Good to Be Back

It's nice to be back from my 6 month hiatus.
And what a whirlwind it has been. Lot's of changes, including moving back to Salt Lake City, (I just can't seem to stay away from the top notch smoggy air and ridiculous liquor laws), moving into an apartment downtown with my partner and our 4 fur children, accepting a job offer with a marketing company, (I legit get to hang out in Home Depot all day playing with garden tools.. and I get a sick candy apple red F-150, so pretty legit) as well as accepting my offer to graduate school for a Master's in Community Leadership program at Westminster College.
I need to cool it on the font color.
So yeah, A lot has changed.
But here is what has inspired me to open up my laptop and type word vomit for all of your (I'm guessing 6 of you, hi mom) reading pleasure.
There was a wedding yesterday.
This wedding involved my boyfriend's family, his brother to be specific. Josh was THEE best man< see I'm still punny<, and looked damn hot in his suit and tie might I add, but as I stared at him standing next to Ryan up at that alter, I experienced what I had only previously heard about from movies.
Seeing the man I love with my whole heart standing next to the preacher with his cute dimpled chin and clean hair cut, I pictured him and I up there, exchanging rings, vows and our hearts.

It hit me like a pile of bricks.

I shivered with a wave of goose bumps despite the late May summer evening sun, and I felt the stinging in my nose that only means water works.
I cried. 
I became a wedding crier. Cliche.
But authentic all the same. I gazed at the rest of his family, all sitting around me, his nieces and nephews that prematurely call me their aunt, his sister who gives me advice and bear hugs like a big sister would, his father, such a gentle, sweet and accepting man, telling me he loves me and thanking me for loving his son the way that I do and his mother, his sweet angel mother looking over the entire gathering from the floral arrangement and framed photo to honor her physical absence on this planet.

It was right then, that I realized, this is the family I was privileged to choose. These are the people I want at each celebration, birth, loss, the tough stuff, good, bad, ugly and everything in between.
I've caught the bug. I've loved Josh for the entire 18 months we've shared, but yesterday I fell head over heels for this family and this future.
And it's a damn good feeling.
Here's to Wedding Season and the Criers in every pew.

My heart is full,
The 20-something Old Soul