the tortoise and the hare

I want you to picture a cute little bunny and a debonair turtle. Now put a veil on the bunny and a top hat on the turtle. Now send them down the aisle.

Welcome to my world.

When I heard all the horror stories about wedding planning, I thought, 'I will not let this happen to me. I am so above this'. But I'm knee-deep in it. And there are a whole host of reasons that wedding planning is painful, reasons which I will do my best to outline over the next few posts. But for now let's focus on that bunny and turtle.

I am, in every respect, an impulsive person. I do everything quickly for better or for worse. I read fast (and sometimes skip plot points), I buy impulsively (and wind up with an iPhone that goes on sale), and I book tickets to Europe on a whim (forgetting perhaps that the dollar is crashing). For the most part, my 'hare' approach to life has served me well -- I get an idea, I search out all possibilities, I find my solution, and I move on. In some ways I view decisions as obstacles to be immediately removed so I can get back to living my normal life. And this has become increasingly true thanks to a lovely invention called the Internet. I can waste DAYS on craigslist, Kayak, and tripadvisor planning out my ideal life (that often comes to naught), so I tend to be in a hurry to just have the matter resolved so I can stop reloading websites and obsessing over RSS feeds.

Now apply this personality 'quirk' to wedding planning. bad news bears, my friends. For reasons I'll discuss in a later post, you can get married ANYWHERE nowadays, which means I need to research EVERYWHERE. This can take a little bit of time. And it can drive a person nutso. And since I'm a bunny, I will let these decisions and options drive me nutso until I finally come upon my final answer. I'll just keep hop hopping until I reach that finish line, going down every rabbit hole and chasing every carrot until I get there.

The miso, as you may expect, is my tortoise. Patient, calm, slow, and steady. Which is wonderful. And which is why I'm marrying him. And which is why I kinda want to strangle him. I'm sure you can picture me just bouncing up and down on his shell saying, 'hey, hey! lookee here! isn't this venue the BEST?!' And then there I am tugging on his tail saying, 'oh, no, no, no, wait - that one! that one there! that's perfect!' bounce bounce bounce. And he just keeps moving along toward the finish line with this amazing sense of calmness and surety that it will all be okay.

And I know the parable. I know he wins and I just exhaust myself and make it to the same finish line after him. So I'm trying my best from now on to 'be the turtle'. But it sure is hard giving up my bunny ways (especially when places book out FOURTEEN FUCKING MONTHS in advance). But whatever. I am calm. I am the turtle.