Contemporary Love

We are back. We survived the train, the planes, the car. In fact, we survived a little more than that. An adventure, a great adventure, but, as usual for us, never a dull moment.

Just to give you a little idea, Adverb's multibanc (ATM) card was eaten by a bank machine two days before we got married. The next day was a Sunday and the day after that, the day we got married, was a big U.S. holiday which meant that the bank was closed for two days after he lost his card. And my card? Well, two days before the trip I asked my bank here in Portugal to give me a new one because the one I had was not working anymore. What about checks? We forgot them.

Suddenly, there we were without a penny. Fortunately, everything was already paid (except for the ceremony that my father, as tradition says, demanded to pay). And for current expenses my father gave us help. I never saw my father laughing so much as in the moment I told him the card had been eaten.

Once again the same old lesson: marriage, or being with someone, is about standing together facing the world. But, my friends, what a hard lesson for such a particular and special moment. But life is like a roller coaster. What are we going to do about it? Give up? No way. I chose to cry, to scream, pout with the angels and, five minutes later, grab my Adverb's arm and move on together. Well, I don't have to say that Adverb's behavior was perfect. He always solves difficult situations without anger. So, we moved on...

And we did great because on our marriage day all the angels were on our side. Was a perfect, perfect day. Suddenly life was happening in a very beautiful way, there, right there, despite the problems we would have to face the next day. But that was only the next day.

And, on the next day - exactly as we were expecting - the bank told us that the card had been destroyed by the machine that ate it for security reasons (Adverb had left it in the machine after withdrawing some cash and after a few moments the machine automatically took it back).

I thought I would die at that moment, but I didn't. And I continued to live when we had to pay much more than we had expected at the Portuguese Consulate's office in San Francisco to register the marriage.

And I was still alive (well, more or less) when the plane in Frankfurt - after an eleven hour flight - landed in a scary way. Then I got angry. What? Am I going to die before telling my newspaper director that I really am poorly paid and I am sick of it (just a dark humor moment...lol)?

To finish and get back to what is really important, I will never forget the sentence the judge said at the end of the wedding ceremony and I am going to share it with you.

"Marriage is not only marrying with the right person, it is being the right partner". I believe I married the right person, about being the right partner I think I have a lot to learn.

Because I don't have the best words to translate my happiness, and I am sure the ones I shared were not the best - and because there are things that always remain inside us as our secret island - I'm going to finish this entry by sharing three pictures. But I must say three things: first, I love my Adverb with all my heart; second, I feel very blessed; third, I know that life is made of good and bad moments and I want to learn how to deal with both of them. I can't say more. I am still very overwhelmed with all of this and I don't want to be corny.

Here I am coming out of the car, next to the place where we got married. The bracelet you see on my arm was used by my mother thirty-six years ago on her wedding day. I hope I am lucky enough to see a daughter of mine wear it on her wedding day.

And here we are just married, still inside the place. No more words about this.

And here we are - with my father, looking with naughty eyes to the camera - cutting the cake. An amazing place where everybody was very nice and polite with us. At one point all the waiters were next to us wanting to learn some words in Portuguese.