Why I'm Missing GRL

A lot of my friends are going to be in Illinois this week for GRL. Though I had a blast when I went in 2012, it wasn't in the cards for me this year. I couldn't justify a major trip this week because I'm traveling next week instead.

My husband and I are renewing our wedding vows.

We've been married for 15 years, together for 17. When he proposed, we did the research about what we would have to do since he's British and was working in the US on a visa. The hurdles we had to jump for getting married in the US were astounding compared to what it would take to do the same thing in the UK. It was the difference of months and thousands of dollars. Ultimately, we chose to get married in the UK, which meant spending one day in New York City as we went to the embassy in the morning and applied for a fiancee visa ($500), then came back in the afternoon to pick it up. One day. And I had to move to the UK for us to be married within six months of issuing of the visa. Such a hardship.

I did have family fly over to the UK for the ceremony, so that was good. Not that it was hard to convince them to come to England when half of them were Anglophiles. But we'd always talked about doing something on American soil some point down the line, so on our Florida vacation last year, out of the blue, we both mentioned it at the same time.

Fast forward a year later, and it's happening.

Next week, we're flying to Las Vegas with our two kids, while my mom and my niece are flying in from North Carolina to join us. Our closest friends are trying to join us as well, but that's still unsure as of today. Then, on Saturday afternoon, on the stage of the Penn & Teller theater, Penn Jillette will officiate as we renew our wedding vows. To say I'm excited is an understatement. We wanted memories and a story to share for years to come, and I think that's exactly what we're getting. It's going to be insanely simple, because the theater is union and we didn't want to infringe or make any demands that would complicate using it, but it'll also be one of a kind.

That's worth missing GRL for this year, don't you think?