Zugenia's Procrastination Salon

I just had the best weekend of my life. To date.

I'll have fuller albums available once the official photos start coming in, but for now here's some preliminary documentation courtesy of my Aunt Georgia, who took a series of amazing shots.

( Wedding pics! )

I've been doing a bit of interweb housecleaning, because I'm supposed to be writing. I actually was writing yesterday (an essay on Defoe that was due August 15, oops), until I received a frantic call from my father about wedding music, at which point I spent the next 3 hours downloading various movements of Bach and Vivaldi off of iTunes and trying to describe my "aural vision" to some poor violinist. (In case you're wondering: Prelude—Bach's Goldberg Variations; Recessional—Vivaldi's Concerto for Violin in G, Op. 3, No. 3, movement I; and Processional—Bach's Air on a G-String, which, I realize, is kind of like walking down the aisle to the "Thong Song.")

But today, here's what I've done.

THE POP TART has a new podcast website! And a new night! I'll be back on the air MONDAY EVENINGS 6-8pm starting next week, and, presuming the station's podcasting technology is up and running (not a given), podcasts will be available.

My work website has also received a facelift. I'm going to try to be more active on it this year.

And, finally, D has published a piece on documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee over at Senses of Cinema. It's really, really good and you should read it.

If you're wondering about the spotty posting lately, I regret to inform you that the reason is the same as always: Lady Z has actually been too busy to devote a respectable amount of time to procrastination. There is no way, in the three minutes I am currently allowing myself to make this post, adequately to convey how unrestful my summer has been—but here's a brief synopsis:

Since June 30, I've been teaching two classes, with a total of 40 students, every weekday. In one we covered British literature from 1700-1900; in the other, the British novel from Aphra Behn to Jane Austen. I made the students in the latter (and myself) read a novel a week. My friends think I am a sadomasochist. On July 31, D and I flew to Rochester for my grandparents' birthday family reunion. We reunioned. On Monday, August 4, we flew back to Fayetteville. I taught three more days of classes, covering Austen's rewriting of eighteenth-century tradition into the nineteenth-century novel (see Venn diagram:

)

and the whole of the Victorian Empire. On Wednesday, August 6, D ran a screening of the DVD he did for the Oxford American 2008 Best of the South issue (on newsstands now). We drank to his success with friends and editors. The next morning, August 7, also my birthday, I wrote final exams, which my homeless colleague Shelia Collins administered the next day. Why did I not administer them myself? Because as soon as I was done teaching and writing exams, D and I threw a bunch of clothes back in our bags and drove down to Crossett, where some friends picked us up the next morning to drive down to New Roads, Louisiana for a wedding. We stayed in cabins on the False River and drank beer and waved handkerchiefs in the Second Line. Good times. Sunday, August 10, we drove back to Crossett and played with D's 2-year-old niece. Monday—yesterday?—we drove back to Fayetteville, and now—Tuesday—I am reading final exams and papers and entering grades before running home and throwing a bunch of clothes back in a bag before getting in a car with Shelia to drive to Little Rock to have dinner with her family tonight before catching a 6am flight to Hartford, where I will catch a ride to Providence for karaoke before heading to Massachusetts with NKB before heading to Cape Cod for my bachelorette party which will last through Monday unless I fail to survive that long.

Please remember that I am also in the throes of planning a wedding. I field several emails and calls a day from anxious mothers. I deal with the perpetual guilt of avoiding our priest because I'm sure there's something I'm supposed to be doing for him but I can't remember what it is. Thursday I need to carve out an hour en route to the Cape to try on a dress at the Providence Place mall.

So send me whatever vibes of sympathy you can, or don't, because I'm too busy to really accept them right now. My grades are due in an hour and I need coffee and a shower.

Please note: Lady Z is TERRIBLE about answering her phone and responding to voice mail. Nobody knows why.

Voice mail from Ladies VP:

"This is the Vice President of the Ladies that Lunch trying to reach The G. The President wants you to know that you cannot just announce that you are getting married and not follow up with details. Please be in touch at your earliest convenience."

Another voice mail from VP:

"Um, yes. This is the Vice President calling AGAIN ... you seem to be officially WITHHOLDING information at this point, which is not acceptable. Please call."

Email from El Presidente, CC'd to VP:

ms z,

could you please update us regarding the following:

-how did the proposal happen
-have you set a date
-where is the ceremony going to be
-are you pregnant

and by 'please' i mean you NEED to give us details.

yours,
the pres

Email from VP, CC'd to El Pres:

exactly - I have made 2 official VP phone calls; it is time that you do your lady duty and provide copious updates...you can't leave us at mere speculation - I don't have enough liquor or friends for that.

and you need to start planning bachelorette...now. it's the only thing to live for.

nkb-VP-ltl

Yet another voice mail from VP:

"Yes, this is the VP calling YET AGAIN for the G, who is now facing an official EXECUTIVE CENSURE if she does not call back IMMEDIATELY."

Epilogue:
I finally called back to report: A. Proposal BBQ story; B. That I am not pregnant; C. Ceremony will be in NYC, but party in Fayetteville; and D. Bachelorette is in the works.

Email from Baby Sister:

Hi G,

I'm super bored at work so I've done some wedding research.

I have gone onto the Jcrew website and found three dresses I like (see, I'm helping already). I like the Trimmed Taffeta Lorelai Dress (in black and white), the Silk Taffeta Felice Dress, and the Solid Silk Taffeta Ballerina Dress. Who's paying for this wedding, because it turns out bridesmaid dresses aren't cheap.

I've checked on the nytimes wedding announcements and you have to submit your request at least 6 weeks before the wedding, but you also have to submit the name of the person officiating. I don't care if you don't want this, I will be submitting this for you anyway. And when you take your picture to submit your eyes have to be at the same level.

I looked at catering places in fayetteville. Are you going to have it at a venue or at a restaurant (because then you obviously won't need catering). If you're going to have it in summer it would be so nice to have it outside. Are you going to have local Arkansas food? Maybe you could have lobster. Or if that's too expensive you can just have 1 lobster for me. One thing that people do is have a sushi bar. That could be fun. I'd say do a buffet that way people can eat as much as they like and they have more freedom to move around. Are you going to have an open bar or a cash bar (do people do cash bars at weddings?). Are you going to revert to catholicism? You haven't been to church in years and you went for easter, what's that about?

Have you thought about where in ny you're going to have it? Do you think you'll have a hard time booking a place. Summer is very popular and most people would've booked it by now. I saw online that there are loft spaces you can hire. That might be cool…because then you have the ceremony and the reception in the same place.

Anyway, will you let me know when you have a better time frame for when the wedding(s) might be because I have to sort out my plane tickets home for grandma and grandpa's birthday and I also have to figure stuff out with my job.

Love you,
e

My comment as I forwarded the above message to my parents, Little Sister, and D:

I'm so glad someone (else) is in charge around here...

Mom's response:

I really wish I could just write you a blank check and show up on the day(s). It would be so much fun to find out how this all translates into reality. Now I'm beginning to "get" reality TV........reality is beyond reality.

Glad to know you have someone mentoring your life between engagement and marriage. Who knows, maybe you should hire Emma for life? I'm sure she'd have as many ideas and as much knowledge to share about, let's say, getting a puppy.....

So, what did you teach today? I don't think I can get away with your engagement as my topic for tonight.

Love,
Mom

Little Sister's response:

My only response is "oh my god!" and don't expect this level of organization from me. I like the food suggestions especially.

D's email announcement:

Subject: Guess What?


I got engaged...


...to this lucky girl.

And if you think sending out this mass e-mail is romantic, you should have been at the celebratory barbecue. (Hiring a sky writer just wasn't cost efficient. Those people charge by the letter. "D---- J------ Hearts E------ A. Z------ 4-Ever+1" would have sunk me. ALSO: water towers are way too heavily defended nowadays. Barbed wire and such.)

Anyways, I don't know a damned thing about when we're actually going to do this, but you'll all be invited to the raging post-nuptial party we're gonna throw in the 'ville. However, you are not allowed at the short ceremony in NYC. Seriously. Her grandmother likes me at this point. I can't have her meeting the riff-raff I like to call "people I care for deeply." I don't see any of you nearly enough, but the less Grandma sees, the better.

I'll keep you posted.

Love,

D

My email announcement:

Subject: Announcement

OK, friends, brace yourselves.

Remember how weird it was when I moved to Arkansas a couple years ago? Well, try this one on: I'm getting married.

D, his cat Ophelia, and I have been living under one roof since November, but I had no idea he was going to get down on one knee (in front of BOTH sets of parents) during a barbecue at our house a couple weeks ago.

Yes, it's a crime, but we really are that happy. We're planning a very tiny, family-only ceremony in New York in the fall, followed by an enormous ass-kicking extravaganza in Fayetteville. Expect invitations to the latter.

Giddily yours,
Lady Z

My email to the core ladies:

Subject: MAJOR UPDATE

This is a special announcement for Core Ladies.

I'm getting married.

Their responses:

Ms. F: Holy shit, Congratulations, Arkansan Bachelorette! Cannot wait for details.

El Pres: details please. is there a ring?

VP: next level - are you having 'sas bachelorette?...because obviously you're having a bachelorette. I'm so glad we have another wedding to discuss on ladies...that's not mine. I'm so excited...where will the wedding be...when are you planning to do it? Ladies that wed is lady.

Excerpt from phone conversation with Grandma and Grandpa:

Me: I'm getting married!
Grandma: Oh!
Grandpa: Oh!
Grandma: Congratulations!
Grandpa: Which one?