Weddings from Heaven...

After all those terrible dreams last year, I thought I'd regale you with a particularly nice one from last night. Maybe I had it because Vicky and I have been looking into places to have our wedding and maybe I had it because I've been watching the Steve Martin film, Pennies from Heaven (an absolutely horrible film for many reasons but mostly because they wimped out on the ending) - but, anyway, here it is...

Vicky and I are at our reception, and it's time for our dance. We walk out into the middle of this immense dance floor in this huge ballroom, the kind where the acoustics make your voice echo, and I say, "As many of you know, it's been a while since I've been on stage. In fact, you're the biggest audience I've had in a year." I pause, look reflective, for just a minute. "So, with that in mind... Vicky?"

She says, "Let's go."

A hundred lights shoot on. The floor glitters. I look out at the (audience?) and say, almost quietly, "A long time ago... A million years BC... The best things in life were absolutely free... But no one appreciated a sky that was always blue. And no one congratulated a moon that was always new. So it was planned that they would vanish now and them... And you must pay before you get them back again... That's what storms were made for... And you shouldn't be afraid... for," and I started to sing, "Every time it rains it rains pennies from heaven. Don't you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven." At this point, the back wall raised up, behind which a huge band played, leading with the strings. "You'll find your fortune falling all over town. Be sure that your umbrella is upside down. Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers. If you want the things you love you must have showers. So when you hear it thunder, don't run under a tree. There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me."

Next, there's a horn flourish, and Vicky and I slowly begin to tap dance, which leads into this big dance number where Vicky and I trade off parts and then, she sings, "Every time it rains it rains pennies from heaven. Don't you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven. You'll find your fortune falling all over town. Be sure that your umbrella is upside down. Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers. If you want the things you love you must have showers. So when you hear it thunder, don't run under a tree. There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me."

Her last lines are sung softly and quietly and we move into each other's arms, the lights dim to a single spot, and I could hear other people there for the first time.

I woke up to that and felt really good.

... I wonder if Vicky wants to spend the next year taking tap lessons...