A couple of people have asked for details of the Joe reveal. To the best of my recollection… it ran somewhat thus:
Stephanie had just started speaking, and she said something like “But before I begin…” and went on to describe how she’d been in a taxi on her way to the hotel that afternoon when her phone rang, and it was her mother-in-law calling to say she’d just landed in New York! At this point Stephanie re-enacted her own jaw-dropping surprise at that news, and then she turned toward house left to acknowledge Joe’s mother in the front row, and I got the impression she was going to ask her to stand up and be recognized, only then she went silent for a split second and her jaw dropped for real, and then she said, “wait… wha… is that…?????” and she RAN downstage right – and the house-lights being at half, when Joe got up to be hugged HARD from the edge of the stage there wasn’t the slightest room for anyone to wonder what had happened. So 800-plus knitters all got a little weepy; and then a moment or so later Stephanie made her way back to the microphone, and she said, “You know, I thought I’d seen someone here earlier who looked kind of like my husband, but I thought it was just my imagination.” Then she took a long, long look at Joe, and then, with a perfectly straight face, she said quietly: “So. All that… about going to Montreal… that was a lie, eh?” which brought down the house. Then there was a tiny pause, and then she suddenly lit up and asked him: “Hey – does this mean the dishwasher has been fixed? Now THAT would be really exciting.”
Pandemonium.
How she managed to get the speech on track after that, I don’t quite remember – just as I don’t remember what or whether he answered about the dishwasher. She was evidently so thrilled, and everyone in the place was so thrilled for her (yeah, and we were pretty thrilled for ourselves, too), that it took a few moments to recover any semblance of focus….
(Um, and speaking of being thrilled for oneself… dammit, I can’t keep being all grown-up and discreet about this any more. Does anyone need to be told how I felt when, about half-way through the speech, I suddenly registered that she was quoting me, at some length? I hope not, because I don’t think there is any way to describe it.)