Well that LAST one was fun wasn’t it!? Insert rolling eyes here…….ANYWAYS!
I leave again next week. Another Carnival Cruise Lines contract for 6 months this time out of New York City on the Carnival Glory doing 5 day cruises to the east coast of Canada then relocating by way of Bermuda to Miami to the east and west Caribbean again for the last part of the contract. WHEW! A good way to possibly bring my tangled web of a love affair with Carnival to an end. NOT to say that is in any way official of course….just saying this MIGHT be my last on the fun ships……we shall see. The future of anyone in entertainment always teeters on the edge of utter and total chaos….ooh the excitement!!! Speaking of excitement and chaos let’s recap my vacation and the “what we’ve learned” moment of this narrative.
So before I got back to land, unbeknownst to the general public, Chris and I had already plotted and schemed the whole marriage thing. We WERE going to go to the park with an officiant and two witnesses and then celebrate with a couple drinks afterward! All sounds lovely and romantic and easy right?? Chris’ mom got wind and the park got lit on fire. The ensuing craziness was enough to singe us a bit no doubt…..but we made it! I won’t spill gory details of family drama and wedding angst and stress. I said a million times through it all, at the end of the day I would be married to my favorite person in the world and that was what mattered. I think that mindset contributed to possibly the nicest, most relaxed wedding you could have asked for. Our DIY décor turned out beautifully, our humanist officiant was perfect in all ways, our attire was exactly what we had wanted, our cake design and cake topper I made looked amazing, the photographer was brilliant, our jazz band and duo at the ceremony were incredible……but a couple things in particular stand out in my mind from that day……
First off, I got a HUGE second chance in life with Chris. He found me after a pretty intense divorce and several disastrous relationships trying to mend those wounds. I hated myself and didn’t trust many people around me and did not want to be involved again. So of course coincidence dropped him, just coming out of a long and broken relationship as well himself, into my lap at that moment….without me realizing how much I needed him in so many ways. Long story short…..here we are two years later after much craziness and falling so crazy head over heels I can’t even describe. I could go on and gush about him more than I do already but let’s go back to the wedding……
Chris pulled one of his super amazing he’s a wonderful person stunts by conspiring with my best friend since childhood, Caleb, and had him show up on the doorstep for our day. Having the 2 most pivotal people in my life in the same place at the same time was such an amazing feeling of pure happiness I can’t even describe. Caleb has been the person to stand by me in almost everything in my life and to have him there to meet the RIGHT guy for me to be with and for them to get along like they did and have SO much fun was magical. He helped me decorate the wedding site and spent the day with me helping keep calm and collected, helped me get ready in my suite at the hotel, walked me to go see Chris before the ceremony and tore down most of the décor so I would not have to worry about it. But I think my favorite moment (and the video posted earlier is yes, the inspiration for this blog) was supposed to be another surprise, only I caught on after finding the chord sheet, that Caleb had been given a copy of ‘our song’ to learn and play for our first dance. It’s a tune by Jason Robert Brown called “Someone to Fall Back On” and while that title may raise an eyebrow, if you actually LISTEN to the lyrics they are so profound and sweet and heartfelt and intelligent it brings tears with every play. So to have my best friend (who is a incredibly naturally gifted performer and recording artist..check him out!!!) playing a song for my wedding to the one person I should be with and having him there for such an amazing moment and being PART of it was humbling for me. At the usual end of the song, he threw in a joke that even Chris knew about…but no one else. Growing up together and doing music all our lives, I always teased Caleb for his overuse of a musical device called ‘modulating’ on many of his songs ESPECIALLY the gospel genre of which he is most well known for and out of no where in his brilliantly arranged version of our song, modulates up in true Caleb form and starts a revival style riffed version of the chorus. Chris and I were pulled out of tears of happiness in that moment to pure joyous laughter that NO one could understand in that room. It was this perfect moment shared for me with my two favorite people….worth all the hassle and stress and tears and fights getting to that moment.
We never wanted a ‘ceremony’ per se in all this….to us, honestly marriage is a document. I know what it takes to tear that document up…it means nothing, except to us a way for us to work in each others countries and keep yet another barrier out of our way of being together always which IS our choice. Our document says we were legally married on July 9th 2011. We made our CHOICE to be together on June 11th 2009 and that is the anniversary date we choose to keep. Our humanist officiant Martin put it SO perfectly for us in a part of the ceremony (which we kept short for this very reason)
“The words that will be spoken here today are significant, though they are not what joined these two. Nor is it this ceremony. For we are not here to mark the start of their lives together but to recognize a partnership that already exists. We have gathered so that Alison and Chris might bear witness before us to the love that has grown between them.”
He got choked up after reading that part. He was amazing. And because there WERE so many amazing moments like that I am glad we had one hell of a nice party! Another favorite moment was WAY after it was all done. The family had gone and décor had been torn down. We walked outside and one table was still inhabited with just our closest friends. A few almost dead candles were lit and the garden table was littered with beer bottles, cocktail glasses and partially smoked cigars as well as a few other odds and ends. I looked around the table with my best friend and ‘husband’ and felt nothing but gratitude sitting in that garden with so many other wonderful people until they had to throw us out. It’s funny, even now after all of it I don’t feel ANY different about him than I did before. It did reaffirm the fact that I DO want to spend my life with him. He makes me happier than I can describe which is why next week has come WAY too quickly for me. I’ve loved being with him again for even this short time. I have loved getting my artwork back in swing this vacation, I have loved exploring the city more and learning the subways and buses and experiencing city life even further enough to know I can live without it! I have loved singing and playing piano and cuddling on the couch with movies and the fabulous amazing weekend trip to cottage country on the lake. It’s all been a whirlwind and all been wonderful. I love my life and my friends and family and especially my wonderful man Chris. I say it all the time but I think the people who know me best and know my past can attest to how much that really means. I am so lucky. And as much as you will hear me gripe and whine and complain the next 6 months which I will TRY not to do as much, I LOVE my job. Oh my goodness performing music on a cruise ship is a fabulous job!!! I hope I can do it for longer. We’ll see. Off to the Carnival Glory….hopefully the name will become a happy irony in the near future!
