From the proposal on the Rim of Crater Lake to the actual Union in Vermont, follow along as we develop plans for our Union Ceremony scheduled for August 2004, celebrating 10 years together.
Becoming Fred and Ginger. Tonight was our first foray into Ballroom Dance. Okay, so we're a little behind the 8-ball on this one; we only have two-and-a-half weeks to become Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. But, I figure if we're spending two grand on a band, we should at least look like we've put in an effort to dance.
Once we check our insecurities at the door, it's actually quite fun. We've signed up for a few more sessions and hope to cram before the Ceremony weekend.
Of course, the world of Ballroom Dance is not without its own unique idiosyncrasies. Much like the world of cheer, beauty pageants, or dog shows, it comes with its own social hierarchy, and expectations. Nothing makes one look like a newcomer quite like shorts and Converse Hightops. But, still, the ballroom dance hobbyists embraced us.
One lady, and I didn't get her name, has been dancing for a year-and-a-half. She said it took her a year before she was confident enough to dance without thinking. In the meantime, she's embraced the ballroom culture, and dons glitter eye shadow, teardrop rhinestone earrings, and a sassy cocktail dress with leg warmers underneath (it is only practice, after all).
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Nods to our Best Men for not only dragging us there, but finding this resource.
Why I Love Growing Up in Springfield. We’ve been researching Springfield for well over a year now. Each week, we receive a copy of the Springfield Reporter, Springfield’s weekly newspaper. On June 23, 2004, they printed “Why I Loved Growing Up in Springfield” by Joe Mittica. Joe recently graduated from Springfield High School. The editorial first appeared in the graduation issue of the SHS student newspaper, The Greenhorn. We think it’s priceless, and thought you would enjoy reading it as well.
"Why I Love Growing Up in Springfield" By Joe Mittica
I have lived in Springfield now since the winter of 1990 and I would like to share that I cannot say there is another town I would have rather grown up in. For all the negatives people like to point out, I want to say that Springfield is a great town for a boy to spend most of his first 18 years in.
Springfield certainly doesn’t make my national top ten lists for best places to live in any of the magazine publications but I don’t think anyone here cares. Springfield, with just under 10,000 residents, is the perfect size. We don’t experience traffic jams, or long checkout lines at Shaw’s, and usually we can find the movie we want to rent at VideoStop or Video Time. Springfield is, in a lot of ways, just ordinary Small Town USA.
Ordinary Small Town, USA, is just what I want to remember when I look back at Springfield in years to come. Springfield has given me the opportunity to grow up in a natural setting. For a young boy this town offers a lot. We have our baseball fields, our tennis and basketball courts. We have fishing holes and the boy scouts. There are campgrounds, a bike path, pizza shops, a movie theater, and ice cream, indoor and out. We have our Alumni Parade, a golf course, and a downtown café with live music at night. Twice a year our high school puts on a play and the community band plays for us in the summer. On the Fourth of July we have fireworks at the airport and we raffle off expensive sports cars, compliments of our Corvette Museum. I see all of these things and I wonder, “Why would anyone want to grow up anywhere else?”
The quality of the schools in this town are often overlooked. And I don’t mean they are perfect or offer the education a top tier private school would offer. However, Springfield’s schools have the quality of making a student feel safe, supported, and part of a community. Never have I felt intimidated by large hordes of kids or lost in a crowd. Here in Springfield you’re somebody and for the most part everyone knows your face just like you know theirs. Students here feel attached to their teachers and have the support of a town behind them. I cannot imagine it any other way.
The character of the people in Springfield also needs to be credited in this article. Over the last several years I have been heavily involved in helping to build a state of the art recreation center on Clinton Street. I have met many people and I have come in contact with an amazing trait that people in this town share. After all the years of factories closing and industries crumbling, the people of Springfield have not stopped showing their commitment to the future of this town through this project. To many in this town this project represents a beginning to an improved future, a way to open doors for this town to enter. In their support for this recreation center, residents have volunteered their Saturday mornings to paint, sweep, campaign for votes, and wash windows on countless occasions. This exhibition of character blows me away and makes me believe that although Springfield has had a rough period over the last thirty or something years, the future is in the hands of people like this and I have no reason to worry.
So, to close, I thank Springfield. It is a great town with great people and whether I come back after college to live or not, I am excited for this town’s future and for those who live here still.
Vermont Anxiety Attack of the Moment. What's keeping me up at this moment now: the fear that all the guests won't get along. Do you know how silly this is? We have been so super-selective in who we invite, that of course they're going to get along. It will be a collection of people who care about us the most. They will get together, they will mingle, they will have a grand time. Yet, I'm sitting here, wide awake, unable to sleep because I'm afraid they won't get along. Well, that and the fact it's 85 degrees out at 12:16 in the morning.
This is a challenge. It’s Monday, and I’m totally exhausted. I’m back in the office now after 10 days off, and four of those days were pretty intense planning, getting things done days. We’ve managed to knock the to-do list down to about two pages, and I’m happy to report that things are coming together, and Vermont in August may just happen.
This is a lot harder than I ever anticipated. Planning a party with a food drive, that’s a piece of cake. Organizing a parade down Main Street, can do it with my eyes closed. Coming up with a hook that gets every network news station out, toss it together before I shower in the morning. But planning a ceremony that symbolizes, captures and celebrates our life – not so much.
Everything has to have some meaning, some underlying theme. What song is important to the two of you, people ask. What is your favorite color, they wonder. I don’t know. We don’t have a song. We don’t even have a show, let alone a color. He is touch, I am feel. I’m coming to find out the only thing we really have in common is nothing. It’s our shared past, our friendship, our respect that we share. Finding ways to symbolize and celebrate these intangible concepts—that’s a challenge.
What is Change?. We’re four weeks out, and the enormity of what we’re about to do just hit me. It hit me in the dressing room at Bloomingdales. I had just had my pants sized after spending close to four hours selecting shirts, ties and pants. Part of the challenge was simply not knowing what to wear. Rent tuxedos? Buy tuxedos? Are tuxedos too formal? What about suits? Should we be matching? Complimenting? And what will our best men wear?
As we wondered, we worked through all of these questions. It also occurred to me just how opposite both of us are. Complimenting, but hardly ever on the same page. As I sat there, alone in the dressing room, I wondered exactly how this changes things. And while nothing changes, everything will be changing.
