Thursday, July 04, 2002
plans broken and made, part 3
We walked to the lighthouse beach. I slipped off my sandals and padded over the cool sand barefoot. Eliina and Amanda scrambled up one of the lifeguard chairs, and I followed, just barely fitting on the edge of the seat. Charlie stood on the sand below, talking to us like Romeo calling up to the balcony. We talked wedding details: location, time, dress colors. The three of us on the chair conferenced separately and then issued our proclamations to the boy on the beach. Soon I jumped off, and waded quickly into the water. For a split-second, I imagined it was freshman year again, and I was knee-deep in the lake for the first time. The reality of the lake at the moment, though, was much colder. Before my ankles went numb I jumped out again and sat on the beach, still in my skirt, and buried my feet in the sand.
Quentin showed up, and the five of us sat in a cluster below the lifeguard chair. The beach was surprisingly quiet; I heard every lapping of the waves and the stir of kids far away. I tried to drink in the moment, feel it like a blanket wrapping around me, memorize it like an important painting. Then I gave up, and continued playing with the damp sand. Pretty soon, out of the shadows, an Evanston policeman started striding towards us. We stood up quickly. He mumbled something to us, which I didn't hear, and we just kept walking.
21:30
plans broken and made, part 2
After four hours of driving, Eliina and I pulled into our familiar little alley again. Voiceover, with wistful music: "It seemed like only yesterday that we left..." We let ourselves into the apartment and heard Amanda on the phone in the hall. So we crept around the corner and surprised her. She screamed, we screamed, everything felt like a Julia Roberts movie. (Eliina and I, incidentally, were both wearing very similar clothes: ringer T-shirts and green print skirts. So it was a Julia Roberts movie with a bad fashion coordinator.)
We'd bought a copy of Modern Bride magazine on the way, so the three of us flipped through it excitedly. Then we decided to celebrate with dinner at an Italian restaurant. As we walked there, I read aloud 10 reasons to be happy you're engaged. (Including such revelations as: "Everywhere you go, people congratulate you.") We became a three-person engagement parade.
At dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine and, from that point on, everything seemed to be spinning. It wasn't the wine. Mostly. It was as though Earth had slowed down just enough for me to sense its rotation. See, until that point, Eliina and I had been on a mission, a top-speed driving challenge. The goal was simple and defined. Then we arrived, and time slowed down for a few hours. I stopped worrying about how we were going to get to Chicago and started envisioning the future: the wedding, how life would be changing soon.
After dinner, we bought a wedding planning book at Barnes and Noble, and then called Charlie (the fiancee) and Quentin (Eliina's boyfriend). Quentin would join us later. Charlie, Amanda, Eliina and I headed to the beach as the evening faded into dusk.
More to come.
12:06
Monday, July 01, 2002
plans broken and made
Last Tuesday, Eliina and I packed everything I owned into her dad's huge pick-up truck and headed for Michigan. We planned to spend one night at her house, and then continue on to Buffalo to drop off my stuff and visit with my family. Then she would drive back to Michigan. But it didn't happen. We were supposed to leave early Tuesday morning. But we didn't. We dawdled at Quentin's house and stuffed ourselves with cheesecake. We met up with Amanda and Charlie for one more swing on the swings, one more lunch at the deli. (John and Bob wished me well and gave me a souvenir menu.) So Eliina and I left in the late afternoon and didn't reach Michigan until late. There, we watched Little Women. I remembered reading the book when I was in sixth grade, amazed that anyone would be angsty about growing up. Who wouldn't want to be an adult? Now I understood. We were set to leave the next morning for Buffalo. But then we got a call from Amanda just as we finished loading up the car. She sounded a little funny on the phone, hesitant, but happy. Something was up, but I wasn't sure what it was. It didn't take long for her to tell me, though: Her boyfriend Charlie had proposed the night before, and she'd accepted. My reaction? "What? Oh my God. What? Oh my God. What? Oh my God." Eliina heard, and picked up the phone upstairs. The three of us squealed like little kids and Eliina and I decided, without much hesitation, to go back to Chicago. More soon.
21:00
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