Well, Damn

I have had a perfectly lovely day, spent mostly by myself, puttering around my house. The weather is a little cooler and I've had the doors and windows open. We've gotten a little rain here and there and the sky has been mostly overcast or even gray but I have not minded that in the least. It has felt like a good day to stay home and be domestically minded and I am grateful I could do that. 

Last night I fed my sourdough and mixed some starter with flour and water and let it sit overnight to eat some more, to make bubbles and magic and this morning I added more flour, more water, salt, a tiny splash of milk, a tiny sprinkling of sugar, and mixed it all up and set it to rise which it did at an almost alarming rate. 
I also put some black beans to soak last night because I haven't made the soup that the screenshot shows. I do love that soup and Mr. Moon does too. It is not a traditional black bean soup at all, although it does have onions and garlic and peppers in it. It also has chopped carrots which is regarded as highly suspicious by many, many of the 889 people who commented on the recipe, many of whom were disdainful of using black beans in such a sacrilegious way and gave their own versions of what a black bean soup should be. 
Me? I pretty much make it like it's written although I do add one ingredient- a chorizo sausage. I've made many other black bean soups but I love this one so much. 
The main problem with the recipe in my opinion is that it says not to soak the beans and that within one to two hours of cooking, they will be tender which is a big fat lie. I soaked mine overnight and have been cooking them since around noon and they still aren't quite tender enough for my tastes. Black beans take a lot of cooking. This, too, is discussed in the comments where some people are of the opinion that if your black beans take more than an hour or two from package to tender, they are old beans and your water is too acid. Or some bullshit like that. Dried beans are dried beans. 
I'm not a scientist but I'm pretty sure about this. 

So I've been messing with soup and bread all day and that makes me happy. I've done laundry and a little sweeping, some ironing while watching Call the Midwife which has been going for twelve years now and is still relevant, tender, touching, funny, and pretty darn accurate when it comes to how childbirth works. 

Mr. Moon took Tom the repaired Gator and for those of you who have no idea of what a UTV is, here's a picture I stole from online.

Honestly, I don't know if that's anything like the model that Tom owns but you get it- sort of like a golf cart except more heavy duty for getting about in rougher terrain and moving things around. Tom can barely walk and cannot walk and carry anything so his little Gator is his life saver and it is running again. 

Glen also went to do his hunting camp chores and got that done so he's now taking a well-earned rest. He feels much, much better. 

Lauren is still in pain. A lot of pain. She has started the oral steroids and I am so hoping they help. She really needs that MRI so they can figure out a plan to truly help her.

The honeymooners seem to be as happy as they can be. Here are two pictures they sent today. 

They were about to go to fancy lunch. Hank told me that he is going to wear that suit every chance he gets to get his money's worth out of it. I see that he is making good on that intention. Don't they look happy? I have not yet fully taken in the fact that my son is now a married man. 
A MARRIED MAN! And yet, he is. And his wife is a beautiful and very, very smart and very, very good woman. 

Here's another thing I got caught up with today. 

Do you see what's going on here? 
I am having a purse crisis. I heard on a podcast today that dolphins of both sexes sometimes go into a sex coma or something like that wherein all they can think about is having sex to the point where they are unable to function normally. Other dolphins taunt and tease them when they are in this state and cannot defend themselves. I do not go into sex comas but I do go into purse crises at which time I am obsessed with having a different purse because I really have to. There is no way around it and it must happen and I am not free from the clutches (haha!) of it until I am settled into a different one. After only a few weeks, I have determined that I was absolutely right about the purse I bought at the vintage store. It is just too fucking big, and had switched back to the backpack purse that's open there at the twelve o'clock position but I've carried that purse for over a year so obviously I need something different. I got out the dark brown one at the six o'clock position which I like pretty much okay but the straps drove me crazy and I think I figured out a way to deal with that issue but then I saw one of my old Coach backpack bags that I bought on ebay back when ebay was begun in the dark ages so I got that out too and cleaned it up some and I just don't know what to do. 
I'm crazy. I know. I know, I know, I know- purses are just things to carry other things in and what's the big deal? I have no idea. It just is. 

And now suddenly I'm texting with two of my oldest friends, one of whom's cancer has returned and who has also become a grandmother in the past few months. Let me go and concentrate on that. 

This was going to be a light-hearted and frivolous post. I guess that's just not the way things are going to be these days. 

Let's hold on to each other. Please. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Let Us Celebrate The Small Things While We Can

This is the bloom of a leopard plant that I have growing in the little garden beside the kitchen. I tend to just stick plants in there that I don't know what to do with and that is one of them. I do love the leaves on the plant but the bloom is rather straggly and scraggly, or at least mine is. I need to do something about that area as it is looking tired and unkempt. I'll add that to the list. 

I went to town today AGAIN and not only went to Costco and Publix but also to Walmart which I usually avoid like the plague it is but it's so close to Costco and I needed a few things that neither they nor Publix have. Five pound weights, for one. I have got to start some sort of strength training. We all know that weight-bearing exercise is what maintains bone strength and I sure don't want my own personal bones crumbling like little sticks of chalk. So I got the weights and I got some canned air because we needed that and I got some artichokes and sweet potatoes and I also saw two dresses, one made of flannel and one made of corduroy and I just threw them in the cart without even trying them on because I'm stupid like that. I just went and dug the receipt out of the trash in case I have to take them back. I just need something slightly warmer than the dresses I've been wearing all summer. Supposedly it is going to get cooler starting the rest of the week. I'll believe it when I see it.

Lauren is feeling a little better in that she is able to get comfortable in some positions. I had to go by their house because I left my favorite and constant Yeti water mug there yesterday and nothing else suits me like that one does. I forget everything these days. Remember that old saying, "I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached"? 
If I forgot my head and it wasn't attached, it would make no difference at all because there's nothing in it except for a few random factoids rattling around that have nothing to do with anything. 

Mr. Moon may or may not be feeling better. The reason I don't know is because he's out in the garage, working on Tom's Gator UTV, which is a small utility vehicle that Tom uses to get from one place on his property to another. It is what makes it possible for him to be as independent as he is. So today when it quit running, he was very upset and called Glen to ask him to do what he could to fix it and that's why Glen is in the garage right now. Tom has not maintained the little UTV at all, and mainly because he just can't, so it's no wonder that it finally quit running. 
Glen took a covid test this morning and it was negative. So that's not his problem. I think stress could be at the heart of this unwellness. There was the wedding and there are some situations going on at Moon Plaza that need resolving which will take a lot of work on his part and he keeps getting calls from a guy who hunts the same property he does who needs help with whatever it is that hunters need help with. Glen hates to let anyone down. It's just not in his DNA to do that. And honestly, the election hit him hard too. 
Hell, we're all going through it right now, aren't we? It may just be, however, that his switch has gotten flipped to Overwhelm which is completely understandable. 

I've got another thing to add to my list of things I need to do. Lauren and Jessie and I were talking yesterday about how Pubix hadn't gotten in its candied fruit to make fruitcake with but when I was there today, lo and behold- the fruit has arrived.

Since it's on sale, I should have bought what I need but I didn't. I ran across the cheesecloth though, when I was looking for something else, and I bought some of that. I always need far more cheesecloth than I think I will to soak in rum and wrap the cakes in. 

I'm trying so very hard not to allow myself to drown in the dark, dense grayness of my fears. I don't think I'm in denial at all. In fact, I think that my predictions are so unbelievably terrifying that if I begin delineating and defining them one by one, I might lose my mind. It helps to be as normal as possible while I can be, doing the shopping, planning the fruitcakes, making the meals, working in the garden, being with my family. With each and every announcement that comes from The Vile Orange One's camp though, it becomes harder and harder to maintain this distance. Still, it would do no one any good if I allowed myself to fall into the darkness completely. 

We are all dealing with this in our own ways. Let's keep the light on for each other as long as we can. 

Love...Ms. Moon

 

Well, Here We Are

Maurice is looking a bit shaggy, isn't she? Yesterday I decided to get in the garden and kneel in the dirt and get my hands filthy and so I did. I didn't stay out too long because it's still hot as blazes and as humid as a sauna but I enjoyed the time I spent out there, doing a little weeding, and of course I always love it when Maurice joins me. She wandered among the greens and the mushrooms which have sprung up since we got that rain. 

That looks like an angry mushroom to me. 

When I came in I did laundry and a few other chores and then I decided to clean out the freezer which for some bizarre reason I thought would take about twenty minutes. 
Two hours later I was done. I got rid of a few things and tried to organize the other things but it's still far from perfect. 

And then I made our supper of mahi-mahi and grits and salad and leftover okra and tomatoes. It was all good. I was tired by nine-thirty but managed to stay awake until eleven at which point the light went out and I slept eight hours straight. I knew I had to get up early because today was pottery class. 

I got up in plenty of time and made it to Jessie's house to pick her up and off we went to Lafayette Park where the studio is and just as we were getting started, I got a call from Lily who was at work. Poor Lauren was in such bad pain from lower back and hip pain that she really wanted to go to an ER. So Jessie and I cleaned up our spaces and drove to pick her up. We were going to take her to the free-standing ER associated with Tallahassee's main hospital where I have received such good care for my appendix and kidney stone situations. However, on the way there, we saw that the local orthopedic clinic where Lauren had an appointment scheduled for tomorrow had an urgent treatment clinic which none of us knew about so we took her there and they saw her in a reasonable amount of time. I say that as someone who was not in agony. I'm not sure she'd agree with that. 

They did X-rays and a doctor examined her and they gave her a shot for pain (not a narcotic) and a steroid shot and told us we could take her home. Jessie and I felt terrible for her. She could hardly move at all and there was no position she could be in that was even vaguely comfortable. Not sitting, not standing, and not laying down. 
Jessie was a great nurse for her, giving her Ibuprofen before we left the house, and making sure she had water. She tried every comfort measure she could think of. 
They ordered an MRI for Lauren but her insurance company has to approve it before they can schedule it. I am pretty sure that the doctor agreed with her own diagnosis of sciatica. The X-rays did not show anything that Lauren didn't know already but they did indicate that a nerve was being pinched. 
I think that strangled is more like it. 

We took her home and she laid down on the couch to rest and I hear she was able to sleep some although her pain has not abated much, if at all. Damn. There's pain and then there's...pain. You know what I mean. Wicked, unrelenting pain. And that is what she is having. 

I dropped off Jessie at her house although to be perfectly honest, she was doing all the driving. She had to pick up those boys and take them to piano. Because I still had not set my car clock to the correct time due to the fact that every six months when the time changes, I forget how to do it and have to google it, and I just hadn't gotten around to that, I thought it was after four when it was really only after three and so I did not go do my grocery shopping which had been part of my plan today. I have now successfully set the clock but I guarantee you that come spring and another time change, I will not remember how to do it. 

Mr. Moon did not sleep last night because he felt and does feel "like shit" which concerns me. The man ignores illness until he absolutely cannot. The feeling like shit, according to him, has nothing to do with any illness but some other random thing he has come up with involving an acid blocker that he didn't take one day last week. Seriously. 
So I am making a soup because soup cures everything. Am I right? The greens that I picked for a salad are now cut up and simmering in the pot with broth and onions and carrots. While I was out in the garden I took a little video of the bees on the Mexican basil. You really can't get the entire scope of how many there are as the camera cannot take in what the eye can but you can get a sense of what's going on there.

And the honeymooners had their first New Orleans brunch today and oh my god. I want some of that. 

Hank is about to attack a benny flight which I understand is a selection of different takes on Eggs Benedict. 
GET OUT! 

And Rachel is eating an omelet, grits, and a biscuit. She said they are probably the best grits she ever ate. 

I would not doubt that. 

And that's the story. I thought that life would be back to normal by now but let's face it- normal is not a concept which we can truly expect any more and we have no idea what the new normal will be but I have no doubt that whatever it is, it will only get worse. 
In the meantime, let us eat all the benny flights and grits.

Let us love our sweethearts. Let us take care of each other. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Part Two

Hank has always been the one in our family to make sure the connections are frequent and strong. Many, if not most, of our group texts start out from Hank saying, "Good morning! How's everybody today?"
He's the one who wants to know where Thanksgiving is going to be, how Christmas is going to be scheduled, how birthdays will be celebrated. So I was not surprised at all to hear that he'd asked his sisters to make some speeches. He and Rachel decided that it would be the sisters, Tia, and Jacob who spoke, and then Rachel's brother wanted to say some words and he did. 

I know the girls were a little worried about what to say when it came to their brother. He's been such a force in their lives and how do you speak of that in a way that conveys the influence he's had on all of them? 
They figured it out. 
May started.
"I have known Hank all my life and he has known me for most of his."

I believe that's how it went.

And as Lily and Jessie spoke, they too started out with, "I've known Hank for all of my life." 
I honestly cannot remember what each of them said but I know that each of them had at least one story to tell about Hank and him bringing the magic. Dear god, I hope someone filmed those speeches. They were moving and funny and dear and full of love. As one would expect. Gibson cried when his mother spoke. As I said yesterday, Gibson is the one with the biggest feelings, I think.

Tia spoke about how she and Rachel met in the third grade and how close they've been all these years. She talked about her memory of when Rachel told her that yes, she was falling in love with Hank. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone with such sweet, pure energy as Tia and she and Rachel are so lucky to have had and still have each other in their lives. 

Jacob talked about meeting Hank something like twenty-one years ago. He said he was in a group of punk kids who were doing punk things and they had a friend who was in a way, their leader. He was a big guy and what he said was not to be taken lightly and one night he told the other guys, "Listen. I've made a friend who's a trans guy and I want y'all to be nice to him." 
And then Hank joined them for something and he walked into this room where they were all hanging out and he said, "Hey Y'all!" and the way Jacob said it sounded EXACTLY like Hank and we all roared. He also talked about how Hank checks in on him at least once a day. Jacob has been through some shit and Hank has been there for him every step of the way. He said that if doesn't answer the text for three days, Hank doesn't text him, he texts his MAMA! 

And Rachel's brother. He so desperately wanted to say something about Rachel and it was so hard for him. By the end of him saying what he wanted to say, Rachel and two of their cousins were on the stage holding him tightly. It was incredibly emotional. The entire room was silent as he spoke, giving him all of our attention and all of our love for his effort. There could not have been a better crowd of people supporting him. It was beautiful.

So much love. All over the place. And as Anna said, I think that's exactly what we all needed. I believe that everyone there had decided not to speak of the election and yet, we all did. It's like we had to. If there is one group more in danger than immigrants in this country right now, it is our queer community. Our children, our parents, our partners, our coworkers, our nieces and nephews and grandchildren and brothers and sisters were used as fear fodder for the evil one and now the election is over, exact outcomes are unknown. 
The resemblances between Trump and Hitler are undeniable. Find groups to hate and promote that hate to unite the citizenry and take control. 
And so of course, a large group of people who are those targets and their advocates and loved ones coming together, even in celebration and love, cannot help but be uncertain about the future, to say the least. It was almost like we all had to check in with each other to ask, "Are you okay? Can you believe this?"

But for one day, there were more immediate things to think about and that was the celebration of Hank and Rachel, and the fact that for now at least, the rights of people to marry the person they love is protected. And I love the fact that children were there to witness an event that probably was of no more consequence than any wedding would be to them. Of course these children were raised to know that love is love and so to see same-sex couples dancing together, holding hands, is just the daily for them. 

Phew. I didn't mean to go there but just as with the conversations at the wedding when any two people got together, it cannot be avoided. 

And now- some more pictures! 

Magnolia getting the stage ready before the DJ got there. 

Lily and Lauren, her love.

Our man, Mark, in his official parking attendant vest. Billy had one too. 

Hank's other dad (my ex), Juancho/John, the officiant, and his wife, our beautiful Melissa.

Speaking of Billy. How do like that award-winning beard? 
No. Really. That beard is winning awards in beard contests. And Billy always announces that he, the man with this beard, is a proud trans dad. When I saw Billy come into the room before the ceremony, I hugged him so hard and he hugged me right back. Damn, but there were some world-class huggers at that event. 

Ms. May, cutting wedding cake. The cakes are beautiful, but not as beautiful as May. 

I should have gotten so many more pictures. There was a professional photographer and she was shooting all day and night so there will be more. But I really wish I'd gotten pictures of the groaning cookie table and the grits and hash brown bar. What genius to have southern breakfast foods at a wedding reception! 
Can you say biscuits and sausage gravy? 
Yes, please. 

And there were plenty of gluten-free and vegan options. 

Honestly, it was one of the absolutely most best-planned and executed weddings I've ever been to and although I should not say this- Hank and Rachel are obviously far better at wedding planning than I had any idea they'd be. 

Those two crazy newlyweds just texted that they made it to New Orleans and their little Air B&B love nest is very cute. And this card was waiting for them. 

Yes. I cried a little when I read that.

The flowers that I brought home are still so very lovely. 

They are the tangible memory of a dream-like day. 

And here's another short little video. 

I've always said that dancing is my favorite form of prayer and this dancing is a prayer of celebration and for a lifetime of love and joy and strength and a hell of a lot of fun for Hank and Rachel. 

Love...Ms. Moon

And What A Wedding It Was

As it turns out, going to Florida to see a bunch of my friends at a big queer wedding for a couple of our other friends was exactly what I needed to do this weekend.

Anna.

There is no way I'm going to get this post written in its entirety tonight but I'm going to start. I really didn't know HOW to start and then I saw what Anna had posted on Facebook and I stole the picture and the quote and left her a comment telling her that if she wasn't happy about that to let me know and I hope that she's not unhappy about that because I think it's perfect. I have spoken about Anna many times as she started out as a friend of Hank's and then became a sort-of friend of mine and yes, another member of the family who has spent a whole lot of Thanksgivings with us and Easters, too, I think, and she moved to Minneapolis a while back and we've missed her like crazy and when I saw her yesterday I was thrilled. Oh my goodness, we hugged!

Y'all- they did it. Hank and Rachel fucking DID IT! They pulled together the queerest wedding of all times (or at least that had been held at the Miccosukee Land Co-op last week), and into this decidedly non-traditional wedding they inserted many, many traditional elements up to and including a first dance, a wedding cake, a groom's cake, so many flowers, a gift table, a bride wearing white, a groom wearing a suit, and dancing children.

I'm getting way ahead of myself. 
The wedding itself was held outside and Juancho/John did the honors with Tia beside Rachel and Jacob beside Hank. But before the ceremony began, Hank realized that certain people were not yet seated and so, in his best and loudest Trivia Master voice, he called them in. By name. 
It was so Hank. 

And then Rachel and Tia walked up to the little stage where the ceremony was held and Tia made sure to keep Rachel's dress arranged properly as to the lace train part. She was amazing! 
Jacob held the rings and Juancho did the ceremony. 
It was a really good ceremony and he shocked the hell out of me when he quoted a thing from one of my blog posts about how to have a good marriage. I'd link that advice but I can't find it. Basically it went like this- Marry the Right Person. 

Hank and Rachel looked at each other exactly like you'd want two people who were getting married to look. As if no one else in the world was even there. As if they were looking at their entire worlds in each other's eyes. As if they'd been through the fire and were now in the sweet cooling waters of peace and love. As if they were saying, "I do. I most certainly do."

We all cried. Glen said that he heard Gibson asking Owen if he had gotten emotional during the ceremony because he himself had cried. Gibson has the tenderest heart of all of them. 

And he wanted a boutonnière so I pinned a rose on him. That's Lauren sitting beside him and see the guy with the beard back there? That's my Billy.

So yes, we all cried and we all clapped when Juancho declared them married and demanded that they kiss and they, as a married couple, walked back down the aisle together and Billy's mother had passed out little bubble wands so bubbles followed them all the way down their first journey together as wedded and the bubbles shone with their rainbow iridescence as well they should have. 

It was a rainbow wedding for sure. There were so many queers there,  friends from way, way back, with lives that intertwine and are woven together in the very cloth of their lives. 
And many of them are woven into my life too. Our family's life. Because Hank has always shared his friends with his family, knowing that everyone he loves, we will too. 

But here's the thing- there were people of every description, gender, identification, occupation, age, and status in life and every one of them was there because they love Hank and/or Rachel and wanted to be part of their joyful celebration. 
Oh my goodness. It was amazing. It was beautiful. It was far more everything than I had expected it would be. I have no idea how this all came together but it did.  And so many people were part of the reason it did. 

Lis Williamson made the wreaths which were just what Hank and Rachel wanted. 

Tia had one as well. 

She also made a boutonnière for Jacob. Some of the elements she used in these things came all the way from Australia and I am sure she spent hundreds of hours making them. She made me what could have been a bouquet, but which I pinned in my hair. 

Also the groom's cake. 

And let us not mention the fact that she was there for me when anxiety took me over, when I needed someone to hold my hand in support. There is no one like Lis. I love her so dearly. 

The family pictures were taken after the ceremony which did not take long compared to every other wedding I've ever been involved with on that level and there was fruit and cheese and a few other lovely things for people to snack on while that was going on. 

There were so many people! The community center was packed. Every seat at every table was filled and no, there were no place cards. People sat where they wanted and old friends reunited and new friends were made. 

My brother Chuck came and his wife, Kathe. Because of many stupid damn reasons, Chuck and I do not see each other enough but we love each other profoundly. I was very, very glad to see him and re-introduce him to my grandchildren whom he hasn't seen in quite awhile. 

Speaking of grandchildren.

This picture is misleading. Owen is now officially taller than his mama. 

 

The young'uns. 

****************

All right, you guys. This is all I can do tonight. Mr. Moon must have some supper and I suppose I should too. 

Dear Lord. What a weekend. 
But Hank and Rachel are well and truly wed and on Monday they are leaving for New Orleans, Louisiana for a honeymoon. 

I'm telling you, they are doing it right. They have done it right. They will do it right. And I could not love them more or be more proud of them than I am. 

Their first dance. The song they danced to was La Vie En Rose, the Louis Armstrong version. 

 

Stay tuned for more stories and pictures including the Sister Speeches! You do not want to miss this. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Wedding Eve Day

I didn't take nearly enough pictures today. You'll have to forgive me. I plead over-stimulation and a bit of chaos and a whole lot going on. But that's what the stage part of the land co-op's community center looks like. Today it was a staging area for the flower arrangements. We made SO many flower arrangements. Rachel had ordered flowers from Costco. They had been delivered to Jessie's house where she took them out of their boxes, cut the stems, and placed them in buckets of water and then transported them to the venue. 
Rachel had sent out the call for vases and for platters. The vases to be filled with flowers, of course, the platters to be filled with the cookies. 

The first person I saw when I pulled up was my ex-husband, Hank's bio-dad. He was there to help with the sound system. He'd lent them an amp or a speaker or one of those sound-things that bands use. There will be no band at the wedding reception but there will be a DJ. 

Then I saw my dear buddy Juancho whom I met through blogging many, many years ago and he and his now-wife Melissa are as much a part of our family as anyone. He's doing the ceremony, having gotten his credentials as a clergy member from an online service that provides such things and yes, it is legal, and yes, you used to do this via an ad in the back of Rolling Stone magazine. Anyway, I was just so glad to see the man. It's been way too long. I see Melissa slightly more often as she is the darling who cuts our hair. 

Jacob, the best man was there, and Taylor B. not to be confused with Tay-Tay Taylor, who was also there. Taylor B. is going to be the point person tomorrow. She will make sure everything goes as planned. She is excellent at this. She and Hank, on their own, used to organize and put on a festival every year in Tallahassee. 

Taylor B. is the gal with the very red hair that matches her very red skirt. 

Slowly things began to happen as to decorations and preparations. Rachel had asked if I would do the labels for the cookies and I said I would happily do that. I love to write things out by hand. 

There were a lot of labels. There are going to be a lot of cookies. We're talking thousands maybe. Oh, probably not but well into the hundreds and hundreds. 

Jessie started stringing twinkle lights. 

It's good to be tall. 

May and Lily started making flower arrangements, filling vases.

May made both Rachel's bouquet and her bridesmaid Tia's bouquet. Lavender roses, ivory roses, calla lilies. So pretty. 

Tay-Tay and her husband Paul arrived from Texas where they moved to some years ago. Taylor is another family member who just doesn't happen to share DNA. 

Mr. Moon was set to work doing something with candles, I think, and Rachel began setting up the cookie table and I joined in the flower arranging with Lily, May, and Jessie, but the force was not in me today. I made a few arrangements but was pleased with none. Mr. Moon was sent out for more twinkle lights. 

May should open a damn flower shop and hire her sisters to work with her. 

Our friend Lindsey sat at another table and made garlands and other things from silk flowers that I really am not sure are going to be used for. 

And that is how the afternoon went by. We got the tables all covered and Glen got back with the extra lights which he helped Jessie hang and then Jessie hung the paper lanterns, and Rachel's best friend and bridesmaid, arrived with her mother and newish husband. Tia is Rachel's for-sure sister friend from childhood. Her wedding was about a year ago and her husband, Pablo, is one of the most ebullient people I've ever met. He and Tia are expecting a baby soon. So much joy at that reunion.

Are you keeping up with all of this? Good. There may be a quiz later. 

And so it's been a good day but a day of way more socialization than I've experienced in quite awhile and tomorrow there will be even more. I am going to do my best to be as fully in the moment as I can be, to enjoy and allow myself to feel the love and joy that will be all around me. So many people are coming to celebrate Hank and Rachel- many of them people whom I love dearly and who all love Hank and Rachel. Our family will be together, and there will be a table for Levon's presents. 

My boy. My only boy is getting married tomorrow. The last of my children to wed. And his bride is a beautiful woman with a beautiful soul who loves him the way I would want his life partner to love him and he loves her with all his heart. 

Phew. It's a lot, y'all. 

I may not get in a report tomorrow. We shall see. But if not then, then definitely on Sunday. There will be pictures.

Love...Ms. Moon

I May Be Pretending To Be Sane

 

See the little moon there?  
Sorry about the screen.

Right now, the sky is lit with pink and fiery colors mingling with the last of the blue. Really, the first of the blue. We've had rain and gray clouds all day. It rained most of the night, on and off. The rain gauge (garden cart) showed a goodly amount of water that we'd been blessed with. I can feel the earth sighing in contentment, the trees stretching out their roots to take in the good, clean water. Now if it would just get a little cooler. I can't even work outside right now. And the humidity is way up in the summertime ranges. 88% right now. 

I've felt better today. Not about anything that's happening as pertains to you-know-what. Mostly because I haven't read much or watched anything about you-know-who except for a podcast done by Trevor Noah and his little band of fellow smart people. It was entitled "Harris vs. Trump: The Day After." 
I thought maybe it would give me a little clarity but it did not. I don't think they have any more idea about what happened and why on Tuesday than I do. And you know what? It makes no difference at this point about why or how. We are faced with a reality that brings us great distress but it is a reality. It is, in fact, our reality. And we have no idea what this reality will come to look like although we may have some ideas, but there's nothing I can do at this moment to change that reality and although I am not gracefully accepting it, I am aware that torturing myself with the possibilities of what's coming is doing no one any good. 
So. That's my philosophy at the moment. It may change before we eat supper. 

I went to my pre-procedure appointment today at the Digestive Disease Clinic. Did they really have to name it that? It's really a colonoscopy factory, to be honest. I liked the thirteen-year old nurse practitioner I met with. She was nothing but positive and pleasant and reassuring. My procedure is scheduled for January 13 at 3:00 p.m. with one of the doctors that Dr. Zorn had mentioned as someone he really trusted. 
And for this moment, that's that story. 
Again- it will do me no good to fret and worry until I have real reason to do so, and again, although that makes perfect sense, things could turn on a dime and I'll be a damn mess. I've never understood people who say they "choose" not to worry or even be unhappy. Really? How do you do that? Please put it in a jar and send it to me. 
I'll pay the postage. 

I've decided that I'm done with cleaning for the foreseeable future. Done, done, done. And the next few days will absolutely be filled with wedding things. We are meeting tomorrow at the venue to set up and decorate and organize. And have lunch. And then the next day- well, that's the day! 

Lon and Lis will be here sometime tomorrow. Their room is ready. 

I washed our sheets today because I will not have time tomorrow. Look at me- stepping right out of my routine! 
Hahahahaha. 

And lastly- here are August and Levon's school pictures. 

Okay. Seriously? This child has a sense of style unlike any child that age I've ever met. I love that he wore the necklace he made here. 

And August is my darling boy, as sure of himself as anyone could be. When Jessie took them shopping for clothes at Target last weekend, he picked out a shirt that had a very representative rainbow on it which included all the LGBTQ+++ tribes and people of different colors and Jessie said, "Now August, you know that when people see you wearing this they will think of you as someone who supports gay and lesbian people and transgender people and people who are not white," and he said, "Yeah." And that was that. 

We are so proud of of all our babies. They are about love. And oh, boy, are they going to have a good time at the wedding! 

Hurray! 

Love...Ms. Moon