The Wedding Weekend That Wasn’t…

…at least, it wasn’t for me.   It was for the bride and groom.  And, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters, right? 

This weekend, my cousin* – the groom in this particular wedding – got married in Chicago.  And that meant – WEDDING ROAD TRIP!  Most of his large, extended clan lives in Delaware and Maryland so there were lots of wedding road trippers headed to the Windy City late last week to celebrate the big day. 

Who doesn’t love weddings?  Okay, honestly, it’s the wedding reception part that everyone really loves.  I mean where else is it perfectly acceptable for white ladies my mother’s of a certain age to cut loose on the dance floor to The Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling”?  Where else can herky-jerky movements punctuated with finger snaps be considered good, no, great dance moves?  Where else can a 33 year old lady order a Shirley Temple without the bartender looking at her askance?  Oh come on, you know you just flashed back to the last time you had a Shirley Temple!

Anyway, I was excited when I scored an invite to the wedding.  The groom happens to be the son of one of my mom’s favorite nephews (well, they’re all her favorite.  Even the practicing Wiccan.  Hey, every family needs their practicing Wiccan) and we have a soft spot in our hearts for him because - one – he lives in the Greatest Place on Earth and two – a long, long time ago when my parents and I visited his family in Georgia, he went with us when we went to a bunch of historical places and, um, his mom took us to the Cabbage Patch Museum.  Which was, as you can imagine, AWESOME - even for a 14 year old with a Shirley Temple drinking problem. 

Once we knew we were going to the wedding, my mom and I bought plane tickets, booked our hotel room, and signed up for a Chicago Gangsters Tour and a Chicago Food Tour.  We were going to make a real weekend – give or take a few days – of it.  I began dreaming of eating deep dish pizza, a treat I haven’t had since I stopped earning Book It coupons  (it’s tough growing up in a thin crust family, lemme tell you!)   I brushed up on my Al Capone facts.  I took lots of Vitamin Extroversion to overcome bouts of inevitable shyness.  I prepped conversation cards to help get through awkward elevator silences (A sampling – How was your trip to Hawaii?  How did you do in your recent race?  How ‘bout those Phils?  What do you think of the financial crisis in Greece?  Obama or Romney? )

I was all set. 

But then my mom called.  She had a medical emergency and she wasn’t able to go to the wedding.  So, that left me with a choice.  But really, in situations like that, there’s not much of a choice.  At least, not to me.  Instead of spending the weekend in Chicago, I spent the weekend at my parents’ house in Pennsylvania where I needed to be.  I made sure my mom was okay, tried (unsuccessfully, sorry) to edit the dramatic telling of her medical emergency down to 18 seconds, and attempted to get her to not dwell on where we weren’t. 

At the end of the weekend, the bride and groom were married.  The wedding, from what I’ve read on Facebook, was beautiful.   Congratulations to the bride and groom!

And my mom is okay. 

That’s really all that matters.  Not that, for me, it was the wedding weekend that wasn’t.  There will be other weddings, and wedding receptions, and chances to herky-jerky finger snap on the dance floor and order Shirley Temples all night long.     

I guess it could’ve been worse.  I could’ve been planning a funeral.**

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 *Technically, the groom is my first cousin, once removed.  But who keeps track of that stuff?

**At least, according to my mom.  No doctor actually said that she could've died.  I think she was just trying to make me and my brother feel guilty for teasing her.  She just doesn’t understand – that’s how we cope.  ;-) 

O, Say it Ain’t So!

Yesterday marked the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show after 25 years.  Turns out, I ended up missing it which was kind of a bummer.  I know, I know, I should have a DVR.  It’s okay because I saw that the final episode is going to be replayed, I’ve seen a bunch of clips, and I just watched a Farewell to Oprah tribute on my local news so I’m good.  But, wow, it’s over. 

Was there life before Oprah?  Yeah, yeah, Phil Donahue.  I seem to remember Merv Griffin and afternoon Wheel of Fortune too.  And after school specials.  Whatever happened to after school specials?  But it was so long ago…I mean, Oprah occupied the four o’clock slot on Channel 6 (the home of the very best news station in the world, Action News!) since I was seven years old! 

I was a latch-key kid so my afternoon routine went a little something like this – got home from school, called my mom at work, watched the last half-hour of General Hospital, and then watched The Oprah Winfrey Show.  I’ve always been a fan of Oprah but sometimes I found her a little annoying.  Actually, I didn’t watch the show too much from the late 90s to the mid 2000s.  So, I missed the Book Club and the Angel Network and the Car Give Away.  I started watching again a few years ago, mainly because I have a crush on Dr. Oz.

I had a secret dream to be on Oprah.  When you’ve got a facial abnormality and feel like a misfit, where do you want to go to share your story?  Oprah, of course!  You’d share your story and everyone would see it and hear it and then they would stop staring or teasing because it was on Oprah and if it was on Oprah, people just seemed to understand and accept.  And yeah, maybe I hoped I’d get a book deal out of it.  Then I grew up. 

I never got to be on Oprah and I never got to be in her studio audience.  But a few years ago, my friend Lidia and I went on a trip to visit friends in Chicago.  Lidia, like me, has TCS.  She was the first person I ever met who looked just like me.  For many years, she was the only person I knew of who looked like me.  When you know there’s one other person out in the world who’s like you, who understands, it feels a little less lonely some days.  I’m pretty sure she had Oprah dreams too (well, actually she got to be on The Tyra Banks Show and Tyra was going to be the next Oprah!)

There were two things I wanted to see when I was in Chicago – Oprah’s studio and the American Girl store.  Look, I’ve had an American Girl doll since I was nine years old – I was hitting up that place.  I don’t care that I was approaching 30.  After perusing that Mecca of Girlness and buying Samantha some new dresses - she’s worn the same dress since I was nine, it was time for a change of clothes; our hosts drove us to the other side of the city and we got to see Oprah’s studio!!

Lidia and I jumped out of the van and had our pictures taken by the sign – pictures that I would’ve posted but I can’t find L  Then Lidia, who is much more outgoing than me, talked to an older gentleman standing by the garage and she asked if he knew Oprah.  When he told us that he saw her everyday and helped her out of the car, or something like that, we were like, WOW!!  We met someone who KNOWS Oprah!  That’s like two degrees of separation between me and Oprah!

Oprah had a huge impact on our culture over the past 25 years.  People have learned so much  by watching her show and, I think, maybe the world is a little kinder because of her influence.

There was life before Oprah and there will be life after Oprah.

Just make sure that life is “your best life.”