surveyor's eye

This evening I was sitting at a table with a ruler and pencil, meticulously laying out the design for a poem I am copying out for a gift.

My father, a surveyor, died thirteen years ago today. I've always figured I didn't inherit his surveyor's eye. Give me a yard and ask me how wide it is, I have no idea. I have no concept of large spaces, and distances. But you can definitely find me hunched over a piece of paper, measuring out the inches and eighths of inches and even the sixteenths ...

But it occurred to me this evening that you could actually find my dad doing the same thing. Once the wide open spaces were measured, he'd go to his drafting table with his cool triangular rulers and draw it all out. He had this great graph paper that I would steal sheets of to make multicolor designs when I was a little girl.

I only remember Dad's drafting table from when I was little. In later years he must have done most of his drafting at the office. So my image of him, as a worker, was standing out in the woods somewhere with a couple other guys, using three-legged instruments to capture the topography. Not something I comprehend much. But I can understand a pencil and a ruler, and he used those too, and I am my father's daughter.

Wedding Day

I woke up to sunshine in the east-facing guest room. Courtney would have a beautiful wedding day. The bride herself pushed open the door and sprinted to the spare closet. "Sorry," she whispered. "I have to get my veil."

"Have fun getting your hair done," I murmured, half-asleep.

After she left I lay in bed just being amazed at what was about to happen. My little niece was getting married. I am only six and a half years older than Courtney, but that's old enough for me to remember her mom's pregnancy, and her baptism, and the way she followed me around like a puppy when I was nine years old. Visiting at my house for holidays, she used to push me to one end of a hallway, then return to the other end, and then run full force down the length of it and slam into my legs with a hug. I remember when she was nine and I stopped thinking of her as just a kid and started thinking of her as just a little younger. She is still so young, though, and this morning I was awed at the thought that she was about to pledge her eighteen-year-old self to Joe.

Not that Joe isn't a decent guy to pledge her life to. I've just gotten to know him a bit this week and am entirely pleased with the way he treats her and the way he fits into the family. He is easygoing and laid-back, sweet and funny, and they looked so comfortable together this week, it was a joy to see.

I could tell you all the details of today - the wedding and reception were beautiful, the day was crazy but everything eventually worked - but I wanted to share with you my experience of this wedding. And as beautiful as everything was today, what I will remember is that moment of sunshine thinking about these two young people, about their innocent and bold and courageous and simple love for each other, and knowing that God had already joined them, and praying that no one will ever separate them.

WD - 1 (belatedly)

The Day Before the Wedding was pretty full, and there's lots I could tell you about flowers and errands and the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, but the event of the day was last night. We got home from the dinner at ... 9:30 maybe? ... and Deb set to work decorating the last section of the cake. Then Deb, Craig, Ben, Vicki and I piled into the car, holding sections of cake. We had to get in one by one - each person got in, buckled the seat belt, and then was handed his or her cake section. Craig was the last one in and had the formidable task of driving us over 45 minutes of country roads and highway 15 South without hitting any bumps large enough to disturb the delicate balancing acts inside the car. This was sometime after 11 PM, by the way, and we all got a little punchy. "I spy something white." "Cake!" "I spy something round." "Cake!"

At one point Ben and Vicki pointed out that in the warmth of the car, my cake was slowly sliding across the wax paper and creeping closer to my sweater. I had to rotate it carefully around so it could slide back towards the center of the circle. Other than that, though, we had no mishaps, and the cake arrived at the Holiday Inn unscathed. Praise God.

Then we spent more time setting up the cake table, and drove back, and finally got to bed around 1:30 AM. The sunlight and The Wedding Day woke us all up early-ish this morning, though, and for now I think we're all running on adrenaline. I think all of us, especially Deb, will crash pretty hard sometime this evening when everything is over. But for now, the adventure continues ...

WD - 2

Last night was the shopping marathon. Deb and I visited at least five different stores collecting wedding items - emergency supplies (deodorant and tissues) for the bridal party, flower holders for the mothers' bouquets, six packages of strawberries for the chocolate fountain at the reception ... it was ten o'clock by the time we got home, and then Deb stayed up to do some more baking.

A side note on how much I love this place. Before going to bed last night I went to get something from my car and it is so very dark out here at night that if I didn't have my remote to blink the lights, I wouldn't have been able to find it. But, looking up, I remembered again how many stars there are up there. I honestly never knew what the night sky was supposed to look like until one summer night when my brothers and I came out here to visit and slept outside. I laid back on my sleeping bag and was astonished at all those stars. It still surprises me, every time I'm out here.

This morning we left early to run errands and have been working on the cake since we got back. Or rather, Deb's been working on the cake and I've been cleaning up the bowls and pans in between batches. Between yesterday and today, Deb has made six cakes, about a billion cupcakes with leftover batter (I'm learning about baking. She can't just save the leftover batter for the next section of the cake because of what the baking soda would do during the extra time; if she mixed the old batter in with new batter it would make an uneven cake), and three (or was it four?) batches of frosting. She's put the crumb coat on most of the cakes and will decorate them all this evening.

And, of course, all of this activity has been interrupted frequently by phone calls from various people ... the best one was from the bride herself. I heard only Deb's half of the conversation. "The bridesmaids are all sleeping here Friday night? No, you didn't tell me that before ..."

The adventure continues ...

WD - 3

Three days until Courtney's wedding. I am out here in Liberty, PA (pop. 868) helping my sister Deb for the next few days til her daughter, my niece, gets married. I arrived last night, had dinner, and plunged into the midst of it. We got all the candleholders ready with the fake vines wrapped around them and then took about a hundred wedding favors out of their boxes. This morning we went to decorate with bows and tulle at the cutest little country church you've ever seen. Right now Joe and Courtney are practicing their first dance in the living room. Courtney is wearing her big puffy slip over her T-shirt and jeans, and Joe (the Marine) is in his uniform jacket and cargo pants. I'm having so much fun being behind the scenes here. Praise God for family, and friends, and weddings!