(Locked Patreon post is here.)
Last weekend, Chris and Lauren got married out in the middle of the woods an hour north of Portland OR — which anyone who has ever flown through PDX might guess from the picture at the start of this post. (I don’t have any pictures from the wedding yet.) The wedding site was a clearing ringed by giant trees, under an arch of greenery. The reception was held in tents decorated with ivy and ferns and moss from the woods, along with garlands of pink and cream flowers; the food was all made by her stepfather using meat he had grown and butchered on the farm. There were chickens and children and so many lovely people, such a warm and affectionate family.
It was wonderful. Arian was my date for the wedding, and that was lovely, too–we have been friends-with-chemistry for almost thirty years. He had been really young then (me, less so), but now he’s an adult: important job, daughters, a household; wiser, too. And various friends and people I hadn’t seen in ages were there, and there were new friends to meet (looking at Logan and Alejandro here), and it was all…. I run out of ways to say I was delighted and touched and happy and comfortable. I will start to repeat myself, and I still won’t really have expressed what I wanted to. A++++ would attend again.
I also had the chance to stay with Portland friends Jay and Marti, and go sailing with them. We took a sweet 35′ boat up along the Willamette and peeked around the corner into the Columbia, though there wasn’t time for more. There’s a lot of people I didn’t see, but next time, when I am not helping with a wedding, I will stay longer and see more folks.
What I didn’t do…was dance! I was having such a great time that I forgot. 🙂
Anyway, home now, and looking forward to the next couple of weeks. They’re busy ones! The Privilege of the Happy Ending is coming out 10/24, but there will be a sneak peek at Rain Taxi’s Twin Cities Book Festival 10/15 (where I’ll be reading, and books can be bought). The actual launch will be at the Raven Book Store in Lawrence KS 10/24, and then I am doing a ton of stuff at World Fantasy Con in KC 10/26-29 as one of the guests of honor. By the time that’s over we are two weeks out from my Scotland/Iceland peregrinations. So excited! More as I have news to tell.
We love hearing from you. Sounds like a lovely time!