Dancing with Dolphins!

January & February were good months. After ending 2014 fulfilled, but also really, really missing our family and friends (holidays have a psychological way of doing that...) February couldn’t come soon enough. Friends from Chicago were vacationing in Santa Barbara so we made a weekend out of it, and then we hosted the Rodrigueses (love calling them that) for a week. And let’s not forget that the Patriots won Superbowl LIX! And if we back up to January I surprised my entire family and showed up at my sister’s house to celebrate Mom’s birthday. Talk about fulfilling.

Something else that fulfills me (whatta transition) is birthdays. They say if you celebrate birthdays you’re an optimist. I wonder what they say about those who start to plan their own birthday months in advance…?

When we lived in Mass I threw myself annual b-day dance parties. Since moving, birthdays have been different. Amazing nonetheless. Since we are coming home for Joey’s Goddaughter’s baptism this year it seemed obvious to throw myself a 30th. Plus it’s such an easy excuse to see all of you. 

For my actual birthday my request was a day at the beach with my Husband, which is a damn hard sell. I think Joey was going to do whatever it took not to do that because a few days before the weekend Joey asked me to buy a Gopro, reschedule my birthday blowout, cancel my massage, pack a bag with warm clothes, walking shoes but not necessarily sneakers, a bathing suit, and be ready at 12:30 on Friday.

Post prying I felt pretty confident that we were traveling by car, and that a boat or at least water activities were involved. And we had to be somewhere at a specific time. I tend to run late and he made it clear that 12:30 was non-negotiable. He also mentioned a few times that he was nervous for an activity. My guess…the one that involved the Gopro, and very likely involved me/us under water since I had to cancel my hair appointment.

Let the record show that I was ready and waiting with our ridiculous amount of luggage for a weekend getaway at 12:15. Good lord I don’t even want to think about how much baggage we will travel with to South Africa. 

Departing Dana Point Harbor

Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of California. The island was sporadically used for smuggling, otter hunting, and gold-digging, before successfully being developed into a tourist destination by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. in the 1920s.

The total population of Catalina is around 4,000 people, 90% of whom live in the island's only incorporated city, Avalon, which is where we stayed. Avalon is 2.6 sq. miles. To put it into perspective Martha’s Vineyard is 87 sq. miles and populates 15,000 people. Needless to say it didn’t take us too long on Friday night to see all that Avalon has to offer.

Saturday morning I found out we were doing something I’ve always wanted to try! Let’s just say after taking my first breath underwater, then coming up for air because I felt weirdly claustrophobic in the crazy vast ocean, then taking my second breath underwater feeling much more calm, I couldn’t stop feeling mesmerized that I was swimming and breathing under the sea. And I definitely couldn’t stop singing Under the Sea. Check out the video of usscuba diving!

I blame the wine at dinner for waking me up before the crack of dawn on Sunday. A few hours of sleep usually doesn’t get me through the day. But it was my birthday, and evidently I was working off of birthday fuel. I woke Joey an hour later to tell him I was heading out to catch sunrise on the pier. He told me that is how the beginning of a graphic novel begins... "It was her birthday. Her 30^th birthday…" So he came with.

It was a cool morning, a little rainy and very peaceful. I love how these stormy sunrise pictures came out. Thank you, wine.

Just before 7:00 I was ordering birthday pancakes at Original Jack’s Country Kitchen. As you can see Jack’s is next door to Scuba Luv, which is next door to Lobster Trap, where we had lunch on Saturday. I’m telling ya, Avalon is a small town if I ever knew one.

To close out the trip Joey planned a whale and dolphin excursion. Does my Husband know me, or what?! As fascinated as I’ve always been with dolphins -my Bat-Mitzvah theme was dolphins for goodness sake- I’ve never seen one close up. Well that definitely changed on my 30^th birthday!! Check this out! We were just a little excited.

Phenomenal birthday!! THANK YOU SO MUCH, Babylove! It was perfect ++

Devine Blessings and a Happy New Year

Hi! You know those times when you want something so so SO bad and you omnisciently know that it's going to happen? You don't know how, but you've thrown all your energy into it and have this blinded faith. For me it's a feeling and that's how I felt when this happened.

He didn't sing at our wedding. Because we're not Kimye or Dwayne & Gabrielle. But as Joey can attest as we were walking to the car, or gleefully galloping as one might do when they are about to meet their favorite singer, on our way to the concert I said we were going to meet John Legend tonight! I can feel it! If not now, when? And Joey said something to the effect of: I'd say you're crazy, but usually when you say things like this they happen.

And it did happen. I made a giant sign, posted on social media, snuck it into the venue, and with a little luck had seats in the last row of the intimate theater. Back row. Not blocking anyone's view. This was going to work, I thought.

I was uber adrenalized to unroll the poster and wave it like the crazy fan I am, but I was anxious too.
What if we revealed it at the wrong time and John didn't see. Could he see it if all the lights were out in the auditorium? Or maybe I would be kicked out. But I had a plan b for that scenario. If I get the boot, sneak around to the tour bus and schmooze the right person. Did I mention that I brought a save-the-date for John? Not ashamed to admit it. I was on a mission.

So here I am standing and screaming the words to his songs and his wife, supermodel Chrissy Teigen, is in the soundbox feet away. No one else is standing. Just me. Clearly no one else knows tonight they are going to meet John freaking Legend! Definitely no one else is tugging at their fiance to get him to stand up too so the sign isn't crooked. John won't see the sign if it isn't straight, Joey! So I turn to give him the now's-the-time cue we agreed on. Here's kind of how I remember it going.

Amy: Gives the look
Joey: Stays seated 
Amy: Gives the look again
Joey: Smirks
Amy: Is that a smirk! 
Joey: Hands me something
Amy: What is he handing me? I'm so confused. And agitated. Just hold up the sign!

In my obsession-mode apparently Chrissy walks over and hands Joey two backstage passes and later that night after the concert we meet John Legend! We were 2 of 10 people that got to meet him and everyone else was pre-chosen before the show. AMAZING.

My point is that I manifested this reality. That feeling was dead on.

Something similar happened last month with tickets to the Oprah The Life You Want Tour.

This experience was transformative and instead of reliving how I got there I would like to share some of my favorite lessons from Oprah and her Trailblazers.

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TIDBITS OF LOVE BY AMY

 From OPRAH'S THE LIFE YOU WANT TOUR

Disclaimer: These are just some of my notes. Happy to discuss more with you!

Sunrise Faith 

Oprah opened the show with a sunrise. 

All of the lights low. Slowly our wrists where we had our official tour bracelets turned yellow to represent the sunrise, the eternal source of our energy, the dawning of a new day, and the coming of Oprah to energize us on this journey. I loved the meaning and feeling of this phrase, Sunrise Faith. 

Read a bit about Sunrise Faith here. 

Oprah said we all get the opportunity to feel wonder every day. To make every day a fresh start. To expand on what is possible. To experience joy on every level. 

Every moment you have the choice to open up...to listen to the whispers and live the way your life is nudging you to live... to walk boldly on your own life's path. 

With the rising of the sun, you ask, "What will I make of this NEW day?"

One of Oprah's favorite quotes

“I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.”

― William Ernest Henley, Invictus

And her spiritual religion is governed by this law.

What comes out must come back. 

What you do

What you say

What you think

What you feel ... 

comes back to you.

Read about 'Newton's Cradle. 

Every one of us is 
looking for the same 
thing - we want to 
know we matter. - Oprah

You co-create your life with the energy of your INTENTION. 

Intention is one with cause and effect. -Gary Zukav

Energy is everything. 

YOU are responsible for the energy YOU bring into a space.

(I hear this whispered in my mind when I'm in a mood. Hoping practice makes perfect over the years.)

The single best way to change your vibration is to EXPRESS GRATITUDE.

Deepak Chopra said DREAMS DO MANIFEST REALITY. I knew it!

...How does it feel inside you? Get still...

...You are the awareness disguised as a human being...

Some of my favorite lines by Elizabeth Gilbert

Find Beauty & Miracle in the World

He who would be what he ought to be must stop being what he is. ~Meister Eckhart

One of my favorites.

Rob Bell had some simple but powerful words.

YOU are extraordinary. 

YOU have been given YOUR life.

YOUR life matters - ALL of it.

The life that you want begins with the life that you have.

Quotes from Iyanla Vanzant

The life you want is on the other side of the labor pains it takes to birth it.

Your eyes will adjust to the level of deficiency present. Life doesn't play tricks on you. Your mind does.

Courage is knowing what you need to do 

and doing it 

before you're forced it. 

Make loving you a priority. 

Just breathe, baby. Here's to Life!

Oprah's mission was to ensure we learned that there is true strength and blessings tied to our silence and prayer. I've always believed this and her and her trailblazers articulated it beautifully. 

Cheers to living the life you want. One step at a time. Always in the direction of your dreams.

XO - Amy

Surreal

Everything leading up to my wedding day was part of the overall experience.

Why else would someone schedule monthly play dates to dress-up in their wedding gown; insist on spending Memorial Day Weekend crafting, calligraphing, and wax sealing a hundred invitations; and get dolled up in a white lace dress accented by her grandmothers’ pearls just to get their marriage license from the courthouse?

A month and a half before the big day when my Mom saw my Facebook post about getting licensed to marry (while wearing said white dress and pearls) it was my father who reassured my mom that Amy and Joey hadn’t got hitched without their family present; that Amy was just a sentimental person and enjoyed making everything related to her wedding a big deal.

My Dad,  ‘Encyclopedia Gary’ as I jokingly call him because of his knowledge about many subjects, had it right. Relishing in all of the preparatory moments elongated the event for me and I genuinely enjoyed the entire experience.

That’s not to say there weren’t stressful times. Now a sweet memory, I remember a recurring and taxing conversation hubby-to-be and I had about my acquired wedding gown, which I was (and still am) completely enamored with:

Joey: Hesitant to bring it up again since a prior convo about selling/returning the dress didn’t end in his favor…

“I know I said I wouldn’t bring this up again, but we have to do this. We need to find a way to rip off your dress. The only way to create the wow factor that we want is to do that.”

***Side note shout-out: Thank god for my Husband and his incurable persistence!!***

And as the wedding month rapidly approached I got exponentially more ecstatic; more elated than I ever thought plausible. Ten days before the big day while traveling on business I had an infectious case of uncontrollable smiles and was spotted ‘Amy’ dancing anywhere and everywhere. I was high on life. And damn, did it feel good.

This is how Joey and I felt all wedding weeklong. Endorphins and PEA (the chocolate/love drug) counterbalanced our exhaustion. Sleep could wait (something I say very sparingly). It was time to be with our guests, ninety percent of who traveled from across the country to be with us on our special day.

My Mom was one of the first guests to arrive, five days before the big day. This is when it got tricky to keep the wedding surprises a secret.  No one knew about our first dance, or the vintage car that would greet everyone at the venue, or the yummy end of night burritos. But really the biggest and most nerve-racking for us was our first dance. Joey chose the dances, I chose the music (John Legend of course), and we spent six months with our amazing choreographer. (A second side note shout out to Joey: He is a true showman! I never knew until this experience, but he is a performer and I love it!) All the while I was securing a confident and able seamstress and engineering the design of the rip-away gown to ensure it matched Joey’s ultimate vision. I thought my tasks were hard, but poor Joey; he knew the choreographed moves like he knew how to build a computer yet of course he had never rehearsed with the actual gown. The first time he would see the gown and rip off the dress was on our wedding day. Both of us were anxious and confident.

Every day more guests arrived and less welcome bags remained at the front desk. The boutique hotel was buzzing with Levine-Benoit wedding guests and everywhere you turned there was someone that looked familiar. Friends introduced themselves to family. Family reunited over poolside breakfasts. Our ring bearer nephews, flower girl goddaughter, and her baby brother played together in the hallways between hotel rooms. It was magical.

With our favorite people together we wanted to do something extra special for the wedding party; so the day before the nuptials we spent midmorning sailing around San Diego Bay. It was an epic way to kick off the wedding shenanigans. Photo credit to Greg Smith!

Rehearsal followed; and as I stop beside my dad in the back of the processional watching our nearest and dearest practice their walks down the aisle it was difficult to think of anything else: Tomorrow I would be a Mrs.! Time started speeding up.

Rehearsal took longer than planned, so we tabled the gift giving for later and we all crossed the street to meet up with the rest of our wedding guests for a Californian inspired dinner at the local park.

The goal was a laid back evening outdoors with good food and great company. Everything was going as effortlessly as I had dreamt it would. I think this is around the time I began floating. Everyone was here in San Diego. EVERYONE WAS IN SAN DIEGO! We moved across the country knowing fair well we would madly miss everyone back home, and believe me that feeling never goes away. But the feeling of having a hundred of our closest all together in our home city...Gah! If that feeling could keep me warm during the northeast winters we may just be on to something.

I remember watching the kids running around the playground, people playing Horse on the basketball courts… I even saw my Mom playing tetherball with my nephews. Those memories are etched in my mind, stored for those days I miss you all too much. Photo credit to the amazing Allison Noble Photography. She knows how much we love her.

Oh, and it was there too that the Levine clan realized there were families larger than theirs, even if it was just by one person. Papa seemed to fit right in. These group shots courtesy of my beautiful sister and maiden of honor, Jenn.

The next day fast-approached and Joey and I spent the early morning walking hand in hand through the village. Untraditional as it may be to some, we wanted to start the day the way we will walk through all eternity, together. And the serenity was a perfect start to our day. We parted before breakfast and I spent the next several hours at the salon enjoying a relaxing wedding day routine. Cucumbers on my eyes, I lounged on a chaise before hair and makeup started. I felt airy, carefree. Never having imagined my wedding day as a little girl it was shaping up to be just as I had recently hoped: peaceful and fabulous.

Stepping into my gown I felt more beautiful than ever before. All those dress-up dates led to this day and here I was surrounded by immeasurable amounts of love as my mother and bridesmaids zipped, hooked and snapped me in. Photo credit: Gemini Photography.

Pre-ceremony pictures started and my smile couldn't be faked. I was still floating somewhere between cloud 9 and married-land, yet even though I was levitated somewhere above the experience watching it all from above, I was also present. The feeling is unreal. Joey said it best, he said he finally understood the definition of surreal. I agree, and as fantastic as the experience was I vividly remember the very proud look on my dad’s face during our impromptu father-daughter first look shoot. It felt like the precursor to seeing Joey.

--Insert Sappy Alert (it gets worse)--

Seeing Joey… wow, what an unforgettable moment in time. My very soon-to-be husband looked so damn handsome! I knew he would, yet somehow he looked even better than I could have dreamed. I savored every step down the aisle, watching him watching me, but simultaneously couldn’t wait to be holding his warm hands gazing in his eyes. The ceremony was short and sweet, just how we wrote it. My Aunty Carol officiated beautifully, adding her personal stories about each of us. We shared our vows to each other and within minutes Joey broke the glass and I was Mrs. Amy Benoit!

We toasted with all our guests in front of the vintage auto then took off for some alone time as husband and wife. Life was moving so fast around us; it was a super busy beach day in La Jolla. 'Alone time' now seems a bit ironic. People were everywhere and many of them stared at us like we were on exhibit at the zoo. Looking back we did give them a good show. Here we were, bride and groom, climbing down the sandstone cliffs of the cove...me in my 4inch heels and Joey in his dapper pinstriped suit walking steps behind me holding my overflowing train. But Joey and I were jubilantly floating along, so high in our own surreal bubble of reality, that there really was no one else in the world.

Our first dance was the showstopper Joey had always envisioned and it sealed the deal for the most magical day of our lives. Everyone was so enchantedly happy; we honestly could not have asked for more love to surround us on our wedding day. Maybe in part it was the palm-lined streets, or the salty breezes of the charming La Jolla village. Maybe it was the Pacific coast sunset, or maybe it was simply the blissful occasion of two people totally and unconditionally in love tying the knot after a long-awaited engagement. Whatever the reason, there was this euphoric energy that I wish we could’ve bottled up to keep with us forever.

For all you there, thanks for making it magical. And for everyone who reads this, thanks for sharing and reliving the memories with me. Hope you enjoyed my rendition of the best day of my life.

Love love,
Amy

 

Check out our ceremony and dancing montages too. Video credit R3 Entertainment.

L-B Ceremony Montage

L-B Dancing Montage

And last but certainly not least (actually the complete opposite) out favorite video of the wedding. Thank you Guy Benoit for capturing this!!!

L-B first dance