Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

On Saturday, The Gryphon and I wanted to finalize our honeymoon plans, as well as take care of a couple other things.

First we stopped at the vet to pick up more low allergen food for our kitty, Luke. Then we drove to the AAA, where we had planned our honeymoon with a very nice travel agent the week before, whom I'll call Penelope.

She's a young, sweet-natured friendly person who gave us personal attention and made us feel optimistic about the trip.

Penelope wasn't there Saturday. Instead, we had a woman I'll call Bertha, who was in her 50s', a large woman wearing harsh eye makeup and an outdated hairstyle. She had a brusque way of talking. As we sat in line waiting for attention, she was barking things at the people ahead of us. Naturally, she did the same to us.

It was almost a good-cop, bad-cop situation, like a comedy sketch. The first agent sits down with you and plans your vacation: "Congratulations on your upcoming marriage. Let's plan you the perfect honeymoon."

Several minutes of pleasantness later, the vacation planned, she says, "Oh, excuse me. I have to go on break. Bertha will finish this up for you."

Bertha comes in, flops into the chair and growls, "You know you have to pay for this today."

At first, we weren't even sure we wanted to keep working with her, but when she got on the phone we realized her no-nonsense ways could be useful. She was on the phone with Disney, for example, trying to get a price for renting a car and said, "No, a compact. A compact car. No, a compact car." She put her foot down for the things we needed.

The other thing somewhat impressive about her was that she was working from Penelope's notes, and yet she acted as if everything had originated with her, and that they better listen to her.

While the experience started out a little harrowing, she got the job done for us. What's more, she filed it under Penelope's name, so we'll be working with her on the follow-ups.

One more thing to cross off the wedding planning list!

(Incidentally, just now I almost lost my voice recorder. It dropped out of my pocket into the snow, where I had placed it to talk to the crossing guard who likes to pet our doggie, Una. It took me several minutes to find it again. Fortunately, it still works.)

Next, we tackled a task that was a bit more fun. We drove into Center City and ate a late breakfast at the Marathon Grill before walking over to the Reading Terminal Market, specifically, to Chocolates by Mueller. We wanted to find out if they could do favors for our wedding reception. The Gryphon recommended them because they're well known in Philly for their creative, fun chocolates.

The owner, Terry, spoke to us and said that they do a lot of similar events. She showed us a book of boxes we can order, which are then filled up with the candy of our choice. We explained our wedding theme, and she suggested we talk to one of her daughters, because they're usually the ones who handle event planning. The Gryphon will stop by this week to get more ideas together and find out the nuts and bolts about when and how to order.

In the evening, we got together with some friends, which I'll write more about tomorrow. There was, however, one more wedding related task accomplished. Since all three groomsmen were there, The Gryphon was able to set a time for them to get together and go to Men's Wearhouse to be measured for tuxes.

All in all, a fun and productive day.

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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