“Dance Like Nobody’s Watching”

That is the slogan, printed on a sign, hanging outside of an apartment complex here in Portland, advertising that space is available. I understand the Mark Twain quote is really quite wonderful… but I need to be honest, those words hanging on a florescent pink plastic tarp over the name of the apartments’ creeps me out. En fait, the last thing I ever want to read about a place that I might be moving into is “dance like nobody’s watching”… it merely makes me look forward to the day that I look out my window and see the perspiring “quiet guy” from next door leering through from the shadows as I do dance as though nobody is watching… in my bra and panties.

Two days until the wedding. Family will be flying in tomorrow, and I will be giving up my temporary bedroom this weekend for an even more temporary daybed in my mom’s office, as her soon-to-be mother-in-law gets the “good room”. I guess I will be packing an overnight bag and heading up a couple of flights of stairs. I am not complaining (ish) I am quite happy that I have a (free) place to stay, but I must be honest, I can not wait to get the heck outta here… (freedom!)

Last night I went out to dinner with my mom and her fiancé and the subject of my bedroom came up. The bedroom I have at my mom’s has three large windows that have double layers of white curtains on them. It lightens up this bottom floor room, which my mother was going for. I, however, am so not going for that “lightening up” at 6:30am… actually the last thing I am looking for at that hour is tons of light. (Note: I say this as I no longer need to be to work at 7am, if I did I might be writing how convenient and welcoming the light is.)

I was attempting to imply that the light might be undesirable to their weekend guest, when they started laughing and my mom asked if I didn’t like the light. I said that I just wanted to make sure that fiancé’s mother was comfortable, that I didn’t have a problem with it (honestly I sleep with my eye mask most of the time, so it isn’t the biggest problem). My mom and fiancé started laughing about how I didn’t like the light… then my mom leaned over to him and said “Good… our plan is working!” Funny… oh so funny. I told her not to be alarmed when she arrived home one day and I had taken black garbage bags and nailed them to my windows… that should look classy…

I am hoping that the dress I bought for the wedding doesn’t end up in a garbage bag… I am not sure if it was the best choice. My mom and my sister both like it, but my 10 year-old niece said that she liked my $12.99 Ross find better… and I might have to agree with my little protégé.

To be honest, I wouldn’t care if the dress was for just Saturday, but these pictures are going to be around forever… and I would rather go with something a little simpler, yet more flattering than with something I cringed about forever more. We shall see, it will probably come down to me deciding Saturday morning… or fining something tomorrow… we’ll see.

This will be the week for pictures that last a lifetime… I decided the best gift that all of us children (my soon-to-be step-dad’s three and my mom’s three) will be a portrait of all of us kids presented for their wedding day… (tears galore) although last minute, we will all be heading to the studio tomorrow and having picture taken… and I still don’t know what I am going to wear to that… so I am headed off to my mini-closet…

Have a great weekend…and remember…

“Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth.”
-Mark Twain