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if one--purely hypothetically, mind you--read the new york times weddings & celebrations announcements every week, then one would have seen this announcement last month.  even though the times usually runs announcements of people who have ties to ny, you can see why they made an exception this time.  there is a goat!  in the picture!

in addition to being apple-cheeked and flaxen-haired and posing in front of a hay bale, the bride is getting a masters in folklore AND herding goats at a farm AND working on a documentary about coal mining.  after reading this last month, i may have had a slight existential crisis that went something like MYLIFEISSOBORINGWHYAMINOTONAGOATFARMRIGHTNOWBEINGSUPERQUIRKYANDADORBS.

seriously, it was ugly there for a while.  i usually absentmindedly read the announcements to glean random information about people i'll never think of again, revelling in the brief glimpse behind the curtain of total strangers' lives.  and yet this one stuck in my craw.  the goats!  the masters in a subject i didn't know existed!   the community organizing!  the baby goats baby goats baby goats!  

(this photo may or may not have been saved to my desktop)

eventually, i got on with my own goat-free life, reassured by the fact that this was the first appearance of a goat in the announcements in all the weeks months years that i've been reading them, and so i wouldn't have to deal with this crushing goat-induced life envy for a long time yet.  that time would pass and eventually the dream of having a herd of kids bleating and tottering after me as i did whatever folklorists do while saving the environment on the side would subside.  because although i'm sure the factcheckers verified that this woman actually exists, people don't really have lives like this, right?  right.  i could chalk it up to some sort of fluke and put it out of mind, never to return.


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but the goat gods have said HA!!!  because i just opened up this week's announcements and saw this one.