The Big Italian Wedding

The long-awaited destination wedding of Uncle Tootie and Aunt Hea-Hea finally arrived, and all the friends and family members (and about half of Folly Beach's food and beverage staff) packed their bags and made their way to Sorrento. Aunt Georgia and I (and Brett) stayed home on pet and plant patrol, so the details I have about the trek have been gathered from brief text messages and occasional Facetime calls from Ellen. The consensus from the Union family is that it is the nicest wedding they've ever been to. Everyone looked and did great. I hear there were a couple days of partying on either side of the wedding day. Jordan, Margie, Uncle Dave, and Lee stayed up until the wee hours of each morning, huddled around a tiny table on the patio, surrounded by bougainvillea and lemon trees. The house they stayed in had an exciting garden. I believe this is my precious foursome standing in it - note Mom's purse that seems to have been hurled into the yard in an effort to keep it out of the photo.

The following are the beautiful photos I seemingly received in real time. Dad's photo updates in particular made me feel like I was included in all the fun. I was at Ellie's house packing her Etsy orders as the photos came in and I kept running from my duties to show her my precious family. I was just SO excited for everyone. 

I never got a clear photo of Alston and Halee but those will be coming.

Meanwhile on James Island, I kept myself busy creating my first in-ground garden. I went to Alston's everyday to feed his cats, Carolyn's every couple days to water plants, Ellen's house to let in the cleaners, and Mom and Dad's house to move some cars around. Those jobs mixed with my Etsy packing efforts kept me entirely busy the whole time my family was gone. I barely had time to lament their absence. 

Marcia kept Nick and Liv for the week and then brought them back into town in time for Livvy's Kindergarten graduation, and then I took over the babysitting until Ellen and Lee came home that night. I had to entertain them for just six hours - a mere moment of their lifetimes - but I felt every minute of that six hours because I am not accustomed to the lacking mental stimulation of such undertakings. I love those kids - would take a bullet for them - but gracious watching them for an afternoon is dull. You're really trapped and cooped because leaving the house is too much trouble. So there you sit, in a slightly damp spot on the sofa, while both of them talk at you at the same time. Nick threw a tiny tantrum each time I wouldn't let him eat candy, and I couldn't get either of them to eat a real dinner. Neither of them wanted to wear anything except their underwear and Nick understandably became frustrated when he lacked the dexterity and brain-power of Liv, so then there would be more crying. I'd thought ahead and brought some really big cardboard with me and that did a great job keeping them busy for a while. 

What I did enjoy about the experience was watching Liv manipulate Nick. She is entirely in charge and when things don't go her way because of Nick, she comes up with clever but cruel ways to make him do right. "Well Nick, if you're not going to do it, I might have to take away that toy I gave you last week." Even when they played out make-believe scenarios, it was really just Liv telling Nick what to do. "You're a dog, so you barked when you saw the bad guys... bark Nick." and then Nick would bark. "But you miss your Mommy so you started to cry... you have to cry Nikki." So he would play cry. 
"Why are you walking? You're a dog, they crawl."
I think we all can see how this relationship will work until the end of time.

Other tidbits: Bubbs and I have moved into our favorite season - porch season. We have a magical, nearly year-round breeze in our yard, so we just about live on the porch all summer long. It's my all-time-favorite thing. 

Cameron, the surviving kitten from the Cameron and Barkley pair, has taken to butt-scratches and suddenly understands the benefits of the house-cat life. He has recently begun stepping inside to inspect things for an hour or so before darting back out into known safety. He loves to dine in the threshold between outside and in, and will alert you to desires for pet and scratches. Brett tells me we can't have a third cat but I frequently catch him trying to lure Cameron into the house. Mostly Cam hangs out on the porch or watches me flounder around in the new garden. He's a chatty little guy - makes both of us laugh.

My Chicken Group

Earth Day is in April. I don't pay attention to the various days of acknowledgement printed on our calendars but I do like Earth Day. I'll accept a little praise for nature. I also enjoy watching people who exist entirely indoors tentatively tiptoeing into nature to appease one of their more earthy friends. I like the corporate "greening" of otherwise man-man, sterile goods and services. It's a hateful enjoyment you see. Like Valentines Day.

I digress. As the leader of the local animal group here, I have to pay attention to these cutesy things in case of overly-enthusiastic group members feeling an opportunity was missed. But Earth Day is different. I like Earth Day. The premise of Earth Day (protecting and celebrating nature) perfectly coincides with the premise of my chicken group (ethical, healthy systems for critters) so instead of having a single Earth Day event to celebrate and educate, I, and my co-conspirator Tessa, decided on a full month of actions - Earth Month - because she and I have lost touch with reality.

We organized four Saturday morning opportunities to volunteer with aligned local organizations doing good things for plants and animals. Huzzah! Opportunities included a trash sweep, weeding and planting at the park, harvesting produce to donate to the hungry, and finally, the big finale, monitoring the critters over at The Goatery during a joggers marathon of some sort. Tessa and I were pleased with our work, for we wanted to participate in all of these things. Who wouldn't?

The point is, I spent my April weekends out being a do-gooder, albeit one that did a poor job making solid connections with the leaders of these aligned organizations which was one of the purposes of our doing this. 
But here's a few of Charleston's happiest crap-catchers. 

What I'm most excited about was the morning we spent at the goat farm. Post marathon, runners were able to come into the animal pens to pet the critters, and my little group was in charge of seeing to it that everyone was gentle with the baby goats. A dream job - because people are naturally gentle with baby beings.

Not to brag, but the goats loved me. 

A second highlight that day; I got to visit Natalie Snortman. Remember this little cutie? Well she has grown into a bossy troublemaker. The farm folks said she rules the roost and all the other pigs have to do what she says. I was excited to see her - she's gotten so big - and because pigs are smart creatures, I secretly hoped she'd remember me. She did do a kind of double-take with her snout when she first sniffed me, but I don't think she recognized me. I was only slightly offended.

A third highlight that day; the farm needed someone to wear an inflatable goat costume for the runners to pose with for photos. I'd brought Ellie and Brett along with me for this day and when I heard they needed a court jester, I signed Ellie up for the task. She played it cool but I know she was excited about it. 

Overall, Earth Month was sparsely attended by our group members. We know we deviated from our normal activities but Tessa and I don't understand why most folks didn't want to roll around in the dirt with us. Over the last five years as the ringleader of this group I have noticed amusing trends about volunteers. What everyone in our group has in common is a desire to help animals, and what's funny is how it manifests. Some people volunteer because they want to be the type that volunteers - it does not come naturally to them and they seem to have to fight themselves to come participate. Some are fair-weather advocates; they want to help, but only if its an activity they enjoy or its not too far from their houses. Some are so wholeheartedly devoted to the cause that they have lost a sense of humor about anything and can't move through a day without it hinging on their belief system. Some people are normal - and those are our best allies. In an environmental/animal rights world, there are a lot of mystical, beaded-curtain, smoldering incense types and those folks are not great ambassadors for getting regular people to take you seriously. 

There are the virtue-signalers, the distracted college students, the wannabe group leaders, and a few elderly singles finally dipping their toes into a pool they've always wondered about.

Learning how to mobilize and utilize the different personalities is fun, cringeworthy, and incredibly slow. I've talked to some other volunteer group leaders and we all have the same problem: the hardest part is getting people to follow through. I know they are busy and sleepy. It's hard to do all the things you have to do and then try to add in things you want to do and then add in things you want to do but don't really have to do because probably enough other people will be there to make sure it all works out. 

That's why sticking it to The Man is a slow process. 

But we do win eventually.