thousand dollar wedding

many of you know the troubles of my family these past few years, and for those of you who don't, it's a story that you wouldn't believe, and it continues to get longer and more tragic every day that goes by. i'll tell the story here one day, but not today.
let's just say that we were well aware that our trip to tenn was going to be 'stressful' at best.
the plane ride with harlan was actually more relaxed than usual. he's a peach of a baby, all smiles and giggles, and he really helped distract me from my aviophobia. on the first flight, he filled his diaper with his morning constitutional. changing a baby's diaper in an airplane bathroom...hahahahahaha, i won't even try to describe it. but, the rest of the trip, along with layovers, plane changes, and the usual airport craziness was just fine with harlan, in fact, i think he may have come back with a whole new outlook on life. he didn't even mind when we got on the plane at 4pm in nashville and because of thunder storms, sat on the plane in charlotte for almost 2 hours and didn't get back to boston until 1am. he's a peach i tell ya, a peach.

we went to tenn to attend my brother's wedding and to let harlan meet his granpa and uncles for the first time. my brother nigel and his girlfriend ashley decided to get married in a small ceremony by a lake by my parents house. it was short and just about the sweetest thing i've seen in a while. on the day of the wedding...a lazy, humid sunday morning, a rude knock came at my parent's door. ernie and i both knew it was the police, no one else knocks quite like the police do. we went to the door, they were asking for ashlie. apparently, they had a warrant for her arrest for unpaid child support (she has four children, two by my brother and two by another, none of which she has custody). she was sure it was a mistake, since she had receipts to prove payment, but of course, it's a sunday, and none of that matters to cops. they took her in (in curlers, no less) and booked her and let her go on 500$ bail. arrested in curlers on your wedding day, how faulkner-esque. the day before that my brother's truck had been repo'd by the bank. we'll just say my family hasn't had the best of luck these days (if 'luck' is what you want to call it).
all in all, it was a good trip, even with the pending court dates, etc. harlan really seemed to enjoy spending time with his granny and papaw. my mom took him into the back yard and put his feet into tenn soil, to make sure his feet didn't hit 'yankee dirt' first. and even with all of the chaos of traveling with a 4 month old (which really wasn't so bad), it was nice to get away from boston for a bit.

just a tip for all of the parents out there (especially new ones); drive in movies are the best thing ever. your baby can scream and scream and no one is bothered, also breastfeeding is a cinch. and that new die hard movie is the funniest one yet...i mean, i had no idea that it was really possible to turn a tractor trailer truck back onto it's wheels by the sheer power of bruce willis' balls. phenomenal.