Amanda Takes Off...

We got back the standardized test scores from the state.

Every single one of my students passed in every single subject area.

Relief.

(Though I should've done better teaching Social Studies.)

Good Man and I finished our music playlist. It's at 97 songs and 57 artists and over 6 hrs long, which means we won't get through even one play. I might cull it down a bit.

We're not planning on dancing (no first dance, father-daughter/mother-son, etc) and we're also not having a processional or recessional so the music is mostly background music for the eating part of the party. Because we're not dancing, I didn't really put much thought in ratio of slow songs to fast ones, and I don't care about order at all—we're just throwing it in the deck on shuffle.

The list is almost entirely English-language songs, because Good Man refused to choose Korean songs and every Korean song I like is about stalking or breaking up and how everything was a lie. We do have a pretty good spread of dates. In fact, the artist we have the most songs from? Bing Crosby tops the list with ten. U2 and Van Morrison come in second at 5 each.

Tomorrow the tent people come to survey the site, so that should be settled before he week's out. While we're in the area we're also going to get a Costco membership and survey the food situation/estimate cost (we're doing party platters).

The centerpiece photo thing is about half done. I'm waiting on photos from Sister and from Mom. Once I get those scanned in, we're good to go. Nixed the photo book idea due to time.

Rain plans are to simply use the first level of Mark's Lover's house. He's crammed 150 people on that level before, so our little party should be completely doable.

Good Man's Mother told us she's going to throw "lots of" chestnuts and dates at us at the pyebaek. She also said she caught five at their wedding. Good Man is missing three siblings.

We have a final guest count: twenty people, inclusive of us. That's the size of my classroom, inclusive of me. Five family members for Good Man, seven family members for me. Mark and Lover, of course. College Friend and her husband. Special Forces Instructor and Language Partner.

I am having total last-minute anxiety about everything. Should we have dancing? Should we have an aisle? What about a processional and recessional? Should we have changes of clothing for the reception? Should we have formal food on the pyebaek table? Should we have some games for people to play since this isn't a normal wedding reception? Should we track down a huge hunk of acrylic to put over the Quaker wedding certificate so it doesn't get grubby?

Good Man has basically responded to everything with some variation of no. "No." "No." "Quit worrying." "No. You wanted hanbok. We have hanbok." "There is nowhere to get special decorated chicken and if we do it will be thousand dollars because this is America. No." "Only if we don't buy special games and just bring what we have." "What is 'grubby?'... No. There is only 20 people. It will not get dirty."

My newest melt down is over assigned seating. Should we have assigned seating? Language Partner and Special Forces only know me but both are bilingual. Everyone else knows at least one other person. We have three tables which seat eight to ten people and twenty-eight chairs. There is no wedding party. There is no head table. Food is going to be self-serve buffet style at a long table. All of the guest tables are round with umbrellas. Having reserved seating for family doesn't really make sense when more than half the list is family. I'm not sure my 외-Grandma and Dad could stand sitting next to each other. If everyone were bilingual I'd mix the families, but mixing the family when only Father is bilingual makes no sense. Is it even necessary to have a seating plan for twenty people? Seating plans are not the norm in Korea or Minnesota. Does a seating plan even match the totally casual tone of this wedding? There are no speeches or toasts planned so hearing isn't an issue.

These are the thoughts running through my head (and out of my mouth in a very panicky way).

Good Man's response? "Just let everyone figure out where to sit. This is just wedding planners' fear mongering wedding rules. They will sit where they want to sit. There is not that much people. You don't have assigned seating at a party and this is a party."