Busy August

It's Thursday, the seventh day of August. The day before 8-8-08. Apparently, this has been viewed as a lucky day almost worldwide for weddings. According to the Chicago Tribune, local Chicago chapels and wedding decor marketers have seen a 213% rise for weddings on this Friday compared to that of the same Friday this time last year. It also reports that 8-8-08 has failed to be as popular as 7-7-07 was just last year. It happened to fall on a Saturday which could have also helped it in its desirability. For me, I will be doing the same thing this year on 8-8-08 that I did last year on 7-7-07, which is photographing a wedding. They're even being held at the same church.

The Chinese pronunciation of their word for eight sounds very similar to their word for good fortune. Many Chinese people will pay extra for the inclusion of the number eight to be placed in their license plates among other identification numbers. Homes that have addresses with more eights in the number have a higher property value. While there are many reasons for these dates to seem lucky I have my own theory. I think that grooms-to-be have been pushing for this date under the pretense of its luck while all along hoping for a date that gives them a better chance of remembering their anniversaries. But, we can't discount their efforts. After all, they're doing this from looking ahead and expecting to have so many anniversaries so distant from the original wedding date that forgetfulness is almost imminent. So, it's almost a sweet gesture that demonstrates not their careless loss of memory but their high expectations of a successful marriage and their humble belief that they can't maintain their part of that successful marriage without some good ol' well thought out planning.

Tonight actually begins a second round of events for August for us. Last weekend we had a baby shower in Kimberling City that I also attended. It was for guys, too. The guys just hung out upstairs and played cards and watched Nascar. Cards were out because I wouldn't have been able to watch Lyric. Nascar was out because, well, I hate Nascar. So, I just played with Lyric for three hours. After that, we spent the rest of the evening in Branson walking the Landing and hanging out with Jodi's sister, Diana. We were even able to meet her new boyfriend which was good because Jodi's been eager to see what all the hype was about and getting all of our complicated schedules to line up seemed about as probable as an unpredicted solar eclipse. But we met and had a short-lived impromptu hang out session. For whatever reason, August has become our climax of the summer for planned events. Baby showers, weddings, and birthdays are among the biggest hitters, but also there is a vow renewal, dinners with friends, and let's not forget the fair even though this year it was about as memorable as a donut.

Tonight we have a "black tie" dinner to attend. It's actually a wedding rehearsal dinner for tomorrow night's wedding that we are doing photography for. The couple opted to even have this dinner extremely formal which is sorta cool but very odd for Springfield. For most Springfieldians, their high school prom is the first and last "black tie" event in their lives. It's like we're telling these high-schoolers that this is what adult celebrations are like and then we disappoint them with the real world. Oh well.

For these August events, we'll drive 2,267 miles, cross 10 state lines, and probably have very round butts for a while from the 40 estimated hours of being stuck in a bucket seat. Wish us luck. Or a Chinese eight.

Posted in: autobiography