Wedding Woes

Last night we went to my cousin's wedding reception. When we arrived at the great little venue, Big noticed all of the round paper lanterns hung for decoration and yelled, "BALL!" He spent a lot of the evening yelling the word and trying to figure out how to get to one of the objects of his obsession.

We greeted the bride and groom and offered our congratulations, I gave the bride a big hug and shook the groom's hand.  My cousin looked beautiful and seemed very happy. As we stood there talking, since there was no one behind us in line, the groom decided that he needed to take a seat on the bench behind them.  I asked him if he was feeling light-headed from standing too long or if he was sick, and he told me he was a little sick.  I felt bad for him, even more so when, a minute later, he booked it around the side of the building to barf (he must have a different definition of "sick" than I do--he said he was a little sick, I call that a lot sick!). 

I thought, "Poor guy!", and then pulled out my Purell (I know it has been previously established that I am a bit of a germophobe, but come on!--even you have to admit you probably would have used it in this situation! I mean, I shook his hand! Maybe I'll start giving grooms a fist bump.) I really did feel bad for him, for them, though.  It brought back memories of how sick Rophone was for our own wedding and honeymoon. While Rophone's sickness was not of the stomach variety, it still put a bit of a wrench in the works.  Although, now that we've been married for 13 1/2 years, and I know what a truly lousy sick person Rophone is, I am impressed with the fortitude he displayed for our wedding and honeymoon. He must have really wanted to marry me!

Rophone had a terrible fever and chills for our wedding, and then a few days after (Christmas Eve, in fact) his eardrum ruptured.  I must admit that the words, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" are not what I expected to hear on my honeymoon.  He had to lay on his side with a heating pad under his ear at night, and the only available outlet had him lying with his back to me on one far side of the king-sized bed.  Super romantic. The best part was when I, too, came down with the cold and had to sleep with wads of toilet paper shoved between my head and the pillow.  

There is a silver lining to all of this, though.  Believe it or not, despite all our suffering, we had a fabulous time together!  There were moments of humor, like when we awoke one morning and I said to Rophone, "I'm hungry", to which he replied, "I love you, too" (He was super deaf at the time, and told me later that if he heard an unintelligible 3-syllable phrase that he would tell me he loved me just so he wouldn't miss something like that so early in our marriage).  The difficulty in communicating helped us to realize the importance of good communication.  Anyway, my point is, I think a lot of couples may experience a bit of a let down after the honeymoon is over.  Not in our case!  

So, rest assured, cousin!  You can still have fun on your honeymoon and it will all be up from here!