Finally, the Wedding!

This is us!
Best Man Shaun Keogh on left, who flew all the way from the UK to perform his duties. Then comes Wayne, The Groom. Younger brother Jon behind, who also performed the role, (a surprise to Wayne and I until the actual ceremony), of "Bubble Boy." (see below). My mother is so happy to see me married off that she's laughing out loud. (Actually, it was a joke Wayne told just before the photographer snapped the picture). Sister-in-law KB in back, then Moi. My big brother Bob, who walked me up the grassy hill to the altar and gave me away, "Marryin' Mayr," Mary McLean, one of my favorite aikido senseis, spiritual adviser and great friend, whom we made get ordained just so she could marry us, and my Maid of Honor, Jan, my friend from the Adirondacks and surrogate Big Sister, whom I've known since 1975.

Our background for the ceremony was an internationally known mountain favored by para-gliders, who occasionally flew overhead. Just behind us was a vineyard resembling a secluded spot in Tuscany. I was so worried that the whole thing might make me cry, and I'd have a huge red nose in all the pictures. But you know, when the music started and my brother and I came up the walk, everyone under the canopy saw us and stood up. It was thrilling. After being sequestered in my friend Darlene's bedroom for the past few hours getting dressed, I was so happy to see everyone, all I could do was grin.

After many months of planning, stressing, and generally freaking out, you get that two minutes of being the most beautiful, beloved fairy princess your friends and family have ever seen, when you walk up the aisle. I wish we could just do that part again so I could savor it, although there is a video. Our processional was "The John Dunbar Theme" from Dances With Wolves, something my most excellent and talented DJ of a husband found for us. It was way cool.

It was a wonderful, happy party with dancing, great food, family and friends, some whom traveled great distances and made huge sacrifices to be with us on that day. Some I hadn't even seen since high school! Our friends, Rick and Darlene, generously opened their home to more than forty people. Sherry, Darlene and Cindy, my Mah Jong and writer buddies, created a sumptuous and unforgettable banquet!

Really, I don't think I've ever looked any happier, in any picture, anywhere, than in this close-up.

In the days that followed, we entertained our friends and family in close-by Jacksonville, a cute little western town with one of the best outdoor music venues in the country, the Britt. And wouldn't you know it, Wayne was hired as its Stage Manager!

So I married a cute, cowboy kind of guy in a cute little cowboy kind of town in Southern Oregon. It was great fun! Definitely worth waiting all these years for.

April 2009

Whoever thought I would be in full bridal mode, but here I am, with wedding details swirling around like hungry seagulls in a fast food parking lot. I think I'm into it, although we watched one of those "Outrageous Weddings" shows the other night just for laughs and wound up having nightmares... still... Wayne doesn't want to see me that morning until I come up the walkway in full bride regalia, escorted by my brother. Which reminds me to pick up some waterproof mascara, or just not wear any at all... the song we picked for our processional is killer, but I can't tell!

The wedding is now five weeks out. Today I'm going to the seamstress for alterations to my dress, armed with a number of extreme body-shaping devices. Tomorrow morning Wayne and I have an appointment for a "cake consultation." Then next Wednesday I'm having my first-ever facial with something called a "plant-based face peel" at this very organic salon in Medford. I tell you these things just for the thrill of typing them when two months ago I was up in my woods cutting firewood with a chain saw, wearing a hard hat. In fact, just so you don't think I've gone all soft, let me remind you that I cut all my firewood for the first three years before giving in and ordering it from a wood guy.

Anyway, Wayne says to micro-manage the wedding into the ground and then let go on the day of, and have a good time. He knows these things. He's been a wedding DJ about 500 times. So far we found a DJ who agrees to do our every beck and call, a photographer, people to help us with food, rented chairs, tables, canopy, champagne glasses and... we're still working on the decorations.

The excitement lies in how many people are coming together for this. Many of the people I've known my whole adult life who've heard about each other but never met, finally will.

This was a quickie - I know. I forgot to post in April and here it is May. I'm going to breathe into a paper bag now.

Rare Angels

Every time someone beautiful and kind is taken from us, I always wonder, why them? Why take the ones who could have lived so much longer and taught us enough to create a quantum leap in the art of loving?

And so goes Natasha Richardson, from a freak skiing accident anyone could have had. I’m indulging in a bit of survivor’s guilt, having walked away from a number of Herminator - type falls without a helmet since 1963.

So really, why her? I can’t stop thinking about how much pain her family is going through today. That numb, void feeling… the maneuvering to put one step in front of the other to get through the day... my heart and prayers go out to them.

Then I thought, Natasha, in her transference of consciousness, might be chuckling softly at our condition. For she’s one of those rare angels who walk the earth for a short time, reminding us to embrace and appreciate each moment for what it is, and use every circumstance as an opportunity to express love.

What the hey is that?!?

You'd have to be a nudibranch in a sea cave not to be feeling the thigh-pinch of excitement within our socio-political climate, so I won't even bother talking about that today. (A quick note on self-defense: if you are caught from behind and can reach back and pinch the fronts of your assailant's thighs, you can buy yourself some time. Go ahead. Try it. It's a real creepy feeling.)

Instead, I've decided to offer a picture of mystery every so often. Try and guess what it is! This first one's pretty easy and not a nudibranch. What the hey is it?

Circuit City Soapbox

I feel one shade bad about the closing of Circuit City, not because I have huge insight into its upper management. It's just that I remember when it first opened in Baltimore. The company had one of the early digital animation commercials with a plug plugging itself into a store. They were pretty groovy for their time, and you could get a kick-ass car stereo installed for a reasonable price.

Fast forward to 2008 in Austin, where my betrothed says there's a Circuit City and a Best Buy directly across the street from each other. Battle of the Discount Titans. It's the quintessential sign of the times, right in our faces. We can't even buy all the stuff they're making overseas even though the industry of Must Have pitched their products at a ferocious rate. Now that chain stores are liquidating a sixpack at a time, all those bio-diverse wetlands that were drained to build shopping malls probably look more attractive in retrospect, than a mall with half its tenants gone.

But I didn't want to get into a preach-a-thon. Just remember that scene in Twister at the drive-in, where Helen Hunt says a tornado's coming to which Bill Paxton replies, "It's already here." In the unstoppable pursuit of more stuff (partly to placate people we're too busy to spend time with because we're too busy working to pay for things we can't afford anyway), we've forced ourselves into a financial cataclysm we'll spend years climbing out of, stepping over the unopened packages of Grand Theft Auto and similar A.I. products that kept us in front of a TV screen instead of out in the world paying attention.

So I'm looking at this period in our evolution as one of those opportunistic growing pains. The kind where we tighten our belts and stop whining about the way things were in the last century, when the industry of buying and selling invisible money still thrived. Now we get to look at what's really important, and act on it as a group. Because there are way more important things to be doing in the creation of a sustainable future with sustainable people living in it – with a super-sized surplus of new, sustainable jobs. And hey, a little organic gardening in your own backyard will help to burn off a few of those extra calories.

A Southern Oregon Sort of Winter

My little corner of the woods in Southern Oregon got a few inches of snow before Christmas! Is it global warming wacky? I don’t think so… but it sure is pretty. I’ve had to shovel my driveway three times this week, which probably burned off a Christmas cookie or two. This is a typical-looking snowstorm for us, though. Always with a bit of green ornamental grass showing through. Today it’s 50° so it’s almost gone.

With all the disconcerting news of the outside word, I want to tell you that at my part-time workplace, the Southern Oregon Humane Society, where I’m getting to upgrade my rather weak web-building and newly acquired eNewsletter skills, things have been hopping. I’ll pause here to briefly toot my horn: the most recent Champion newsletter, which I edit and put together myself these days, turns out to be the second highest grossing in terms of contributions sent in after reading, ever. I mean, we’re talking over $17,000 so far… toot! But the really important thing is how people continue to give, in spite of the Great Recession of ’08. Even children, whose parents bring them in with jars filled with coins they’ve been collecting all year from painted rock and lemonade sales, to give to the Humane Society. And adoptions have been going through the roof! So, I guess it’s a good thing to keep counting those blessings wherever they show up.

A year ago I never thought I’d been working with a non-profit animal orphanage, and yes, that’s exactly what it is. You would be amazed at how happy everyone feels when an adult animal who’s been there for a year is finally adopted into a loving home. There I go again, getting all verklempt. At least I feel like I’m part of a solution, even in it’s tiniest measure.

Welcome to the new solstice and the return of the light!

Obama's Cherry on Top

This election may be the greatest thing that’s happened to the world of my generation since the Beatles. I could probably name a few other things, but I’ll leave that up to you. There’s a great website called infoplease.com where you can look up important events year by year and suit yourself.

There are several important factors which I believe put the election of Barack Obama over the top. (Besides his determination, unflagging coolness in response to every attack, and obvious leadership skills):

Tina Fey should be congratulated and thanked many times over in her portrayal of Sarah Palin. The one episode of Saturday Night Live where she barely needed to revise Sarah Palin’s response during her interview with Katie Couric was stunning. Kudos also, to CNN, who ran the SNL clips with great gusto.

I also think the very choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate caused great rifts within John McCain’s party, as it was reckless and ill-conceived. More than a month before the election, it felt to me as if he’d already given up. Tired of the whole campaigning process, and wishing it would go away, it looked as if he were just going through the motions, making feeble attacks at the suggestion of his staff. If he had spoken as eloquently during the campaign as he did during his concession speech, he would surely have done better.

But the crowning glory, the cherry on top in my opinion, was the public endorsement of John McCain by Dick Cheney! We know there was no love lost between these two men, so it looked like a cruel act of sabotage by Vice President Cheney, one he knew would do more harm than good, when he appeared on television days before the election. And isn’t that just so Cheney?

Anyway, like most people I know, I’m looking forward to happier times, not without struggle but with healthy debate, forward motion, diplomacy and the will to make our country proud once again.

YAY!!!!!