(A journal from a few days ago...) *THANK YOU AUTO-RECOVERY!
So it's official! Alex and I got up EARLY this [Monday] morning to head down to the Bureau of Marriage Licenses to get our... oh? you want to guess?... ok... guess... oh, you know?! RIGHT! We have a MARRIAGE LICENSE!!! I have to say I wish I could have documented the event with my beautiful new camera Honeybear got for me this past Christmas, but, alas, we're in NYC and there are no cameras allowed in City Hall...
BUT! I DID leave with a great story to tell:
The woman working at the counter (who, essentially, inputs all our biographical data into the system *that's the GOVERNMENT system, as well as makes sure we are who we say we are, etc), well, let's just say there was a mighty big stick missing from the tree outside City Hall. She was really strict: there was a sign only at HER post which said "no standing or sitting anywhere near this area until you are called!" She was also really cold with the couple in front of us (who we were being cute with: he put his arm around her, so Alex put his arm around me; Alex kissed me, so he kissed her... So cute you could throw up). Anyway, it came time to visit Miss Ornery...
We gave her our paperwork. She asked for our ID's in a manner which was less-than-respectful: "I need ID's from both of you." Oh, please excuse me-- Seeing that each person is allowed one marriage by God, this is my FIRST TIME HERE! We surrendered our driver's licenses to the "beast", when she started to crack a smile. "We have the same birthday," she said to me. Trying to go with this new wave of "pleasant" I replied, "well, oh! It's coming up, too, isn't it?" Satisfied with this nice feeling I naturally thought it was the end of the conversation. Then, she paused while looking at Alex's license-- she paused a long time-- then that smile smeared across her face again and she said, "You share my mother's birthday!" We all laughed at the irony. But what was best was yet to come. The woman who seemed to like her paycheck more than her job told us she was going to tell her mom the scenario, and add "and hey, THEY LIKE eachother!" [I feel bad for people who really don't get along with their mothers... I know this wedding planning would be IMPOSSIBLE without someone I couldn't be honest with, scream at out of stress, and immediately after still receive millions of hugs as I cried in her arms.]
Anyway! We have our marriage license, after all that! I'll say, it was quite the temptation walking past the Civil Marriages Chapel on the way out the door... It seems like March 9th is taking its sweet time in getting here. *Although I'm trying to enjoy this part of the process as much as I can, I am somewhere between anxious-to-be-a-bride-and-wife and fed-up-with-wedding-planning-issues. 42 days...
BUT! I DID leave with a great story to tell:
The woman working at the counter (who, essentially, inputs all our biographical data into the system *that's the GOVERNMENT system, as well as makes sure we are who we say we are, etc), well, let's just say there was a mighty big stick missing from the tree outside City Hall. She was really strict: there was a sign only at HER post which said "no standing or sitting anywhere near this area until you are called!" She was also really cold with the couple in front of us (who we were being cute with: he put his arm around her, so Alex put his arm around me; Alex kissed me, so he kissed her... So cute you could throw up). Anyway, it came time to visit Miss Ornery...
We gave her our paperwork. She asked for our ID's in a manner which was less-than-respectful: "I need ID's from both of you." Oh, please excuse me-- Seeing that each person is allowed one marriage by God, this is my FIRST TIME HERE! We surrendered our driver's licenses to the "beast", when she started to crack a smile. "We have the same birthday," she said to me. Trying to go with this new wave of "pleasant" I replied, "well, oh! It's coming up, too, isn't it?" Satisfied with this nice feeling I naturally thought it was the end of the conversation. Then, she paused while looking at Alex's license-- she paused a long time-- then that smile smeared across her face again and she said, "You share my mother's birthday!" We all laughed at the irony. But what was best was yet to come. The woman who seemed to like her paycheck more than her job told us she was going to tell her mom the scenario, and add "and hey, THEY LIKE eachother!" [I feel bad for people who really don't get along with their mothers... I know this wedding planning would be IMPOSSIBLE without someone I couldn't be honest with, scream at out of stress, and immediately after still receive millions of hugs as I cried in her arms.]
Anyway! We have our marriage license, after all that! I'll say, it was quite the temptation walking past the Civil Marriages Chapel on the way out the door... It seems like March 9th is taking its sweet time in getting here. *Although I'm trying to enjoy this part of the process as much as I can, I am somewhere between anxious-to-be-a-bride-and-wife and fed-up-with-wedding-planning-issues. 42 days...