Chasing Fire

McClelland's Theory of Motivation - Part 18

The idea of running away and eloping with a handsome, seemingly heaven sent stranger in a faraway land sounds like the beginning of a great Greek Epic poem.  However, Noralee took pause and calculated what was happening.  She didn't want this to turn into a great tragedy like many of those old myths and poems.  Maybe the gods and goddesses would smile on them, but a little planning and foresight wouldn't hurt. 

"We have to plan this out Bear."  She sat down and rummaged through her backpack for a notebook and a pencil.  Noralee was a daily diarist and had been one since she learned to write as a child.  Placing the small, spiral bound notebook that sported a flashy, psychedelic cover with the words "Purple Haze" spinning in the center by an optical illusion, she began to write the steps they needed to get married. 

1.  Money?  How much do we need for a Wedding, Food and Honeymoon?

2.  Requirements?  IDs, Birth Certificates, Blood tests, Residency?

3.  Application for Marriage?  Where to go?  How much is the fee?  Waiting period?

4.  Venue?  Officiant?

5.  Dress?  Tux? 

She looked at Bear and realized a Tux was not his style and crossed it out.  What about her?  There wasn't any time to look for the perfect dress and did that really matter anyway?  He had seen her cold, wet and hungry, even rolling around in the mud and he still loved her.  Would he love her any less if she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt on their wedding day?  She answered her own question and thought she couldn't love him anymore.  Of course, he would take her any way she showed up at the altar.  She could plan a wedding in her sleep.  Almost all of her friends were either married or getting married.  One of her good friends was planning a Destination wedding to Alaska and from what she knew from her, it could be very expensive.  Everyone wanted the romantic ceremony on a glacier or in an isolated wilderness location, but it came with a big price tag and usually lined up in a queue with twenty other couples.  Nothing personal or romantic about waiting in line. 

"How much money do we have between us?"  She dug into her jeans pockets and opened her wallet in her purse, tucked deeply in her back pack.  "I have five-hundred and three dollars and thirty-seven cents." 

Bear looked a little sheepish, "I don't normally carry a lot of cash on me, but I do have these."  He held out four gold nuggets.  Noralee's eyes grew wide because one of them was the size of her thumb.  There was something mesmerizing about gold.  The way it could pull a person into to it, forcing them to adore it, love it and want it.  After all, it was just a simple metal from the earth, but there was something much stronger about it than say iron or copper.  The way it held the light hostage, even in a dusky room, was magical.  It was heavy and sure of itself, a mineral that demanded your respect or you would be foolish to not recognize its value and status.  The Gold would not be overlooked or ignored.  Once she laid eyes on those twinkling nuggets she couldn't stop thinking about them.  She began to feel warm and tingly all over; The beginning of Gold Fever.  Noralee wasn't sure of the value but she had an idea it was more than enough.  The only problem was Alaska could suck a person dry of money in a short while.  Everything that must be purchased with cash was unbelievably expensive.  Twelve dollars for a box of cereal, eight dollars for a gallon of milk and six dollars for a dozen eggs.  They could be broke by lunchtime.  She didn't know how people made ends meet in a place that did not seem to have a price ceiling.  They would be broke before they knew it if they weren't careful with their funds. 

She showed him the list feeling a little overwhelmed.  It was one thing to run off and get married and another thing when the details of the undertaking were laid out on paper.  The whole thing felt like filing her taxes and not very romantic at all.  But it reminded her of an exercise in a business management class she took a year before she graduated.  She decided to get a business minor as a back up to her education degree.  The Professor was odd, but a delightful, older Southern Gentleman.  His kind were a dying breed and Noralee thought what a pity.  What would the world look like without true Gentlemen with odd and a little eccentric style and humor?  School would be more boring, that was for sure.