Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Saturday was brutally hot here in the Philadelphia area, which between that and the realities of scheduling, altered our plans somewhat.

My sister was visiting, and we all got up fairly early for a Saturday. Then The Gryphon made us crepes with two types of fillings: strawberry or blueberry. They were delicious.

Then I needed my sister to help me with some wedding related things.

First, I put on my wedding dress so that she could tie a ribbon around me I was going to use and see how much of the ends we could cut off to give to yhr florist got my bouquet.

When I put the dress on, wearing the body shaper underneath I'd bought specifically for it, it felt tight, maybe even tighter than it had been when I tried it on for my second fitting. This didn't make any sense, because while I had gained about five pounds since my first fitting, I've started to lose it. Plus, this week I weighed in at 1.5 pounds less than I had at the second fitting.

I was disheartened by the whole thing, but I figured that if I really stick to Weight Watchers and get lots of exercise over the next couple of weeks, I should easily take off those extra three or so pounds and weigh the same as I did for the first fitting.

Both my sister and The Gryphon had some things to say. My sister, who had also worn a strapless dress, said that when she'd gone for her second fitting, she'd felt like if she gained even one pound it wouldn't have fit right.

The Gryphon then told me how he'd heard that on Star Trek: The Next Generation, where they wore really tight body suits, the costumes were so unforgiving that if you indulged in a donut at breakfast, you could tell! He suggested that maybe I was just seeing the results of having splurged at dinner the night before.

So now I get to order the wonderful world I thought I'd avoid: the bride starving herself to get into her wedding dress. Although I wouldn't say I'm actually starving myself, just sticking strictly to my diet. This means that when we attend a friend's Labor Day cookout this coming weekend, I'll have to keep strict track of everything I eat, just as I do every weekday.

It also means that I shouldn't go too wild at the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding!

My sister reassured me that, even if I'd worn the dress the way it fit on Saturday, it would have looked good. I also felt better when I saw a photo in a magazine of a red carpet ready star in a strapless dress, and I noted that her dress was very tight. I guess that's how a strapless dress has to fit.

After we finished with the ribbon, we sat down at the computer to work on the images we'll be projecting at the reception. We'll be showing images of '60s architecture, design, fashion, pop culture and space exploration, to fit in with our retrofuturistic theme and provide an element of fun.

While we didn't have time to do everything, my sister showed me the fundamentals of creating slide images in a Power Point type program so that I could do it myself later. The Gryphon says I can produce the images and then he'll do the transitions for me later. This will make it easier.

After about an hour of this, we went out. The original idea had been to do something fun in the area, because my sister was on a very brief break from her studies. She has returned to Penn State to earn a teaching degree.

But there were several problems. First of all, The Gryphon woke up feeling terrible. He had bad head congestion and wasn't in the mood to do anything, so I told him to just stay home. Then there was the timing issue. By the time we got out the door, it was already nearing 2 p.m. And we had one more thing to do before we were going to go anywhere fun: look for wedding jewelry for my sister and myself.

I have some very nice earrings, but my sister pointed out when she saw me in the dress that a simple necklace would be nice, too. She hadn't bought anything else.

We were sweating as we rode in the car. And although we'd thought about stopping at the Tyler Arboretum afterwards, which is near where we were going shopping, my sister suggested we shelf that idea. I had to agree.

First, we stopped at Target, because my sister had seen some jewelry in her local Target she thought might be appropriate. But they didn't have much of a selection there, and it was extremely crowded, probably from back to school shoppers. Not only that, but one of the elevators kept ringing incessantly

We drove to the Springfield Mall to check out the jewelry there. The first store we checked out, Express, had some great jewelry, with several possibilities. I found a great modern silver choker, which would go great with my earrings. But I didn't buy it right away, instead deciding to come back for it if I didn't find anything else. My sister also found a modern version of a beaded necklace she was considering.

Then we roamed around, checking out which store might have jewelry and what else we could find. We discovered some stores definitely didn't have anything that was mod enough for us, such as Christopher Banks, which only sells very conservative looking clothes. Some just sold junk jewelry, such as an accessories shop that only sold bags, shoes and jewelry.

On the other end of the spectrum was Macy's, where necklaces, even on the open racks, not just in the cases, cost at least twice the price of any of the other jewelry we'd found. That would be fine if you wanted to get something that was made out of precious metals, but we were hoping to achieve the look we wanted for a more reasonable price.

Finally, we found Claire's Boutique, where my sister found some items. She found a very circular silver pendant that has a very abstract, mod pattern. Along with it, she found a silver bangle bracelet that has a similar feel. For earrings, she chose a pair of dangling earrings which were a simple oblong silver piece. She liked it because it was a nice contrast to the circle pendant and because she's going to wear her hair down. If she doesn't wear dangling earrings, you won't know she's wearing any.

So we returned to Express, where I bought the silver choker. I was quite happy with my selection. Paired with my earrings, it looks modern and sophisticated.

From the parking lot, we called The Gryphon to let him know we were coming back to get dinner with him. My sister was in the mood for Italian, so we suggested Bertucci's, which is reasonably priced and offers good food.

Keeping in mind my dress, I ordered sensibly: the baked tilapia over a bed of spinach, with a side salad. I only ate half the tilapia and had the rest boxed up.

When we returned home, my sister had to do some studying, so I took a walk. When I got back, I figured out what I'd eaten for the day so I knew whether I could afford to have some wine that evening. We'd bought a bottle of wine specifically for my sister's visit. Fortunately, I had enough Weight Watchers points left to have a couple glasses of wine.

We sat down and enjoyed Night at the Museum, which was a lot of fun. The movie features Ben Stiller, with Robin Williams and Owen Wilson, along with Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, and it was a lot of good, clean family fun.

My sister was tired, so she turned in, and The Gryphon and I stayed up a little later. I fell asleep on the couch, watching Futurama.

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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