return home

I took the overnight bus back to Philly.  I was sad to leave Boston, but I’m now grateful for a day to just get back into school mode.  John started work at 7pm last night, so I had a few hours before my 12:15am bus to do a last load of laundry and work on a few projects.

I have a habit of, when I leave a place, taking a moment to look around the room to a) scan for anything I might be forgetting (which happens seriously all the time), and 2) just kind of say goodbye to the place itself, letting my gaze rest for a few seconds on anything particularly significant.  Maybe because yesterday we received two invitations for the weddings of good friends, I let myself read over our old wedding invite, which, lovingly framed by the Shuylers, currently hangs above John’s desk.  I like to think it’s fairly nontraditional.  We came very close to doing everything in evite form, but we were informed that was tacky (I don’t know, I have no manners), so John made a simple postcard-like print, and then we did online RSVPs.

Both lovers of literature, we really wanted to include a short snappy, hopefully not overly cheesy quote (a right amount of cheese is appropriate for weddings, I think).  This I remember clearly: John suggested perhaps a modification of this quote from “Three Women,” “What did my arms do before they held you?”  (I can hear my sister gagging.)

Me: Oh God, we can’t use that.

John: Why not?  It’s sweet.

Me: Well, first of all, it’s about a newborn.  Babies are great, but I so do not want to go there.  Secondly, it’s Sylvia Plath.

John: I like Sylvia Plath.

Me: So do I.  But her marriage is not one I personally would like to emulate.  And then she put her head in an oven.  Not to be insensitive, but I’m pretty sure that disqualifies her from a wedding invite.

And so we opted for a quote from another somewhat depressed writer, James Joyce.  Not sure his marriage with Nora Barnacle was entirely ideal, but I kind of love how his obsession with her lazy eye works its way into all his fiction following their meeting.  From Ulysses, quite possibly the best book ever: “Love loves to love love.”

I couldn’t upload the pdf of our actual invite, but here’s the picture we used as the background, courtesy of the incredibly talented and wonderfully spirited Julie Napear Wichern:

Okay, be honest: who is getting sick and tired of hearing about and seeing pictures of John and me?  I have a feeling I’ll tone it down when we’re back in the same city.