...but that was because we were in a gale 90 miles off the coast of Colombia. It had nothing to do with the news.
The boat was rocking and rolling, the winds were up to 40 knots and the men were topside, vomiting. (Not really. Only one of them puked and that was in the sink, but you can see how I'd want to say that for effect.) I opened the satellite email to send tidings of safety, and holy smokes, I got an email with HUGE news. It turns out, the man who used to cut my Lego men's heads off with his Lego men's chainsaws has declared himself fit to have and to hold, 'till death do they part, the lovely and amazing girlfriend he's so courted for the past half-decade or so: My brother is engaged! Instead of spewing, I immediately started crying.
Happiness bodyslammed seasickness and I wandered topside to share my thoughts with the crew. "I wonder where they're going to have the wedding," I said. "I wonder what the ring looks like!" "I wonder what color towels they're going to get and if they'll be monogrammed."
"My brother is getting his drivers' license," said Brian. "Oh, what? It's not family news time?"
"What should I get them? I think I'll get them a present from Ecuador instead of The Pottery Barn. What do you think? What about Colombia? Think I'll find anything good in Colombia?"
Feet from my yabbering head, the waves crashed over the deck sending buckets down my jacket. I gasped periodically as cold, wet sea flowed from my neck to my ankles through the complicated infrastructure of foul-weather gear.
"Can you believe it?" I asked. "This is the end of an era! We're really growing up."
"Yep. Wow," said Aaron.
I looked at the black waves and their white hats. A wave crashed into the cockpit, pouring me a salty drink, shutting my valve of useless thoughts. Wow. They're really getting married. Buck-teeth and double-bridged glasses, cuff-links and a white lab coat, kickball with the neighborhoood kids and cycling races-- the years have added together and their sum is somewhere along these waves. It's ever changing, rolling up and down with the wind and the currents. The area under them and the distance in front of them will always evolve.
Aldebaran bobbed around. "Odysseus," said the ocean, "calm your thoughts of forever." Crash. Splash.
"Our whole family is going to be there!" I realized. "And the flowers will be so pretty."
