The Royal Wedding

I was talking to my friend Petey the other day about his upcoming nuptials. The marriage part, no fear; the part where everyone is staring at you during the service, ugh. Agreed.

Imagine being Kate & Will. Yikes!

Yet, she handled it with poise, sophistication, grace, aplomb, and so on. They both seemed to be cracking up, at times. I even think there was a slight air of "Take this biyotches!" Check. And Mate.

Watching the royal wedding from my couch this morning was fun while the hubby read the tweets from the live bloggers on dlisted. (Did they have to stop to get Camilla an apple or carrot? Touching.)

Vastly different experience than when I was living in Jersey UK in 1986 and Fergie married Prince Andrew. I was working in my girlfriend's health food shop and we, along with all of the shopkeepers in Quennevais Parade, were drinking champagne, waving flags and celebrating. Sure, we were miles away from the event, across the Channel (well, almost), but yet on English soil -- quite the festivity.

I want to agree with John Oliver's coverage on the Daily Show that 80% of Brits don't care about the royal wedding; however, there's something about it that's undeniably cool. Maybe it's the 1936 diamond tiara borrowed from the Queen, the reverential curtsy, the horse drawn carriages (that are downright pretentious for others but seriously awesome if you're royalty), the Union Jack flags lining the streets or, more comprehensively, the fairytale-like nature of the entire event.

Swoon. 

As the cover Newsweek proclaimed a few weeks ago, and a recent sermon in church touched upon, "In a world gone to hell, thank God, a wedding." So true.

Time to put on my white gloves, one finger at a time, and pour myself some Pink Champale.

Texas Tumbleweed

Staying at La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa in Montgomery TX is like writing on this blog: no visitors.

Here is my review for TripAdvisor.

Sure, I could have gone on about how inconvenienced the dude serving us at the 19th hole was to have to fetch my mom's tea from the next building over (i.e., a minute walk that should have been transparent to us, his few guests), not to mention the fact that her tea never arrived until we were leaving almost an hour later, and what a buffoon the dude was in general (and he was training the new hire?!)  but I erred on the side of just simply narrating a few of the mishaps.

It was such a wonderful trip overall, I thought, why wax on about one ill-fated lunch?

But I did forget to mention one thing: the fact that the kids could jump over the side of infinity pool to the larger pool below.

"Please, can we??"

"Sure, but wait until Grannie isn't around."

Freedom of Choice

According to this quiz, I'm a Libertarian -- just a bit more centrist than my anarchist, hemp-loving brother.

 If you want me, you can find me left of center, off of the strip.

I'll say it again in the land of the free, use your freedom of choice . . .

And Talk About the Weather

When you've got nothing to post, you can always talk about the weather.

Total snowfall this past season (assuming, correctly I hope, that it's over): 127 inches. Lucky us!

And now we're nearing the record for rainiest April EVER (breaking a record set in 1929) in a town that's already known for gray skies and dreary weather. Lucky us!

Tonight, we have a severe thunderstorm warning that could bring strong winds and hail. Yea!!

It's either time for Tears for Fears or the Weather Girls but God bless mother nature? Not right now.

Three Little Birds

Easter Sunday. Egg hunt. Estes model rockets. Glow sticks. Popsicle makers. Chocolate bunnies. Jelly beans. Candy. Cake. Ice cream.

One sick little man.

Sitting on the bathroom floor at my sister's house, crying, he began whispering to me, "Don't worry about a thing. Every little thing is going to be alright."

Yes, it is.

Tenebrae

Last night, I went to a Tenebrae service which, until yesterday, I had never heard of.

This particular service was a succession of music, prayer and seven readings -- no traditional mass/no sermon. The church was fully lit with eight candles on the altar and after each reading a single candle was extinguished and the lights were dimmed. By the end of the service, we were in complete darkness with the exception of one candle, which was used to lead a silent procession, and a light shining on the crucifix above the alter. Faint light from the dusk outdoors was illuminating the stained glass windows throughout.

Just beautiful.

The music ranged from Mozart and Bach to Andrew Lloyd Webber; from simple and soulful to complex and discordant; from piano, violin and flute to tenors and sopranos.

You could almost palpably feel the pain and sorrow of the crucifixion -- especially the three hours of darkness that came over the land (Matthew 27:45). Unreal.
 

Ghost Town

After last year's nightmare travel to/from the Barbados, we almost didn't go on vacation this year but then we spotted a SniqueAway deal on a fabulous hotel in Texas, La Torretta, and jumped on it. I honestly can't bear the thought of not going away somewhere. I crave adventure. Life's too short, right? Fun. Relaxation. Sunshine. Family. Love. (Very grateful.)

The best part of this trip, aside from the relative proximity of flying to Houston vs. Barbados (via Queens), was that we bookended our fabulous resort stay with a trip to NASA/Houston Space Center on the front-end and the Houston Aquarium, Chocolate Bar, the Shops at Rice University and a wonderful dinner at Prego with our beautiful granddaughter/niece/cousin Leigh on the back-end. What else? We went to the Montgomery County Fair (great for people watching -- Texans are really not like New Yorkers at all) and we bought the hubby a real cowboy hat at Cavender's where we learned (no joke) all about the importance of beaver in the hat body (i.e., where the higher the "X" value, the greater the percentage of beaver in the felt). Who knew? Answer: Willie Nelson, probably.

Since I'm such a sucker for providing feedback, I hope that my TripAdvisor review will be posted soon. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the song that I have been singing since we arrived at our hotel that was bizarrely barren of all tourists. We had the pool, water slides, lazy river, hot tubs, restaurants, and more -- all to ourselves. Eerie. And awesome.