keep getting the, "oh, ok, so I should wear a suit?" questions.

But this lack of interest in a wedding has caused a couple of problems. I feel like I've upset or outright offended people by not inviting everyone, or even, almost anyone at all, to the wedding. The fact is, though, we didn't want to have a wedding at all, and it was only after we decided to keep it tiny, that we realized that if we're going to have some family come from out of town, we should at least give them some food.

We like barbeque. So the choice was easy. It'll be summer, after all. It was set. Then we learned that the caterers won't cater under 30 people. So, fine, we'll invite more people to the cermony, since THAT'S the important part to us, and anyone coming from out of town gets to come to the barbeque if they want to. Fine. There it is, we added in a couple of people who provided direct help and support in the planning, as a thank you, and we were able to get to 30 people exactly. Done and done. It's more people than we wanted, but we can live with it. Sad that I feel I need to explain myself this way, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I just want a burger.

But the suit's all pressed. Tanja looks great in her dress. The vows are written. We're all ready to go, and I can't wait.

See you on the other side.

-=-
By the way, this photo was taken on a roll of Ferrania Solaris ISO200 film. I bought
eleven rolls of it at a dollar store on US-50 in Fallon, Nevada, the first morning
of our trip across. I have to say it's not bad. It was sort of funny trip to the dollar store, but aren't they all? Everything in the store cost a dollar. Everything. Gum, pringles, diet pills. You name it. For that reason alone it was better than some other dollar stores where you go in and only a few scattered items are actually that cheap. But not this place, no sir. I went in there, walked all over the store looking for film. I knew it was going to be there. I had a feeling. After just about giving up, I looked behind the counter. There it was, along with batteries, some razor blades I'd be afraid to use, and off-brand lighter fluid. In the fast paced world of Walgreens and CVS, it makes sense to keep some more expensive smaller things behind the counter, sure. I guess. But everythign was the same price? Why would they need to protect the film any more than, say, their extensive selection of thread? So, I went to the counter, asked for my eleven rolls, and pulled out the money to pay. "Gonna take some photos?" The woman asked. She had me red handed. "Yeah," I said, "But you should see what I'm gonna do first." She looked at me funny.