After Friday mornings debacle with Clark I was super angry with him, in fact he was being punished so much that he couldn't even stop and play with Sebastian who works at the front desk! Around lunch time I went to take Clark outside and I noticed he wasn't putting any weight on his back left paw. It was weird, but I wasn't too worried about it. My old dog Dublin had a flair for the dramatics and about once a quarter she wouldn't put weight on one of her paws, so I thought it was something that would run its coarse. As the day went on, Clark barely moved from the couch (not even for a treat! Gasp!) and he just kept moaning and crying. So then I freaked out. I tried to get Neil to come home early, I called the vet and I just felt sad for the pup because he couldn't tell me what's wrong! Naturally I cancelled any plans I had so I could sit next to Clark and try to make him feel better. We couldn't get into the Vet that we love, so Neil took Clark the next day while I was at my cousin's house for brunch (more on that later). Turns out small Clark sprained a ligament in his leg and he's on pain killers for a week. He started walking better right after the first pill. It's going to be a long week for the dog since he is not allowed to exercise or play with other dogs (I wish a doctor would say the same to me). So all in all, Clark is well and our first "scare" with him is officially in the books.
As previously mentioned, I was at my cousin Sydney's house on Saturday for her annual holiday brunch. I started going to this brunch about 4 years ago when I was working at Caremark. Syd invites friends of hers who she has worked with over the years. Some women are still at Caremark, others have since left. This year my sister Megan came as well. It always is so fun and Syd does a beautiful job with the house. After leaving Syd's I'm always reflective on how many amazing women there are out there! Most of the women who attend Syd's brunch have high stress, hectic full time jobs and almost all of them are mothers as well. It's amazing to see how they all balance their lives. It's a great day!
One the way home it started snowing and I lost any steam I had to do anything for the rest of the night. So I came home to Clark sprawled out on the bed, tail wagging, ready to hang out for the night, and that's what we did!
Sunday was the weirdest day of my life (well not actually, but super high up there).We got up bright and early to head out to the Western Suburbs to speak with Neil's high school priest, Father Joe, about our wedding. Neil and I have decided that we want to be married by a priest but not in a church. So we attended mass (which was an hour and 45 minutes) and that alone was interesting! It was about 14 degrees inside the church and there was like 30 people there. Half way through the mass an elderly women either passed out or had a seizure and the EMT's came in and took her out on stretcher. I think the weirdest thing about it was that no one skipped a beat! The choir director was singing and during one refrain he simply said
"if there is a nurse here, please come see me." But because the acoustics were so bad in the church I couldn't even really understand him! Just odd. But Father Joe was a true professional and kept the show going.
After mass we met with Father Joe. Incidentally, Fr. Joe had a friend named Joe who came down to attend mass from Lake Zurich, and Joe joined us in our conversation. Let me first say, Father Joe is awesome. He's from Nigeria and has a super cute accent, he's sweet and very passionate about pretty much everything! He made us coffee with cream from Nigeria and we ate cookies in the back room with Joe and Father Joe. After some small talk I got down to business and was explaining our situation and what we want to do. Well, that was pretty much the last thing either Neil or I said for the next two hours. We listened as Father Joe talked about how God brought me into Neil's life (to convert him?), how Neil was a good student at Fenwick (even though he gambled in the back of the room the whole time) and how he was going to help us through this journey. Then things got weird. Joe (the friend) was also talking quite a bit about how, at the core, we are all Jewish and there really is no difference between Catholicism and Judaism. They acted like Neil, who is not Jewish, just came here from Israel and it was their job to educate him on all things Catholic (even though he went to a Catholic high school). Then Joe (the friend) told us his daughter married someone who was secular and he was JUST LIKE NEIL! In fact, he even called his son in law Neil as one point when telling a story. Joe (the friend) then told us that he is recently divorced after 35 years of marriage, which was terribly sad to hear. Then Joe (the friend) started crying and wouldn't stop. It was so sad, but terribly uncomfortable. Father Joe jumped in and said he thinks the reason their marriage failed is because Joe (friend) proposed the night they went on their first date and they were married two months later.
I really wish a camera was there to capture the looks on our faces while Father Joe said Neil needed more guidance in his life as a child, when Joe, the man we just met, wept openly to us and when 95% of what both men said was to try to convert Neil. At about 2 hours and 2 minutes into our meeting Neil asked, "have you ever married anyone outside the church" and we got a flat out "NO." So we scurried out and we tentatively schedule our next 6-7 meetings with Father Joe to discuss Neil's faith and our future church wedding....
When we got into the car Neil and I were speechless. While I agreed with many comments made from both Joe's about our faith, love and marriage, I was just shocked in the direction our meeting took. Frankly, I was frustrated and annoyed that they took this opportunity of two people in love, who want the church to be involved in our union, to try to convert Neil.
We then went to look at a wedding venue that looked very nice online. Well, pictures are deceiving. The place was in an odd area, smelled a retirement home and looks like the last time it was updated was in 1908. We met with the owner, who was sick (why do I know this? Because she told us all about her ailment and continued a hacking cough through our whole conversation). We didn't even take off our jackets while she talked about the venue and tried to bail as quick as possible.
So far: Wedding - 2, Katie and Neil - 0.
After the disaster of a morning we went to lunch and decompressed. We then went grocery shopping to start our wedding diets and came home to decompress and watch Downton Abbey. What a weekend.
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