MINE!!!!

Today was marrying day. And it was a little bit crazy inside and outside the building. Crazy!

Two of our deputies arrested a man outside the building, and then had Oakland PD come as backup. ( OPD's jurisdiction). He was exposing himself to women going by. Two and a half hours later they are still out front, going through cars, talking to people, checking things on their computers. We learned that they found marijuana and and that he was a registered sex offender. How dumb was he to expose himself in front of a county building with a police station in it?

This office sells marriage licenses; death, birth, and marriage certificates. They only have records of deaths, birth, and marriage that happened in Alameda County. You have to get these in the county the event happened, and if out of state in that state. We had a couple come in wanting a birth certificate for the woman. The clerk learned the woman was born in Colorado. No record of course in Alameda County. The woman went ballistic. She had lived in Alameda county all her life, she knew it was in the system, and on and on. And did I mention she was drunk? Yelling, cursing, she finally left screaming the F word at all of us and flipping us the bird. Since she was leaving, the deputy just ignored her. Not worth the time of a report.

And the crazy wedding. He was 86 she was 43. He was making all kinds off sexual comments about his wedding night. Rude, crude and I told him he was to say nothing except what I told him. I did not want to hear about what he was getting tonight.

One of the weddings was a confidential wedding. No witnesses are required. The record of the wedding is not public record. It takes a court order for someone to see the certificate. Usually policemen and public figures have this type of license. The groom was very military and she looked shell shocked. I sat down with her and asked if she really wanted to marry. She said she was scared. He stood to the side as I talked to her. I told her she had 90 days to use the license. And it was better to walk now than to marry and divorce. They married. He was stiff, but seemed very concerned for her. After the ceremony they stood and hugged. The feel was not romance but love with sadness. I really would like an ending for this one. I hope they will be OK.

But there were two great ones. First I had a lovely young couple who oozed love. ( They were in their mid 20's) with three children. Bride in white dress, pink necklace, and pink carnations. Groom in black suit and a pink carnation. Two little boys (3 and 4) in long dress pants and vests, and a baby girl in white and pink. The room was full. The boys were to bring the rings up.( Mom and Dad had had their rings for years. They took them off and gave them to the boys) The boys brought the rings up. Daddy looked at Mom's ring and said "This ring is soooo last year. Thomas give me the new one." And then he gave her a new bigger beautiful ring. How cool was that?

But the last wedding was the most fun. A couple had their almost two year old son with them. Her aunt was the witness and child wrangler. They wanted the son to bring the ring up. The aunt gave him the rings and he brought them up. He let Mom take the ring for Daddy. Then Daddy reached for Mom's ring. And then the little one curled his fingers around the ring, yelled MINE, and ran.

We did finally get the ring.