This post goes out to all the gals who’ve loved before !! Lovingly inspired by “Liss” Gilbert, Cinema Paradiso, War of the Roses, City of Girls, 4 Weddings & a F* ;-D …
925 Wedding Anni, yo !! ;-D
Let’s get this party started, y’all !! First off, August is a wedding anniversary month for me. I kicked off my awfully wedded life in 1998, making 2023 my 25th year as an awfully wedded wife !! A quick Google search reveals that some cultures consider a 25th anni to be be a Silver Anni …
What number is supposed to be engraved into silver jewelry ?! Oh yes … “925” !! A brief check of w/ my 1980s silver bracelets from Mexico confirms this … Yabba Dabba Doooooo !! My Mexican bangles are now chiming on my wrist as I type … if you listen carefully while you visit this post, perhaps you’ll hear them …
Lua de Mel
I learned the term “lua de mel” in Brasil while travelling w/ a lovely Brasileira who was crashing at the same semi-skanky youth hostel as I. We shared a bunk bed in the whimsically gorgeous Pelourinho district of Salvador / Bahia, where the street kids swerve & pop to the non-stop live music w/ the effortless panache of the aquatic creatures that gliiiide thru the nearby waters. Michael Jackson would film this video in Pelourinho a wee bit later …
Alors … at the time, I was planning a big wedding bash, to be held in SuiciLande, where I was to marry my Swiss fiancé. We’d bought a wedding dress, booked a charming venue that — malgré tout ;-D — I still love, and sent our snailmail invites out from Brasil. My lovely little bunk-buddy Brasilera was asking me if we were planning a “lua de mel” and I was wracking my brain to figure out what she was on about …
My Portuguese was and will always be imperfeito. Nonetheless, I was able to falar com fluência for a short time in the 1990s. And this little term had me all tripped out, sending my neurons to a word-for-word translation which yielded:
- moon
- of
- honey
Was there a moon-shaped & honey-based sobremesa that Brasilians serve up at casamentos … ?! I hadn’t heard of that. And then I got it !! She was speaking of a honeymoon !! When I’d finally deciphered it, I grabbed her hands and laughingly replied that sim … we were thinking of going to Lisboa for our honeymoon … we hadn’t bought our bilhetes just yet but were thinking that it would be fun to falar português during our moon of honey. ;-D
Subsequent Moons
Fast-FWDing to 3 kids (18+ ;-D) and several decades later in Calvinist-Lutherin-Protestant-SuiciLande … I have spent many moons pondering over how getting married is easy-peasy, but staying married is an endurance game that is not for the faint at heart !! Many marriages terminate for the right reasons (thank gawd) !! But for those that are potentially worth sustaining … I truly believe that a Wicked Sense of Humour (= WiSH) is essential.
Wicked Sense of Humour
A WiSH is of course not the only ingredient to sustainable marriage, but w/out it, the marriage is truly fucked (all puns & imagery poignantly intended ;-D). I hold that staying married w/out a WiSH is like Writing (in English) w/out Vowels, Swimming w/out Water, Sushi-ing w/out 筷子 …
OK I’ve nothing against eating sushi w/out chopsticks but I hope y’all get my point. And I trust that anyone who’s too incensed to stick w/ me has by now left this page. So let’s celebrate our WiSHs here, shall we ?! ;-D
In Liss We Trust !! ;-D
My youngest daughter (who just turned 18 !! ;-D) read Eat Pray Love during a family vacay in Italy a few scant weeks ago. I’d concluded my 5th or 6th reading of said book prior to our trip, and voraciously re-read (for perhaps the 4th time?) City of Girls in Italy … enjoying my time w/ Vivie as much as ever !! Needless to say, we were feeling belly Lizzy during our time in Italy, and the whole fam embraced the Eat part of EPL !! I brazenly stated one evening at dinner:
“No kCalorie left behind !!”
… to which my daughter corrected me:
“No (k)Carb left behind, Mommy !!”
Oh yes, of course !! I proudly stand corrected. I believe my Mommy work is done !! Namasté !! ;-D
Break Down
How about we now break down that image that I created for my 925 Anni … please scroll back up if you can’t remember what it looks like !! ;-D
Cinema Paradiso
Cinema Paradiso will always make my Top 10 film list … whether I croak tomorrow or in … 2069 ?! ;-D The 925 Anni image is a selfie from Italy w/ my awfully wedded. As a prelude to our trip, we’d re-watched Cinema Paradiso in its full glory, during which we’d laughed and cried. My Mister was looking specifically for the scene in which Toto gesticulates lewdly towards his hero Alfredo !! ;-D We found that scene, which I converted into the wee animated GIF above. Anyhoo … our selfie cracked us up b/c it looks a bit like those scandalous frames that Alfredo was mandated to cut from his reels … by the divine order of the village priest. ;-D
War of the Roses
Many moons ago, towards the end of a truly harrowing marriage therapy session in Geneva w/ Coach Gauthier (hi !! ;-D), the film War of the Roses came up. I believe I was the one to have mentioned it … thanx to my WiSH !! ;-D To this, Coach Gauthier advised us (ie. hubby & me) to watch it together. So I ordered a DVD copy of it for our next anni … whichever one that was … maybe 15th … ?! The kids were young and the fit was truly hitting the shan !! ;-D To me there’s no mystery about this film’s worldwide-cross-cultural resonance … this stuff knows no boundaries b/c peeps w/ WiSHs get it, irrespective of geographical location or native tongue … brilliant !! ;-D
Prey
As anyone who’s ever been preyed upon can attest, it’s terrifying to be scared for your life. But it doesn’t necessarily transform someone into a predator … at least not in my case. I can’t carry on writing about this b/c it’s terrible for my blood pressure. (In case it’s unclear, I identify as prey.) So let’s wrap up by saying that I’m a big Tarantino fan … and I Love Lucy … & O-Ren !! ;-D
Wedlock
OMG what an atrocious word … case in point about needing a WiCK in order to practice sustainable marriage … sheesh !! ;-D For anyone who was wondering about the 4 Weddings & a F* citation, I offer below a wee key (get it … wedlock …?!)
Split
Oh, what a wonderful word !! ;-D We can split wood, split costs, uncork a split, split forever, split for just a short while, have split personalities …
Outta Here
Alrighty folks !! That’s it for my 925 Anni Breakdown !! ;-D I’m now re-reading Fight Club, a book that was brought into my life by my dear pal Wolfe, who loaned me his copy when I asked if I could borrow A Clockwork Orange. I never made it thru Orange (perhaps I’ll try again another time ?!) but did purchase my own copy of Fight and never seem to tire of re-reading it !! ;-D Funny how the cover image Fight features a torn page … I noticed this only after designing & printing my torn up anni card for my Awfully Wedded … LOL !! ;-D
– The Pixies
P.S.
