Sunday, April 12, 2009

A New Beginning Right At Easter Time

Another wedding in the Pure Florida clan ...

Upper Left: The parents of the bride, my cousin Alan and his lovely wife, Dawn.
Upper Right: That magic moment.
Lower Left: My Aunt Shelba (mother of Alan) with her newest grandchild.
Lower Right: A steady breeze had the US flag and the Florida flag rippling boldly.


Lauren and Curtis exchanging vows by the bayfront.


Lauren dancing with her Daddy.


Somehow, I landed in a chair between two of the prettiest girls at the wedding.


I think I caught my brother catnapping.
Front and center is Laura, Em's college buddy, Emma, Katie, Terry, and his wonderful wife, Annette.

The bayside wedding at the National Guard parade grounds was very nice. The weather cooperated with a warm sun and cool breeze as Lauren and Curtis said their vows with sailboat dotted Matanzas Bay as a back drop. It was beautiful.

Both the wedding and the reception at the officers club were delightful.

We left the reception before the celebrations were over as we had to drive back across the state and it was getting late. In preparation for this late night drive, I had downed a few coffees at the reception, knowing that:

  1. It would be a long 2.5 hour drive after 11 pm.
  2. It was prom night for Junior back in Gainesville and I needed to stay up until I knew he was safely at his sisters apartment.
  3. I had been up since before dawn as usual.

My mistake was adding an energy drink ... Red Celeste... to the mix at around midnight as I was driving home.

When I arrived home around 2:00 am, I was wide awake. I took Bear out for a long moonlit woods walk which he thought was just grand. I came in, signed on to Pure Florida and commented back to you folks who commented yesterday. I cruised the net a little.

Still awake at 4:00 am.

I shut down the computer and wandered downstairs to the comfy chair by the tube and sat down to watch TV and read my novel for a while. Somewhere between 4 and 5 am, sleep came and I slept until 8:00 am, at which time Bear was shoving his football in my face.

Later in the day, we took Bear out to Shell Mound for his first true swimming session. That is an upcoming post.

Right now, my sleep deprivation is catching up with me and I'm just trying to stay awake long enough to enjoy some pulled pork, cole slaw, and peach cobbler that's cooking downstairs. It's a future post too!

As soon as I accomplish that task, I'm hitting the rack.

Night, y'all.



11 comments:

swamp4me said...

Sounds like you had an action packed day. I don't envy you your return trip - driving any distance at night is no fun anymore. Red Celeste, eh? I'll have to try to find some of that. Not to drink though -- Celeste just happens to be my middle name.

Florida Beach Basics said...

Somehow, I image any lecture about burning the candle at both ends would be wasted? marge

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

Wow, how ironic...My cousin Bradley had his wedding AND reception in the same places about 2 years ago.
Congratulations to them :-D

Word Verification: "trout"
Are you customizing the word verifications, FC?

Pablo said...

Not even a clip-on necktie! (Actually, I prefer these casual affairs.)

AL (the inventor) GORE said...

I invented energy drinks.

Anonymous said...

in the two-ish years of 1,000-mile one way road trips to see my mom, spaced at 6-8 week intervals, I tried every kind and combination of coffee, soda and energy drink. after mountains of side effects (mainly upset stomach from Tennessee truck stop coffee), I discovered that Five Hour Energy, taken exactly five hours before you expect to reach home, works exactly as advertised. It wears off just as you get out of the car to unlock the gate and you have about enough time to brush your teeth before collapsing into a deep, dreamless sleep.
I hope I never need it again.

R.Powers said...

Swampy,
Lucky you. I think that is a beautiful name. These energy drinks boast of all kinds of ingredients, but it's good ol'caffiene that's doing the trick. I use them sparingly, but sometimes, I'm just not in the mood for hot coffee.

Marge,
Burning it while I'm alive.

HT,
Bradley (or his family) must be a Guardian too! That word verification is so appropo. My Uncle Richard was showing me a pic at the wedding of an enormous trout he caught in Guana.

Pablo,
I have no fashion sense ... and few ties!

Al,
Well, you probably needed it during those long nights inventing the internet.

Anon,
Thanks for that tip! I've wondered about that product.
Next REAL roadtrip ...

Dani said...

I love days like that when all the family is together for a happy celebration.

Thunder said...

Nice way to spend Easter, well all except the lack of sleep thing! ;-)
Wanted to catch up on the last post too:
Emmy - Ouch!!!!
No those glasses are not to girly, for you! ;-)

kathy a. said...

wonderful wedding! oy, about the late drive and caffiene insomnia.

R.Powers said...

Dani,
Me too and this was a really happy one.

Dave,
Thanks a lot!

Kathy A,
Double Oy. The sun was still shining when I crashed out yesterday.