Monday, April 23, 2012

Out Shout the Wind by Donna Merritt

It was a WINDY day on Key Biscayne.
I received a call from Juliana in Miami on Saturday asking if I could do a wedding on Key Biscayne the following day.
I advertise "short notice" OK and I do try to9 accommodate when possible so I said I could do it.
She said they wanted to have the ceremony at 11:30 and we agreed to meet at her condo at 11:00.
The drive to Miami is not bad on a Sunday morning and i always give myself plenty of time because arriving late just sort of tears up my whole constitution so I was in the area, after about a 30 minute drive, by 10:30 am.
That was when the fun started. I had the address but still I drove up and down the street several times looking for the address.
Juliana is from Columbia and our communication left something to be desired and so it ended up with me finding a parking place, calling her and saying this is where I am and her coming to find me. The problem stemed from the fact that her building was not facing Brickell Ave, where the address was, but rahter facing on a little driveway that ran along the south side of the building rather than on the west side which was Brickell.
At any rate she found me, we drove to her apartment, less that two blocks away and hung out in the lobby for a few minutes while everyone assembled. lots of beautiful people, all speaking Spanish, except to me.
Juliana turned out to be an absolutely beautiful young woman, striking would be a good word here as well. She was wearing a form fitting, one shouldered dress in off white with a slit up one side which extended quite high. Her hair was long and dark dark brown. She looked like a Greek goddess.
This was Juliana's second marriage and she has a little seven year old boy who looked so much like my youngest grandson, it was amazing.
At any rate, it seems we were waiting for the groom, yes grooms run late just like some brides, but we finally were all assembled, got into our cars for the drive to the end of Key Biscayne. Actually to Bill Baggs Park. If you are not familiar with Key Biscayne and the park it is well worth your effort to take a trip there. The whole length of the Key is very pretty and the Park section at the end is quite large and wild looking.
I need to do some homework here on history. In the middle of the Key is an area called Crandon Park and I believe I am correct in saying this is the home of the original Crandon Park Zoo in Miami. I remember taking my kids there years ago. It has long since been replaced by Metro Zoo in Miami.
To continue...I love the Spanish, two minutes can be an hour and a ten minute drive can be much longer. Anyway the location they had chosen, ten minutes from the apartment. I didn't time it but it was a little longer than that but such a beautiful drive. The bridge over the bay which provides a beautiful skyline view of downtown Miami and then the drive through the residential and tourist area, the park areas, all nice and especially on a Sunday morning, free from heavy traffic.
We arrived at the parking lot, at the far end of the park and the weather was being so nice to us. We had been threatened with storms and rain but it was nice and sunny when we got out of our cars.
However just a short walk to the water and it was like going into a wind tunnel. I was totally unprepared for the transition from warm sunny day to storm blasts. The couple however had picked the spot and there is where we did the ceremony. What a wind blown group we all were. There were probably around twenty of us all together and the guest had to huddle close because my words were fairly ripped from my lips and blown away.
I must say everyone, except for a small child about a year old, handled it with great dignity (if you can be dignified and blown away at the same time and in about twenty minutes we had accomplished what we came for. Juliana (love the name) was married to Cyril (a young Frenchmen) with Juliana's son acting as ring-bearer.
I Had taken care of the paperwork back at the apartment because I didn't expect the accommodations for writing would be very good at the park, and so with a few final congratulations and goodbyes I headed back home.
The drive back to the main land was so beautiful and the drive up 95 was easy with few cars to mar my progress and so I was home in a short time. I stopped at my favorite Italian place on the way and picked up a pizza to go. I had just pulled into my car port when the storm hit. Going inside I was thinking God had certainly been nice to my bride and groom and to me. He held up his storm so that we could have a beautiful, if windy time for the ceremony and then turned loose his fury after all was finished and I was safely home.
I changed into my comfy clothes, put a couple slices of pizza on a plate, curled up on my couch, turned on the TV and settled in for a nice quiet afternoon. My work finished for the day, wind and rain pounding outside while I snuggle warm inside. Life is good and I am blessed.

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