Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Thursday night, my sister came into town, ahead of the bridal shower she and my bridesmaids were throwing me on Saturday. I knew about the shower because she'd checked with me first to find out if I wanted one, and I told her yes but not to surprise me on the date. I schedule myself too tightly, and if she didn't give me advance warning, there could be problems.

She came in a day earlier than necessary so she could meet up with some high school friends who live in the Philadelphia area. In the afternoon, she called me to ask about public transportation into the city, since she was going to meet her friend in Center City and didn't want to drive.

I thought the best way would be for her to take the regional rail, which is safe, clean and easy, so I bought her a round-trip ticket and picked up a schedule. Then, of course, her plans changed, and it seemed like she might try to meet them in the northern suburbs. I told her she'd be better off driving.

The final decision was made by her friend, who advised her to take the El to the "Market East Station", which I corrected to 15th Street, knowing that's what the signs would read at the station. I didn't want my sister to get confused.

I served her some roast chicken, which I timed to be ready for when she arrived. Then I dropped her off at 69th Street and made sure she knew where she was going. Of course, neither one of us expected her to have a run-in with a disgusting, creepy drunk guy who distracted her by flirting with her so that she missed her stop. But my sister has a good head on her shoulders, so she got off at the next stop and called me, telling me she was walking back to the station where she was meeting her friend. I told her to look for the big clothespin by Rauschenberg, which she found easily.

The rest of her evening went smoothly, and she took a cab home. We stayed up, though, just in case she'd call with more transportation questions.

The next morning, my sister and I got up fairly early because I'd scheduled a makeover for myself at the Clinique counter at the Boscov's in the Plymouth Meeting Mall. The goal was to choose and purchase some makeup for my wedding day, and to learn how to apply it for maximum effect. I'd done the same thing right before my sister's wedding, when I was a bridesmaid, and found it helpful.

Unbeknownst to us, my sister and I were about to run headlong into a Time Suck, where everything takes three times longer than it should. We were plagued by the Time Suck for the remainder of the day.

This particular makeup consultant didn't seem to know what she was doing, in contrast to the very professional woman who'd first helped me. She said that she'd researched the 60s look and suggested just wearing eye liner and white lipstick. I told her that I wasn't going for a costume type look, but rather a more dramatic eye.

Over her objections, I suggested trying a smoky eye, but she didn't seem to know how to create the look. She applied a dark brown shadow all over my eyelid, which made my eyes sink into my head. Although I'm not terribly accomplished at girlie things, I've watched enough episode of TLC's What Not to Wear to know that a smoky eye is achieved by layering colors on different sections of the eye, not by slathering dark color all over the lids.

By this point, I was getting frustrated, because I'd planned to buy the makeup I needed that day, and I didn't want to have to go through this again with another consultant. Thank goodness for my sister. She suggested some other options: using a light gold color for contrast under a sparkly bronze. That, in combination with some eyeliner and some black waterproof mascara, came close to achieving the elegance I'd sought. All this took nearly an hour and a half to accomplish!

Of course, I have several months now to do Google searches, flip through women's magazines, or take notes while watching makeover shows to learn how to achieve the look I imagined. At least I know the colors I bought will work, perhaps in combination with some I already have. I'll have a little fun experimenting over the next couple of months.

My mom was due to arrive any minute with The Pastor, who was also coming to my shower the next day. Ideally, I wanted to meet with them to show them the reception site, so they could both get a preview before the big day. My sister wanted to see it, as well.

So we drove back to my place to get some lunch, stopping on the way to grab a few extra Mother's Day items, as we were taking my mom and The Pastor out to dinner that night. We also made a shopping list for the grocery store, for some items my sister needed for my shower.

The plan was to meet up with Mom and The Pastor, check out the reception site and then head to dinner. But the Time Suck had other plans, having thwarted my Mom and The Pastor's trip, turning them off their directions and getting them lost. They called me from the Springfield Mall to say they wouldn't make it in time to meet us, so they were just going to do a little shopping until dinner.

My sister and I drove back to the reception site, driving right back into the Time Suck, which threw bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic at us. Once we'd started, though, we were determined to see the reception/ceremony site. My sister said she liked it but confirmed a feeling I'd had, that our plans for decorating the ceremony space were sparse, consisting of a white runner and two large flower arrangements. We brainstormed on other ways to make it feel more like a special space.

By this point, Mom was starting to wonder where we were. We told her to go to the restaurant next to her hotel, get a table, and order some appetizers. I called The Gryphon and told him to meet us outside with the Mother's Day gifts and balloons.

We finally burst out of the Time Suck into the restaurant, where my mother greeted us cheerfully, pleased to see the balloons, which we set on the table as a centerpiece. We had a good time eating the tasty food, and distributing Mother's Day presents, which they appreciated.

Afterwards, Mom, The Pastor and my sister wanted to discuss some shower related items, so The Gryphon and I walked to the nearby Best Buy to browse. The wall between the two parking lots was too high for me to take in heels, so The Gryphon was a gentleman and lifted me over, as if I weighed nothing!

We browsed the electronics and music sections, and I bought a Stereolab CD, then we headed back to the hotel. For a short while, we chatted but then had to leave, as my sister still had a lot to do. As we left the hotel parking lot, we reentered the Time Suck.

First, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for a ricotta cheesecake and a salad, as well as a frozen lasagna, all for the shower. We had to go from memory, because we hadn't told The Gryphon to grab the shopping list, which had been on the table next to the Mother's Day gifts.

So when we got home, we discovered we were missing some crucial items, and I volunteered to drive back to the store to get them while my sister and The Gryphon started the food preparation.

My sister had a lot to do, so I volunteered to help as much as she'd let me. Of course, I couldn't help with anything that was supposed to be a surprise. But if I'd let her do it all herself, she wouldn't have gotten to bed until the wee hours.

When she was done with everything else, my sister helped me find something to wear. She told me that the outfit I'd bought for the shower wasn't dressy enough, which confused me. I knew that she'd told people to dress up, but I figured a nice skirt and top with a summer weight short-sleeved jacket would suffice.

My sister dug through my closet, pulling out much more formal items, as we tried to come up with a plan. I even tried on the black Michael Kors dress I bought last year, only to discover that I'd shrunk and it no longer fit properly. (This amazed me primarily because the scale has gone up a couple pounds, not down!)

Finally, in desperation, I showed her pictures from this year's semiformal dinner at my dad's medical convention, and she said that dress would be perfect. Of course, it was at the dry cleaner's, which we'd passed several times that day. I could have picked it up but didn't realize how important it would be. We made plans to stop there when they opened at 8 a.m. and pick it up on the way to meet Mom and The Pastor in the morning. I could change at the hotel before going to breakfast.

So we got to bed later than we might have liked, drifting off and finally escaping the Time Suck.

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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