Stuff I Love: Lists, Biebs, and a Good Wedding Parade

I don’t consider myself to be a super organized person. Having a business has forced me to do a lot of things that I never would’ve done before- have a calendar (and USE it), scan receipts, put things in folders, sort snail mail and email. And I still don’t enjoy doing any of those things, really, but I do love the feeling of getting things DONE. I think this is part of the reason I’ve always loved to-do lists. The beauty of a to-do list is that it doesn’t have to be habitual… whenever I get overwhelmed, I just start writing stuff down as a way of helping me organize my thoughts and priorities. And I know you feel me on this one: is there any more satisfactory feeling than taking a big ole Sharpie and marking the crap out of an item on a list once you’ve done it? The downside is that I have about ten or so ongoing to-do lists just lying around, and half the time I end up losing them or forgetting to use them.

Enter one of the most genius tools I’ve come across in awhile: Teux Deux. Typically with things like this, I’ll use it for a couple of weeks and then forget about it. (Much like exercise plans or daily schedules or any other major lifestyle change, I have serious long-term commitment issues.) Google Calendar? Notes? Pretty much everything else? Forget it. But there’s something about this site that is so wonderfully intuitive and easy and minimalist and functional. I can see myself sticking with this one for awhile. Now I can keep all my to-dos organized, and I can mark them off, move them around, delete them, or edit them as I want without having a mess of a piece of paper with chicken scratch and doodles all over it. And the best part? It saves all my “done” items, so I can have that constant reassurance that I’m being productive. Or at least trying to be. ;)

Before I go on, I beg you not to unsubscribe, defriend, or unfollow me after you read this. Yes, friends, I’ve developed a case of the Bieber Fever. I know, I know… it goes against every indie-folk-music-loving bone in my body. I used to be a total hater, griping about how he was trending on Twitter for like 467 days in a row or something crazy. I would walk by the preteen girls’ store Justice and see his face plastered on glittery t-shirts and I would gag a little. But over the past few weeks, something has changed. I don’t know if it’s because he’s growing up or I’m growing down, but the kid’s seriously growing *on* me. It started when I saw his performance on the Grammys with Usher and Jaden Smith (by the way, how much do you LOVE the Smith family?!). The next night, he appeared on Conan and Chelsea Lately, and having never seen him interviewed before, I was blown away by how endearing and funny and, well,normal he was. The night after that, Glee did a tribute to him, and that was just the icing on the cake. Sam’s performance in the choir room…. oh my goodness. Yeah, I could see why the girls were going crazy. Who knows, maybe I’m just reliving my boy-band-loving days, but I gotta hand it to Justin… he’s got mad singing, dancing, multiple-instrument-playing, swaggering, hair-swooshing skillz. Especially for a 16-year-old. I can respect the way he worked his butt off to get his name out there, and now, with the help of a dream marketing team, his name is WAY out there. So, sorry for hatin’, Biebs.

And finally, I’ve lately been enamored with the idea of a wedding parade. I especially love the Italian wedding parade scene in The Godfather (one of my all-time favorite movies). It’s so romantic and exciting and beautiful. I know they’re very prevalent in Italian culture, but recently I did a little reading on another popular parade tradition: the New Orleans second line wedding parade. This usually takes place as the bride and groom leave the church. A jazz band will lead the parade through the middle of the street, followed by the bride and groom, who hold umbrellas, and all of their guests, who typically twirl handkerchiefs in the air behind them. I watched quite a few YouTube videos of these parades, and almost every one of them made me cry. There’s something so magical to me about such a public display of celebration, where onlookers cheer and wave and shout well wishes. I love that weddings and funerals command such a universal display of respect by complete strangers. I remember driving in funeral processions as a child when family members died and being so awed at how everyone would pull over to the side of the road, some even getting out of their cars and holding their hands over their hearts to acknowledge the mourning process. (This might be a Southern thing, I’m not really sure. I do know it’s lot less common these days, with more and more people choosing cremation or to not have a formal burial. See the movie Elizabethtown if you want to know the ins and outs of Southern funeral traditions.) In the same way, I love that parades cause complete strangers to join in the celebration. I have yet to actually witness this kind of parade, but I’m sure it would stop me dead in my tracks if I were just a passerby. What an awesome tradition to have. And on that note, if you’re planning a New Orleans wedding complete with a parade, let me know. I would go BANANAS to be able to shoot something like this: