I am finally in a position to share a bit more information with you about my MS (My Sweetheart). We knew each other in high school (but only barely), and we have a fairly similar history - lots of circumstances that are amazingly similar, but I won't go into that now. We are astonishingly aligned with respect to our beliefs and political thinking (which is a really good thing in my mind), and have found precious little that we differ on...mostly foods, but even then, a lot of things are so very similar, it's enough to kinda stop us in our tracks).

We started seeing each other, and I have to say with every meeting, we couldn't believe how the hours we were together just melted away, without our realizing it. And finally we decided that we probably were, really, a "couple." MS invited me to attend the wedding of a family friend, and once I accepted, he shared that he really wanted to learn ballroom dancing to surprise his son who was a groomsman. So we started taking lessons at Arthur Murray. We've had so much fun with that, we've decided that my birthday present will be more lessons!

And this past weekend, we drove off to the wedding (in a neighboring state - which was good, as it turned out). We surprised his son, which delighted MS, and we enjoyed a beautiful wedding with a wonderful couple. I was introduced to a large number of people who are important to MS. And there were many photos taken. I've been granted permission to share this one here:

My Sweetheart and I at the wedding reception at the country club, in our special dancing shoes, ready to take the floor. He even consented to my "coordinating" our attire, a gray and purple combo that suits us both. (And probably doesn't surprise my loyal readers one little bit!)

Now to why it was a good thing we left this state: as you probably have heard, a pretty nasty weather system roared thru the mid-Atlantic (and other places) on Friday night. My area has been without power since then. I have a pretty tight townhouse these days, so it's a complete oven. The kitties, I assure you, are fine, they don't want to leave the nest, and I'm keeping them hydrated and fed. The refrigerator and freezer are completely empty, my trash cans completely full. And we're hanging in, but well aware it may be Saturday before power is fully restored.

I've been lucky, in that I've only had to stay at my place one night so far (and it was miserable). MANY folks have been stuck with this for 4 days. I was able to take yesterday off work and head to MS's (where there was air, blessed air). Depending on the situation at home tonight, I'm going back for the holiday. I cannot say a deep enough thank you to those who are working in the most oppressive heat I can remember to restore service to so many thousands without power. Bless them all.