Mon 18 Sep 2006
Love is in the Air
Posted by Liza under Personal
This morning, I got a lovely call from Christa, whom you may remember as the woman with whom I drove from Denver to DC after September 11.
Christa and her highly entertaining and delightful girl B have set a commitment ceremony date! In June! In Hawaii! We are so happy for them.
And a few hours later, my most awesome colleague Kate knocked on my office door and then handed me a fancy envelope…which contained a beautiful invitation to the commitment ceremony that she and her talented and charming girl Shay have scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend! In Zion National Park! Which is in Utah! In the West! You fly into Vegas!
::goes off to look at mapquest and comes back grumbling::
OK, well, I know this, and you know this, but in case you’ve forgotten, the western portion of the United States is really f*ing big.
So even though we would be approximately a million times closer to an old and dear friend, and in the same state as a cool new internet friend, and gosh, it can’t be that far, can it, from another wonderful new internet friend…all those people do, in fact, live extremely far away from both Las Vegas (the nearest airport) and Zion National Park. At least we would probably get to see the no-longer-blogging Sean and meet his wife.
It’s kind of bittersweet, since our budget isn’t letting us go to Robin & Te’s ceremony, and Robin actually performed ours. AND that wedding would be our last chance to hang out with Levi’s Moms before they move to Eastern Europe for a year or two.
Whether either of these other weddings are in our budget is … well, the optimist here is saying “subject to negotiation.” Which is to say, it isn’t in our budget, but I’m holding out hope. Lots of things could change by May and June.
And I just love weddings.




September 18th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Yay! Says the non-blogging Sean. I’m trying hard to remember the last time I saw you and I’m pretty sure it was at the Celebrity Club in 1994.
September 19th, 2006 at 12:06 am
Well, I’m a 6 hour drive from LV. I’m trying to remember how long it takes to drive from southern Utah, but I haven’t been there since 1990. I’m thinking, like, 10 hours?
Yes, the west is huge. Eastern states look so SMALL to me on the map. There are several little states over there in the Northeast that are smaller than the county in which I live.
September 19th, 2006 at 6:48 am
According to mapquest, S, your city is also about 6 hours from Zion National Park.
Sean, I would have guessed the last time we saw each other was at one of Peter’s shows too, but you’ve got a better memory than I do!
September 19th, 2006 at 9:30 am
ooh, i love hawaii! where in hawaii is it?
September 19th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Ok, the west IS large, but it’s also mostly empty and thus 75mph (85 if you’re feeling lucky) almost everywhere and really really straight roads. We’re only 6/7 hours from LV. Come here come here!!! We’ll let you sleep in our basement and shower in our gigantic shower and and and Julia and Noah can play together and we can have tea and I’ll make you dinner. I’ll make a cheese fondue, how would you like that? (providing you’re on dairy when you visit) and it’ll be wonderful!!!!! You could even fly out of Salt Lake. How perfect would that be? Perfect, I tell you.
September 19th, 2006 at 10:41 am
What I’m thinking — subject to no input yet from Jill, so take this with rather large grains of salt — is that maybe we should take a week of vaca that includes a Wild West Road Trip with bits of SLC, Zion, Vegas, and the Grand Canyon.
Jill could get her first exposure to camping with lots of people around who are really good at it, plus we could have a good balance of seeing people and being “just the family,” and she could get some “anti-camping” with the Vegas part of the trip. And we’d get to go to a wedding. Did I mention I love weddings?
September 19th, 2006 at 10:42 am
Jen, I’m not sure where in Hawaii it is. But I’d love your “where to go” recommendations. One complicating factor in all this is that I have a work trip to Hawaii sometime in May. So of course we are also looking at some vaca with that.
September 19th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Ahem.
You left Reno off your road trip plan.
I’m just sayin’.
September 19th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Hmmm…camping…root canal…camping…eye-socket tearout…camping…Kevin Federline rapping…camping…
September 19th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
i’m with jill. i’m so over camping. too hot, too cold, too smelly, too many bugs, too dirty, put on your shoes to take a pee in the middle of the night, “cooking” on a 1 BTU camp stove. ugh, why exactly is this more fun than staying at the nice lodge? that’s what i say.
unless we are talking about renting a nice RV, that’s how camping should be done.
September 19th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
The way I see it, I *tried* the Celine Dion concert, while Jill’s only camping experience involves avoiding it.
Reno, I thought maybe we’d persuade you to come camping with us. Especially if we added the Grand Canyon to the itinerary. (Although “camping” for us will probably be more like “going outside” for you. We are definitely talking about car camping, if I can keep us talking about camping at all.)
September 19th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Jill, come down to Phoenix and spend the week with me. We are an anti-camping household. We LOVE electricity. And running water. And TV. All that good stuff.
September 19th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
First off, May is the perfect time to camp in Southern Utah although late May is kinda pushing it. But you live in Atlanta, so heat shouldn’t bother you, right? Besides, it’s a dry heat.
Second off, did I mention my gigantic shower, Jill? I’m talking amenities here. Running water, even.
Third off, SQUEEEEE!!!! I am so hoping that this wild west road trip thing works out!
September 19th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
A gigantic shower is hard to compete with, but here’s my bid:
Jill, if you come to Reno, I will:
1. Babyproof my apartment.
2. Give you and Liza and Noah the bedroom all to yourselves, with cleared out closet/shelf space.
3. Invite Bruce up to cook for all of us.
4. Stay in my tent with Bruce so there’s room for the three of you.
5. Allow you to listen to Celene (*shudder*) Dion as much as you want.
6. Promise you a Mormon-free visit.
Beat that, Utah!
September 21st, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Well, my attempt to start a bidding war seems to have failed.
Does that mean you’re coming to Reno?
September 21st, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Hi Liza,
It’d be awesome to finally meet you in person! I feel like I already *know* you from reading your blogs these past few years.
You really don’t know how big the west is until you drive it . . . . just completed a 2775 mile long journey, NJ back to Vegas in a 12′ truck . . . . . LOTS of open boring roads. Anyways, let us know when you’re arriving. Looking forward to the in person meeting
Hugs,
Karen
September 22nd, 2006 at 12:21 pm
No, Reno, I’ve just been out of commission with a sinusitisbaby. GAH!
Salt Lake City is better than Reno. Because…
I can show you a flamingo in the wild. Floyd the flamingo. Does Reno have a wild flamingo? No! HA!
Plus, I can make Indian Food. So, to sweeten the deal:
If you come to Salt Lake you will get:
1) a flamingo sighting
2) homemade food of whatever ethnicity you desire. Except Ethiopian. I can’t do Ethiopian.
3) your own bathroom with a huge shower with 2 showerhead.
3) A guest room that is larger than the master bedroom.
4) I won’t let you listen to The Dion, but I promise not to shudder and gag every time her name is mentioned. (I can only go so far in my own home)
5) a taffy pull!
6) I’ll let you pet my parents’ chicken!
7) the joy of watching Noah and Julia play together.
8) the privilege of standing in my new kitchen
9) a pedicure!
10) my witty wit.
ok, so there, Reno!
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:10 pm
For the record, I am VERY HAPPY to report that Jill very seldom actually listens to Celine Dion at home. Which is why her huge desire to go to her show is a lot like my huge desire to go camping! We should do things we THINK that we are going to hate, just because our partners ask, especially if we don’t have to do them very often.
Ergo, we should go to Kate & Shay’s wedding, and we should figure out how many of our friends in the west we can visit on the same trip.
Happily, we have at least 6 months before the plans have to be pretty firm, and 8 months before they would be implemented.
I happen to know that at least 2 of the people we would adore seeing actually like camping, so I hope you will at least contemplate going camping with us in Zion NP over Memorial Day weekend.
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:38 pm
I was lying about the taffy pull, anyway. But there really is a flamingo named Floyd living in the great salt lake!
September 24th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
To counter Floyd I offer American white pelicans, native to the area, and fuzzy-wuzzy American white pelican chicks.
A lakeshore with shells that are tens of thousands of years old.
My *entire apartment,* not just some guest room.
No sinusitus babies for Noah to catch a cold from.
You can pet my parent.
Bruce-made food of whatever type you desire, including Ethiopian or American Midwestian.
Earplugs for when Jill is listening to Celene Dion.
My witty wit, plus 20 (by then) years’ worth of in-jokes.
September 27th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Oooh, Reno. You play a hard game…
And you’re playing dirty! Sinusitis indeed!
I offer a beach of perfectly white, perfectly round, sand.
The smell of sage after a rain (I will personally sprinkle them with water if it doesn’t conspire to rain while you’re here)
my guestroom is probably as large as Reno’s whole apartment.
a speckled dog to wash your feet.
A hammock next to a fountain under some tall shade trees.
Homemade lemonaid.
And entirely new and fresh perspective. No 20 years worth of stale, old, in-jokes. No siree bob!