Oh Promise Me

On Saturday my neice, Jane Austen, got married. Jane was always a princess and on Saturday all I could think about was the little girl who used to love to play dress up. How do they grow up so fast?

The weather was, after 6 months of unmitigated bleak, pefect. The wedding was held outside and it just couldn't have been more beautiful.

It was also very emotional and not just because everyone was so happy for Jane and Mr. Darcy. It was also the first big family do since the death of Mr. Stewart and his absence was palpable; particularly because his youngest daughter, Keira Knightly, is in love and destined for her own wedding in a couple of years and she was clearly thinking that her daddy isn't going to be there to walk her down the aisle. My sister, Martha Stewart, is the bravest woman I know but she too had moments where she just had to remove herself from the festivities. It was very difficult, bless their hearts.

Of all the neicelet weddings so far this was the best, if only because I actually know the groom. We've spent time together and talked and have a relationship. He's delightful and they make a terrible handsome couple.



My sister, Audrey Hepburn, mother of the bride. (She looked way hot).



The Spouse did the video for the wedding. He looked handsome.



My nephew:



Martha Stewart, Moi & Audrey:



The Child, Martha, my neice little Martha and her son, my grand-nephew, Joshua:



The first dance:


Audrey and Mr. Hepburn kept dancing:



Nana and Jane:


Girl cousins:



Moi & Martha



And they all lived happily ever after:

(Insert Clever Title Here)

I think I'm going to pop into the office a little early today. MAB took a comp day yesterday and I was consequently very busy but didn't finish any of the things I needed to finish because so much of what I do tends to be emergent. My desk looks like downtown Kabul.

My niece, Jane Austen, is engaged. I told her that I am very much looking forward to being her matron of honor, singing "O Promise Me" and performing the ceremony. (I could do that...I'm a Universal Life Minister. Which is kinda like being a notary, without the nifty seal. It's not that big a deal but it could come in handy some day). She is marrying a guy I really, really like and I think it's all pretty superfantastic. (However, thus far the three nieces who have married have chosen guys whose names begin with the letter M and that is getting tedious. Jane's sister is also dating an M. The Child and her remaining girl cousin, Keira Knightly, have been forbidden to even go for coffee with anyone whose name begins with that letter. Really. Come on. It's too precious in the not good way).

Meanwhile, my sister, Martha Stewart, is maneuvering through uncharted waters. Her husband is dying. This has been going on for a few months now and it's been hard to find a way to write about it because, well, party because it sucks so much. Mr. Stewart is a young man...my age if you want to be specific. He's always been crazy fit and healthy. But he has melanoma and the end is near. Frankly, I still don't have much to write because we're all still wrapping our heads around it. Some of you already knew this anyway and you've been praying for them -which, btw, continues to blow Martha away...knowing that people all over the country and the world who they have never met are holding them up is an awesome thing. And she is at peace. She attributes that peace to nothing other than grace because she knows that on her own she'd just be a blubbering mess (her words). But she's not. She's amazing. Anyhoodles, anyone else inclined to offer up thoughts and prayers for my BIL and the fam would be greatly appreciated.

On a happier note, coffee is really delicious and hugging is good.

My Niece, Jane Austen

If everything goes according to plan, later today our home will be graced by the lithe and rose-scented presence of my niece, Jane Austen. (She doesn't actually smell like roses but she looks like she would).

Jane Austen (whose real name is Emma Rose but I call her Emma Louise and always have and don't know why) is one of my favorites. She used to be my absolute favorite but then she came to this area for college and despite promises never, ever ONCE made it over here on Friday nights for pizza-and-a-movie and so there has been room for others to challenge her preeminence. And that's the chance you take when you don't come over for pizza and a movie when you could.

Jane used to come for weekend visits when she was very wee and The Spouse and I were just starting out. She was a little, tiny faerie thing with a large imagination and a sweet heart. She loved her Auntie Raine. I dare say, she even worshipped me just a bit, the way small children do when they take it in their heads to love someone who isn't their mother or father. Now, I think she still loves me but at the age of nearly 21, she no longer worships me. The serious arse-kicking she gave me playing Guitar Hero recently was indication enough of that.

Jane is the first of the Next Generation to complete a 4 year college degree. She has a job and her own apartment and a very nice boyfriend (who turned her on to "Battlestar Galactica" - so you can imagine how I feel about him). She's also impossibly pretty. She reminds me of myself at that age (except that she has a much nicer boyfriend than I did and I wasn't as impossibly pretty). She left home young to go to college, she has begun to make a life for herself away from her family, she is bright and funny and sassy - which can sometimes be read as rebellious or "worldly" or some other thing that frightens people but she isn't. She is a classic good girl, with the sense to be a good girl because she knows that will profit her more than being a bad girl. In other words, she is making good choices and I, for one, applaud them.

I am fairly certain her parents are proud of her but they necessarily worry. She's the first of their brood to leave home and that is never a thoroughly easy thing. Turns out that momentous moment- the one you've been building toward all those years- is the point where you, as a parent, wonder if you did enough right, covered enough bases, to really and truly fit your child for life in the big, cruel world. I'm starting to think that birds have a much easier time of it, what with that whole just-pushing-em-out-of-the-nest-and-starting-a-whole-new-brood thing.

But human parents have to do more than regurgitate worms and teach babies to fly. And as hard as all those lessons are when we have the little buggers under our roof, I'm beginning to understand even more how tough it is to actually stand by and watch to see if the lessons hold.

And you know, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. That's the other reality. You do all you can and it's either going to take or not. In the end, those offspring of ours are their own people and at some point their choices are theirs alone.

I do not know how I got off on that tangent. Point is, if The Child turns out as well as Jane, I will sleep very well at night.

Another thing, which I only recently realized about my relationship with Jane, is that I have a relationship with her, which is to say I seek out talking to her and being with her for her own sake. Yes, we know each other and have history because we could theoretically donate one another a kidney, but Jane stands up to the ultimate test: If she weren't kin and I met her at a party I would still want to hang with her. I don't have a relationship like that with any of my blood aunties (who are all perfectly lovely people, mind) although I know Dame Judi has one like that with at least one of her nieces. Which is only to say it's nothing to do with a generational thing or the like. Some people, I suppose, are just meant to be friends and if they happen to be introduced to you by way of family genetics, so be it.

Point is, Jane Austen is a superfantastic person and I'm looking forward to another Guitar Hero beating because even in the midst of my humiliation, I will be laughing and talking with someone I love very much.

Helpful Auntie

This is a test post. I am teaching my brilliant niece Emma, who I call Jane Austen, how to embed things in her blog. Please be patient.

Here's something about her you probably don't know. She loves Jim Halpert. She is a lot like her auntie.

Another thing you should know about her is that she really loves music. Like this song by Queen and David Bowie. Oh, that girl. She loves the classics. I adore that about her.




Queen & David Bowie "Under Pressure"

I enjoy my niece very much. When she was little she was my favorite. She used to come and spend the weekend with us. I have many cute stories about that. Like the time we took her to see "Aladdin". She was all of 3. She was scared of Jafar and spent most of the movie on my lap. She thought it was a little icky when Aladdin and Jasmine were taking a shine to each other but at the end of the movie, when they kissed, she clapped her little hands and exclaimed, "Oooh! Pretty! Pretty!"

She was adorable.

She also had quite a thing for Wendy in Peter Pan and she could walk a plank with the most impressive air of little girl bravery you ever did see. Yep. Ador. A. Bul.

Now she's grown up and she's still quite adorable. Smart and funny and ever so talented. I'm very proud of her.

Now she can be proud of me, too, because I've shown her nifty tricks for enhancing her blog experience.

Thank you for your patience.