Weblog 327
May 20, 2012~ 12:00 am
We did it!
That's the two of us, minutes after saying our "I wills" in front of Judge Gary Zyra on Monday May 14th. Luckily for us, they have a LOVELY, 'decorated for weddings' gazebo out front that suited well for a couple of photos. We were very proud because we figured out how to take our OWN picture by turning the viewing screen on the camera around on its pivot, holding the thing at arm's length and just shooting. I know a lot of you probably know how to do this, but for 'older folks' like us.....it was a miraculous discovery. (Wayne looks like he's unsure if the method would even work. LOL!!!)
As a matter of fact, the gazebo had been decorated for a wedding two weeks prior to our own, and the kind woman responsible for that decorating just happened by and we asked her if she would take a couple of snapshots for us, and she did....
You can plainly see the hand-sewn boutonniere and my matching wedding necklace Holly made for the two of us. I chose one of the new tops I'd just bought in a soft lilac color with some appliqued, sequined flowers on it, and damned if it didn't look just perfect! It was a BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL DAY! We went back to Wayne's to get his luggage for our trip, had a hearty breakfast at King's Restaurant and we were on our way to Gettysburg. Rain was predicted and we did run into some showers on the drive down, but no heavy downpours. We kept looking at each other and saying 'My husband' and 'My wife'.... and grinning like a couple of apes, but the words felt just right. Our stay from Monday afternoon through Friday at noon was arranged in our favorite spot to stay in Gettysburg.....
the Quality Inn next to General Lee's Headquarters at the Thompson House right on Route 30 (Buford Avenue) directly across from the Lutheran Seminary on the First Day's field. Those rolling hillocks and wide expanses, so embroiled in action at the beginning of the battle, were right outside our door, and site-seeing at the Thompson House museum was also included with our stay. We'd been in the small museum years ago, but they've dressed the place up and added a short film, along with hermetically sealed cases with artifacts such as the very saddle General Reynolds was seated upon when he was shot just after his arrival on the field as his First Corps troops rode fast and furious to relieve hard-pressed General Buford, who'd engaged the rebels at the start of the three day's conflict.
Things like that fill me with a sense of awe... staring right at objects that were there.... were actually used during that horrific battle 149 years ago. The whole town and its surrounding hills and rocks have a profound effect on me. It's a step back into time. History was all around us in the buildings and in the ground, in a place we've loved and studied for the past 20 years, so it was a perfect place for both of us to return to for our honeymoon. It's always meant so much to us... it was honestly our first and only choice.
The ONE THING we got to do this time around is climb the copper-lined spiral staircase up into the TOP OF THE PENNSYLVANIA MEMORIAL! Man-O-Man! What a view! You could see for 50 miles at least, off to the bluish and purple hills in the distance-- and for the first time I had a real 'bird's eye vantage' of the whole battlefield. Here's a view from our 'eagle's aerie'.
It was such a thrill to be UP there! And here's a shot of Wayne, who braved it first. He's positioned just at the right of the arched roof facade.
(Yes, he finally encouraged me to coax my 60 year old knees up that spiral staircase...LOL... and I'm so glad I actually did it.) Who knows? The next time we visit they may have it closed off to the public once again. I figured it was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity....(so thanks, Honey.)
I got a great shot of Little Round Top from Devil's Den-- probably close to where General Ellis stood as he turned his cannons in the opposite direction toward the Triangular Field and the assaulting Texans driving up through the brush and rocks.
All our days there other than Tuesday, which produced a bit of drizzle-- were blindingly bright with blue, blue skies. It was a stunning way to see the field, that's for sure.
Of course...... I have to include just a wee bit of the paranormal/ghost mania that has seized the ENTIRE TOWN, most of the shops tacky and comical, threatening to override the town as a place of HISTORICAL significance. (Yes, we're believers, but not in the silliness which now has a stranglehold on the place. Our experiences with strange phenonmena have been profoundly spiritual events having nothing to do with the Halloween-y gaucheness of what is now proliferating like bed bugs in that town, so I couldn't help but include a snapshot of what I'm referring to.)
Yes..... there's even ZOMBIES in Gettysburg, standing outside a shop, hawking their wares in life-sized dummy creepiness. (To be fair, Gettysburg has always been a town of 'kitsch' as well as history. From the very beginning- with its trolley rides through the battlefield that took late 19th century and early 20th century visitors to a dance floor on the Round Tops, there's been commercial enterprise at work everywhere.... today is no different with its shops selling EVP recorders and ghost tours on every corner.) Whatever place attracts PEOPLE in droves will bring on the carnival barkers. Some things never change.
So that was our trip, our wedding..... our BIG LIFE CHANGE. Next weekend I begin to clean out the junk in my two back rooms, making way for actual 'cohabitation'. We'll get there by fall this year, of that I am certain... one step at a time. With two people this happy
We can't miss.
Saturday evening we rented
"My Week With Marilyn"..... a brilliant, brilliant film with Kevin Branagh playing Sir Lawrence Olivier and Michelle Williams starring as the late Marilyn Monroe, back in 1956 when they were making 'The Prince And The Showgirl'.
I know Meryl Streep won a well-deserved Oscar as best actress for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in 'Iron Lady'-- but I have to say, if the Oscar had been mine to give, it would have gone to Miss Williams who turned in an unbelievable Marilyn Monroe.
Whereas Streep strode onto the screen and stepped inside a BIG ROLE, and delivered a staggering performance...... Williams WAS Marilyn. It was the most effective slipping on of someone else's skin I've ever seen. It was uncanny and shivery magical. I've never seen it done that way... to the point where I had to remind myself she wasn't actually Marilyn Monroe.
If someone told me, 'Oh yes..... but she sold her soul to the devil to play that role that well'...... I'd believe them. It floored me... the whole movie a charming, tender homage to a sadly troubled and beautiful woman. RENT IT. You will be amazed.
May 20, 2012~ 2:00 am
One thing I forgot to mention......Yes! WE DID GET RINGS!
Once in Gettysburg, we decided we both wanted wedding bands, so we went to the 'Irish Brigade' store and purchased matching Solvar© rings imported from Ireland, the silver quality certified and hallmarked at the Assay Office in Dublin Castle. "The hallmark has been in use in Ireland since 1637 for the purpose of ensuring that the highest standards are adhered to." They're lovely.
Wayne gets to wear his on his ring finger, but MY ring finger has a West Point 'Mother's Ring' from 1997 that is immovable .... and probably 'embedded in the flesh' at this point, so small was my ring size at that point in time. LOL!!! Sooooooo..... I'm wearing mine at present on my left hand middle finger.
(Unorthodox perhaps, but then..... with us..... what isn't? :)
May 21, 2012~ 6:00 pm
Ok...... here's the whole SHEBANG. In pictures. Click on the album.
(Oh, and by the way, my first day back to work was relatively painless. Got a LOT done..... except.... my exit off the Veteran's Bridge was CLOSED this morning and I panicked. LOL!!! Never continued on Rt. 579 past it, but luckily there were plenty of 'detour' signs that I could actually READ and follow.)
That is..... until the sunrise hitting me straight in the retinas and burning my eyes to holes so that I couldn't read them anymore-- and could only 'guess' my way. But I got there, shaky, but safe and sound.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
That's the two of us, minutes after saying our "I wills" in front of Judge Gary Zyra on Monday May 14th. Luckily for us, they have a LOVELY, 'decorated for weddings' gazebo out front that suited well for a couple of photos. We were very proud because we figured out how to take our OWN picture by turning the viewing screen on the camera around on its pivot, holding the thing at arm's length and just shooting. I know a lot of you probably know how to do this, but for 'older folks' like us.....it was a miraculous discovery. (Wayne looks like he's unsure if the method would even work. LOL!!!)
As a matter of fact, the gazebo had been decorated for a wedding two weeks prior to our own, and the kind woman responsible for that decorating just happened by and we asked her if she would take a couple of snapshots for us, and she did....
You can plainly see the hand-sewn boutonniere and my matching wedding necklace Holly made for the two of us. I chose one of the new tops I'd just bought in a soft lilac color with some appliqued, sequined flowers on it, and damned if it didn't look just perfect! It was a BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL DAY! We went back to Wayne's to get his luggage for our trip, had a hearty breakfast at King's Restaurant and we were on our way to Gettysburg. Rain was predicted and we did run into some showers on the drive down, but no heavy downpours. We kept looking at each other and saying 'My husband' and 'My wife'.... and grinning like a couple of apes, but the words felt just right. Our stay from Monday afternoon through Friday at noon was arranged in our favorite spot to stay in Gettysburg.....
the Quality Inn next to General Lee's Headquarters at the Thompson House right on Route 30 (Buford Avenue) directly across from the Lutheran Seminary on the First Day's field. Those rolling hillocks and wide expanses, so embroiled in action at the beginning of the battle, were right outside our door, and site-seeing at the Thompson House museum was also included with our stay. We'd been in the small museum years ago, but they've dressed the place up and added a short film, along with hermetically sealed cases with artifacts such as the very saddle General Reynolds was seated upon when he was shot just after his arrival on the field as his First Corps troops rode fast and furious to relieve hard-pressed General Buford, who'd engaged the rebels at the start of the three day's conflict.
Things like that fill me with a sense of awe... staring right at objects that were there.... were actually used during that horrific battle 149 years ago. The whole town and its surrounding hills and rocks have a profound effect on me. It's a step back into time. History was all around us in the buildings and in the ground, in a place we've loved and studied for the past 20 years, so it was a perfect place for both of us to return to for our honeymoon. It's always meant so much to us... it was honestly our first and only choice.
The ONE THING we got to do this time around is climb the copper-lined spiral staircase up into the TOP OF THE PENNSYLVANIA MEMORIAL! Man-O-Man! What a view! You could see for 50 miles at least, off to the bluish and purple hills in the distance-- and for the first time I had a real 'bird's eye vantage' of the whole battlefield. Here's a view from our 'eagle's aerie'.
It was such a thrill to be UP there! And here's a shot of Wayne, who braved it first. He's positioned just at the right of the arched roof facade.
(Yes, he finally encouraged me to coax my 60 year old knees up that spiral staircase...LOL... and I'm so glad I actually did it.) Who knows? The next time we visit they may have it closed off to the public once again. I figured it was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity....(so thanks, Honey.)
I got a great shot of Little Round Top from Devil's Den-- probably close to where General Ellis stood as he turned his cannons in the opposite direction toward the Triangular Field and the assaulting Texans driving up through the brush and rocks.
All our days there other than Tuesday, which produced a bit of drizzle-- were blindingly bright with blue, blue skies. It was a stunning way to see the field, that's for sure.
Of course...... I have to include just a wee bit of the paranormal/ghost mania that has seized the ENTIRE TOWN, most of the shops tacky and comical, threatening to override the town as a place of HISTORICAL significance. (Yes, we're believers, but not in the silliness which now has a stranglehold on the place. Our experiences with strange phenonmena have been profoundly spiritual events having nothing to do with the Halloween-y gaucheness of what is now proliferating like bed bugs in that town, so I couldn't help but include a snapshot of what I'm referring to.)
Yes..... there's even ZOMBIES in Gettysburg, standing outside a shop, hawking their wares in life-sized dummy creepiness. (To be fair, Gettysburg has always been a town of 'kitsch' as well as history. From the very beginning- with its trolley rides through the battlefield that took late 19th century and early 20th century visitors to a dance floor on the Round Tops, there's been commercial enterprise at work everywhere.... today is no different with its shops selling EVP recorders and ghost tours on every corner.) Whatever place attracts PEOPLE in droves will bring on the carnival barkers. Some things never change.
So that was our trip, our wedding..... our BIG LIFE CHANGE. Next weekend I begin to clean out the junk in my two back rooms, making way for actual 'cohabitation'. We'll get there by fall this year, of that I am certain... one step at a time. With two people this happy
Saturday evening we rented
"My Week With Marilyn"..... a brilliant, brilliant film with Kevin Branagh playing Sir Lawrence Olivier and Michelle Williams starring as the late Marilyn Monroe, back in 1956 when they were making 'The Prince And The Showgirl'.
I know Meryl Streep won a well-deserved Oscar as best actress for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in 'Iron Lady'-- but I have to say, if the Oscar had been mine to give, it would have gone to Miss Williams who turned in an unbelievable Marilyn Monroe.
Whereas Streep strode onto the screen and stepped inside a BIG ROLE, and delivered a staggering performance...... Williams WAS Marilyn. It was the most effective slipping on of someone else's skin I've ever seen. It was uncanny and shivery magical. I've never seen it done that way... to the point where I had to remind myself she wasn't actually Marilyn Monroe.
If someone told me, 'Oh yes..... but she sold her soul to the devil to play that role that well'...... I'd believe them. It floored me... the whole movie a charming, tender homage to a sadly troubled and beautiful woman. RENT IT. You will be amazed.
May 20, 2012~ 2:00 am
One thing I forgot to mention......Yes! WE DID GET RINGS!
Once in Gettysburg, we decided we both wanted wedding bands, so we went to the 'Irish Brigade' store and purchased matching Solvar© rings imported from Ireland, the silver quality certified and hallmarked at the Assay Office in Dublin Castle. "The hallmark has been in use in Ireland since 1637 for the purpose of ensuring that the highest standards are adhered to." They're lovely.
Wayne gets to wear his on his ring finger, but MY ring finger has a West Point 'Mother's Ring' from 1997 that is immovable .... and probably 'embedded in the flesh' at this point, so small was my ring size at that point in time. LOL!!! Sooooooo..... I'm wearing mine at present on my left hand middle finger.
(Unorthodox perhaps, but then..... with us..... what isn't? :)
May 21, 2012~ 6:00 pm
Ok...... here's the whole SHEBANG. In pictures. Click on the album.
(Oh, and by the way, my first day back to work was relatively painless. Got a LOT done..... except.... my exit off the Veteran's Bridge was CLOSED this morning and I panicked. LOL!!! Never continued on Rt. 579 past it, but luckily there were plenty of 'detour' signs that I could actually READ and follow.)
That is..... until the sunrise hitting me straight in the retinas and burning my eyes to holes so that I couldn't read them anymore-- and could only 'guess' my way. But I got there, shaky, but safe and sound.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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