Picking Up Speed

Well, we’re down to the last two months now. It’s all coming together.

The big news recently is that yesterday, Kristi and I went down to the Modesto courthouse and got our marriage license. That was a story in itself.. we got there just before they closed, filled out all the paperwork, swore an oath (right hands raised and everything) that we weren’t already married to anyone else, then I whipped out my debit card only to be met with a defeated expression from the clerk. “We only take cash or check.”

Oh, you have got to be kidding. This is 2008. What government office today doesn’t take electronic payment?

Well, apparently the Modesto one. And since the paperwork had already been filled out and put into the computer, and neither of us had our checkbooks, we all collectively had a problem: we either had to get the fee to them in the 10 minutes before the office closed, or else I would have to come down to the office right when they opened this morning at 8 with payment. Or else the clerk would be unhappy or something; we didn’t get too many details about what tragic misfortune would fall upon us all if an unpaid marriage license ended up stranded in the computer. But since we didn’t want to risk facing that potential cataclysm, and since I sure didn’t want to hike downtown early this morning, we made a mad dash to the bank. Two blocks away, around the corner and down the street.

You wouldn’t think that two blocks could be so frustrating, but this was at 4pm. Both red lights. Slow traffic. Tick tock, tick tock: minutes passing on the car dashboard. Finally we pull into the bank and get cut off at the drive-thru ATM by a woman in a white Suburban who takes her !@&#!@&! sweet time working out her deposit and getting out of the car and figuring out how the ATM machine worked and then making her deposit and then getting back into her car and then taking her sweet time figuring out how her car worked. She slowly pulls out, we zip in, grab the money and go.

We’re barrelling down the street towards the courthouse. “Okay,” I say, “Just drop me at the corner and I’ll dash.”

“I hope they’re not locking up.” Clock reads 3:59.

And I’m thinking, I swear to God if there’s some mid-level government clerk locking that freakin’ door when I get up there, I’m going to keep banging on that glass and making an ass of myself until they either call the cops or someone recognizes me and lets me pay for this marriage license. For the sake of a couple minutes, there is just no way I’m coming back in the morning for this.

So she pulls up, I jump from the car and dash up the steps and throw the door open, cash in hand and trying to hunt down the clerk who helped us before. I find her and have the final paperwork going as Kristi comes in. We get the official California-endorsed papers in a nice, clean little manila envelope and formally have the blessing of the state to get hitched sometime in the next 90 days.

In other news..

We’ve been getting regular RSVPs, a handful every day, from the invitations that went out last week. And nearly everyone has accepted! If this keeps up, we’re going to have a full house. We’ve been getting consistent compliments on the invitations, people continue to buy us gifts off our registries, and we’re both just very grateful to being surrounded by such wonderful family and friends. We’re very happy with how things are shaping up for July.

Dress and rings are bought and paid for. Venue is sorted out. The pastor’s engaged. Engagement photos done and prints ordered. Beautiful invitations out and RSVPs coming back. And now we have our license. We still need to do a million small tasks between now and the event, but I really feel like we have the most important things done now. We’re ready to get this show going.