Well, it’s finally here—your portly is getting married. By late afternoon, Dr. Fiancée will be Dr. Wife.
It’s been a pretty wild week, as I imagine most wedding weeks are. It’s been fun, too, to celebrate with friends, family, colleagues, and—of course—Dr. F.
I told her that there would be some weird feelings and thoughts this week as we processed this massive life change. We’re both beyond ready for it. At the same time, it feels like we’re formalizing before God what He Has Done.
It was about a year ago that Dr. F—then Dr. Girlfriend—and I realized that we wanted to get married. It was quick, but each passing day has only cemented that initial conviction.
I’m so, so thankful for her.
Thanks to everyone who has sent along well-wishes and kind words. If I don’t respond to new comments imminently, please know that it’s because I won’t exactly be hanging out online today—ha!
It’s been a wild and wooly wedding week for yours portly and Dr. Fiancée. Our closing on Monday went well, and I spent Tuesday morning visiting the DMV, the courthouse, and the city hall of our new town to get everything setup. I was apparently so quick, the attorneys had not gotten the updated deed to the courthouse yet!
I also picked up our marriage license. Dr. Fiancée and I applied for it on Monday, but South Carolina requires a twenty-four waiting period, I suppose to allow cooler heads (or shotguns) to prevail in the event of impulsive (or coerced) marriages.
The past few days—even the past few weeks!—have felt like a marathon of threading needles of time. But it’s all coming together!
Now I’m just praying my tuxedo arrives at my local Men’s Wearhouse this afternoon, so I don’t have to make a special trip tomorrow. If that’s the only snag in this wedding week, though, I’ll be very pleased!
Dr. Fiancée and I are super excited. We’re also ready to disconnect for the honeymoon.
To that end, I’ll be running TPP’s Greatest Hits (or something like that) next week. I’ll catch up on comments and such when we are back.
As noted on Monday, yours portly has been tied up with some major life stuff—all good, but all quite time-consuming. Indeed, today marks one month to my wedding! Dr. Fiancée and I are excited, and most of the details have been hammered out (I know that I will regret writing that overly optimistic assessment). At this point, it’s mostly just paying the vendors.
I’m also gearing up for the Spooktacular, which is this Saturday, 25 October 2025. Yours portly is not the best about maintaining a clean home, as it’s not a high priority to me. As long as the kitchen counters are disinfected and the toilet is scrubbed, I’m content. Naturally, dust and crumbs accumulate like the ash from a volcano; somehow, I’m incapable of eating breakfast without leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Murphy and I both do our share of shedding, too. I imagine the tops of my ceiling fans would give housewives the hives.
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As my grasping promo paragraphs suggest, yours portly has some new music out there, with Triple Deluxe releasing this Monday, 15 September on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms. I’m also currently working on Spooky Season IV, which is running a little behind schedule—gulp!
SSIV likely won’t be as long as SSIII, which clocked in at nearly forty-two minutes. But it will hopefully capture the fun, spooky, ghostly feel of Halloween.
My fiction writing has cooled considerably, but I did finish a draft of “Tap, Tap, Tap,” a creepy little short story about a telepathic beetle that feeds on human emotions; I’ll likely upload that as a PDF and/or in-body text for paid subscribers in the near future. I’m also working on a pulpy barbarian story, although I have not been putting in my daily quota of words in weeks.
Otherwise, I’ve been keeping busy with school. I’ve got two solid ensembles this year, and my Middle School Music Ensemble in particular has impressed me with their musicality. The High School Music Ensemble is doing well, too, tackling pieces like Supertramp’s “The Logical Song” (which features irregular phrasing of ten and then eleven measures) and Herbie Hancock’s fusion classic “Chameleon.”
As a bit a preview for SSIV, here’s the short piece “Red Ghost”:
I wrote the main theme in F major by hand, and it feels rather truncated. Inspiration struck, through, and I wrote a three-voice fugue section in D minor, which I think came out quite well.
More updates to come, dear readers. Thanks for your support!
There is something Romantic and cool about driving with the windows down—the wind whipping through your hair, tunes blasting from the stereo. It’s the definition of fun and frivolity.
Except when you have to do it every single day. That’s been my life since my car’s air-conditioning conked out in late July while driving home from Dr. Fiancée’s place.
Yours portly is back into the swing of things at school, and therefore have not had much time to write. I meant to hammer out a post last night after work, but the siren song of Civilization VII, coupled with post-teaching relaxation, was too strong to resist. As such, here’s a quick update:
It is hot—interminably hot—here in South Carolina. I can only imagine how much worse it is for our senior correspondent, Audre Myers, down in Florida. My European readers will struggle to comprehend the kind of heat we’re experiencing. I still can’t comprehend entire nations in the developed world that don’t have air-conditioning; it is truly a privilege for Europeans to have the luxury of not having A/C, much less not having to run it constantly.
I’ve often referred to the South in the summer as akin to living on the surface of Venus. Our poisonous gas atmosphere is in the form of humidity—breathable, but barely. Imagine walking outside and feeling not just heat, but a kind of all-encompassing clamminess that somehow manages to make you feel even hotter. Yes, you can get acclimated if you’re willing to stay out in it long enough, but you have to drink constantly, as the combo of heat and humidity is constantly sucking moisture from your body.
Yours portly has been busy at work on wedding planning, and generally getting things squared away on that front. I’m also using this week to knock out all of those quotidian little things that make up life: dental cleanings, haircuts, oil changes, etc. July is the slowest month of the year for lessons, and this week is particularly dead: I’ve already taught all of my lessons for the week! So it’s the ideal time to take care of things that need doing, but which get pushed onto the backburner the rest of the year.
The blog has been running daily for over 6.5 years at this point; I believe that 1 January 2026 will mark seven years of daily posting. That is pretty wild to contemplate.
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Yours portly has just finished a grueling two weeks of work. My students attended the SCISA Music Festival this past Thursday, and the preparation for that event dominated my time. The week prior, I was editing four chapters of a book my pastor needed to finish to get to his publisher. His original editor fell through, so I knocked out one chapter a night over the course of four nights. I probably spent around 12-15 hours in total editing, and one night nearly fell asleep while doing so!
But now there is a bit of a lull. Middle School students will be in testing most of this week, and the Spring Concert is about three weeks away. There is much to do in preparation for the Concert, but I’ll have a chance to catch my breath.
It’s raining hard at Dr. Girlfriend’s place, and Murphy and I will be hitting the road in a bit to head home. Hopefully it’s not storming the entire way, but we’ll take our time.
How’s everyone doing out there in the blogosphere? Any fun Saint Patrick’s Day plans?
In all seriousness, today is just a quick filler post. As readers know, this weekend was a bit of a whirlwind on Saturday, followed by a relaxing Sunday with Dr. Girlfriend. Yours portly is back in Lamar and Murphy is getting a much-needed bath and nail trim at the veterinarian. I’m taking advantage of the quiet to knock out several tasks around the house and for work.
I’ll be back to regular programming tomorrow (God Willing). February always seems to be an unusually busy time. Work hasn’t been too crazy, which is blessing, because I’ve had quite a few other things to attend to at home and in my personal life. Everything is good—it’s nothing bad or difficult—just a lot of getting my proverbial ducks in a row so I can feast on metaphorical mallard in the future.
I’m thankful for another day off—we’re in the midst of our “Winter Break.” Teachers return tomorrow for a professional development day. We’re going through the lengthy reaccreditation process, and we’re working on our curriculum guides. Mine have been done since our teacher workday back in January (the one on my birthday—ha!), so I’m anticipating a pretty easy day.
