Months
March is: The cold snap breaks in New York and I pack a suitcase for Brasil and a week with my brothers, the sand, the sun, and the caipirinhas. I return from Brasil and meet a handsome and charming Englishman. I knew he’d be handsome and charming, I just didn’t expect him to be the handsome charming one for me. We spend one week together. Glances across a crowded bar. A late night adventure with a mouse. Kissing on a sofa bed. A cold sunday morning breakfast hunt. Champagne for breakfast. Dinner at French Roast, wandering arm-in-arm through the West Village. Mornings spent in bed turn into afternoons. A ferry ride. Grey Dog. I love yous. An impromptu proposal, a tearful departure. A life changed.
April is: forget the showers. Long distance phone calls. Job hunting. Surprising the daylights out of friends and family. Spring comes to New York without me even noticing. Visas are discussed. Kisses are sent transatlantically. A ticket is purchased, a best man is told, and a certain baseball bat is purchased.
May is: agonizingly long until the 26th. Outfits are packed and unpacked, travel plans are made from London to the Isle. Another airport, another kiss. Camden, Notting Hill, kissing on the tube to the shock and discomfort of fellow passengers. Tramping up the Downs in my frye boots, startling whole warrens full of rabbits. We sit among the prickly thistles and watch the sun fade from the island landscape, watch a rider dash across the hills across the valley on a galloping horse. My hand remains in his pocket, my head on his shoulder, for walks to town and along the esplanade. My heart is torn again as I board the plane home.
June is: a miraculous seven day approval for a fiance visa, a ticket bought back to England in July with help from the Love Fund. Flickr becomes our chink in the wall. We watch our little packet travel from Vermont to the NVC across the seas to England. We decide to get a permanent ticket before his birthday. We wait, and talk, and long.
July is: punctuated by a perfect trip to Hatfield. Mornings under a sunny yellow duvet, staring out a blue sky. Coffee in the back yard, fresh baked bread, trips on a bouncy bus to town. Walking through a wilderness garden at Hatfield House, barefoot and laughing. Having dinner on the floor, listening to Joni Mitchell and kissing. Taking ages to leave the house. A pint and crisps at the Horse and Groom. Another goodbye, another airport … and for the last time. “I’m just taking a later flight,” to make me smile through so many tears. And the best distraction of all, upon arriving home – Kate, coming to stay with me, for two months.
August is: getting an interview at the US Embassy. Waiting. Preparing. Hoping. It’s also – a flurry of tribal activity with our new girl, lots of margaritas and parties. My life waiting to come and my life as it stands are both so wonderful, I wonder if a girl can really be this lucky. Thus passes August…
September is: an interview. An approval. A celebration. A sudden whirlwind of exciting decisions – when to fly, when to have the party, when to get married, when to go to Maine for 3 days to celebrate. And then, when all the decisions have been made, when a ticket sits waiting, bags start getting packed, work starts winding down on his side, life starts speeding up on mine… and here we are. September 30th. The last day of the last month I’ll spend waiting for what I knew to be true the moment we met. Thank you, September. For bringing us good news, for moving rather quickly, for ending today.
October will be: Arrival. Kisses. A weekend alone. Coffee and smiles in the mornings. Wake up calls in person. A celebration. A trip to City Hall – two rings, a kiss, at last. A trip to New England. Evenings in front of a fireplace. The windswept cliffs of Acadia. Finally together, after seven months of planning.
Stuart and I are going to City Hall to get married on October 18th, exactly seven months from the day we met. It may seem short to some. But when you know what you want, seven months can seem a long time to wait for it. And here it is.