The Perfect Couple

Here is another excerpt from Life's a Dance. This was written after we attended a wedding my mom got invited to and we had one of the best times of our lives.

We had the opportunity to attend the wedding of a couple we didn’t even know. As we enter the church you really could see how much thought was put into this wedding and into the celebration as a whole. Every end of each pew had a ribbon and a bow. A harp was played as we waited for the celebration to begin, and the sound it emitted was very beautiful. As the procession started a trio of kids played the Wedding March and even though at times they were way off tune I don’t think that the bride and groom or the people attending the ceremony cared. In that particular moment it just didn’t matter, the sound was special never the less. Every female in the procession held a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses. The bride being Mexican and the groom Caucasian, a bilingual mass was prepared complete with what seemed to be the church’s choir singing both in English and Spanish and while the couple offered the bouquet of flowers to the Virgin Mary, a soloist sang a most beautiful rendition of the Ave Maria. (I think it’s safe to say we all got goose bumps) “How can some people think that getting married is not important enough?” is what I asked my wife as we just sat there absorbing the whole thing. We certainly have been to lots of weddings, that by no means was the first one or the most beautiful one, however there was a certain thing in that wedding that to me was special, the couple getting married were not young anymore, were they old? Not really but let’s say that their teen years were left behind a long time ago. I couldn’t help but think that this couple may not have a chance to celebrate a Silver Anniversary so maybe they’ll celebrate each and every anniversary with a different passion than most.

Now, here we are “mi chica” and I get the chance to see the first 25 years go swooshing over our heads because to me it feels as if it was yesterday when we said, “I do”. As we exchanged comments we both realize that we have in fact traveled over a bumpy road full of ups and downs and through it all we have made the necessary adjustments needed to continue on our journey. Some of the things that we encountered while on that road were:

Our kids came first – Yes they did, heck to a certain point they still do. Once a parent always a parent, the key here was and still is that once they went to sleep they did not exist until the following day, the night was ours to use as we may. One bed for two of us, never one bed for two of us and three of them.

Get a life – Hobbies and things to do when I’m with you. Weather it was the CB radio and the endless parties known to us as “convivios”, or Salsa dancing every Wednesday night, or joining a car or motorcycle club and riding together or the wonderful weekend getaways we used to have to Solvang, we always made sure we had time for us and I mean just us. Yes our kids came first but that’s why every so often we had to leave them behind.

Ours jobs – No doubt having a good reliable job is of great importance, thanks to my job I have a roof over our heads and food to put on the table, can’t neglect it, can’t put it aside, after all we spend more of our awake time there than at home. However my job can not and will not ever be the most important part of my life. I can replace a job with no problem whatsoever, but my family is irreplaceable, therefore making family my number one priority.

Have your fights once in a while – Because it’s so worth it making up. There’s just no two ways about it every now and then we will disagree. What? You didn’t expect for everything to be perfect, did you? I didn’t think so. An since It Takes Two to Tango, make sure your spouse is taken care of first and foremost, otherwise you’ll be tangoing by yourself and all the sub-important things above mentioned won’t seem as important any more.

Learn to say “I’m sorry” – Even though sorry seems to be the hardest word. It is also one we don’t say either soon or often enough. Just make sure you mean it when you say it. If you mean it but don’t say it, it’s no good, if you say it but don’t mean it, it’s no good either, so do a soul search and do the right thing. In the end it will pay you huge dividends if you do.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Short Work Week

Image borrowed from the Internet.


It's a short work week for me, after tomorrow I won't be back to work until next Monday. Of course there's a special occasion, I am so glad you asked. Mi chica and I will be celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary and we decided to take a short trip to beautiful Palm Springs, California. Well, at least I hear it's beautiful, since we have never been we decided that would be a great destination.

So our actual anniversary is on Friday but the celebration will begin on Wednesday. Can some of you my long time readers remember that not too long ago I was letting you all know we were about to celebrate our 25th and we were taking a cruise with the family. Man, how time flies, here we are two years later and it only feels like it happened yesterday.

I have been reading about Palm Springs and it sounds like a great place to visit. I think once upon a time it used to be a popular stop for celebrities but apparently that is not the case now. Made so popular during the Sonny Bono days, Palm Springs was always on the spotlight. I am hoping that we get to see and experience some of that old mystique.

So if any of you has ever been to Palm Springs and has any suggestions as to what to do and where to go please feel free to let me know. Anyway, I will be off line until Friday night so I talk to you all then.

El Weekend

Well it's finally Friday, I am excited because we are going to Manny's tonight for some Mexican food and a little karaoke. Mi chica and I went last week and had a great time, tonight a couple of her friends may join us. It should be fun.

Add to that a change in weather and it should be a great night. The temperature is no longer over a 100 degrees, actually the nights are nippy at 80 degrees. I am just not used to cold weather so even when it drops just a little under the three digits I start thinking jackets and sweat shirts. Yeah, I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather.

So, what should I sing tonight, I am open for suggestions.

Tomorrow a friend from work is getting married and we are invited. That should be a good time too. Then my daughter's birthday is on the 24th so she is having a get together at the house and the theme is Halloween. Depending on how much fun we are having at the wedding reception we may just come home early to join the family... But we'll see.

By the way, my car broke down again. Same thing as last week, we know it's electrical so it could be the ignition switch, the starter, or a short caused by the alarm. I just hope it fix is not too expensive.

Anyway that is the plan for the weekend. Sunday remains open for whatever. What are your plans for the weekend? Whatever you do, have a great and safe one.

Correction: Michelle's birthday is the 22nd, and mi chica's and my anniversary is on the 24th. (I knew that, I was just testing you to see if you were paying attention). lol

A Monday Wedding

A dear friend of mine asked me to be his best man at his wedding. I had never been a best man so needless to say I was an honored to be asked. So "mi chica" and I only worked for a half a day yesterday so that we could go to the court to be there.

I also had never been to a wedding at a court house so I though it would be boring. It all started with the judge kicking us all out of his court room, no he wasn't mean or disrespectful, he actually was nice about explaining to us that promptly at 5:00 p.m. he would start officiating. He told us that because every body's wedding was special and different he would start calling one wedding party at at time, that way he would be able to personalize each wedding accordingly.

My friend and fiancee were the first ones to be called in. The judge said each ceremony was about 12 minutes long, he lied because it was more like fifteen. He said that while we were in there we were free to walk all over the courtroom, no place was off limits so that pictures could be taken. That right there was surprising to me. The judge was probably in his late fifties but he had a really good sense of humor, he spent a good portion of the time cracking jokes.

So we came out of that courtroom with smiles on our faces. Who would have known that a court wedding could actually be enjoyed. Out of five or six couples to be married our friends were the only ones dressed for the occasion for which the judge thank them.

Once out the bride's daughter and her fiancee wrote "Just married" all over their car's rear window, and also the word "Honk". We went to their house after the ceremony for some food and drinks and a couple of hours later we said our good byes and went home.

And so that was my first wedding on a weekday at a court house. So my best wishes for a long happy life together goes to the newlyweds.

The Wedding

Writing a post is getting harder and harder, after all life is very repetitious. I wish I could tell you something new but my life wonderful as it may be is pretty much routine.

Even our celebrations are becoming harder and harder to top as we have so many. Well such was not the case of my sisters wedding this past Saturday. It was at least 35 years in the making and it finally happened.

Friday we went to church to have an entrance practice. We were given instructions of the "do's" and "dont's", and also in which order we were going to march down the aisle. When the deacon asked whom was giving the groom away "mi chica" sort of kiddin-gly said she would. Well, the kidding became a reality as she was in fact the person that my brother in law took with him to walk him towards the bride as she came to meet him by the altar.

(Wow, baby I just realized that you gave him away but also you were kind of the "Best Man"... way to go "mi chica", you're the man... ma'am)

So, anyway practice went pretty good, we were to make sure that the following day everyone knew where to place themselves and what to do as they walk down the aisle and got to their places.

Me, I had the honor of walking my older sister in representation of my dad along with my mom on the other side. Both of us walked her down the aisle and that in itself was a great moment in my life.

Waiting for so long to say "I do" was worth it, the ceremony was beautiful, my sister took the church choir and they added some very harmonious songs to the mass. My niece also offered a couple of songs that she sang for them. It was all very beautiful.

We had the reception at my other sister's house, same as where we had my daughter's two weeks ago and are happy to say that no neighbors complained, so I guess we must behave pretty good. We had good food, plenty of drinks and fun music to dance to.

All in all, another great and successful celebration.

And Yet, Another Wedding

Well, is anyone keeping a tab on all the celebrations I've had to date. I pretty much posted on most if not all of them. So, the third wedding in two months will take place this coming Saturday.

After some 33 or 34 years of being married, my sister and brother-in-law will finally make it to the church and have their big church wedding. This is definitely an important event in our lives and one that we will remember for many years to come.

I think that there will be no more weddings in the immediate future after this one. I'll keep you posted and hopefully share a picture or two for you to see.

I told you that with such a huge family we almost have something to do every weekend. It just never ends, but at the same time it's fun.

Next month we have a "Quinceanera" and a in California.