________ ________ ________ 2019-05-19 / \/ \/ / \ / __/ /_ _/ Wow. Where do I even start? / _/ / / \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_ When I last wrote I was talking about / \/ \/ / \ some bad omens around the yard that were / _/ /_ _/ stressing me out about life and I did want /- / _/ / to circle back on that because when we were \________/\________/\___/____/ back in the yard this past Monday, doing the final preparations for the wedding there was one "omen" that I completely missed. There's a scythe hanging in the tree that none of us noticed. A literal scythe. Hahaha. I'm guessing whoever used it last just hung it up there and forgot about it but the ridiculousness of it helped me shake off the gloom from the stuff I saw a few weeks back. We went back to Adelaide this time last week to do the last little bits before the wedding, we got the yard all done and decorated, organized food and flowers and then on Tuesday the whole thing happened. We took off early and my brother and I went to collect my close friend from the airport, he was the only one of my friends that was able to make it but that's ok, it was short notice and on a weekday so I can't be mad about it. After we collected him we went by to pick up the food and some other supplies and then went by my brother's place to chill out a bit. I wasn't too stressed at this point, just regular stress. I had some meds in me settling my wetware but I might write about that in a separate file. After we decompressed and hung out with my nephew for a minute we all got fancied up and went on our way to my nana's house for final setup and that is when the anxiety really set in for me. I ended up just whipping around trying to set things up in a mad effort to outpace the event. Got drinks out, got the stream stuff set up and music going. At some point my dad arrived, I haven't seen him since my sister's wedding almost 10 years ago and even then I was quite distant from him because I was still sore about whatever static was between us from my youth. I was so glad to see him and I really couldn't express how happy I was that he could come, it was difficult for me to reach out to him and try and reconnect and I imagine it was just as difficult for him to respond to me and to attend, that also might be something I need to cover in more detail in another file. Because Dani's family is all over in Washington state they weren't able to attend in real life but we made the effort to include them by live- streaming the event for them, to facilitate that I picked up a gimbal and microphone for the iPhone so we had to set all that up but it proved too tempting for my curious little nephew and tiny hands got the better of the fragile motors, compounding my stress to the point that the celebrant came over and handed me a drink and told me to back off of it hahaha. Our celebrant was an actual angel. We're difficult people to work with because we're extremely anxious but she was amazingly disarming and knew just when we needed a push and when we needed some space. I won't name her here but if you're looking for a celebrant in Australia please get in contact with me and I'll happily pass on her details. By the time the ceremony proper rolled around I was on autopilot and everything went really well. My wife was beautiful, I cried, everyone was glowing and there were so many smiles and hugs and then we were married! Our reception was just a lazy picnic in the yard, my sister sniped us with a speech that made us both cry, we drank a lot and ate a lot and the cake was beautiful and delicious and it was all wonderful and then... well that brings us to now. EOF