Jackson's Really Big Day

In January I wrote a post entitled "Jackson's Big Day," about his senior recital.  I also mentioned in that post that he was engaged to be married, so it was kind of silly for me to call the recital his big day (although it was pretty big) when I knew even then that a really big day was in store just a few months later!  So we'll call the wedding Jackson and the Wonderful, Magical, Not Bad, Very Good Day, even though there's not enough space for all those adjectives in the post title.

As you know, in my previous post, I left off narrating on Saturday, May 28, when Eric and I had retired from sightseeing at Arlington National Cemetery to regroup with the family at our hotel suite in Annapolis.  That very same night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Evelyn's entiiiiiire family.  That girl has six siblings and two siblings-in-law, one niece-to-be, and two parents, of course, but by the end of dinner I had learned everyone's names and I still remember them all as I type this (even the unborn baby June!), I'm proud to say.  A little later that evening, we all reunited for ice cream in downtown Annapolis by the water.  As we quickly scanned the sights with what little time we had downtown, Eric was having pangs of regret because, even though it was a bit busy due to Naval Academy's graduation weekend, Annapolis seemed much more his speed than downtown D.C.  Maybe we'll get the chance to vacation there sometime.

The next morning, the Pinder girls (Mom, Annie, and I) had planned to get our nails done before the rehearsal.  Eric's feet were a bit achy from sightseeing and a bit rough from his ballooning adventures, so he decided to tag along for a pedicure, and before you know it, we'd all convinced Dad and Jackson to join us, too!  So all six of us lined up in the massage chairs for mani-pedis before heading off to the venue for the mid-afternoon wedding rehearsal.  Annie and I got to sit in the shade while we watched the wedding party parade by, but I took lots of pictures because everyone looked so cute and happy.

That night, Mom and Dad hosted a lovely rehearsal dinner, complete with Maryland crab cakes, for the wedding party and our families.  They had picked a cool restaurant right on the water, not far upstream from the ceremony venue we'd be heading back to the next day.  I enjoyed a delectable salmon and Eric devoured a fat juicy steak.  We packed some leftovers for the soon-to-be newlyweds to take along on their honeymoon, but we saved a few s'mores dessert bites to bring back to the suite for ourselves.  (What?  They wouldn't fit in the takeout containers.)

Mom and Dad also threw a luncheon at the hotel the next day for all of the guests who had traveled so far to attend the evening's ceremony.  It was mostly our paternal (south Georgian and a few Ohioan) and maternal (central and southwest Floridian) relatives, but we were grateful that a few good friends from Waycross were able to make the trip as well.  Jackson and his barbershop quartet, the Vigilantes, even stopped by for a bite and to treat us to a song.

It wasn't the last treat we'd get from the Vigilantes that day.  After the quaint and lovely ceremony at London Town and Gardens, the quartet serenaded Evelyn with a medley Jackson spent over two years arranging.  It sure was a scorching hot day, but there was beautiful music, remarkably delicious cake, and the most fun dancing I've had at a wedding in the shortest amount of time.  At the end of the evening, we saw the happy couple off to their honeymoon and showered them with rose petals as they went down the path to sail away on the South River toward their honeymoon destination in North Carolina.  Eric got to be in Jackson's wedding party, and I got to spectate and take in all of the little moments that added up to make a gloriously memorable day that I'll look back on fondly for many years to come!

I noticed that my last few posts with pictures included have taken up quite a bit of page space, making my readers deal with lots of unnecessary scrolling, so I decided to condense the photos from the wedding weekend into one big cheesy heart-infested slideshow.

I Love My Country

This year, no one but I will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Trapper County War, an alleged action-adventure film that features two songs--and a cameo appearance--by my dad, Terry Pinder. These tunes include "Certified Fool" and "I Love My Country," which I think is great title (the song features a clever double meaning).

In honor of this milestone, here's a collection of some interesting country song titles. Some of these may be inaccurate, but they're still worth reading if you're bored.

• All My Exes Live In Texas
• Bubba Shot The Jukebox
• Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through The Goal Posts Of Life) -- one of Dad's favorites
• Get Off the Table, Mabel (The Two Dollars is for the Beer)
• Get Your Biscuits In The Oven and Your Buns In The Bed
• Here's A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)
• How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?
• How Come Your Dog Don't Bite Nobody But Me?
• I Bought the Shoes that Just Walked Out on Me
• I Can't Pass the Bar, and There's One on my Way Home
• I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life
• I Don't Want Your Body If Your Heart's Not In It
• I Gave Her My Heart and A Diamond and She Clubbed Me With A Spade
• I Gave Her the Ring, and She Gave Me the Finger
• I Got In at 2 With A 10 and Woke Up At 10 With a 2
• I Guess I Had Your Leavin' Coming
• I Still Miss You, Baby, But My Aim's Gettin' Better
• I Wish I Were A Woman (So I Could Go Out With A Guy Like Me)
• I Would Have Wrote You A Letter, But I Couldn't Spell Yuck!
• I'd Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Frontal Lobotomy
• If I Ain't Got It, You Don't Need It
• If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You
• If I'd Killed You When I Wanted To, I'd be Out of Jail By Now
• If My Nose Was Running Money, Honey, I'd Blow It All On You
• If The Jukebox Took Teardrops, I'd Cry All Night Long
• If Today Was A Fish, I'd Throw It Back In
• If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead?
• I'll Tennessee You In My Dreams
• I'm Drinkin' Christmas Dinner (All Alone This Year)
• I'm In Love With a Capital U
• I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like Having You Here
• Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You
• Legendary Chicken Fairy
• Mama Get The Hammer (There's A Fly On Papa's Head)
• Phantom Of The Opry
• Please Bypass This Heart
• She Got The Gold Mine and I Got The Shaft
• She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy
• Tennis Must Be Your Racket 'Cause Love Means Nothin' To You
• Thank God and Greyhound She's Gone
• The Pint Of No Return
• Timber... I'm Fallin' In Love
• We Used To Kiss On The Lips, But It's All Over Now
• Welcome to Dumpsville, Population Me
• When We Get Back To the Farm (That's When We Really Go To Town)
• You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too
• You Changed Your Name From Brown to Jones, and Mine From Brown to Blue
• You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly

Granny

My paternal grandmother passed away last evening from pancreatic cancer. Eric has been asked to be a pallbearer, and we will be driving up to Georgia either tomorrow night after my classes at the studio or Saturday morning for the service on Saturday.

I am grateful to her for sharing her passion for music and teaching with me and my family. I began taking piano lessons from her at a very young age and built a foundation of piano technique on the skills that she taught me. Now I make my living doing the same for artistic young people, and I am appreciative to her for enstilling that passion in me.

She also gave me my dad, who is the most selfless, loving father in the whole world.

Shirla Ione Shaw Pinder

1930-2008