Climbing Mount Fuiji

When I was in Japan, toward the end of my time there, I climbed Mt. Fuiji. I hesitated about the hike, worried that it would be too challenging for an unexperienced climber such as myself. And I had heard from many people that Mt. Fuiji was best seen from afar, not close up. And indeed, catching glimpses of this distant, magical mountain from my kitchen window was breathtaking. But the trek up...I wasn't so sure! Nevertheless, I decided to climb it. I was nervous, and not sure how to prepare. I ended up completely overpacking, stuffing everything from shorts to snow pants into my large climbing pack that was meant for adventures that lasted much longer than the one-day and one-night hike up and down the mountain. The overpacking did me more harm than good, as I had to lug it up and down the climb. The hike was hard. But memorable. I remember, in the dead dark of night, facing a particularly steep section with two friends. We each had a flashlight (mine was a headlight, so I had my hands free although I looked a little stupid in the pictures), and literally took the section step by step. Both of my friends weren't American, but had seen Gone With the Wind and were asking me for a Civil War history lesson. I did my best to remember the Gettysburg Address and Reconstruction and so on. Sure enough, we got to the top, and then trekked back down again. It was hard, but it was an amazing, amazing journey.

Craziness

Today, when I was telling a coworker about my upcoming wedding, she said I was so calm considering its immediate proximity. I took it as a compliment, but didn't really believe her. The wedding, I feel, has consumed me. It has taken me whole, swirled me up in the air. I feel like a piece of melted taffy, bending to the whims and desires of this friendly beast. But it's ok, I think, because I look calm on the outside! And until now, I have been (relatively) crazy-free, at least in respect to the wedding. Now, I dream wedding, I eat wedding for breakfast, I think wedding even when I am trying to do pleasure reading, I talk wedding to friends, family, strangers, storekeepers, colleagues...anyone who will lend half an ear. I write wedding in my blog. It has usurped me. Days go by, inching up to the big day. I don't have a calendar where you rip a page off every day, but that's how I feel. I haven't quite calculated how many days it is to W-day, but each morning I wake up and think, "I am one day closer."

What's Left?

That's the new question. Several people have been asking now, "Well, all the planning must be done, right?" I laughed at first--how can everything be done? It doesn't seem like everything will be done until, well, the wedding is over. Sure, I'm not planning on finalizing the seating chart on menu options right before I head down the aisle, but it's hard to imagine the wedding being done before it even starts. But then I think again. A lot has been planned, mapped out, even executed. The place has been reserved, the flower arrangements decided, the food selected, the music vendor picked (although we need to figure out what they'll play), the invitations sent, the DC marriage license secured. Dan has a new suit, I have a new dress, and we both have new bands. Sometimes, when I stop to think about what has happened in the year since we became engaged, my heads spins with unbelievability. So, when people say "It's almost all done right?" I guess it is, when you take a moment to look back. But when I look forward, I think "No, we still have a wedding to go to!"

I'm back

So, I've been a neglectful blogger. Between a new job, a wedding weeks away, it's been hard to find a minute to relax. And when I do, sometimes I want to retreat far away from the wedding thought process. Plus, I put In Treatment on my Blockbuster access queue, and now I am hooked! I've been so neglectful, that I couldn't even remember what the last topic was that I blogged about. But when I logged in this time, and saw that it was "Who's Coming?", I thought "that's perfect." Because between then and now, I have a much better answer. There are have been some surprises either way--some conflicts we didn't know about stopping a few from attending. But there also have been people, who live far away and though we hoped, we didn't think would come. Perhaps the biggest case is my Japanese co-workers, from my days abroad teaching English. Just over the weekend, we learned that in fact one teacher was making the long trip across the Pacific to watch us get married. Today, I found out that another teacher would also be in attendance. I can't tell you how honored I feel that people would travel so far, to a different country 10,000 miles away, to come to our wedding. Truly, truly honored. And as I finish off this e-mail and head to bed, I wonder if there is another reason why my blog posts have been more infrequent than in days past: it's becoming harder and harder to find the right words to describe my feelings. But, as a writer by day and night, I'll try to find the best way to articulate the prewedding intensity!