The Best Wedding

It was a whirlwind, but extraordinary weekend celebrating the marriage of my friends Mindy and Nils. I think it may have been the best wedding I've ever been to (not including my own of course). It was in the most beautiful part of California I had yet to experience. It was in a remote area outside Santa Barbara (up the road of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch of all places) up on a hill, nestled between a valley of mountains and gold grass. We spent the weekend gasping at the incredible views, eating, and laughing and toasting this incredible couple. At the ceremony I was supposed to sing a song, but it turned out there was no mic stand, so at the last minute Graham came up with me and held the mic for me--if that wasn't a symbol of MARRIAGE I don't know what was.

Oh yeah, and there were ostriches:
In case you've never seen them UP CLOSE they are TALL and kind of INTIMIDATING. I likened their figure to a cross between a dinosaur and a Muppet. Surprisingly not comforting. Let's just say, I was glad there was a fence between us. There was egg laying going on and the males were DOING THEIR PART by approaching the fence and being PROTECTIVE. One in particular, would not let Graham out of his sight:

Graham & The Ostrich from Summer Pierre on Vimeo.

Just in case you need a height ratio--Graham is 6' 4". Mr. Ostrich is at least that tall, if not more. Yeah, not exactly a CUTE and COZY bird. We were soon on our way.

It was one of those weekends that kind of SETS YOU STRAIGHT. As I've mentioned here, I've been going through some HUGE waves of change and upheaval. I was feeling mighty stressed about making the trek to this wedding, but it turned out to be EXACTLY what I needed. It reconnected me with the world of natural beauty, friends, and purpose. I've been needing a realignment--I feel like I got on a plane to Paris awhile back and have NEVER returned home. Being with all these amazing people celebrating in my home state helped me come home a bit and put some fears in perspective. That, and I only threw up once! I'll take what I can get.