wedding willies

It's now two days until my son Mark's wedding. Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. to be exact. I know the bride and her mother are supposed to be the mush-brained ones, but a groom's mother has a share of brain freeze, too.

Here's what's on my mind, what's left of it:

CONFESSION: twice in the last 24 hours I've had to pull out the invitation to re-check the TIME OF THE WEDDING. Come on!

Guilt: Once the boys started finding far-off places to move, getting married and that sort of thing, I devised a empty-nest rule, and that rule is: if you're a) getting married and/or b) buying a house, you WILL sort and pack up your twenty years of accumulated belongings. This includes trophies, baseball cards, report cards and ninja turtles. It goes with you.

There is an escape clause to the rule: if you are moving to a small apartment, you may store your boxed belongings in our crawl space. For a time. I thought about imposing a rental fee, but decided against that. After all, I do want to be cared for once Alzheimers sets in.

So. The stressed-out, tending-to-a-hundred-wedding-details groom finally made serious progress on his room and belongings. Then I felt guilty. As I kept driving home the reminder to "clean out your room," it occurred to me that maybe I was being a bit heavy-handed. Even seeming overly-anxious to have him out. For good. Ugh. Mean old mother.

I started writing this post last night but got too sleepy and went to bed. Now it's 5:00 a.m. and I'm wide awake!

Wedding week camping trip?! The groom's brothers decided that a bachelor camp-out would be great fun. Tonight. Thursday. 48 hours before the wedding. Seeing as how both brothers live out-of-state and are ARRIVING today, they need a little help gathering the equipment. Tent. Sleeping bags. A skillet. Matches, flashlights, plates, cups. OK, I DID offer to help. But I was thinking more along the lines of making some food. It's turned into more than that. Boys, you WILL care for me when I'm old, won't you?

Out in the yard: Puttering in the yard is great therapy. My neighbors will see me there throughout the week. I just can't be stressed out at geraniums and hostas.

Hotel Haller: With four extra people staying at the house, there are a few issues to address. Who sleeps where. (I think the groom will be sleeping in the basement with all the wedding gifts.) Finding towels and sheets. After 30 years of marriage, I realize the towels and washcloths don't match. Oh, well. And there's some food prep going on, too.

Yep, it's a crazy week around here. Today will be especially frantic, with airport runs, camping trip packing and last-minute vacuuming up dog hair.

But I'm faithful it will all fade when I see my tall and handsome son standing with his radiant bride on Saturday evening!