Countdown to the Wedding Fun

Good Wednesday morning!

The Gallery Pics continue to tell the story of "A Day in the Life... of ME!" I stopped at 9:00 a.m. yesterday, so I think I'll take you through lunch today. As you can already see, it's not easy being ME!

RANDOMNESS - I've come to realize my "back in the day" office stories can all begin with the phrase, "Once upon a time... ." Realizing I'm in the Autumn season of life has put a new perspective on everything I do.

However, let's move on with today's "How on earth did Belinda ever hold down a job" story.

My attorney was a corporate/estate attorney. Lots of meetings. Lots of documents. Some deadlines. It was not an extremely high stress job. However, after a few years, he decided he wanted to try a little litigation.

Oh... my... word! Lots of meetings. Lots of documents. LOTS of deadlines. Deadlines that could not be missed! Needless to say, it became a little more stressful.

When a lawsuit finally goes to trial, it is a BIG deal. Boxes full of documents in perfect order are taken by clerks to the courtroom. Briefcases of each attorney working on the case are filled with other documents in perfect order. The secretaries of the attorneys involved in the case are running to and fro the morning of the first day of court checking and double-checking to make sure everything needed is walking out the door with the attorneys and clients.

When the last attorney gets on the elevator, a huge sigh of relief is heard by everyone in the office, and the stress level significantly drops. Business as usual becomes the order of the day. And as someone who loves the mundane day-to-day tasks of life... as someone who thinks the more boring a task is, the better... as someone who has no adrenaline in her body to speak of... "business as usual" is a sweet, sweet phrase.

NOTE - You've heard of those women who have actually picked cars up and rescued their loved ones, haven't you? Or beat an attacker with their purse until he just gave up? Well, I'm someone who has to FIND one of those women to help me out in a crises... Because of the absence of adrenaline in my body, you see. There's probably a supplement for that. NOTE TO SELF - Check about adrenaline supplements today... or tomorrow.

Okay. Back to the story. I was sitting at my desk about to start dictation when the receptionist's voice came over my intercom. "Belinda. Pick up Line 1. It's an emergency."

"Hello! Hello!" I yelled into the phone.

"Quick. Look in my left bottom drawer and bring me the binder with the (FILL IN THE BLANK). RUN to the courthouse and bring it to me," my boss instructed. Click.

Hmmm. Not even a "please." I ran into his office, grabbed the binder, ran to the elevator, ran out of the building, ran the two blocks to the courthouse, ran into the courthouse, ran down the corridor to the courtroom and stood at the door... breathing heavily. I was dressed in a pretty floral dress with a full skirt and matching pumps. Not my normal running attire.

My attorney was waiting for me outside the door. "Did you even run?" he asked as I handed him the binder.

"Look at me!" I demanded. My hair was no longer coiffed, my cheeks were flushed and I had massive flop sweat.

"Okay. Okay. I just figured you would be faster. Thanks." And with that he disappeared into the courtroom.

I WALKED back to the office, and as I exited the elevator, another secretary was standing there with a piece of paper. "My attorney needs this ASAP, and I can't take it because he's dictating something over the phone, and all the clerks are gone. Your attorney said you knew exactly where they were. He said RUN!" It wasn't her fault. She was my friend, and if she was taking dictation over the phone, I knew how stressful that could be, too.

I turned around, and once again RAN to the courtroom. But this time was a little different. This time there was no attorney waiting for me outside the courtroom. Hmmm. I wasn't up to speed on courtroom etiquette. Was it okay for a secretary to just walk into a courtroom with testimony taking place and hand her attorney something? Was that allowed?

Remember, this was back in the days of the dinosaurs (Code for NO CELL PHONES). I decided to just step inside the door and see what would happen.

Horror of horrors, as soon as I stepped inside the courtroom doors, a silence fell. EVERYONE was looking at me. Wild-eyed, wild-hair, sweaty me. The Judge said one word... "Yes?" And then my attorney jumped up to get the piece of paper.

He had just enough time to mumble, "Fix your hair next time," and I had just enough time to mumble, "There's not going to be a next time!" (NOTE - My boss and I got along very well, so please do not think he was being over-critical or I was being disrespectful. It was quite simply the way we communicated under duress. And believe me... duress we WERE under!)

Once again, I walked back to the office. The other secretary, my friend, had finished typing the over-the-phone dictation, and she was now running to the courthouse. However, she was a litigation secretary, so she was not surprised in the least about the "getting papers to the courtroom" drama. She was a pro.

When I returned to the office, I made a bathroom visit to assess damage. I definitely needed some work done in the hair department. I had sweated off all of my make-up, but my flushed cheeks worked for me. I was going to have to get a stronger men's deodorant because it was obvious mine wasn't going to hold. And my shoes... oh, my pretty Connie pumps. I had stepped in cracks along the way, and I had messed up the heels on both shoes. I decided they would be my "running pumps," and I would keep them in a bag under my desk for just such emergencies. I could do this. I was just going to have to tweak a few things.

The days and weeks rolled on. I got a new haircut which could withstand running in humidity, rain and heat. I carried a lipstick with me at all times to apply in the elevator on the way to the courtroom. I BOLDLY walked into the courtroom and across the room to hand attorneys what they needed when they needed it. I bought a popular men's deodorant to help me with the flop sweat problem. I stopped wearing dresses with full skirts... because full skirts tend to blow up on windy days, you see. I became an expert sprinter in my scarred Connie running pumps.

And the day we won the case... Well, let's just say it was a very good day. (Almost worth the sacrifice of my favorite shoes. Almost.)

Wednesday Wisdom - I'm in a wedding kind of mood today, so the quotes below are about engagements, marriage and love.

"Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction." Anonymous

"Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that." Michael Leunig

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." Dr. Seuss (Ahhh. Who knew Dr. Seuss was a romantic?)

"All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon the sand." Ella Wheeler Wilcox (I SO agree with this. Mikie and I were best friends for almost three years before we started dating. It worked for us.

"True love stories never have endings." Anonymous (Love, love love this one!)

Countdown to the Wedding Fun

My friend, Cam, has a wedding in her near future. Her oldest son is getting married. It is VERY exciting. Today, I wanted to share one of her ideas with you. It may or may not apply right now... but maybe one day!

Since her son and his fiance' have been engaged over a year (and a year is a long time), she wanted to do something each month to make the time pass more quickly. Here is what she came up with.

Exactly 11 months before the wedding, she had her husband put a wrapped gift on her front porch knowing her son and her future daughter-in-law would be arriving shortly. On the top of the gift, she had written "11 more to go."

As luck would have it, her son and future daughter-in-law walked right past the box, not thinking it was for them, so Cam had to point it out toward the end of the evening. "Did you put this on the porch, Mom?" her son asked.

And she truthfully answered, "No," because she had made her husband set the box on the porch.

Exactly ten months before the wedding, another gift "showed up" with a note attached "10 more to go." By this time, the couple realized it was a countdown gift... and they figured out Cam was behind the gift giving.

And so the countdown has continued. On the 25th of each month (the day they are to be married in June), the couple has received a gift.

I think this is a WONDERFUL way to celebrate the upcoming wedding... especially when it is a long engagement. And it doesn't have to be an extravagant gift. It can be a book you want the couple to read together or a gift card for them to use for a coffee date one night. It can be something off their gift registry. It can be a special note or a memory from your own engagement time.

The ideas are limitless. As always, if you decide to do this one day, make it your own!

Have a wonderful Wednesday. Encourage someone today. Never get too busy to give a word of encouragement. Thursday's Blog Linkage is good reading, and the date is too much fun.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda