Historic wedding of April & Jayne Deboer-Rowse

How do I begin to write anything about this historic wedding without thinking of my Bill?  I lost him on April 5, 2005. We were registered Domestic Partners in the state of California because that's all we were allowed to be back then. He never thought the day would come that we would have the choice, and lawful right, to get married. 

Well honey, these two ladies helped make your dream come true with the help of many others in this great country of ours called THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

April Lynn Deboer and Jayne Anne Rowse were legally married on Saturday, 22nd of August 2015

April was walked in by her father to a waiting Jayne who had walked in with their children. 

The ceremony was officiated by U.S. Federal District Judge Bernard Friedman, who had been the judge to determine that Michigans same sex law against same sex couples was unconstitutional on March 21, 2014

I will be forever grateful to my friend Kevin Sharp and his husband Rusty Branch for giving me the opportunity to attend this historic wedding. Unfortunately Rusty was not able to attend which made it possible for me to do so as Kevin's guest. 

There were approximately three hundred guests. 

After the ceremony pictures were taken with several groups that were instrumental to the case. 

The invitations were beautiful. 

The one of a kind cake created for this occasion was amazing. 

Many thanks to this beautiful lady. Mary Bonauto was the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in front of the Supreme Court Of The United States. 

Famed attorney Gloria Allred came from California for the momentous ceremony. 

Larry Kestenbaum was the first Washtenaw County Clerk to start issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples and then the other clerks followed his lead. Thank you Larry!

Yousef Rabhi is Washtenaw County Commissioner who is in full support of equality. Thank you for the dance Yousef!

The evening consisted of a beautiful dinner followed by dancing and picture taking. 

Kevin and I really enjoyed ourselfs. I got the opportunity to make new friends like Linda Lombardini and her wife Sandi Smith. 

One thing I really noticed was the event included many people from the community wether older and distinguished as well as younger couples with their entire life ahead of them. 

When I woke up on Sunday morning and turned the news on the event was all over the media. 

Yes, this will be a night I will never forget. 

Thank Kevin and Rusty for giving me another unforgettable memory. 

Your dream of one day being equal finally came true honey. RIP My sweet Bill April 5, 2005

Ann Arbor by day!

Driving into the city I started noticing how it wakes up like any other and I started noticing the happiness in the air. The late summer temperatures are changing and life is starting to pick up in this college town.....

We started out at the farmers market where the colors all around were so bright and the offerings were a feast for all my senses....

I had not seen such a bright selection of vegetables like this in a long time....

Blueberries were nice and large.....

Plums of a different color.....

Can you just taste these in your salads?

I could just stare at all of the beautiful fruit for hours but we needed to keep moving. 

We then walked over to the world famous Zingermans Deli. 

Where I had to buy this shirt.... Life is what you make of it and mine is currently full of rainbows and unicorns!

As we continued this sign lured me to it!

Back through the farmers market and the flowers were blindingly beautiful!

Kevin had a surprise for me but we had to wait until twelve noon. My surprise was that I was going to get the opportunity to play the Kerrytown bells. Not many get this opportunity and I really enjoyed myself. 

Ann Arbor has so much color all around. 

There's so much energy all around and people looking forward to their day....

Creativity is all around and sometimes a little bit of silliness hits me as I walk along...

Inspiration to not care what anyone says and just enjoy what's in front of me...

Throw your hands up and enjoy life!

Just get out and walk or run....

Bring a smile to others faces...

Let them know how beautiful they are....

Make their day a little brighter. Maybe they will forget their worries for a moment...

Remember that life is colorful if you choose to look the brightness around us!

A story of love on The Moth radio show.

My friend Kevin had mentioned to me last week about going to a local club named The Circus in Ann Arbor and listen to some story telling. By now I think you know that I'm always up for a new adventure and since I had never been to such an event it peaked my interest. 

The Moth is a radio show produced locally by Michigan Public Radio where Kevin's husband Rusty works. He had mentioned to me that we might be asked to judge the stories. Well guess who was asked to judge, yep Kevin and I were one pair of three that were judging the contest. I'm sure he knew we were going to be judging before hand but he didn't want to scare me off!

The evening consists of ten stories which must be true and about five minutes long. If the person goes longer than five minutes they get a warning and then pretty much needs to close before six minutes. There were only a couple of people that went over the allotted time. 

The three judging couples are asked to name themselves for the scorekeeping. So Kevin and I decided to name ourselves 'White? Really!'  It seemed to be a good one because people laughed out loud!  The named needed to be related to weddings so the other two teams were named 'Mad Love' and 'Dearly Beloved'.

Since Kevin was the one taking this picture he couldn't be in it with Rusty and I.

The place was crowded with about three hundred paying attendees. I had no idea how popular this show is. There was no empty seats in the house. 

If there are more than ten stories to be told, then ten of them get pulled from a bag and the rest don't get to tell their stories unfortunately. 

After listening to five stories there was a fifteen minute intermission. While on this break I asked the host Satori Shakoor, herself a winner of a previous story telling session and now host, and Patricia Wheeler who is the producer of the show, if Kevin and I could take our picture with them? They are two beautiful ladies. Thank you for making me part of your night. 

When we came back the sixth person to go up was a gentleman named Bill Kreiger. Up to this point all of the stories had been good, they had held my interest and we had given good scores to everyone. Bill got up on stage and started telling his story about getting out of the shower one day and before he could reach for a towel he heard the following words "I just don't love you enough anymore!"  With that his current marriage of seventeen years ended. We were all feeling sorry for Bill. He said that he didn't believe in love anymore. He went through life on a daily basis having given up on love. Bill then continued his story and how he had been invited by a friends friend to attend a tailgate party. He went to this party with the female friend and once there he just enjoyed himself. At one point the friend came over and told him that her ride was there and left him at the tailgate party with a bunch of people he didn't know. The friend had left some stuff in his car and so he had to meet up with her to return the items. It seemed that it had become a habit for her to leave things in his car and then suddenly Bill realized they were dating. 

I'm not sure how long they dated but the next thing Bill did surprised everyone in attendance last night. He reached in his shirt pocket and asked his girlfriend to marry him in front of all of us. Fortunately they were seated about three rows in front of Us and I remembered to pull out my phone and video the part where he came down and got down on one knee. It was such an incredible moment to witness such happiness two people can have with each other. 

A beautiful marriage proposal!

http://youtu.be/04x-9g9bj1I

You know I had to ask if. Could take my picture with them because they were now part of my journey in Motel Miguel. 

Please join me in congratulating Bill Kreiger and his soon to be wife Alexis!  She is the sneaky one who kept on leaving items in his car, the one that made a middle aged man find love again and he is the lucky guy to have found such a beautiful lady to call his wife. 

Thank you Kevin and Rusty for giving me another incredible memory that now joins all the others in Motel Miguel. It's times like this that I'm so thankful for all of my friends and the stories they are helping me write in the story of my life!

Below The Belt!

This is another first for me. I had fun observing my friend Kevin's creative side at work doing a photo shoot for the Below The Belt men's underwear line company. BTB is a new company that is totally made in the USA. It is based in Lansing Michigan and I had the pleasure of meeting its young owner, creator and designer. 

I told Jerome he needed to take a picture with me because he was now part of my journey!

Sorry about this Jerome, next time bring me a pair of black please!

Kevin hard at work!

The models were so patient!

Yes, I'll take one of each color. Sorry about the lighting but my iPhone pictures are not the ones that matter!

This mans pictures are the ones that matter. 

Check out Below The Belt on the web at www.btbunderwear.com or on Facebook at Below The Belt underwear.