Happy to report in the 1,000 or so miles there were no incidents!
I'm sitting in a very nice Hilton Hotel in the wonderful state of Illinois. My room is nearly as opposite last night as you can imagine. Lots of room to walk around, a real size hotel bathroom and water that is both hot and cold! Shoot!
I've been able to catch up with my eldest son and my daughter and we've had Giordano's deep dish pizza. I behaved and had a single slice from a small pie.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Chicago deep dish pizza, it is exactly what it sounds like. It is a thick crust pizza and the pan the pizza is in has sides of about an inch and a half. The pie is then filled with all sorts of things including mozzarella and for us tonight, tomato sauce and a cornucopia of various meat toppings. It is usually served hot and stays that way for a good bit because it is so dense.
After pizza we went to a pretty cool comic book shop. Comix Revolution. It had all the comics you'd expect, plus a nice assortment of manga as well as some traditionally published books by icons such as Neil Gaiman. Some of you may not realize it, but you may be familiar with Gaiman's work if you saw the movie Coraline. That was his story.
We also uncovered a used book store that sells books by the pound. We all got something. The place had a lot of good lighting and a good customer base if what we saw was an indication.
We are close enough to C's former college that he is meeting up with some of his collegiate friends tonight for dinner at Denny's. It's good he'll be seeing some of his friends.
So we’ve seen the mother and father of the groom. We’ve also seen the brother of the groom and his girlfriend. So far that’s been it. One obvious missing entity. This is sad as it is his family.
I’m learning I can’t control, and shouldn’t even try to control situations like that. I cannot be responsible for another person’s choices and actions. All I can do is try to mitigate the damage done to people who don’t deserve the ill treatment, the people I care about. All I can do is love others as myself, and I do love myself in the most positive, non-selfish manner. Loving myself allows me to love others, and to take action on their behalf.
Only in loving and taking care of myself, can I love and take care of others. Today, it is protecting my loved ones. I’m heart sick they haven’t been contacted.
However, the lack of pertinent contact will not stop any of us from enjoying the evening with people we care about and celebrating the merging of two lives together in marriage.
The day promises to be beautiful. My family will look fantastic and share the generous amounts of love they each possess with the folks in attendance. We are looking forward to celebrating this day with a family that has meant a lot to us through the years.