Where have you been all my life, lady?

Hell to the yes.

Serenity Now...Like, Right Now

Before all of this crazy wedding stuff started complicating our lives, Shug and I complicated our lives with plans of trips to pretty alright places. Sometimes these pretty alright places had pretty alright bands playing there. This was a bonus.

We'd purchase our plane tickets six months in advance, usually in the smogged-in winter months, when just an image of a fresh-cut mango could carry us through an entire freezing week.

We'd plan, re-plan, scrap those plans and plan again. The details of where to go, how to get there, where to stay, and (most importantly) what to eat were discussed ad nauseam. It was exhilarating!

We are now currently preoccupied with colored tissue paper, table rentals, and helium prices. What happened to us?

Now before I continue wallowing in the luxurious waters of self pity, I will remind you and myself, that I am supremely lucky to be headed to the altar with a man that I believe is the closest thing to perfection...well, other than gluten-free ice cream pies, but I digress...

I realize that I live in a country where throwing a party to celebrate a "marriage" is still not allowed for all couples that wanna get hitched and have it recognized by the government. I also realize that throwing a lavish party, in and of itself, is kinda gross in the midst of a recession...Granted our wedding is going to bottom-line at a THIRD of what the average American spends on nuptial celebrations, but, still...

I think that this wedding planning has been a true litmus test for our relationship. We've already experienced each other ridiculously happy, crap-your-pants ill, boiling mad, and downtroddenly sad...But we've never had to coordinate, decision-make, or discuss so many things in such a truncated amount of time.

Add the pressure of spending moolah in amounts beyond our comfort level and navigating the waters of what each family needs and you've got yourself a certified-relationship-fortitude-test!

I'll let you know if we pass.

And our kids will be ashamed of us...

A few nights ago, Shug and I were decompressing after a harrowing day of weddingness. We flipped on the ten o'clock news to be greeted with a late-breaking story about this.

Even though we live behind what many deem the "Zion Curtain," we were surprised that a couple would be detained after just holding hands and a peck on the cheek on LDS Church grounds. Then we realized we KNEW these people! These sweet, loving, amazing people were HANDCUFFED and CITED for "inappropriate behavior".

The LDS Church contends that ANY couple engaging in public displays of affection would have received the same treatment. Oh, really?

I keep forgetting in the haze of wedding planning that Shug and I are so lucky to have the right to marry each other. We will have the right to see each other in the hospital in the event of illness, we have the right to share our health, car, home owners insurance benefits, we get mad tax breaks after we marry and file jointly...

We can walk down the street and hold hands and even kiss each other if we want to without the fear of being ticketed or arrested.

I am so lucky to live in a time where, as a woman, I hold the same rights as men do. But I realize that less than a hundred years ago, women didn't even have the right to vote or own land. I also realize that change was created by a paradigm shift, a slow and steady fight to gain equal treatment and legal rights. I listen to the stories my mumma tells me about the women's rights movement in the 60's and cringe at how "archaic" things were back then...

I'm looking forward to the day when I can tell my incredulous kids about how ridiculous the times were when people were arrested for LOVING EACH OTHER.

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