It's Legal!

Wow! What a vacation! I am so exhausted... I need a vacation from my vacation!

Well... it's legal now. After 20 yrs, Michele and I have become legally wedded.  Not that we weren't married anyhow. After all... what else do you call all those years of devotion and love? I was thinking about the two ceremonies ( okay... it's actually 4 if you count the 1993 March on Washington protest marriage and the vow renewal service 10 yrs ago... We apparently just like to get hitched again periodically.) and there were a lot of similarities between the two services.

In 1992, we were married at the Unitarian Church in Winston Salem, where I grew up. My family was there and most of my close friends. Michele only had one member of her family at that service. My hair was short, my dress was green, my flowers were a bouquet that one of my friends bought for me at the grocery store. Michele wore a suit we rented from a costume shop.We arrived at the church early to set up the whole shebang ourselves. No florist, no decorator, no nothing. Talk about a minimalist wedding. It cost us 500.00. For us at that time, that was a lot of money. I was so nervous walking down the aisle that I was swinging my bouquet, flinging water on our guests. Why was I so nervous? For me, this was a huge thing. I was about to pledge to be with this one woman for the rest of my life. In my mind, marriage is sacred, and when you make that promise in front of friends and family, it means FOREVER. No matter what. And while I knew I loved Michele wholeheartedly, we really hadn't been together that long. So yeah... it was a little daunting. But my family was there to support me, and by golly, I was going to give it my all. At 21, you don't really think about all the what if's though, and I never realized all the curve balls life would throw at us. But looking back, I think that having a commitment ceremony ( as it was called then) always helped us get past the obstacles in life.

Fast forward 20 years. It's now 2012. Marriage is now legally available to all people in a handful of states, one of which happens to be New York, where Michele was born and raised. Once again, our minister is a Unitarian. My hair is short, but growing. My dress is green. My bouquet was a gift from a family member. We decorated everything ourselves, with lots of help from family members, the dollar store and of course... the markdown section of a drug store. Michele's family is there. I have my best friend of twenty four years and two of my dance friends. This time... I went down the aisle without a single worry. This may have been the legal part, but really, this was a confirmation that twenty years ago, when I looked at Michele and said I Do, I really meant it!

Now... I need to sit and write out all the stuff from last week. I took notes so I wouldn't forget. Let's see here... the L.I.E traffic, wow! No MIL, Typhoon! Christmas lights with Sisto, I need a pool, southern misconceptions about northerners, carrying a carport, don't fly Delta, family reunion, boats, beach, cupcakes, karaoke and the joy of silence. Gosh... I guess I better get writing...