30 Days and Counting

To tell you the truth, I am disappointed in my blogging frequency.  I think I fell into a trap that many other new bloggers fall into…  we think each and every post must rival Pat Conroy, Cassandra King or even Earnest Hemingway, so we hold back.  The truth is this, blogging is a different animal than writing the Great American Novel.  Blogging is more of a conversation in a writers head that just happens to get written down.  My posts anyway are quick vignettes, but I digress.

Steve and I are getting married on August 31 and that is just 30 days away.  It is crunch time and now is most likely when the best stuff is going to happen.  So I promise to you my dear readers from The USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Austria, Iraq (that one amazed me), Germany, Maylaysia, Belize, Austria and the Netherlands, I am going to give you a peek at what is going on daily from now until the big day.  It may be tedious, or it may be exciting in a voyeuristic sort of way.  Either way, it is my story of getting married in 30 days at the age of 54.

BTW, Daily means every day.  (that was written more for me than you).

Enjoy the frenzy.

Today I am tired.  I just returned from my annual 5-50 gathering.  What’s 5-50?  Three of my oldest friends and I reconnected after a long absence in each other’s lives.  We have all known one another since we were 5 years old and the first year we got together at my place at the beach was the year we all turned 50, thus the name.  I can’t really tell you what we do.  It’s not a secret.  It’s not one of those, “what happens on Fripp Island, stays on Fripp Island” type things.  Cathy and Jenny and sometimes Ann arrive and we all squeal with delight in anticipation of what is to come.  Then we meet up with Tee and things just continue to get better.

The 5-50’s unload their stuff (and I have to tell you, Cathy always has a lot of stuff.  By far, she carries the largest suitcase, but she is ready for anything).  Then we make a cocktail.  Jenny favors fruity drinks involving umbrellas, Cathy of late is a red wine drinker and Ann usually has a coke sans alcohol and this girl has a vodka and  soda or a glass of chardonnay.  (Ann has missed the last couple years and we miss her badly.)  Then we hop on the golf cart and drive around Fripp Island.  We spend the next couple of hours saying, “Do you remember when… and what about the time”.  There is talk of boyfriends past, pranks played in Barboursville and its environs and a few things that we have decided to keep among just us.  There is also embarrassment to go all the way around as we reminisce about our younger selves and the monumentally stupid stuff we did.   Are we that different from others?  Just askin.

After the golf cart ride, we come back to my house, fix another cocktail and tell some more stories.  Somewhere in there we fix dinner.  After the cocktails, golf cart rides, dinner and more cocktails, Jenny and Ann usually hit the bed and Cathy & I stay up for another hour or so.  Cathy and I have been known to sneak back out to the Sand Bar.  Not that we don’t want to include Jenny and Ann, we do, but some of us are sprinters and some of us are distance runner kind of gals and some of us have hit the bed.  .  The next day we get up and do it all again.  The only difference is that we go to the beach first and work on becoming bronzed goddesses before the cocktails, golf cart rides etc..  It’s a great time it really is.  We don’t have our dates for next year yet, but we will by Christmas.  It’s important to all of us.

That is a long way to tell you why I am yawning.  I just returned from the 5-50 celebration and I am getting married in 30 days.  Can you say, “over scheduled?”

So, to all my friends and followers, that is where I am tonight.  I have returned from the annual “5-50” trip and I am settled into my  house in Kentucky.  Although I am content, and happy from returning from my long 5-50 weekend, I am filled with anticipation thinking about joining my life with Steve’s.  As I write, I can think of nothing more than I want than to be Steve Chesler’s wife and that will happen in 30 days.  And on that very special day, we will make promises before God and our friends.  We will ask for your support and blessings as we begin a new chapter of our lives.  And at 54, I truly know what that means.

I will post again tomorrow.

CDB   soon to be CDC (not to be confused with the center for disease control – it is – Cindy Duff Chesler.  WOO HOO!