The Ceremony, Ventura County

We get to the Ventura County Government Center right behind Tammy. She’s on the phone (of course) and doesn’t see us at first. When we park, she surprises us with two, white rose boutonnières. She had asked the woman at the florist if she should get one corsage and one boutonnière and or two boutonnières and she suggested she get the two – didn’t want there to be any fighting over who got the corsage! As we walked to the courthouse, I was surprised/relieved not to see any protesters. We’re already a week in so maybe the shenanigans have died off.

Waiting in line, I’m looking around wondering if people think that either Thomas or I am marrying Tammy. We are all dressed nicely enough – unlike the couple with the dude in the white t-shirt. It probably was his best one. Oh well, she’s gotta marry him. We get to the counter and the woman, Francisca, is very friendly though not that talkative. I wonder if she is comfortable with having to help two men get married. We make little jokes amongst ourselves and she does the “I’m not joining in but I’m laughing” laugh. Twenty-five years of customer service, I’ve played that game. Wait for the customer to allow you in. I ask her if my check bounces does that mean the marriage is off. Uh, giving you permission here.

Finally, I just ask her if she has processed many same-sex couples and she says oh yeah. That gets her talking and I ask her about protesters and she says there haven’t been any. She thinks it’s because Ventura is more of a small town. She did say there was a couple from Los Angeles that came with the LA Times but that was the biggest hullabaloo (okay my words not hers).

to be continued...