WEDDINGS: thin white dress

Monday I did 6 wedding ceremonies, more than all last week. Most of the couples were very normal, sweet couples. Most of the clerks were lovely and sweet. Yet the Clerk from Hell is still yelling at me. I took a souvenir certificate back to her to be corrected. She had put the wrong name for the bride. The CFH yelled, "That's what she said. And they shouldn't be getting married anyway. He doesn't want to get married." After some more ranting, she did correct it.

Now the above couple were a little different. The bride was 16 years older than the groom. He was well past legal age, around 30. ( I don't really worry about age differences. My stepfather is 17 years younger than my Mother. And they just celebrated their 48th anniversary.) To first look at them, you thought what a good looking couple. He had on a Tux, she had on a long white dress. And then you got up closer. He was addicted to his cell phone, texting away ignoring the world. She had tattoos that looked homemade. I don't like tattoos, but do recognize the artistry in them. Hers were really bad. After getting that close, I didn't want to look at them. She was in a dreaded thin white dress. Yes dear readers, no, nada underwear, none. She might as well been naked.

Wednesday was slower. I only had 4 couples. One couple was there with family. The bride had on a gorgeous white brocade suit with a lacy ruffled blouse. He was in a black suit. They were so sweet and in love. His father was so funny working the camera. Every second of the ceremony has been documented.

The last couple of the day had a large group with them. Everyone was excited about the wedding. There were 2 toddlers who were loud and busy while in the lobby. I was worried about having to out shout them. Well those were the best behaved children I have every had. The mothers said, "Inside voices now. And you must sit quietly." Those little ones never made a peep, nor moved. When the wedding was over, they were back to the toddler busy mode.

The couple were dressed up for the wedding. He had on black slacks and a fancy dress shirt. She had on a long black skirt with a side and hemline ruffle. Her hair was up with spectacular tendrils curling down. She had a rhinestone clip on the French twist and wore a tiara. She had silver Grecian sandals on. Oh, right I forgot the blouse. It was a blue swirled print maternity top stretched to its limit. This lovely tiny young woman was so small from the back. But from the front she was huge. The top was stretched out a foot in front of her. The baby had dropped and was almost below her waist. I asked when she was due, and the answer was any minute.

When I pronounced them married, they just held each other. It was a very sweet emotional moment. Another wedding that showed real love.

TESTING A TURKEY RECIPE

Last night Marty and I tested a turkey recipe for Cook's Illustrated. It called for a whole turkey breast and 4 pounds of turkey thighs and drumsticks. Or 2 whole breasts. We did one breast, that is still a lot of meat for 2 people. It was cooked most of the time at 275 degrees, at nearly twice the normal time. Supper was late last night. We didn't read the directions thoroughly before we began. We thought everything would be out in a couple of hours, wrong. Low and slow was the rule. So supper was around 9:20 last night.

When I took the above picture, I was hungry and cranky. I was standing in the refrigerator and grazing.

I forgot to take pictures until after the turkey went into the oven. Above Marty is working on the glaze. It was apple cider, cranberries, molasses, cider vinegar, fresh ginger and butter. This was cooked down and then brushed on the turkey.

And he is brushing on the glaze. The turkey breast looks beautiful.

During the last 21 minutes you brush the glaze on every 7 minutes.

Slicing the turkey. The skin was like candy from the glaze. As long as it was hot. When it cooled down, it was just turkey skin.

Little pieces for the kitchen help to nibble. It was really good, yet a little salty.

Our meal: fresh green bean cooked low and slow; soft dressing; hard dressing in the foil; gravy; green onions and tomatoes to cut up into the beans; cold milk.

View 2 of our meal. It was tasty. Not sure if we would make the glaze again. It was gorgeous, but really did not add to the turkey's flavor.

COMPANY'S COMING, OH NO

This weekend has been interesting. We were having guests for a late Sunday lunch. I needed to get laundry done and put up ( I take days to put up clean laundry, I hate putting up laundry), groceries bought, ironing done, the house cleaned, and food cooked. Well the best laid plans of mice and men . . .

Friday my ongoing rotator cuff problem had a relapse. I was in major pain and could barely move my left arm. I am doing good drugs and icing regularly. Cleaning the house was not happening, I gave the house a lick and a promise. Marty would do the shopping on Saturday. I could do the laundry, and the ironing. Ironing had to happen. I did not iron last week and there was a sh*t load of shirts to iron. Ironing was not a smart move since I may be right handed, but I iron equally with my left hand. More pain.

Everything did happen. The food was prepared, the house looked fine, and we had a lovely visit. Thank goodness Marty is a domesticated male. If he weren't we would still be getting ready.

WEDDINGS MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY

On this date in 1970, the first Earth Day is celebrated.

This was another slow week for performing wedding ceremonies. But the Clerk from Hell (CFH)spiced it up. On Monday she gave me a license and said, "Good Luck with this one". I told her she couldn't say that and leave, what's wrong. Now this is not racist, this is to clarify her right to slam this couple. I can call people white trash because I am Southern and know how to use the term. The CFH is African American and she said the couple were "ghetto". I said, "What do you mean by that?" She described them as loud, rude, and crude. Bless her heart she was right. In the elevator the groom was patting the bride's pregnant tummy as she was yelling at him. Alot of yelling going on. Then he pulled up his shirt (visualize the below the hips pants he wore), slapped his stomach, and said, "I'm pregnant". It was a stomach turning sight. And they continued to yell and curse and just really make me rush through the ceremony. Very unpleasant.

The second couple was adorable. They were from Slovakia. They were worried about their English. After talking to them I told them their English was better than mine and not to worry.

Wednesday I nearly walked out in the first 10 minutes I was there. When I arrived there was a license on the desk. I was not due to work for 25 minutes and the other volunteer was doing a wedding. So the room is in use and I couldn't marry them then anyway. I proofed the license for her but when I show up, she is done. So I was to do the ceremony. There was an error on the license, so back to the CFH to fix it. She said she would fix it later . . . and I better get the couple upstairs and married right now. They had been waiting too long. Consider folks, I had just walked in the door, not due to work for 20 minutes. And the bitch is yelling at me. Not good to yell at a volunteer. But I am a trooper and love this gig, so I sucked it up and went with the flow.

Sounded good didn't it? Well, first I explained to her I had just arrived and it wasn't my problem things were backed up. Then I mellowed out and went with the flow.

The second couple had lots of people with them. I asked is everyone here? Yes, we are ready. As we get on the elevator the bride is on the phone and I hear her yell, "Hesperian! Well, we are going up now and you might as well just go back home!" (Hesperain Blvd is several towns south of the County Building. Wednesday was a stormy day and traffic was a mess everywhere.) The groom grabbed the phone and started talking to the person, who turned out to be the bride's mother. The bride falls apart. I got everyone back in the lobby and started calming the bride down. I told her we could wait, there was plenty of time for her mother to get there before we closed. Everyone is happy, I go back to my desk and then the groom asks for me. Her father has to leave for dialysis, we are going to do the wedding with out the mother. Then the father says no, he can wait another day. Back to my desk. Finally mother arrives and we do the wedding.

The last couple of the day are from India. I talk to them and the groom does most of the talking and the bride speaks a little bit, and nods and smiles. Do you see this coming? I begin the ceremony, the bride says I do, and then to the vows. She can't even repeat them. I stop the wedding and ask the groom if he forgot to tell me his bride doesn't speak English? He says, "Is that a problem?" The top of my head blew off.

I tried to see if she understands but doesn't speak English. Everytime I asked her something one of the guests started answering for her. I told them to sit down and let me talk to her. I told them if I felt she didn't know what was going on, I legally could not do the wedding. They sat. Turns out she understood some English, spoke very very little. I told the groom to translate every word I said and began the ceremony from the top.

Why do people think the non English speaking person does not need to understand what is going on? I never want to insult people by asking if they speak English. But everytime I wonder if I should but I don't, it blows up in my face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER, PART 2

A good friend of Mother's sent me pictures of the birthday girl. To review part 1 of the birthday, go to the post right before this one. I tried to set up a link and Blogger hates me tonight and won't let me link. You want the first post on April 20, 2010. With it being late, I loaded the pictures backwards. I'm too tired to redo it. So we have the family at dinner, and then Mother with her flowers and balloons from lunch.

Left to right, Yolanda our friend who sent pictures, Little Brother Hank and his wonderful wife Ann, and Mother in front.
Left to right, Papa Jack, Little Brother Hank, Ann, Mother in front.

Dinner party tonight, same gang. Lovely birthday girl extreme right.

Same gang, same dinner

Mother in her kitchen showing off some of her gifts: flowers and balloons, and a rose corsage.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER

On this date April 20 in 1917, my mother Anna French Edwards (later Triplett, then Hollin)was born. At a time women basically maybe finished high school, then married, and had babies; she got a Master's Degree. She then married, had three children, and was widowed in her mid 30's.

Mother never worked for money, but she worked. Daddy was a doctor and she worked with him. She ran the office, she made house calls with him. After he died she "worked" in the accounting department of one of the banks. She would just go down to help out a friend who worked for money there. She organized an ecumenical retreat for several years. She was busy with church work and community work. Our town was hit by a devastating flood and Mother helped organize the relief work with the Red Cross.

While she did all this she was raising three children. Maybe some of the time not the way we three wanted it. But she was there to teach us to drive, to buy prom dresses, to go to concerts, to go to the end of the year events at my brother's school, to chaperon parties.

Anna would load a 9 passenger station wagon with teenagers and drive us to away ball games. Many of my friends didn't have much money, so she would buy their meals too. One of my classmates became pregant and was shunned by the town. My Mother and her Mother fed this young girl lunch during her pregnancy. My boyfriend was accused of stealing money at school. He came from a less than great family. Because no one would protect him, Anna went to school and got to the truth of the matter. He was innocent. She opened our home nearly every weekend for a safe place for teenagers to gather.

When I was in college she married my wonderful Papa Jack. He is a whole blog by himself. They moved to Louisville and then to the rural area in the next county. Anna helped incorporate the area and became a city council person. She served on the council until she was, I think 80, and then retired. On her 90Th birthday the city proclaimed that April 20Th would be Anna Hollin Day. They hang banners every April just to celebrate her birthday.

Mother is a huge University of Kentucky fan, football and basketball. She still tailgates all home football games. She no longer can do the stairs in the stadium, so for years she sits with the stadium crew inside and watches the game on TV.

Today she went to lunch with 11 eleven friends. Tonight she is having dinner out with family.

Happy Birthday Mother!

DANCING WITH THE STARS, KATE, UGH

Tonight Marty and I fast forwarded through everything on DWTS except the dancing and the scores. We just could not stand to watch the feuding and fighting during the rehearsals. Yet even zipping through the rehearsals highlights, Kate's death stare came through. This woman has a sh*t load of hate in her.

Her dance night was awful. Last week she seemed a little bit like she was dancing. Tonight Bruno said she was catatonic. And that was one of the nicer things said by the judges. SHE MUST GO HOME! It is so painful watching her stiff performance.

That said, I bet her fans will keep her on the show another week.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DAY

Today is just lovely. There are clear blue skies, a light breeze, and it is in the mid 70's. The windows and doors are open and all you hear are the birds. Doesn't that sound like something the Chamber of Commerce would put out? For the moment it is the truth.

Any second the quiet will be shattered by our neighbors' dogs and chickens. The dogs bark most of the day, and when one starts the other one has to challenge it. And then there are the chickens. They cluck all day long. (I have checked Oakland's laws, hens but not roosters are legal, as long as they are 20 feet from a residence.) This was bad enough in the winter with the house closed up. But now with the windows and doors open, the noise is going to be bad all summer long.

We had a dog who was a big time barker. Duke would run the yard/patio yipping and barking all the time. So we put a bark collar on him. It made a big difference and he barked a lot less. Dogs bark, and we live very close together in the city. So you have to be tolerant. That said, I don't think I have to hear the barking and clucking 10 to 12 hours a day.

Marty and I are thinking about buying a couple of bark collars and giving them to the neighbors. As for the chickens, all I can hope for is a fox (yes we have them in the neighborhood) or raccoon to get in the chicken house.

WEDDINGS, A COUPLE

Wednesday was very slow at the marriage factory. I did one wedding ceremony maybe 30 minutes after I got there and another one over 2 hours later. Very few people were even coming in to do any type of business. We figured spring break was keeping them home.

At the first wedding the bride wore a white full skirted dress. The bodice and the hemline were trimmed in black. The groom wore black slacks and a black shirt. Their witness had on a beautiful high waisted black pencil skirt, a black top, and a white bolero jacket. It was a good looking group. I also wore black.

The second couple were dressed nicely as were their witnesses. But the star of the show was the "flower girl". The bride's father had a medium size case over his shoulder. I thought it was a camera case, then I saw the mesh screens on the ends and sides. Not a camera case, it was a dog carrier. Inside it was a chihuahua. Yes, I had to look that up in order to spell it.

Daddy took the dog/flower girl out and I nearly died laughing. This poor dog had on a chartreuse long "sleeved" sweater with a matching net skirt that had sparkles on it. This dog was so cute and funny looking. When you see a dog all dressed up, you know it is living better than you are.

DWTS and AMERICAN IDOL

Last night the results of DWTS were given. We didn't get to watch it until tonight. Guess what, terrible Kate did not get voted off. She of the death stare of hatred will live to dance another week. This woman is flat out scary.

Aiden Turner, a soap actor, was sent home. I don't really care about him. But we will miss his pro partner, Edyta Sliwinska. She almost wears clothes when she dances. Edyta really is a fabulous dancer.

This week on AI was Elvis week. Let us say if he wasn't already dead, this show would have killed him. So very bad. Most of the singers were pitiful. Tonight AI eliminated 2 singers and I was more than happy with America's choice. Andrew Garcia and Katie Stevens went home. Big Mike is still there and not even in the bottom 3, so the save of last week was validated by the public.

No one on either show has sparked us to bother to vote. Such a difference from other years. We voted as many times as they would let us. Maybe they have run their course.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Spring break is over and I am back to volunteering at school. The week after a vacation is usually rough. Children forget every rule and most of what you teach them very quickly. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the children were today.

Usually we have one or two parents volunteering with me the first half of the morning. Not today. It was just me working. I tackled the idiot work parents do: assembling homework packets, stapling together graded papers, tearing out math papers. Most of that I did while the children were at recess. I am very good and very quick at idiot work.

I worked on reading skills with several children. Today one of the main things was to test them on the Dolch List. Every child has a copy of these sight words at home. Every time they go through these sight words with us, we write down the words they miss. Today was exciting. Every child I worked with knew the words he/she missed last time. They kept the knowledge in spite of a vacation. YAY! ( I may not use this word again. I just learned it is slang for cocaine. Why do people keep ruining good words?)

Ms. H was being observed (this is one way teachers are job evaluated) today by her principal. He told me he felt ridiculous having to observe her. He thinks she is one of the best teachers he has ever seen. I feel the same way. He also talked to the children and got feedback from them.

While the principal was there the children had to write a 7 sentence story about an insect. Now that sounds easy. NOT. This was a very difficult assignment. First they had to cut a paper on the lines into 8 strips. These strips had a line to write on. Then they lined up the strips with the line on the bottom, and I stapled them together. Now we are ready to write.

The first strip was a title page. Each strip after that had to begin On Sunday, On Monday, On Tuesday etc. One child wrote about the invisible millipede. Another wrote about the funny joke telling spider. This is where the trouble began. No capital letters for ON or the days of the weeks. But capital letters for other words. They didn't put ON Monday. Some put Then the spider . . . Some wrote On Sunday ever strip. We kept telling them to follow the "pattern". Some got it the first time, some not.

Everyone finished this project and did fairly well. Some had to do it twice to get it correct. One little girl finished up everthing before others did the first page. Children learn and work at differnt speeds. And that is why I am there. To help the ones that have to play catch up.

Oh, and for the hugs. As I was leaving today a fourth grader came up and gave me a big hug. Life is good.

DE PLANE! DE PLANE!

The human body will adapt to many things in order to sleep. Bright lights, noise, cold, heat, being uncomfortable can be over come with time. With time . . .

I grew up in a railroad town, back when trains ruled transportation. We lived three blocks from the roundhouse. The train engineers each had a distinct whistle. When they pulled into the train yard they would blow the whistle so their families knew they were home. We had whistles blowing all night long. I never heard them.

Marty and I lived in an apartment with very loud neighbors over us. They threw furniture at each other. We learned to sleep through the barrage. We once owned a home that backed up to the freeway. Never were we bothered by the noise. When we lived in Concord we were fairly close to BART and could hear the high whine of the trains. Everywhere we have lived, there have been certain types of noise for that area. Your body adjusts and you sleep through it.

Now we live in a very very quiet neighborhood. Our bodies jerk awake if there is a change in schedule of delivery of the newspapers or of the neighbors leaving earlier than usual. Our bodies are used to a serene evening. And then we had yesterday.

We had a major storm go through yesterday (still raining and windy today) and that caused problems at the Oakland Airport. They have to change the landing approach during storms. And our neighborhood becomes the final approach. Yes, I can almost see the pilots' faces. We hear the planes coming, going over the house, and leaving. And they are always getting lower and lower. For an agoraphobic who is terrified of planes, this is not a happy time. I don't just hate being on a plane, I don't like for people I love to be on a plane, I don't like planes flying low over my house. I know, I am crazy.

Any who, last night was the worst noise in the 6 years we have lived here. All night, plane after plane, after plane screamed over our home. Who knew Oakland has so many planes landing all night long. Just as we would start to fall asleep, here comes another plane dropping lower and lower and doing the gear changing sound. A very long fitful night.

Even Marty, who can sleep through anything, got no sleep. Poor Marty had to be up and out of the house by 7:00 today for a meeting. I am a volunteer and canceled doing weddings. As soon as I post this, I am back in the bed.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday marked Marty's and my 43rd wedding anniversary. Yes, we are older than dirt. We celebrated with friends at a favorite restaurant, The Terrace Room. The view of Lake Merritt is lovely and the food/service is wonderful.

In those 43 years we have moved 10 times. And I wouldn't be surprised if we moved again. I kind of like moving (except for packing and unpacking), new house, new friends, that is exciting.

Forty Three years is a long time for anything. In this day and age 43 years for a marriage is rare. Most everyone marries madly in love. They think the marriage is for life. So why do so many marriages fail? Who knows why one marriage works and another doesn't. I credit our marriage to a lot of luck, hard work, and that we have rarely been furious with the other at the same time. One of us has been sane and calm while the other has been ballistic. That is where the luck comes in. Thank God we don't go ballastic at the same time.

But we work at the marriage every day. We drive each other crazy at times, but we ignore/forgive those crazy things (agoraphobic issues, stealing the pillows and covers, control issues with the remote, and other petty things). We know it isn't worth the battle. In the long run we love each other. We will forgive and forget the problems. We want to be together. We adore each other in spite of our complete opposite personalities. We will work out the problems.

WEDDINGS WEDNESDAY

Wednesday weddings, well no. There were no weddings, and very few licenses were sold all day. I don't know where everyone was. I will have to think of some else to write about. Check back later.

DWTS and AMERICAN IDOL

I wrote last week about how disappointed I have been with American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. And then yesterday my friend Sue wrote on her blog about DWTS. She is loving the season, but like me, wants Buzz Aldrin and Kate Gosselin gone.

Last night was the result show for Dancing With The Stars. Sue and I are happy. Buzz was sent home. Now if only Kate is sent home next week.

Tonight was the result show for AI. One of my favorites, Big Mike, was the person with the lowest votes. He would have to "sing for his life". That means he was allowed to pick a song and sing one more time. The four judges would vote on whether he would be saved to sing again next week. The judges can only use this save one time per season. And the vote must be unanimous. They hardly ever use this save, so I didn't have much hope. Well, Big Mike was incredible and they saved him. Much happiness at the Appel household.

The down side of this, probably next week two will be eliminated. They have only so many weeks to do the show. They have to only have two singers on the last show, not three. Oh well.

YOU ARE SOOOO BEAUTIFUL

On this day:1937 Merle Haggard, American musician, was born

OK, I won't do any more. But I will be back with more. Love that app, On this Day. . .

The edit process is not working today. I keep putting in paragraph breaks, Blogger keeps leaving them out. Sorry about that.

Weddings. I did a few on Monday. The weather was so awful I didn't think anyone would show up. But around 3:00 the sun came out and so did the people.

The first wedding the bride had been married before and had her two children with her. Her 7 year old son was the official witness. That meant he had to sign the license in a tiny space. Adults get this wrong and sign all over the page. I explained to the little boy where to sign and how tiny he had to write. He could only print, he hadn't learned cursive yet. He painstakingly printed his full name, and it was in the tiny space. His little sister, 5 years old, asked her mother if they were married now. "Yes," her mother said. And the little girl became ecstatic and grabbed her stepfather and hugged him. She then told me that on Friday she had told her teacher that her stepdaddy and mother were getting married. "And now I can tell her they are married!" These children were thrilled with this man as their stepfather. This was a very special type of love in the room.

The next wedding was very special. The bride was in a lovely white chiffony dress and ready for the ceremony. But we had to wait on the groom. He was changing into his Naval uniform. He didn't want it to wrinkle, so he waited until we were ready, to change clothes. They had lots of family and friends with them. Everyone was dressed up and looking lovely. After the wedding I thanked the young man for serving in the military. He then told me his bride was also in the military. She is in the Reserves. A very special wedding.

We will skip the third and go on to the fourth wedding of the day. The couple were in their late 20's. When I met them the groom told me he was so happy to have such a beautiful woman marrying them. He kept talking about how beautiful I am. (Folks, I am well preserved, but beautiful? No one has ever accused me of that.) I just smiled and herded them into the elevator. Then he gave me one of the best left handed compliments ever said. To his bride he said, "When you get old like her, I want you to be just as beautiful." This is right up there with "For a fat girl you don't sweat much."

Men, never ever use old and beautiful in the same sentence.

Now there was something wrong with the groom, nothing that caused me to think of not doing the wedding. But was he close to drunk? Was he high on something? Was he mentally impaired? I don't know. He did not smell of alcohol, he didn't slur his words, his eyes were not dilated. But he kept listing to the side, his eyes kept closing, he was wobbly. Something going on there.

Who knows.

They are in love, they are married, and I am soooo beautiful.

I LOVE THIS APP

In February I wrote about my almost new iPhone. I love it, but there have been problems. I am a slow learner in certain areas. Others pretty speedy. I can take pictures, download them to my computer, and upload them to my blog. Pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I can not ever figure out how to down load apps the first time. And if I do get it to work the first time, I don't know how I did it. Saturday it worked the first time and I love this FREE app.

Did you know on this date (April 5) in history:

in 1614 Native American Pocahontas marries English Colonist John Rolf in Virginia

in 1827 Joseph Lister, English surgeon, was born

in 1949 Fireside Theater debuts on television

I love trivia stuff like this. The app list births, deaths, political events, religious events, sports stuff, etc. There are sometimes hundreds of listings. I can jump ahead on the calendar or jump back, I'm not limited to just today. This is so fun to use. I know, this is the sort of thing retired teachers would love. Well, that is me.

I am sure Marty will grow tired of this way before I do. He is not a huge fan of being read historical trivia. I will try to control myself. But some historical facts just cry out to be shared.

WEDDINGS MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY

I read a lot of pages this week waiting on couples to marry. Monday they were spaced out over the three plus hours. But Wednesday, no couples, let alone other people in the building until around 3:30. And still there were only three couples who wanted to marry.

Monday:
The first couple wore jeans. They told me the "real wedding" was going to be on Saturday. I explained that was a party, we were doing the real wedding. What was cute was the bride obviously had on her "real wedding" jewelery, chandelier rhinestone earrings and necklace. Maybe a little over the top with jeans and a tee shirt.

The second couple were Chinese and the bride had on a gorgeous red chiffon dress, with brown cowboy boots. A little strange to see. When we got in the Wedding Room she pulled out fancy strappy heels and wore them for the wedding. She told me they were pretty but hurt her feet. After the wedding the boots went back on.

The third couple I can barely remember. They were sweet, generic and OK. But I DO remember one of the guests. Not a Mother, not a sister, just a loud obnoxious woman. In the elevator she was giving orders at the top of her lungs. In the Wedding Room every time I said something she was talking so loud I couldn't be heard. When I asked the couple questions and they told me what they wanted to do, she told them what they needed to do. The couple seemed overwhelmed by her. So Miss Janet, the boss of the world took over. I explained to the obnoxious guest it wasn't her wedding and I only listen to the couple. And that I am the only one who gets to talk now. When the wedding was over she started in again directing the picture taking. Fine, I didn't have to be in there for that.

Fourth couple, I have no memory of except she was pregnant with two school age children ( maybe 6 and 9) and she was about 25 years old. Doing the math on that depressed me.

Wednesday:
The first couple, she was from Pakistan and he was from India. She was so lovely with her hennaed hands, arms and feet. The designs were beautiful. She had on a traditional red outfit and the gold bracelets. Instead of rings they exchanged necklaces. I hadn't had that happen before.

Couple two, my post it note on them only says boring.

Couple three, another one having a "real wedding" Saturday. This couple were so very much in love. The tenderness as he wiped her eyes during the ceremony touched me. And he cried from emotion. They just stood and embraced each other after I pronounced them married. I was moved by this couple and I had goose bumps the whole ceremony.

Some weddings are fun, or annoying, or embarrassingly lustful. Some weddings I am sure will end in divorce. But some weddings are incredibly wonderful, whether they are in full wedding attire or wearing Daisy Dukes and overalls. Love fills the room.