I love the Romeo and Juliet song too, but never got the sunscreen bit, just the ‘Everybodiiiiiieees Freeee….’ I even bought the movie CD at the time. Great to know some of the other lyrics, had no idea it was about the stuff you rub on your bod so you don’t get skin cancer. I got the carcinomas on my face and bod anyway. I’m currently doing round number 2 with chemotherapy cream, a bitch of a substance that makes me itch on the inside.

In a bit of serendipity, I just opened a wedding invitation from a niece before hopping on Medium. How you felt about getting the photos taken, I felt about slimming down before Patsy’s big day in exactly 8 weeks time. Calculating how much I needed to lose before I could squeeze into the midnight blue silk dress I had made especially for my curvy bod a couple of years back. I think I need to ditch maybe 5 kg so that I don’t risk splitting the side seams. Either that or completely go without eating or drinking anything on the night and feeling utterly miserable doing it.

If I don’t I can wear a dusty pink satin number beribboned with sequins and pleated in a truly divine way, with perfectly matching underwear. I was mulling this over when I read your post. Now I’m thinking, how silly to insist on losing weight to wear a certain dress. Just as much of a time waster as fretting about how you would look in the photos with your man.

So, I’m gonna dispense with my own inner mean bitch and try to move a little more, eat a little more fresh plant type stuff and see what happens. But, I won’t be obsessing. The pretty pink wedding invitation with the hearts and roses and sickeningly sweet crimped border asked us to go to a big racecourse for the reception for a sumptuous dinner and merriment.

Merriment

I had to look twice, you don’t often hear that word. I haven’t even read that M word for years. And if merriment is what is going to happen after I tear up when my niece says her wedding vows, I don’t want to be denying myself any of it. I want to celebrate and I can do that whether or not I look good in a certain dress.

In fact, the more of me the more merriment. Merry comes from merriment, it’s a bit like Christmas to be that way. I’m beginning to like this word. Might well be my word of the week.

And, now that I have put my inner bitch to bed, I just wanted to tell you that the second photograph of you and your husband is the best one. It doesn’t show you pretending to smile and it doesn’t show a fake you sucking it in or up for the camera. It shows the real you and the real love you share with your pop eyed bearded man. And that is priceless. I’d have that photo framed because it exudes happiness, merriment if you like, and it is completely wonderful.