An earnest earful

In the past six days, I've had four cancellations of scheduled plans to meet up with friends.

Because my first impression of the T-dot was it was a land of schedulers, I put my faith in having inked in a brunch or a cocktail or two. But as with any stereotype, it's eventually proven hard to stick in a box.

Fortunately, I still have friends and met up with two in the last two days. Both spontaneous, or semi-so.

One of them involved meeting up with D. on Wednesday. After much heckling from C. in Ottawa to try to convince D. to pierce her earrings in time for her wedding ... I did exactly the opposite. Over a dinner of udon soup and california rolls, I urged her not to do it.

In the end, I don't really care what decision she makes. I just want it to be her own.

Mind you, I have my own bias. I can't help but cringe at the thought of planning the 'perfect' wedding. The idea of piercing ears just in time for a wedding seems to create this unrealistically high expectation that every little detail is going to contribute to everything going smoothly.

And to be honest shooting needles into your ear lobe just means next you have to spend countless hours worrying about what is worthy of putting into them on your special day. Just buy a necklace. Or a tiara. Or what about that fabulous ring on your finger?

What I like about D.'s approach is that she's not all that fussed about her wedding. She wants it to be comfortable. And likely, she'll enjoy the day a lot more for it.

Mind you, it's still a year away. Lots of time to get suckered into something.

Though I have faith that the lessons in aggression I like to think I taught her in university will stand firm. ;)