i went to this wedding last weekend. my aunt got remarried. i'm never big on weddings, much as i feel consumed by LOVE and RELATIONSHIPS. part of my issue is with churches, part of it is all the people that get invited that the bride and groom never see at the reception. what is the point of inviting ones mechanic, seriously? you've all been to weddings, you know all those people who get stuck back in the way back tables b/c they have no direct close association with the principle party members? friends, mechanics, friends of friends, hairdressers, college friends all populate those loser back tables. they aren't close to the food, the dance floor, the bar or the table of power. why do they even go?

it was awesome to see relatives i hadn't seen in a long freakin time. my cousin jill said something that totally floored and inspired me and she didn't even know it. i was mentioning how i want to publish a collection of stories and move far away from the midwest and she said that she was sure i would do it all because i'd done everything i said i would. something like, "you've done all the things that you said you would" or something. so i pondered that for awhile on the ride back from wisconsin and i started feeling so amazing about, well, me. so jill, if you ever read this, you have become my muse of late. and i need it because my students have decided to regress to acting more like young chimpanzees than 14 year olds, which may be doing a disservice to the chimpanzees.

on the other hand......
perhaps while we are busy on that quest for THE ONE that always makes us tingle, in a nervous but excited good way, perhaps we meet some great people and have some great noodles and experience some great things. perhaps we even fall in and out of love with a whole slew of people, which isn't such a bad thing, now that I think about it. i'd rather have been on my quest, the one we are programmed for, and had some really great noodles, and fallen in love with some great and oh-not-so-great people than to not have even tried the noodles at all.

something gooofy and bursting this way comes. go check out jen's new site. if you know her, you will agree this represents her so, so well. and if you don't, go click on someone who grabs their life and bites into it and lets and the colors and juices run together at puddles around her feet. if you're real lucky, she'll even let you make monsters with you. :)