Friday failings...please forgive me yet again...

I apologize for not being as conversational on the ol’ blog lately. Between this adjustment to engagement and my general outlook, I’m just kind of frazzled. I think you all know what I mean on this one.

One thing that I am dreading as we make plans more finite is this: I dread that different family members are going to put in their two cents regarding plans for our day. Doug comes from a Catholic family – very strongly Catholic – and I am from a Protestant family.

D and I go to an Episcopal church, which incorporates many of the Catholic traditions in their services, including communion during weddings. However, here is the paradox…Catholics (from what I understand…anyone who is Catholic out there in cyberland please correct me otherwise) cannot take communion at any other church besides a Catholic church, correct? And sometimes, some members of the Catholic faith don’t even want to go up to the altar and be blessed as opposed to partaking of the bread and wine (as Is the tradition in the Episcopal church…not sure about others). I don’t think his parents (especially his dad, who tends to voice disapproval freely and gladly) really know that he’s switched denominations. He keeps saying he’s switched religions, but I have to remind him that Catholicism is a DENOMINATION…you still believe in the tenets of Christianity but you follow them according to a specific procedure. So I have that to dread.

Also, the whole matter of who should call who regarding telling them we’re on the way to the big “forever hitchin’ post” is in dispute to a degree. Apparently, Doug’s dad (who is apparently unable to dial a phone to call us in the first place because he broke his finger in a very important golf game) thinks WE should be responsible for calling every stinkin’ relative on Doug’s side but doesn’t supply phone numbers with which to dial for many of them. So we’re supposed to be Karnak and Karnakette the Magnificent Betrothed and just pull these numbers out of the atmosphere. I don’t have that many people to call on my side, but I do trust my mother (if it’s in the forefront of her mind) to tell people that she can call on her end THAT ARE NOT LONG DISTANCE!

The whole subject of Doug’s dad is a sore one with me. I can deal with his mother’s histrionics and all that, but his father is just…well, ODD. Some of it is the fact that I have never had a father-in-law to deal with before. My first husband’s dad was living the life of a Tilt-a-Whirl operator, and my 2nd husband’s father passed away before I got a chance to meet him, but I do know he was a WWII vet that helped liberate the concentration camps in Germany and Poland.

All I know about Frank is that he’s retired from State Farm, likes to golf, hates to read for pleasure, and for some reason likes to deflate D’s jokes and stories every chance he gets. I’m not sure if it’s some pathological thing or what the deal is, but I don’t like it one bit. And as far as jokes, I don’t think he likes ANY jokes. I called and left a message for him and his wife Ann about our engagement and jokingly said, “You’re stuck with me, Frank!” When I heard from him a day later and made the same joke, you would have thought I was Shecky Greene playing a coma patient ward. This does not bode well for your favorite wacky redhead.

Oh well, it’s not like my family’s totally perfect or anything…it’s just that most of the ones who would make snide comments or be overbearing in any way are either dead or else Mom and Dad aren’t speaking to them anymore. I guess that’s a luxury I need to appreciate more, isn’t it?

And on that cynical note, so begins the long track of…”goin’ to the chapel and we’re gonna get married…”

This should be interesting…stay tuned.

Goin’ round for the 3rd time…
Sudiegirl