Tuesday... And Where Is The Sun?

Another cloudy day, except for about an hour's worth of weak sunshine. And right now it's raining again. Not good. Barry Manilow is, right at this minute, in downtown Houston and getting ready for his concert tomorrow night. Barry needs some sun. We can't have him getting sick again. I am so set for this concert... so is A.... so is J... and I don't know if my husband and A's husband are ready, but ready or not--- just one more day till Manilow!!

Today is A's birthday. Not a pretty Texas-style day for her to celebrate it, but at least it's warming up a bit. We must be up close to 80 degrees again, so at least that's a start. Now all we need is some sun and it will be feeling like 90 again. Much better than the freezing 65 that we had over the weekend. Anyway--- Happy Birthday to A! (Maybe if we tell Barry tomorrow night that your birthday was today, he'll let you go up on the stage!)

My closets and dresser drawers are now, officially, all done. I thought I was done last week, then I decided to go through my casual sweaters. Honestly, the things we keep. Into the donation box went six sweaters that I didn't wear last year, and probably didn't wear the year before either. I have to be careful not to buy sweaters that are too heavy for our temperatures. I don't even know why they sell such heavy clothing here in the first place. Maybe so we don't feel left out from the rest of the fashion-world?

I was getting tired of going through all of these closets... it was a big job, but they are all done, and I'm sure I'll have much more room in the storage closet when the Christmas decorations get put away in January. My neighbor M stopped in the other day to give me a beautiful Christmas book, and she was surprised to see that all the Halloween decorations were replaced so quickly with Christmas things. On to the next holiday, I told her, and handed her an invitation to our Christmas party.

Oprah's show today was the wedding that she arranged for a couple who "won" the wedding of their dreams by sending in a video tape telling Oprah and her staff why they wanted such a grand wedding. I remember seeing that show months ago, and I was hoping that this couple would win. They seemed to be the most in love, the most secure, the most mature. One look at this couple and you knew they wouldn't be the sort to smash the wedding cake into each other's face after the cake-cutting. (Don't you just hate that?)

And what a wedding they had. Between Oprah and Colin Cowie, how could you not have a grand wedding. Actually, it was Colin who arranged everything, but it was Oprah's money that paid for it all. I sat there wondering if today's wedding was the dream wedding that Oprah would have if she wanted to get married.

I said that to my sister on the phone just a little while ago, and she said that if Oprah wanted to get married, her wedding would be even better. Maybe so. But how much better can you get than what was shown today? I mean really-- they had fresh roses hanging from the ceiling on nearly-invisible threads, so it looked like they were suspended in air. Hundreds of roses and floral arrangements, and they even added fresh plantings outside the California hotel. And all those candles everywhere you looked.... yards of silk, beaded seat covers and tableclothes.... and a one-of-a-kind gown by Vera Wang.

As my sister said.... all that money... wasted. Well, Oprah didn't seem to think it was wasted. She looked to be having a fine time herself at that wedding. "And where was Stedman?" said my sister. "And Gayle?" They had to be there somewhere, I'm sure... they just didn't get into the camera's eye, I guess.

I told my husband that I'd be watching that wedding this afternoon, and I told him my theory about maybe Oprah giving this couple the wedding that she would give herself should she want to be married. "And why doesn't Oprah get married?" he wanted to know. I told him she didn't have to.... she doesn't want children.... she has her own company, her own life, her own rules, her own everything. I seem to remember her saying, on one of her shows long ago, that she never believed that one piece of paper could make you "feel married."

This afternoon, after my husband left, I thought that maybe Oprah didn't want to get married because she simply wanted to stay Oprah, and keep her life, her company, her rules, her self. Period. Somehow, her lifestyle works for her. And it must be working for Stedman as well, because he's still with her after all these years. (And I can hear my sister saying "Now is he in the Chicago apartment, or the Indiana farm, or the California house, or the new house in Hawaii?")