2953: Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)
WHAT "sanctity of marriage"? X/DEAR ABBY: My wife and I received an invitation from a family member to attend their daughter "Heidi's" wedding on Father's Day weekend. We canceled our existing plans in order to attend, and gave "Heidi and Dave" an appropriate gift. As the ceremony progressed, the minister asked, "Do you, Steve, take Heidi" ... at which point the guests began whispering to themselves, "STEVE?"
We were embarrassed, thinking we had made a horrible mistake in addressing the gift card -- and we weren't the only ones. Finally, after much discussion among the guests, someone approached the bride's mother to ask if we had made a mistake. "Oh, no," she replied. "Dave backed out two weeks ago. Heidi asked Steve if he would marry her, and he said he wasn't doing anything else this weekend, so why not?"
I was flabbergasted. Predictably, in less than three weeks, this sham of a marriage was over. Heidi, of course, retained all the gifts.
My wife says it's no big deal. I say the bride's parents should have called the guests and explained the circumstances so they could make an informed decision about attending. I was also raised to believe that in cases such as this, where the commitment to marriage was so obviously missing, that the gifts should be returned. Am I wrong? This has caused a rift in the family. -- JILTED GUEST
DEAR GUEST: It appears that Heidi and her parents became so involved in the details of the "production" that they forgot the real meaning of the wedding celebration -- the joining of two people together in a lifetime commitment to each other. Frankly, I am shocked and disappointed that a minister would go along with such a farce, much less "bless" it. (Could the clergyman also have been a stand-in for the real thing?)
Yes, the wedding should have been called off when the groom backed out. Yes, the guests should have been notified. Yes, any unopened or unused gifts should have been promptly returned. And no, you're not wrong.
See, this is what happens when you let straight people marry! [see also this week's Candorville: Thank God I got to vote to keep those people in their place. ¬_¬]
...I keed, I keed =o All you people in your persistent, first marriage are beautiful. Except the ones who are ugly, but I'm pretty sure you aren't reading this journal.
The new job I'm supposed to be doing hasn't taken hold that I'm aware of--Supers just got back from vacation today [an ill-timed departure, to be certain], so our office is just a bit out of communication-sync from their office, and she doesn't act like she's made an effort to find out more than the "They said they had to get some things ready" I told her. So if I'm supposed to start on campus, I have no idea, and I'm not that eager to just GO OVER and check.
I've narrowed down the brake light thing to 1. hard acceleration and/or 2. inclines--which is unfortunate, since that comprises a bulk of my commute time. On that note, the latest trial: 29.095 MPG. The weird thing* is the "half-full" mark on my gas tank is actually more like the 1/4-full mark, since I drive about the same but get significantly better mileage for the first "half" tank than the second. I understand the reasoning, that full is actually above the "full" mark, but if it ends up that "full" marks an arbitrary value, what's the point? I mean, I suppose that's why it's not marked any more precisely than E | F on mine, but Char's car has about fifty increments on there--that doesn't make any sense at all X/
*It's been proposed this isn't actually weird, at least as far as being unusual. I contest that it's weird all the same.
Also annoying, they decided to let us know they were going to be doing work on the sidewalks THE DAY THEY STARTED [today] and not to park near "sidewalks or curbs."
...so, park out in an open field?? 9_9 This is ridiculous.
Nap time! I've been getting no sleep even on the weekend =(
We were embarrassed, thinking we had made a horrible mistake in addressing the gift card -- and we weren't the only ones. Finally, after much discussion among the guests, someone approached the bride's mother to ask if we had made a mistake. "Oh, no," she replied. "Dave backed out two weeks ago. Heidi asked Steve if he would marry her, and he said he wasn't doing anything else this weekend, so why not?"
I was flabbergasted. Predictably, in less than three weeks, this sham of a marriage was over. Heidi, of course, retained all the gifts.
My wife says it's no big deal. I say the bride's parents should have called the guests and explained the circumstances so they could make an informed decision about attending. I was also raised to believe that in cases such as this, where the commitment to marriage was so obviously missing, that the gifts should be returned. Am I wrong? This has caused a rift in the family. -- JILTED GUEST
DEAR GUEST: It appears that Heidi and her parents became so involved in the details of the "production" that they forgot the real meaning of the wedding celebration -- the joining of two people together in a lifetime commitment to each other. Frankly, I am shocked and disappointed that a minister would go along with such a farce, much less "bless" it. (Could the clergyman also have been a stand-in for the real thing?)
Yes, the wedding should have been called off when the groom backed out. Yes, the guests should have been notified. Yes, any unopened or unused gifts should have been promptly returned. And no, you're not wrong.
See, this is what happens when you let straight people marry! [see also this week's Candorville: Thank God I got to vote to keep those people in their place. ¬_¬]
...I keed, I keed =o All you people in your persistent, first marriage are beautiful. Except the ones who are ugly, but I'm pretty sure you aren't reading this journal.
The new job I'm supposed to be doing hasn't taken hold that I'm aware of--Supers just got back from vacation today [an ill-timed departure, to be certain], so our office is just a bit out of communication-sync from their office, and she doesn't act like she's made an effort to find out more than the "They said they had to get some things ready" I told her. So if I'm supposed to start on campus, I have no idea, and I'm not that eager to just GO OVER and check.
I've narrowed down the brake light thing to 1. hard acceleration and/or 2. inclines--which is unfortunate, since that comprises a bulk of my commute time. On that note, the latest trial: 29.095 MPG. The weird thing* is the "half-full" mark on my gas tank is actually more like the 1/4-full mark, since I drive about the same but get significantly better mileage for the first "half" tank than the second. I understand the reasoning, that full is actually above the "full" mark, but if it ends up that "full" marks an arbitrary value, what's the point? I mean, I suppose that's why it's not marked any more precisely than E | F on mine, but Char's car has about fifty increments on there--that doesn't make any sense at all X/
*It's been proposed this isn't actually weird, at least as far as being unusual. I contest that it's weird all the same.
Also annoying, they decided to let us know they were going to be doing work on the sidewalks THE DAY THEY STARTED [today] and not to park near "sidewalks or curbs."
...so, park out in an open field?? 9_9 This is ridiculous.
Nap time! I've been getting no sleep even on the weekend =(