Wedding-free zone

Pam got a pair of planning books for M and me. One's a humorous mix of advice and self-defense tactics for engaged grooms, and another is a bride's organizational book complete with spreadsheets, time lines and check lists. I expect both will be peppered with our combined margin notes and highlighting by the end of next year.

One of the best suggestions we've come across yet is declaring a wedding-free zone, where life as we know it continues unfettered by organza, seating charts, opining family members or other wedding paraphernalia.

I think we need to take this advice and apply it to the other large-scale project in my life. We need a monster-free zone (conveniently localized to weekends, I propose). And we need to keep our $Project-free zones from becoming an intricate web of rules about what not to say when, or it will fast become counter-productive.

But really? I need a vacation. Creating mini DMZs around our calendar and home will serve as a stop-gap for only so long. Real down-time must follow.