Yes, but Hanlon’s Razor (”Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”) says that “#3 is most likely.

Among my siblings, the coordination and athletic ability are somewhat unequally distributed. Either you’re a professional ballet dancer, or you’re …well, the type to manage to pitch your wedding bouquet only about three feet behind you, like Ab did.

When Abby’s bouquet made its abrupt and quick landing, most of the single girls sort of didn’t know what to do, and just sort of stood rooted in their spots. The whole lot of them stood frozen for a few seconds, and then cousin Margaret got this “oh, for pete’s sake, what’s wrong with you all?” look on her face, and just walked up and took it. One of the many reasons why Margaret is great.

I feel like I’ve been in a whirlwind since around July 1, and I expect it to stop sometime around September 1. I’m enjoying the ride, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a minute to breathe. So it’s strange that today, just a few hours before Abby’s wedding, I have had a whole hour of almost forced idleness, and probably another hour more before we head off to do some errands before the wedding.

Most of the whirlwind I have not been able to blog about, even if I had had time, because one of the things in the works has been getting a new job. The first week of July was supposed to be a vacation in Pennsylvania centered around a shower for Abby and a retirement party for my mother-in-law Sue. And we were there for both of those two events. But I ended up having to take some time out of the middle for a job interview in NYC. So in about 36 hours, I went via car, train, and subway from central PA to NYC and Boston and back to NYC for a job interview and then back to central PA (with a small stop in Allentown for dinner with my uncle Tommy). And then we went back to Boston.

The next week was pretty filled up with both some more phone calls and paperwork around the new job, but also with getting the new 1500-lb letterpress ready for its move to our new studio space at Joy Street Studios in Somerville. And then the following week, it all came together. I took the new job, helped the movers move the press (mostly by staying out of the way, but there was some pushing and heaving involved), and gave notice at the current/soon-to-be-old job, again, in the space of about 36 hours.

This week, it’s been all about wrapping things up at the old job, getting ready for Abby’s wedding, driving down here to Pennsylvania from Boston again, and helping out with the wedding errands. There honestly hasn’t been too much of that because Abby is one of the most ridiculously organized people I know, and there just wasn’t that much left for us to do.

And now, there is still much work to be done in all of these changes. I have to move the press slightly away from the wall (which involves getting it jacked up and putting pipes under the wooden skids), there is still a lot of tools and equipment and paper to take over to the studio, I need to go to Ikea and get some cheap shelving for printing suplies and equipment, I have to wrap things up at the old job, start the new job at the headquarters in NYC for the first few weeks, and go be a groomsman in Matt Shaw’s wedding in Santa Barbara.

And you know, I feel like I’m just outlining it. There are more things that have happened that don’t fit into the narrative arc:

• we went to ArtBeast 2007 with Trixie and Mr. Villain and had a fabulous time and enjoyed some good bands, at least one new-to-me (Hallelujah The Hills). Editrix wrote it up better than I have time to right now.
• we ran into into Jeff, who was a friend I met on our Junior Year Abroad program in Ireland and later a roommate in my first Somerville apartment, and his wife and kid, on Holland Street on our way home after ArtBeast

So, it’s nice to have a few hours to sit down and blog about it all.

Last night, after the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, we stayed at a Holiday Inn by the old Allegheny County Airport, where Terri’s parents; Kim, Glenn, and Hope; and also my uncle Tommy are staying. We stayed on the farm Thursday night, and we probably could have squished in there for our whole stay. But now that everyone’s arrived, there are 11 people staying there now. Of course, while it seems crowded, there were actually 11 of us living there at one point, though 5 of us were kids, and we also weren’t trying to get gussied up for a wedding every day. Still, I think my parents are happiest when the place resembles The Burrow (the Weasleys’ house from the Harry Potter books). When the chaos of the inside of the house gets too much, there’s always acres of room outside to wander around in. Unfortunately, it’s also wicked hot here, so that’s not as appealing as it might normally be. Anyway, we’re hanging out here at the hotel now, in air conditioning, while Hope is taking a nap downstairs. We’re doing some blogging (Terri beat me to posting!), and in about a minute, I should start donning my outfit.

Stay tuned for my next update, probably either tomorrow, or sometime in early September…