Country Rican

Today is my parents’ 46 th wedding anniversary.   I know.   Forty six years is a long time.   When I came along they had already been together 9 years, had 2 boys, and had separated at least once.   I think most of us know being married is not easy.   I am sure at one time or another we all thought it was a natural and easy thing.   Let me rephrase that.   Some of us might have thought at one point in time that being married was natural and easy – if we are lucky.   I consider myself blessed in many areas of my life.   But I honestly believe that where I caught the biggest break was being born into this family and everything else stems from there.   You see, I am one of those lucky people that can remember the blissful time when I never questioned the institution of marriage, the conventional family and all that jazz.   It was the way things were, it was natural, meant to be, easy.   The tricky thing is that I remember, more ...

Well Michael and I decided to go deeper into the country for a weekend away in celebration of our actual one year anniversary. (Michael does not want to celebrate them both).  We went to the mountains in North Carolina, which we have been to before but never in the summer. It goes without saying that I was not prepared for the bugs.   Those of you who have had the misfortune to be with me when I encounter a bee know what I mean.  There were some funky bugs up there.  The first day as we started to unpack the car into the cabin I realized this might not be a good idea.  However, we were already there so let's make the most of it, right.  However, how could I not think of the bugs?!  I shock myself sometimes... The first mission was to go to Mount Mitchell, which is the highest point east of the Mississippi at 6684 feet.  We had tried to go there once before but it was November and the roads were closed due to weather. Michael found a "short" hike...

Last year, Michael and I had a courthouse wedding.  It was an interesting experience that I want to share... with those of you who weren't there, and I guess I'm up for reminiscing with those who were there. Michael and I planned our wedding more than a year in advance because we wanted to do it in Puerto Rico, and so we chose the date of June 13th and the place and everything was fine.  Puerto Rico is a US colony and apparently the level of red tape is twice as large as it is in the US.  Getting permission to have the ceremony where we wanted was a headache I do not care to relive. Then I found out that getting married legally in Puerto Rico is a pain in the @$$.  There are expensive blood tests and time limits on when you can do them, and complications about having it outside of the court house, and additional payments for a judge to leave the building, and after a lot of grief we said "Let's just go to City Hall".  So we found out it w...