My heart bleeded, girl

sperrywink, thank you for the pinwheel!

My mother died eight years ago today. I miss her so much, especially with Erin's wedding coming up in three (!) weeks. Both she and Larry's mother would have loved so much to be there. But as always on this date, my mind immediately goes, with so much enduring gratitude, to those of you who were with me that weekend and made it all bearable, including the guys in my icon, even though they didn't know how much they helped. alittleblue, hammerhead22, without_me, coolwhipdiva, silveryscrape, tangeriner, Lonnie, Chris, Justin, JC, Joey, and Lance, love to you all.

The timing would have been perfect for another kind of fannish get-together, but unfortunately I didn't get to go to Chicago with kiffle this past weekend, which sounds like it was so, so fabulous. But I was here in C-bus being a good wife - for a change - and Larry and I actually had a very nice weekend together.

He's somehow ended up as a kind of mentor to a group of 12 medical students. As far as I can tell, this entails having them over for dinner every month for the next four years. The university gave him a catering budget, thank goodness. The first one of these dinners is Tuesday, August 7. Yes, four days before the wedding. Adam gets in from Japan on Monday the 6th, then we're heading to C-bus on Tuesday. Larry's house is so, so tiny. I have no idea where 13 people are going to sit and eat lasagna. Larry thinks I should hang around, but I think I'll send Adam to Erin and Nic's for the evening. It's either that or stash him in the basement.

Anyway, Lar's been on a decorating tear, and these med students are a big part of the reason. He wants them to think his house is "homey." My aversion to blank walls has rubbed off on him over the years, and so we spent most of the weekend at World Market, Target, and Tuesday Morning. He's obsessed with Tuesday Morning. The house looks very nice, and he did most of it himself.

Friday we had dinner with Erin and Nic. Erin says my tattoo is too "isolated" and she's afraid it'll look "funny" with my dress at the wedding. She wants me to add to it before then, although she had no ideas as to what to add. "Make it more like a sleeve." Larry actually acknowledged the existence of said tattoo by saying he likes it just the way it is. I told him he was a liar, that he doesn't like it at all, which he didn't disagree with. He was already appalled when Ashley asked Erin a while back if she wanted everyone to cover up their tattoos for the wedding and she said, no, she wanted us to get more. But I really don't think I'm going to extend mine to a sleeve just so it doesn't look funny with my dress.

And now today I'm waiting for the dishwasher repair man to come, for some furniture to be delivered - a bed to put in the basement for Adam and whoever else comes to stay; Ashley's air mattress won't work for a kid who's 6'2" and just had back surgery a year ago - and then tonight Erin and I are having a last meeting with the caterers. Home to Pgh tomorrow - poor Lucy will have been alone for almost five days. I told Lar I've gotten to where I feel guilty when I'm in Pgh and anxious when I'm in C-bus. He understood and I'm hoping that will cut down on the number of "I miss you and Neville, I wish you were here" emails. There's a cat and a turtle and fish and a pond and plants and the mail and the bills and what lights do I leave on and what about the AC/furnace if the weather changes - and Lois is a saint, but sooner or later she's going to get sick of coming to our house every day to take care of these things. I don't mind coming over here often, I mind staying more than a couple of days.

Got an email from my stepdad the other day - he wants to travel again, take another group on a trip one more time. It's been a couple of years since he did that, he said the long flights were getting to him. But there's a cruise on the Elbe River encompassing Berlin and Dresden and it starts on his 90th birthday in April, and he's determined. We'll see if he actually does it.

Speaking of 90-something step-parents, my stepmom isn't coming to the wedding. There are no direct flights from Sarasota to Columbus and she doesn't want to change planes in Atlanta by herself. Who can blame her? If I wasn't doing mother of the bride type things, I'd fly down there and bring her here, but I really can't. I'm a little annoyed with my stepsister for not doing that. They're driving over from Philly, though, so I guess it would be difficult. Aunt Ann and Dad are the only parents I have left, though, and I wanted them both to be there. Dad is coming, he's had his plane tickets for about 6 months. Of course he's arriving right in the middle of the rehearsal, so we're sending Adam, who's not in the wedding, to the airport to get him and bring him to the rehearsal dinner. Weddings are complicated, yo.

Leverage was a delight last night, although a little goofy. Okay, when isn't it goofy? But still, it's always great fun when fandoms collide. ( tiny little spoiler here )

I think it's fun to watch people find new fandoms, and to see what draws them in. Hockey RPF, Avengers, One Direction, Teen Wolf, whatever, it's fun to watch that, along with seeing people still love the things they've loved for a long time, like Glee, SPN, H5O, bandom, and even popslash. I have a very diverse flist.

And the dishwasher guy has come and gone, so I think it's time for another trip to Target, to get sheets for the new bed.

Happy Monday.