She, comparing me to love-crazed guy in movie: “Would you burn a building for me?”
Me: “Not really my style.”
She: “What is your style?” [pause] “Oh, you’d start a blog.”
Weddings have web sites these days; did you know that? They include useful information such as how to get to the thing, a link to the all-important gift registry and the (frankly sobering) fact that there are only 142 days left until the Big Expensive Day.
Our wedding web site is gradually taking shape, and not because I’ve had much to do with it. I had assumed I would be the one to really be holding the reins there, because it’s usually me who displays the yen for blogging.
Meanwhile, my fiancée is — how shall I put this? To be found among the middling percentiles of computer proficiency for a 30-year-old, at least where our home Mac is concerned. Yes, she’s a PC. LOL, srsly. The things she shouts at my poor, hardworking MacBook! I’m sure its little feelings are bruised.
Nevertheless, my bride-to-be has plodded along, festooning our site with a sideways picture of me (she didn’t know how to fix that) and a rather optimistic selection of cultural activities to get up to in Toronto while visiting for the wedding. It warms my heart to be marrying a woman who thinks our Ordinary Joe Canadian guests are going to want to squeeze in some ballet while they’re here.
My tasks, which are yet to be completed, include posting my version of the story of how we met — or at any rate cook up a family-friendly version of it, somehow. (I kid, I kid.)
I’m also supposed to write up little biographies of my groomsmen. Striking a particular tone is imperative. The blurb must, in 80 words or so, convey affection, but at one manly step of remove. Par example: “X is a good friend, but not a speedy one,” I write of the one who dawdles.
Also slowing things down a little is my habit, when writing about non-serious topics, to toss in a joke every three or four lines. That’s what five years as a reporter at Canada’s funniest newspaper does to you.
Anyway, the buddy blurbs are not difficult to do, exactly, but they take time and care. And I’m finding that having to explicitly spell out why I’m fond of my friends and brothers is making me value them all the more. (Dare I type the L word?)
Later I will have to write something loving and ideally funny about how I met my fiancée and what she means to me. And something like an hour after she has become my wife I’ll have to say stuff, too, to our friends and relatives. I really don’t mind public speaking but finding the right words could prove a challenge.
Blogging and speaking are easy; blogging and speaking with feeling? Not always my style.
image courtesy of madprime on flickr
