What about a month after the wedding?

Where were you the morning of Saturday February 15th?

I was busy exhuming my inner child. I was like a kid that woke up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons.

I awoke early and settled into a comfy plush couch. I tensely watched USA Hockey duel Russia in the Winter Olympics.

USA beat Russia in a ridiculous 8 round shoot out. “Oshie in Sochi” will surely live in lore longer than TJ Oshie’s career.

I doubt Kurt Russell’s phone will be ringing about a sequel for Miracle. Nonetheless, that comfy couch is just starting to lose the fossil impression that my death grip formed.

It was a great Saturday morning.

Then some time passed. The US team failed to medal and the Olympics ended. Oddly placed buildings with little functional use sit dormant in a cool Russian breeze. About 200 miles northwest, 16,000 Russian troops unceremoniously entered the Ukraine.

Pretty sure it wasn’t a parade to deliver the Olympic torch.

I’m preparing for an Olympics of my own. My first, and hopefully last wedding (Leigh loves that joke).

I’m taking the big plunge into marital bliss. The world might not be watching but the majority of my family and friends will be. So we have to make sure everything is perfect.

A wedding is stressful. So much thought, resources, and time go into planning one day*. Just like that, it’s over and we invade the Ukraine.

It’s troubling though. Somewhere along the line wedding planning dropped its trousers and took a big ol’ steroid shot of commercialism.

I’ve heard that people send out Save the Dates… not for the wedding, but to tell people that a Save the Date is coming.

Exsqueeze me?

I bet that Suit who invented Sweetest Day is pulling these levers.

I love my fiancee. I’m excited to marry her. I think about this quite a bit. I want it to be a great day that we remember for the rest of our lives, but I also don’t want to lose sight about what the marriage is actually about.

I don’t want to build up one day of wedding bliss and then business as usual a month later.

Life can feel like a busy theme park. We spend an hour in line for the coaster. Our anticipation grows as we imagine how great this 2 minute ride is going to be. Then it’s over and we get in line for the next thing.

At days end we stood in line talking about the future for 8 hours and shouted into the wind for 10 minutes.

I live in this theme park. Mostly in my head. The lines are really long too. Measured in years not hours and minutes.

Wedding day line – The girls always wear white in this line. Some strange tradition.
Buy a house line – No specific date on the calendar. It makes the line seem a lot longer than it is.
Start a family line – Currently as a single guy, this is like the line to the Haunted Catacombs. Scary anticipation greeted with screaming tears… mine not hers.
Save for kid’s college line – You got the point long before I ran out of analogies.

Eventually my theme park will close. When they board me up I hope I wasn’t standing in lines my whole life. Thinking about the next ride, instead of how I can make today awesome.

I told my fiancee we would do a weekend trip to Montreal as a little get away before the wedding. I said that before the Olympics started and have been busy standing in line since.

I think it’s time I got out of line for a little bit and remember that she’s the reason I’m standing here to begin with.

Au revoir.

*My fiancee has done 93% of the wedding planning.

Photo credit : Flickr