Thoughts on a Royal Wedding

I only watched a few minutes of the wedding of the century today. And we, of course, know that in fifty years there will be another wedding of the century.


There were lots on internet stories about The Wedding being a "fairy tale" wedding and lots of comments about "princesses" and it got me to thinking...

When I was a little girl I wanted to be a princess. I wanted to be a princess so bad that my Aunt Carmen crocheted a crown for me - a lovely crown of gold and silver metallic yarns that she even backed with purple satin. I wish sometimes I still had that crown.

Back then I didn't realize that there were many reasons why I would never be a princess. I grew up in a Disney-dominated childhood of the original princesses: Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
Fate was against me and princess-hood.
For one, my father's ancestors came from Calabria, Italy - not royal material.
And although my mother's family was English, there were rumors of horse-thieves and stowaways on New World-bound ships. Not royalty, either.

I certainly wasn't in a position, as I became an adult, to meet and marry a prince - not unless he was admitted to the Med-Surg Unit of Easton Hospital. And said prince would have to like chubby, dark-haired girls. This, of course, was pre-Monica Lewinsky.

So I knew I would never really BE a princess.

But lately I've been treated like one - and that's all that matters.

Best of luck to Will and Kate.

AADD

I think I have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.
I think I had it before I was an adult.

My father used to say to me (among other things): "You never finish anything you start."
Back then I thought that meant I was lazy. Today I know it really means something almost the opposite.
I have so many interests...I want to know about so many things...I want to do so many things...that I go from one thing to another...with hardly any segues.
And now I'll be marrying a man like that...
Morgan has sheds full of his "interests" and why sell his treasures: "I don't know who I want to be tomorrow."
I feel the same way. I don't know what I want to do tomorrow.

That's the way I read books, too. I have several that I read at once. Someone asked me how I do it. I don't know. I read different types of books at the same time; the specific book I happen to pick up at any given time depends on my mood. It may be a biography, a history, a romance, a mystery, a thriller. Right now I have three of those types going at once.

And that's the way I write. I go from one project to another and I finish them all - just not in a linear fashion - that's too boring. And as for my father...I finished nursing school. I finished writing several novels. I finish many, if not all, the things I start...with some interesting detours.

So maybe AADD is not a bad thing.

I just read a saying:
"ADD-make it work for you."

I'm making it work for me.

How Will I Feel....

...when I'm no longer "a nurse"?
Oh, I'll keep up my license and do some reading on the changes in the profession and the long term care industry. But will I be able to "see" myself as not a working RN? Just who will I be. After all that's what I've been for 43 years. Add nursing school to that and it's 3 years longer.

I don't think I've defined myself as a nurse. When I tell someone my profession, I usually say I'm a writer and nursing pays the bills. That's how I've looked at it for years. I take my work seriously but not myself. I am more than that RN after my name - always have been, always will be.

So in the next year as I prepare for retirement, marriage and a move, I don't think I'll be going through an identity crisis. I've always had "multiple personalities". As Morgan once said, "I don't know who I'll want to be tomorrow." That's why we're together - to go on that journey in the future.

Old People Do Fall in Love...

...and want to get married.

But it seems that there are those who think that's odd.

Some are surprised when I say I'm engaged. No, I don't have a rock. I have a silver ring with an unusual heart-shaped turquoise. We both love silver and turquoise jewelry - one of the many likes we share.

Yes, I'm 63, wrinkled, chubby and cranky at times. But this man fell in love with me and I'm very happy about that.

Yes, he's 69, chubby with bad knees but I think he's the handsomest, funniest, silliest, most intelligent man I know and I love and adore him.

And yes, we want to show the world that we love each other and are committed to each other and we're doing that by getting married...

And having a ceremony...

And inviting friends and family...

And having a small reception after the ceremony.

Except...

Some people are surprised when we ask about a place for a wedding...

We're having a difficult time finding a place for a "small" wedding...

We're having a difficult time finding someone to officiate.

But, yes, old people do fall in love and even in the autumn years, they do get married...

And they do live happily ever after.

On Teachers - for Mr. Reilly and Mr. Reinbold

This will not be a blog about teachers who inspired me because there was only one, a short, slightly overweight gentleman from Easton, PA who happened to find himself teaching history in a Laurel, Maryland high school. His classroom was in the lower level of the school, in a corner and was uninspired in its blandness; however, Patrick Reilly was not bland. Mr. Reilly acted out history and made it come alive.

Maybe it's because of Mr. Reilly that I will marry a retired history teacher. Maybe it's just because of that retired history teacher. But I know I fell in love with the past in that small, basement classroom.

However, today, teachers seem to have become the Satan in the crusade to balance budgets. We want to slaughter them on the accountants' altars and let others with more money off the hook.

I just want to mention a couple of things:
1. How many teachers could we have if the large multi-billion dollar corporations paid their fair share of taxes?
2. If we make teachers bad guys, then no one will want to be a teacher. Who will teach the next generations?

I think our priorities are backwards.
Just sayin'.