I am just whiny and sad for me as I attempt to rebuild an impulse local hang network and keep failing at it!

I understand this well. Moving to Ft. Lauderdale has meant visits are now inconvenient. I did organize a book club for my condo which has resulted in meeting a few fun women and now being in text/email chains with them they invite to other social events. Of course, now I will go away for 5 months, but we are supposed to continue the book meetings over summer remotely. Baby steps.

Our niece's wedding events start Thursday, so we old folks are trying to save up our energy in the early part of this week. My stomach should be okay for Indian food by the end of this week.

The top half of my outfit for the Hindu ceremony is 100% What If Mrs. Roper Was Indian. It's a very long tunic, cut and sewn (such as it is) like a caftan — just a big ol' rectangle with sleeves that are really just arm holes. It's hot pink, with white detailing and small bling-y sparkly fake jewels. I freaking love it. Caftan lyfe 4evah! The pants are a lighter pink, like a rose color, with white detailing at the cuffs. And I have big silver earrings and less-big silver bracelets and a silver claw clip to put my hair up (because, let's be real, I will die from the heat if my hair is down).

The only thing left is to get the steamer out for the ginormous silver dupatta (scarf) that I think I drape over one shoulder. (My SiL told me that any of the numerous Indian aunties who will be at the wedding will be happy to help me sort out how to drape the dupatta.) Also I need to go get a silver pedicure later this week.

Tim's tunic is royal blue with gold detailing and looks so good on him. The pants are a plain cream color, so nothing fancy. Tim's brother (father of the bride) told him that he bought socks for Tim and Oldest Brother. I have no idea what that's about, or even if the socks are for the Hindu ceremony. Maybe they're to go with his suit for the Lutheran ceremony? I have zero idea. Oh, wait -- I think we take our shoes off in the Hindu temple, so maybe that's it.

That all sounds fabulous!

I picked up erin's phone, and it will be winging its way back to her tomorrow.

Today is the first time I've been able to sit down and view the post-livestream, and apparently it's not at the link where it formerly was. Is it still up anywhere I can access it? Pretty please?

Bev, here you go: [link]

Thanks so much, Teppy. Apparently my laptop is aged and inept and unable to play the vid. But I appreciate the linkage.

I also am very grateful for the photos and the conversations. I miss my tribe, y'all. But it heartens me to know we're all out there, and to touch base by photo and commentary.

I am The Most Fortunate right now, and so grateful for all the amazing people in this tribe.

Who will also appreciate part of J's recent journey. He never watched Buffy. The phenomenon totally passed him by. He did watch Firefly/Serenity IRT and loved it, so my faith was strong, and I might have encouraged him once or twice to check it out, so as to share references and such. Like how I keep bursting into song about his bunnies. Anyway, as soon as I told him about the existence of Buffistas (in context of "wanna spend your birthday weekend on a barely-planned trip hanging out with a bunch of total strangers who will OVERWHELM you at every opportunity and he somehow, unexpectedly, responded with an unreserved "HECK YEAH!") he dove in and mainlined season one and a solid chunk of season 2 last week. Poor guy didn't get most of the references this weekend because of course he's only in S2! So much I have to try hard to not spoil, while also explaining some references for context so that he isn't totally left out.

We got home last night, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and sat down to watch one episode before bed. It was _Passion_. Felt appropriate. I must have dropped enough spoilers (or he just grocks enough of show development) that he was like "Oh no, someone important is about to die. I'm going to be devastated, aren't I?" Because yeah, Jenny Calendar is so perfect to his computer technophile adult viewer self. Was? Is. The emotional devastation was so right for the evening.

And he has so much ahead, I'm loving getting to rewatch some episodes with him on the weekends. I can't keep up on weekdays (he works remotely, doesn't have to commute, and needs way less sleep than I do, which all adds up to far more time for TV viewing. I try to not be jealous). It's a great journey that I'm enjoying vicariously.

Well my trip from Ca to Md was fine but we are stuck in Wilmington because we took the train up for my uncle’s memorial and there is a power outage on the train line. So we’re staying at a hotel. And I’m having a cognitive dissonance about staying in my hometown but not being able to go home.

So I can’t stop crying