I Probably Won't Be Posting Sunday

Tomorrow (Sunday, May 28th, 2006) is the Eighteenth Anniversary of my wedding with Ariane Patricia Marie Genvieve Sheik-Hossen one bright beautiful Sunny Saturday morning at 11:28am in the commune of Ixelles, in the great city of Brusselles, Belgium.

So you'll pardon me if I'm absent a day here. Instead, here's a brief restrospective of the wedding pictures I have.





Our Wedding, held in the Town Hall of Ixelles (a district of Brussells). We walked the block from Ariane's apartment to the town hall; a magnificent old stone and oak building built in 1611, as I recall.



"With this Ring, I thee wed." Actually it was a great deal more dramatic than that. When the Mayor of Ixelles started the ceremony, he said "Madames et Monseiurs, Bon Soir, Nous est rendez-vous ici pour le mariage de Jean-David Long et Ariane Sheik -Hossen . . . "and i suddenly realized something very important:

I had no idea what this guy was saying. My French was nowhere good enough to follow what he was saying, so I kept waiting for a pause -- figuring I would say Ï Do" when he paused -- no, wait, I should say "Oui!", right?

Finally, he pauses, and looks at me. I look back at him. Then I look at Ariane, who has this very strange look in her eye -- no, wait, that's tears! Do i say it now? What exactly do I say? Gripped completely and totally by panic, I froze -- only to hear my future mother-in-law's voice arcing out over the assembled crowd of guests:

"SAY IT, J.D., SAY "OUI!"

And the whole place cracked up. (We used to have a videotape of this -- it was hilarious.)





And this is himself, the Mayor or "Maire" of Ixelles commune. When he saw he was marrying an American soldier he went home and changed into his uniform with his Resistance Medals from WWII. He took it as a singular honor to marry an American soldier -- and I was honored to be married by him.





And, of course, our first married Kiss. The start of great things to come, and it's still as thrilling and exciting as it was eighteen years ago.

We'll be at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner. Gotta go get some wine.

~~JD~~