Sunday Shopping

Preparations continue unabated. I had hoped to do some packing this weekend but neglected to get some more boxes and paper from work. I could have bought some from the UPS store, but it seemed wrong, somehow, and I had this irrational fear that my crew when coming to load would see them and say, why did you buy boxes? Its enough pressure to pack cartons and try to make sure they are each perfectly balanced and no more than 50 pounds each so they aren’t grumbling about my lousy pack job. I already know they will mock my furniture. Sometimes working for a moving company is complicated.
As I had a gift certificate from Bed, Bath, and Beyond burning a hole in my pocket I went there to get some things for the new place. Seemed to be three themes going on there; stuff we actually needed, silly stuff, and expensive stuff. As I was poking around I came upon a young woman wrestling with a piece of serving china and an awkward, hand-held laser scanner. No red golf shirt or nametag, so I realized she was a bride-to-be, walking around the store tagging her ‘wish list’. She looked at me and smiled. I raised my hands and said, “Whoo-hoo!”.
We never bothered with the bridal registry, Bryan and I. I wasn’t really comfortable with saying, “Here’s what y’all should buy us and here’s where you should go to get it,” especially when our friends and family were all so far-flung. Considering that we owned next to nothing between us we figured whatever we ended up with would be fine. In the end there was only one duplicate set of silverware we traded in for a new pair of Hush Puppies.

I think about my own early beginning as a married person and I feel the same way about it that I do about high school; I’m glad its over and I don’t have to do it again. Figuring stuff out, figuring each other out. We received dire warnings about ‘the first year being the toughest’. I don’t know about that. We were awkward, we made mistakes, we felt foolish and frustrated and pissed off sometimes, but underneath it was the knowledge that we were in it together and that was not going to change. I think of climbers snaking their way up sheer faces of rock hand over hand, always with the safety line attached at various points along the way, all the complicated equipment and harnesses that may not necessarily save them from injury, but that will save them from catastrophe.
Sixteen days to go until the truck comes….I’m eyeing the next ascent, but I know who is at the other end of the rope.