Brooke just called me!

Her new life sounds like a vacation ;>

Seriously, it was so good to hear her voice, and hear what she’s been up to. She and David went and saw As You Like It, and she said it was fabulous. (Mari and Kelly went and saw Romeo and Juliet recently, too. I guess Sean and I need to find some Shakespeare somewhere next…though with my luck it’ll be Henry V or another one of the historical war stories!)

Brooke says she and David have hiking boots and walking sticks (actually she used another term that I promptly forgot) and that they’re going walking tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing any pictures she might happen to take, since I have been assured that Sheffield does in fact have rolling hills. I think the closest I’ve seen to the Great Britain rolling hills in picturebooks have been out in rural Kentucky, like Cynthiana or Nonesuch. But I know they’re not quite the same.

Sean and I should go to visit them sometime this year, but until I have my Big Decision made I won’t be able to figure out when that’ll be. We also still need to replace our passports, which were destroyed in the fire. I think probably we ought to go ahead and open our own safety deposit box at the bank for important papers. Sean’s parents have one, but it’s kinda full.

Anyway, it was so good to hear from Brooke, and I’m so glad she’s adjusting to her new life. There are of course some cultural things that she might not get used to for awhile, but instead of letting it scare her into hiding at home, she’s running out and embracing her new world. That’s just like her :)

I should mention that David is obviously being great, taking her around and showing her stuff and thinking about her. But he’d be in trouble with me if he wasn’t ;)

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My husband is awesome.

We’ve been married four years, but I still learn new things about him all the time.

Today I learned that Sean Meadows can give one hell of a speech.

I guess I assumed that because I’m terrible at giving speeches, Sean would be too–that it was just part of our personalities. Even now, I sometimes forget that we are not the same person.

“It’s your turn,” David said. Sean forced his way through the pain of his rental shoes up to the front of the room, where Brooke and David stood with champagne glasses in front of their wedding cake.

“When David turned 30, he told me he wanted to be with someone,” Sean said. “He said he was lonely and unhappy.

“As his friend, I of course had to tell him the truth. ‘You’re not going to get anywhere on that talking to me every night.'”

Sean paused while everyone laughed. Then, “I was wrong,” he said.

“Brooke and David hadn’t met yet, but one day I said, ‘Do you think David and Brooke…?’ And Heather said, ‘No.'” More laughter.

“It didn’t happen until right after Heather and I had a personal tragedy. David came to visit and they finally met.

“They didn’t waste any time.”

Sean’s speech was especially good because it complemented David’s speech quite well. I don’t know if they planned that or not. David mentioned briefly how it happened and spent most of his time (rightly) on his relationship with Brooke; that meant Sean was able to go back and fill in the gaps.

What really impressed me was the fact that Sean didn’t “write” his speech. He thought about what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, and then he went up there with no notes and just told it all conversationally. He never seemed to fumble or forget what he wanted to say, and he paused at just the right times.

There were a couple times when I wasn’t sure if the people in the back could hear him, but that is the only problem I can think of.

I love hearing good public speakers. I never imagined that I’d married one!

(Note: Because he didn’t write his speech out, I had to write it from memory. I’m sure I got the wording wrong here and there. I wish I had managed to get it recorded with my camera, but unfortunately I had to change batteries right when Sean went up to talk ;P)