Good Friday to you!
Well, I don't know about you, but this has been a busy week full of activities. With the end of school there were graduations galore, two of which I attended.
Then there was the wedding. My wife's sister was married this past weekend. At the same time, so was my wife's sister's new husband. What a weird coinkydink, right?
In order to attend the wedding, we had to travel to Charleston, South Carolina. As it turns out, Charleston is a beautiful place. There is lots of green and ocean and beach, plus a really nice little downtown area. I say "little" because I reside in Chicago and, well, it's all relative I suppose. I don't want to hear a word from you New Yorkers.
We flew down, checked into our hotel, and then more or less went straight to the church. The wedding went smoothly, everyone got married who was suppose to get married, and no one died who wasn't suppose to die.
Don't think too hard about that last bit.
Everyone looked pretty in their purples, grays, and blacks. Especially my wife. Cause she's pretty.
The wedding reception was the day after the wedding. It was more of a day of party than just a reception. There was a cruise along one of the coastal canals describing various bits of history and tradition bits. Some architecture goodies were thrown in as well.
Afterward, there was a transition period after which we all arrived at a swanky restaurant for some good viddles. Much time was spent with the talking and the eating and the talking and more eating.
Many people hopped on airplanes after the dinner or simply drove home. The rest of them flew home at the moment dawn cracked the next day.
That meant the only people from the wedding who were still in town other then the people who already live there, were my wife and I. All the rest of the family from both sides had gone home. Not even the bride and groom were there. They left us with a key to their apartment and car so we could wander around Charleston till our own scheduled departure was upon us.
So, we walked all over downtown Charleston. There we found some great food, some even greater gelato, and some nice ocean side walking paths.
Eventually, however, the time was upon us. We had checked out of our hotel room first thing in the morning, so that was done, which left us with putting Nirma's sister's car back and locking said keys inside of the previously decided hiding place. Which we did after summoning our shuttle ride to the airport.
The nice lady who picked us up spent part of the trip having a stirring conversation with her aunt on the phone and then chatted us up the rest of the journey. She was friendly. But that didn't keep her from charging us.
So, after locking away all the keys to transportation and free lodging and arriving at the airport, we paid the nice lady her extortion (it actually wasn't that bad) and made our way inside of the airport.
We walked right up to the check in counter just in time to find out that our flight home had been "delayed" (read: cancelled) till the next day. You know, after we had locked away our free transportation and lodging.
Grumble.
Fortunately, the lady at the desk was super nice and understanding and tried very hard to get us on a more immediate flight. She failed, but she gets an "A" for effort.
Instead, she put us up in a hotel room free of charge which came with free transport to and from.
While this was all rather inconvenient, it turned out to be a really nice relaxing evening for my wife and I. We walked to a restaurant across the street, then sat out side while we ate a cookie and had nice conversation.
For all practical purposes, the next day we were up by 3am so we could arrive home by 11am and then drive home from the airport by noon. At which point we unpacked, showered, groomed, laundered, food shopped, and then made our way to the first graduation program of the week which allowed us to be home and in bed before 11pm.
It wasn't exactly how we had planned things.
But, you know what? It was good. In the end, we stayed at a new place we'd never stayed at before, had some extra leisure time and an over all fun story.
If you force me to pull a lesson out of this, I will say this. Things rarely ever go the way we expect them to, even when they go well. Getting bogged down in the details of what went good or bad simply causes us to miss the point of life at large.
Take whatever comes your way and find enjoyment in it. Do the best you can in every situation to make it all it can be, but when it doesn't go right, embrace it and enjoy it anyway.
Happiness and joy are not things that happen to us, but states of being that we choose to be regardless of what happens to us.
There it is. That's all I have today.
Have a great night.
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