She Said YES!!!

My baby is getting married. Don't know when, don't know where, just know it is now officially imminent.

I think it may have been six years ago that Jonathan and Alissa met at FSU. As for all the details, I'm a little sketchy, but from what I recall, one of them was wearing an Oasis shirt. As in the band. Both of them were, and for that matter still, are obsessed with Oasis despite the fact that the brothers who were the band fought so much they disbanded. These days, High Flying Birds is brother Noel's band. All this is background information leading up to the big event which took place last night in LONDON during a HFB concert! Who knew my son was so romantic???

Once the tour dates were released, Jonathan and Alissa decided they had to go, and since they have a very accommodating blood relative and his boyfriend living in London, what was to stop them? Nothing as it turns out. They left Austin Friday afternoon, arriving in London Saturday morning. Brother Matt was kind enough to meet them at Gatwick. Such a good brother.

Here's the happy couple when they were home this past summer to attend Jonathan's long time friend Ryan's wedding.

Let us all say a collective--Aaaaahhh.....

Because of the time difference, I know very little at this point about the proposal and subsequent acceptance; the minute I do, you'll be the first to know.

I just got off the phone with another son, Bill, who was in a very, very good mood. Turns out he's receiving a sizable bonus in two weeks he knew nothing about. He called it money falling from the sky. Love, love to hear that kind of news.

So, I went on Saturday afternoon and this time the crowd was dressed much more conservatively, plus there weren't many of them. In fact, I had to be patient looking for opportunities. At one point I went up one floor on the outside steps and took this photograph:

 I watched none of the events by the way; I hope Orlando looked good. While waiting I saw this woman walking down the street.

That is a woman unafraid of color! When seeing all these woman dressed in super short dresses and skirts I kept thinking of the lyrics from a charming Cake song, " I like a woman with a short skirt and a long jacket." At these events there were no long jackets, only short skirts.

I've often mentioned Dana's son Cole, and now you can see what he looks like, pictured below with his very, very sweet girlfriend, Courtney who was serving as a cocktail waitress at the event.

I told you I was looking for bodies to photograph! My sister Lisa would have gone crazy if she'd seen these chocolate basketballs in person.

All I can say is I was very grateful Roger set the camera settings before I left their house because it might have gone poorly had it been up to my limited knowledge.

Although there was yet another party at the Cheyenne, Dana gave me the night off saying P. Diddy would not be coming on until way, way, past my bedtime. Hallelujah! Following my stint at the Exchange building I went by Roger's to pick up my order. Finally getting home, I made dinner and not long afterwards we took as long a winter's nap as was feasible. I say long, however, when the alarm went off at 5:30 Sunday morning I was wishing my sleep was even longer. Bruce popped right up, heading to the garage to put the wires on the back of the "baby canvases." I began signing prints. Obviously, this is not how we like things to go, but you do what you have to do.

Despite dreary weather all day long at the market, I was fortunate to do well. Hoping all those folks in town for the All Star Game would mosey around downtown before the game turned out to be wishful thinking. I am so, so fortunate to have repeat customers. I've never tracked the amount of customers I've had, only the amount of prints sold, so I don't have any real sense of the numbers, however, week after week, customers return, oftentimes with friends or family in tow. How lucky I've been.

These folks are not repeat customers, but I kind of liked how she held this print up for her friend.

Drizzly weather interfered with our usual takedown process, but with a project manager like mine, rest assured we arrived home with everything safe and sound.

My schedule told me that yet another party was slated Sunday night beginning at 9PM. Well now. Bruce packed his bags early, I made dinner, we ate while watching the Red Carpet business at the Oscars, both of us dreading the night. I hated to do it because I know how crazy she is but I called Dana to confirm. Fantastic news--they wanted no photographer in the house!!!! Big sighs of relief were heard at the Peck home. For sure. I said to Bruce, "You know what this means don't you?" Of course he answered "no", to which I replied, "I can get into my polka dot pajamas instead of another outfit!" Happy, happy.

This morning Bruce flew to Massachusetts, I did my market album and the Saturday gig album, and very little else. Sluggish describes how I felt. Kicking myself in gear after lunch, errands were on my agenda. Don't ask me how I did it, but somehow, while endorsing some checks, I got ink on my new handbag. Well, not brand new, but pretty new. It looked as if I'd doodled on it! Because my sluggishness wasn't completely gone, I didn't freak out, but I was far from happy. After the bank I went to the Coach store at Millenia to see if they could help me. They did. She assured me that if I'd waited, it might not have come out and I believe her. While there I left my Trinity ring at Cartier's to be polished. My goodness, it looks brand new it's so shiny!

While he was doing said polishing, I decided to check out the Gap. I used to love the Gap, buying loads of clothes there for the entire family. In fact, I used to say that our clothesline would make a great Gap ad, but these days, not so much. Mostly dull. To my surprise, today they had some great t-shirts, and I'm not a t-shirt kind of girl. Make that middle aged woman. You won't be at all surprised at one of the shirts I bought.

Apparently, Gap and Threadless have teamed up for these. Turns out I am one of the first people to buy these shirts at the Gap because they'd only just put them out an hour or so earlier. While at the checkout I said how I was delighted to find something really creative at the Gap. The cashier explained to me the collaboration and how each shirt has a meaning. Who knew? After checking out the Threadless website, I may, in fact, become a t-shirt kind of middle aged woman.

Thanks for reading,
Gail