Kelly Rose Got Married

So right shortly after Lt Dan left the sunny place Lisa and I left the sunny place for Maine and Kelly's wedding. Now I guess I need to say who Kelly Rose is -- she's my Kelly girl, and she was my son Zach's girl and best friend for a very long time. I am reasonably sure, that Kelly was "the one." Zach told me she was, and I think that marriage is where they would have ended up had Zach's story not ended so abruptly. Kelly was the one who made Zach look "for the next right thing to do." She is a very special and charming young lady.

I wouldn't have missed the wedding for the world and I am so happy and glad for Kelly and her husband. Still, it was a milestone for me and a bittersweet one at that. Returning to Maine, to all the places and spaces that we had been with Zach, driving the same roads, seeing our old house. Phew. Then watching Kelly being escorted by her Dad, I am so proud of me for holding it together and not sobbing or anything awful. Lisa was a big help in keeping me focused on the joy.

Some observations...damn we drove a long way to just go to the grocery store or ANYTHING. LOL I guess when you live there you don't realize that you live on a mountaintop in the boonies until you return and see just how far it is! The other thing is -- when we moved our old neighbors kept in touch for a long while. They did not especially like the people who bought our house because they had chickens...chickens running around loose chickens. I don't know, chickens are ok with me, but anyway. So when we were at the wedding someone told us that the people who bought our house have alpacas. I didn't even know what an alpaca WAS. Yeah, I looked it up. We went by, and sure enough...alpacas. I guess the barn and pastures weren't enough so they fenced the beautiful front and side yards for the alpacas too. *blink* Ahhh well, to each his own I guess.

There was one funny Zach story from the wedding reception too. Kelly's Mom made sure we were sitting with people I knew and who knew Zach. There was a young man and his wife and his mother that were seated with us who knew Zach very well. I didn't really know this particular kid, he didn't hang out at our house. Anyway, when they figure out I am "Zach's Mom" (funny how that never really goes away even when Zach has, I am still and always Zach's Mom) his Mom says "OMG your son is the one who lent Andrew his ID so he could go get a tattoo when he wasn't 18!" I just had to laugh. That sounds exactly like Zach. Mostly harmless stuff...but still, always something. So apparently Andrew was going into the military as well and using Zach's ID he went and got himself a Marine Bulldog. I guess Kelly was furious with Zach for lending Andrew his ID. Andrew's Mom was none too thrilled either. It ends up Andrew didn't go into the Marines, rather he went into the Air Force...complete with his Marine Bulldog tattoo. Compliments of my child and unbeknownst to me. Yep...perfect Zach story.

A lot of the trip to Maine was an adventure. I drove more miles in severe thunderstorms than I do here at home in the land of thunderstorms. I actually had to pull off the 95 one time because it was hailing and blowing tree branches and I couldn't see...that is actually a first, never had to do that before. Then the radio goes into emergency broadcast mode and tells us we're pulled off the side of the road for a tornado. Of all things, in Maine, a tornado. Ok fine.

Lisa and I stayed at a couple of really great hotels and watched thunderstorms from our balcony on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic and that was just killer. Then she went off to Quebec for a month and here I am, at the sunny place again blabbing away.

Magical Days

I had nine (count them NINE) wonderful days with Lt Dan. Oh yeah, it was awesome!

He surprised me by showing up way early on Friday and promptly said "let's go get the insurance and tags done so they are done." We did just that. Dropped by the insurance people who I had already arranged all the paperwork for him with. Shuffled around vehicles, getting one out of storage and each of us drove one of his vehicles to the county place got the titles and tags. Shuffled the storage one back to storage and then went out for an awesome breakfast at this little local bistro that I love. We were all done by noon and back home enjoying the afternoon.

We went to Disney for a couple of days and had a really nice time. I had no idea how my husband would be in a Disney-like circumstance so it was an adventure of sorts. Lt Dan was awesome. I just told him the general plan, meaning I think you will want to go here, here and here and in this order because of various events on those days. Then I handed him the maps and let him say "follow me!" (He's very practiced at saying that by the way, maybe not necessarily those words but yeah, telling somebody to do something...fortunately he did not say it at his normal work volume!) It was so much fun, just watching him forget himself and ride the rides and listening to his comments as we watched people and just generally getting to be together without any demands but to have fun. We did that having fun thing very well.

We were able to go see Beth's Mom and family and give hugs where hugs were needed since this was also the one year anniversary of her death. We didn't go to the Coke Zero 400 (I liked it better way long time ago when it was simply the Firecracker 400 but meh) at Daytona with them because that was my last day with Dan and I didn't want to spend it at the race, not to mention his having to drive back the next day. Still it was really good to see everybody and Dan got to meet them all for the first time. It appears he has passed muster ;)

Fourth of July we took Megan and her husband to the beach and spent the whole day there. It was a perfect beach day and we had a blast.

Then a relaxing day at home and suddenly...he was gone. Bleah. Still they were magical days and I'm very happy to have had them.

Sometimes it is what it is

I have a question

Later on, after vacation with Lt Dan I'm gonna blog about this, but for now I have a question. How many of your significant others have empathy? Since all the people I know who read this blog are women folk, I'm asking about your men, do that have empathy? Lots of it? Not so much? None? Did they get it when you had your babies? Or they had it all along?

Just leave me a comment if you wanna. I'll be gone for a week playing in the Sunny Place with Lt Dan and hopefully having a Magical Day or actually three, along the way!

Back soon, have an awesome 4th July!