Um... it's very early.
My last day log/My next day log
Went to a wedding today!
I think this was the first wedding I've ever been to. My cousin was getting hitched to her high-school sweetheart. I don't know her very well - I've got a big family and most of my cousins are much older than me. Or, there's enough of an age gap to have kept me from really growing up with any of them. Most of them were teenagers when I was just a kid, so they all remember me as a toddler.
Wow. No wonder people cry at weddings. I had no idea such a cheesy, overly dramatized ritual could evoke such powerful emotions. My family lives all over the world so I was seeing most of them for the first time in awhile. It was a very conservative ceremony, but very sweet. My cousin looked absolutely stunning. I'm not sure what about the wedding was beautiful enough to make everybody shed buckets... it's difficult to describe. The smile on her face, the four flower girls, the embarrassing speeches. But mostly the incredible love that was emanating from my cousin and her wonderful new husband. They've been dating for over ten years and they still look like a fresh couple. It was... well, optimistic, compared to some of the sorry relationships I've seen around me within the past few months. Weddings show us a little love, a little innocence. I left with a warm, tingly feeling.
The reception was at a posh country club in the city. I sat at a table with my brothers and my little cousin, and some cousins from the groom's side, who talked amongst themselves the whole night and ragged on the service. I gave up trying to small talk them and drank too much wine.
My aunt is getting Alzheimer's. She's so young - only 55, I think - but people are already saying she's acting like her mother did when the symptoms started. It runs in my family, which scares the hell out of me. My mother said that if I ever see the warning signs in her I should shoot her - and I know she's only half joking. The thing about Alzheimer's is that if you try and escape it with suicide, you have to do it before you forget you've got the disease. Yes, it's a morbid thought, but terrifyingly honest. Aunt Pat wants me to write her when I move, and I will.
I think I ducked when they threw the bouquet.