Weekend Journal XX :: I do and hello and goodbye

I've missed writing these little journal entries that trap my weekends in a virtual time capsule. They faded from my blog because Monday is a busy day and I often forget about blogging on the first day of the working week. As well as that, recording the small moments of my weekend feels sort of self-indulgent. After all, who wants to read the secondhand account of a weekend in review?

However, I'm returning to this practice because I've missed it. Growing up homeschooled, weekdays felt little different to the weekend. While there was always schoolwork and chores during the week, there was lavish time for fun, too. Now, the week seems to be about heads-down-tails-up and I crave the weekend with its Saturday sleep-in, its go-slow-if-you-want-to feel, its opportunity for friendtimes, and its freedom from everydayness. So, indulgent it may be for me, boring it may be for readers, but I'm coming back to my weekend journal notes.

Although it's supposed to be full Autumn by now, this weekend the weather forgot and, instead of pulling out cardigans and quilts, we went back to switching on the airconditioner and sleeping under full-power fans. Saturday found my mother and little bro off for a party which included a pig-shaped pinata and adorable piglet cupcakes, while Lauren and I joined the celebration at the wedding of our friends, Ryan and Charissa.

It's the fifth wedding I've been to this year already. And, although weddings are beginning to seem like a logical and standard regular Saturday afternoon event, the personalities of brides and grooms and families and upbringings and traditions combine to make each one something special to observe. One of Ryan and Charissa's fun touches was to give each table at the reception venue the name of a country and to include in each table's seating arrangements one guest who had a connection to that particular country. It was the perfect investigative conversation-starter.

Sunday found us waking all too early and driving to the airport to deliver mama and little bro back to Western Australia. You'd think we'd be getting good at this by now but goodbye doesn't seem to come easier the more times we say it. Happily, this time the absence is just for a month, and then, all going according to plan, they'll be winging their way back home to prepare for Lauren's wedding (#6 of 2010)!

Sunday evening was our church's kinda-regular acoustic cafe, a more laidback evening of church which includes gathering around tables, enjoying baked treats, listening to some live music, and discussing relevant stuff. What made this Sunday extra cool was that we got to enjoy it with Ruth and her two sisters who are over from the US. We chatted about the woes of enforced driving (let's hear it for the motoring unenthusiasts!), families, Queensland autumn vs. Minnesota spring, and attempted to keep one young church friend from falling head over heels in love with Ruth's younger sister. In the immortal and heavily capitalised words of my friend Carla, "We Had Fun".