In Training for ... that November thing

Is it almost November again already? This year has flown by. Almost time for the NoNaBloMo. Or is that the NaMoBloPo? MoBloNoPo? ShaNaNaNaPoMoBloMo? Okay, whatever the hell the acronym is!

Well, as the concept is that I "vow" to write/post an entry every day of the month of November, and I am woefully out of blogging shape, I had the idea of get back into training, sort to speak. Do a few reps so that when it comes time for November, I don't actually drag myself around in agony of posting every. day. Oh, the pain.

I have started a list of ideas to blog about, so hopefully I won't choke halfway through the month. It will get a little tricky around T/Ging since we'll be traveling away from home and therefor less able to log on to post.

So here we go. As in any new (exercise) regime, I'll start slowly and gently.

Hup. (breathe)


Okay, just a little.

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Last month we looked at a certain jam-packed weekend and decided to blow it all off and do something for ourselves. Instead of going to a wedding and several other things, we took a camping and hiking vacation for ourselves to one of our favorite spots for some "couple time." Now why do I start feeling so guilty about that afterwards?

We had many options, ya know. There was an annual getaway weekend that we would have loved to attend, and several other small events including a renewal of vows reception of a couple we are friendly with at church. Hanging over this all was the wedding we'd been informed last Summer to "save the date" for, but had not heard about since. One of *those* weekends.

Well, we started evaluating options and obligations. We sighed over missing this one getaway. This year's talent was sure to be fun and interesting, some people I hadn't seen in a while, but early on, I'd already had been telling people we'd have to miss it because of this wedding... which we still had not been invited to.

At some point, we talked about getting in some camping in our favorite spot in a nearby state before the weather got too cold. The best weekend to go would be one in which M had an extra day in his weekend, one in which we could be unhurried, one in which we could be away from our regular lives to relax, one which was... you guessed it, this same weekend of the wedding to which we had not been invited. Of course, the event was smack in the middle of the long weekend.... you can see our dilemma.

The more we looked at the calendar, the more intense our yearning. If we waited too late in the year, it would be much colder, much busier. Finally, my husband made a telling remark. "You know, do we even *know* we are getting an invitation to this wedding?" he asked. "We haven't heard from them. ANd even if we do, we are not even really close to them. I think we should go to ____." I was both ecstatic and flabbergasted. I grilled him to make sure he wasn't acquiescing just to please me. I had been half-convinced that M's sense of social obligation would dictate that we hold open this time for, essentially, friends of friends. I was wrong. He really wanted us to go away.

So, that's what we did. Ironically, just before we made camping reservations, we received the invite in the mail... barely three weeks before the event. We looked at it and said, "too bad" and sent our regrets. We drove, we camped, we hiked ourselves halfway into the ground, we snuggled and talked. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It was great couple time.


Then of course, we come home to face social pressure. Some "friends" can't imagine that anyone would chose to do anything differently than they would. Some people would pity us for missing the event of the century. Some people very nosy and hurt that they did not see us there... As if so goes the crowd, so goes us peripheral acquaintances.


I don't want to be a hanger-oner at an event for people we barely know, even if "all" of our friends would be there. I don't want to give up opportunities for M and I to do the things we've loved to do together since we were barely in a relationship.

But this is all a moot point, M says. We did the right thing. We don't need to make justifications. It was a wonderful weekend together. We don't need to talk about it further, he says.

And he's right. But still I feel guilty. As if someone who went out of their way to give us an invitation, to include us, should not be turned down, even if it's not what *we* want to do. What? I should feel guilty for making my own choices? Too much tangled up in that.


Whew. Enough heavy lifting for one day. Ow. Better go stretch...

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