What an emotional and wonderful experience the last several days has been. It’s really one of the highlights of life, when a child gets married. Marnie’s and Tom’s wedding was really beautiful. (here’s a link to the flickr set, with a growing number of photos)

Late afternoon:

me, writing notes for my toast. They put me last because they (rightly) knew that my speech would be the most emotional.

A silent auction of some of Marnie's prints, to benefit the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)'s support of gay marriage

Tom's friend Gwendolyn did Marnie's hair and makeup

FINALLY! It’s 7pm, time to head down to the prairie, where the ceremony will be held.

we all walked through the forest, past the sugar shack, to get to the prairie where we waited for Tom and Marnie to appear.

and here they come! We all broke out into applause when they appeared. Tom's niece Ella had gathered a bunch of prairie wildflowers for Marnie to carry, at the last minute.

This is SO THEM. Even in this moment, there was a lot of laughter.

married! Joe just pronounced them married, after the most beautiful ceremony and vows. And there was much applause, laughter, tears, and joy.

Then we all returned to the Lodge, for a wonderful dinner catered by a local restaurant. They don’t do catering – they just did this for Marnie and Tom. They bought all local ingredients for the menu, purchased the morning of the wedding.

Marnie watches Tom order his food - I love her gaze at him

a moment's pause. I think she looks so beautiful, even in this thoughtful moment.

Night fell as we were eating dinner, and then we had the speeches and toasts. Without exception, everyone talked about how much Marnie and Tom laugh together, how absolutely right they are for each other, and how much they mean to us all. Marnie and Tom had their dance, then Marnie had selected a song to dance with her dad, and then there was our song, one that has enormous meaning for Marnie and me – L.O.V.E., by Nat King Cole. It’s a long story …. but you can bet I cried throughout the whole thing.

the tent, lit up with little bits of starlight and a lot of joy

Marnie's gannetts hanging from the tent rafters

FLYING HOME SUNDAY

Only because I had to, I flew out on Delta. I hate Delta. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever taken an uneventful Delta flight; I’m sure it would be memorable if I ever had a Delta flight that was uneventful because it would be the only such experience. I flew from Madison to Detroit, where I had to change planes (with a 1-hour layover), for the flight home to LaGuardia. Like all my other flights on this roundtrip, I got to the airport to find that the flight to Detroit was delayed by one hour. There were no other flights that would get me home that day, no matter how I arranged it. So I just had to hope for the best.

While we were in the air, someone – one of pilots, we think – came on and said this: “Sorry we got a late start, and we know most of you are worried about making your connections. But look! Look outside, it’s a beautiful day! It’s still a beautiful day to be flying!” And so on. Mr. Mindfulness, trying to reorient us. It made me laugh.

So I got to Detroit, the connecting flight knew there were 19 of us on the now-late plane, so we ran off the plane, raced down the terminal, and raced onto the very VERY hot plane. And then I sat. And I sat. And I sweated in the heat, and I waited. An announcement was made that we’re waiting on the pilot, who was coming in on another flight that had been delayed. Later, an announcement: the pilot has just landed! We should be taking off in about 5-10 minutes!  Later, another announcement: “Hi, I’m your new pilot with the replacement team. We have no idea what happened to the other flight crew. We should be taking off shortly.”

SO DELTA. I did finally land, only to face incredibly bad traffic. I got home considerably later than I dreamed I would. But I got a lot of knitting done; finished my Wowie Zowie socks, and got a great start on Peasy.

fantastic socks, taken against a backdrop of your standard Best Western bedspread.

Peasy! Easy! Fun!

the bit of lace on the front panels

And now, I begin my new life as (a) the mother of 2 married daughters, and (b) a freelancer. I’m finishing up the unpacking/straightening up details, finishing a lot of paperwork, and then I start my new life scrambling for work. Know anyone who needs (1) a manuscript developed, (2) a good writer, (3) a market research consultant, (4) a survey designer and programmer, or (5) a data analyst? If so, send them my way!

Thanks again for all your very lovely best wishes, they meant a lot to me.