One morning...

Sleep had come timidly to one whom we were never enemies. I had slept, but not well, and not long. I had a lot on my mind with the gravity of the coming day. I showered, dressed, and found whatever i could forage in a tiny kitchen where leftover dregs remained from the night before. I saw and heard stirrings of the few others in the house beginning to do the same. Looking out a stark black window i could barely make out the sun beginning to roseate the low fragile clouds clinging to the horizon. I was ready.

It was a morning not unlike this one, clear and crisp. I remember walking out onto the porch of my tiny house, seeing my breath in the pre-dawn air thinking, "Well... here we go...this is the big day." Looking at my Jeep CJ sitting in the driveway, i projected the question "You ready for this?".

My good friend, Jason, came out behind me, one arm full of whatever he it was he had for the day, slapped me on the shoulder, smiled, and said, "Ready?"

"Yeah. Yeah, i am."

We piled everything we could think of that we would need for the day, including ourselves and rolled slowly out. It was a quiet ride most of the way...and cold...until the heater finally dissipated the last of our crystalline breath. We both knew what the day held and excitement was building for both of us in different ways. I didn't need any coffee, adrenaline had already begun its slow drip into my body and i was already feeling the effects the nearer we got to the site. By the time we arrived i was fully charged and my body was alive with an almost electric hum, i parked and opened the door.

The rest is a blur that comes by photographs in my mind until i hear the pipers playing 'Highland Cathedral' and i see a stunning figure, and i hear the man in front of me ask, "Who gives this woman to this man?" Then things tend to sharpen a bit and i remember eight years ago today...just how beautiful a Queen became.