Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Laurita?

I Do Countdown: 41 Days

Jonathan & Laurita Miller on their big day.

Cathy, this is such a cute idea. I don’t really have much to say, but after 12 years, I guess I should jump in and say something too.  I’m so excited for you, and all the wedding talk on your blog makes it that much more fun. For me anyway. You’re probably freaking out. Breathe, girl, breathe!

Here’s my little piece for your love fest, and a hideously tacky photo we had taken. The first thing I did once we were married was make him shave off that horrible ‘round-the-bay moustache. All the fun photos are packed away in a box somewhere so the kids won’t see.

Oh, and our wedding song was “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” by Elton John because that was the song that was playing when he proposed. I guess I’m lucky it wasn’t “Another One Bites the Dust."

Best wishes to you. Looking forward to meeting you face to face. 

– Laurita

He thought I was tall. I thought he was gay. We were both wrong.

Jonathan and I met during my horrific work term with the local phone company. He was the man in charge of internet support, I was the resident gopher/lackey/scapegoat. I was twenty-one and fresh out of school. He was twenty-three and already an up-and-comer in the IT biz. Our first conversation centered around the recent new theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back and I think it was geek love from the start (well, it was once I was sure he liked girls and he made peace with the fact that I wore high heels). 

I left the company after my three month term was over. I didn’t leave with a job, but I got something better. I got a man who, on a lovely September day, took me out for some fun on the town and ended the evening with a schooner trip around the harbour, romantic music, and a ring. I was completely taken by surprise. I didn’t even clue in when we were the only ones on the boat, which was usually packed. What can I say? Laurita’s a little slow on the uptake.

A year later we were married. The wedding was horrible and anything that could possibly have gone wrong went wrong. There was no pen to sign the marriage certificate, the hotel confused our wedding with one scheduled for the next night, we were kicked out of our photography location, and housekeeping burst into our hotel room the morning after our nuptials. It was a giant mess from start to finish.

We didn’t care. We were young and stupid and happy.

We’re still most of those things.

Laurita Miller is like fresh air or a sweet song on a spring day; like clean clothes flying in the wind against a bright blue sky. She's family, she's best friend, she's sensible but with a wild streak. She writes from the heart – so well, in fact, that you always feel like she's been reading your mail. She's Canadian as they come, a Newfoundlander who knows her way around northern Ontario and yet feels comfortable in New York City. When I read Laurita's stories, and see the photos she has taken of her home, I feel like I'm watching my favourite shows on CBC, or listening to the late Peter Gzowski on Morningside, or Sheila Rogers, or Stuart Maclean. Like their voices, hers is easy, comfortable and astonishingly intelligent. Laurita is establishing quite a fan base in literary circles, especially on the #fridayflash circuit, and I'm not surprised by that at all. She is, in a word, awesome. I always look forward to what she has to say over at her blog, Brain Droppings.

When Dave and I go on our honeymoon we'll be touring Newfoundland, something we've always wanted to do. One of the highlights of our trip will be dropping in to visit Laurita and her family, as well as Alan W. Davidson and his family. Alan's promised a barbecue where we can all meet and greet and I can hardly wait!

Thanks Laurita, for your story and your photo and that lovely song. I appreciate it, I do.

I am still anxious to hear other people's "how we met stories," wedding stories, wedding do's and don'ts. If you have something you'd like to share, by all means send it to me here.

Next up: my good friends Leah and Vic Burton. Funny? You betcha...