a "magical" weekend

so, this weekend, patrick's brother got married. in florida. at disneyworld. i flew out on thursday evening. on friday there was a welcome dinner, and saturday was the wedding. it alternated between being hot and humid and raining. sometimes all 3 of those at once. in some ways it was sort of a stressful weekend. even though it wasn't my stress, there was stress in the air, and there were lots of people i didn't know. there were also a fair amount of people i did know, which helped. between changing rooms and doing various organization related things, not much time was spent reading or at the pool. to be honest, i felt fairly uncomfortable on quite some number of occasions. i think disneyworld is just overwhelming. being in such an artificial environment does NOT put me at ease.

the wedding itself was quite nice (and had good weather), and the reception was really fun. during the whole weekend it was really nice to spend time with patrick and his parents. his grandma is adorable (and always notices when i wear pretty shoes), and his aunt carol is a real sweetheart too. some family friends, dave and kathy were there, and it was good to see them again, and i finally got to meet a lot of people i've heard a lot about (which was only stressful for about 5 minutes).

even though the wedding was great, it definately solidified my feelings that i don't want a "fairy tale" elaborate, expensive wedding. i want it to be a backyard event with close family and friends and no gift registry.

on a more serious/positive side though, I really can see (and even hope to) spending my life with patrick. the love we share is so much deeper and more serious than anything i've experienced. i can see him as a husband and father, and i can actually see running a household together. it's not that the wedding made me realize this (as i've thought it for awhile), but there is one thing different after this wedding...usually after weddings i have some sort of urge to run screaming in the other direction. this one made me thing, "this'll be me someday...and i look forward to that!" (just not at disney world) i think patrick summed it up while we were falling asleep by saying "I wish you lived with me.". i do too. saying goodbye at the airport was tough, even though i'll see him in 2 weeks. airport goodbyes somehow feel more terminal, even when they're not at all.