Things I have learned in the past week...

1. That driving 350km to a wedding while watching the clock AND coping with a migraine IS NOT MUCH FUN AT ALL.
   
   
2. Weddings always make me cry. So does pretty much anything else involving a little emotion - heck, I can cry at ads or a horse race. I fairly frequently cry at other people's posts, too. (I rarely cry at my own, except when they are REALLY REALLY bad.)
   
   
3. You can pull on a party face and really enjoy a reception when you have great people around you and are genuinely happy for the couple. Oh, and when you are dancing to the same songs that you have danced to with the same girls you have dance to them with at all the other family weddings.
   
   
4. Your child can prove to babysitters that she can stay up past midnight. Your babysitters may not have the staying power. Your child can then dance through the remnants of a reception and be far more brilliant than you socially. Your child can refuse to go to sleep for a myriad of reasons, mainly the one that she wants to stay up all night. HOWEVER you can (eventually) steer your child around to realising that all night can end just before 1am if the mother is serious enough.
   
   
5. Just because a resort is expensive and swanky DOES NOT MEAN there will be hot water for a morning shower - or bath even, when you realise the water ain't heating up so you try a different method. A cold bath in the morning does not automatically give you the shining successful persona you so want to put on as you greet the thousand or so relatives who all believe we should meet for breakfast at 7am. It will make no difference to your daughter, who is fresh-faced, bouncy, joyful and still wants to swim in the unheated pools for a few hours before leaving.
   
   
6. That driving 350km back from a wedding while analysing your life in minutae as your child is sleeping IS NOT MUCH FUN AT ALL. It also doesn't help to do so while balancing the factors of your nuptial organisational skills vs those of the extended family, your lifetime plan vs those of the extended family, your dreams and realities vs those of the extended family. Blogging, as a life skill, is apparently not a saleable commodity when no-one has ever heard of it (or you don't even bother discussing it because they won't get it).
   
   
7. That you can start a one-sided argument with your partner for NO REASON AT ALL after such a journey, and nothing he can say or do will alter the path of the dispute before you throw the biggest wobbly and have a complete meltdown.
   
   
8. That if you chose the correct partner (and apply the correct hold) this will be forgiven.
   
   
9. That, after you leave him again and travel 250km to spend time with closer extended family, you cannot have the sort of phone calls you used to have with him if you happen to be in the same room as members of your family especially if it involves yelling, screaming or delighted children or adults who know the innuendo.
   
   
10. That you can have a great time with your closer extended family, especially if you enjoy watching your daughter's face light up when she is promised she will go mustering with Grandpa, and watching your father's face light up when he has a good little ringer at his side.
    
    
11. That everybody should watch Andrew Denton's Enough Rope - Angels and Demons to understand more about mental health.
    
    
12. That, as much as I enjoy being away from home, I enjoy being there more. Even when it involves child-free time. Heck, on occasion especially when it involves child-free time. NOT when it involves more migraine time. I hate migraines. But I also especially love the cessation of that child-free stuff and am looking forward to seeing 'Salina again in a few minutes after a day of such.
    
    
13. That there is NO WAY I can read all of the posts that I have missed, so you will all miss out on my scintillating comments. Sorry, folks - I will try and catch up some time.

Hey - guess what? My first ever Thursday Thirteen!!! Probably not in the rules to have so much bellybutton fluff, but oh well, its not like I am a real player!