A memorable wedding! Brought to you by Haribo.
One downside of living so far away is that you miss a lot of events that happen among family and friends - births, 'munji's, and of course weddings. I'm still upset at a previous employer because I couldn't get the vacation I needed to make it to Sudu & Jaitali's wedding. I ended up quitting that company 3 months later.
On the flip side, you value and cherish the time you DO get, and you try to pack years' worth of "being around" into a few days/weeks. Like the action-packed weekend in Bombay or the two weeks with Ajji in Feb 2018, when she narrated enough stories from her childhood to fill a book. Literally. [I'm getting the book reviewed by Anjali, who might have a few more stories to add about our grandmother].
While I've made my peace with missing other events, I hate to miss weddings. Especially 'fun' weddings. So when Amanda mentioned that she was considering Glacier National Park as a possible location, my first response was "Umm yeah, but isn't Yosemite closer?". But even as I RSVPed 'Yes' on the invite months in advance, I had a feeling of deja vu. "What if I plan everything, and work stuff comes up last minute?"
Luckily, history did not repeat itself and I got to Kalispell airport on that warm Friday evening. Met a couple Amanda's friends who gave me a lift to our cabin. It was one of the easiest conversations I'd had with strangers. And it was not a co-incidence. Amanda had requested that, as far as possible, none of her friends bring our girlfriends/spouses/+1s. Anu was exempt, because Amanda had stayed with us, but we figured she had a point.
Friendship is a tricky thing, and it's definitely not transitive. For the non-STEM audience in the house, here's a quick refresher on the transitive property. If A is related to B, and B is related to C, transitivity implies A is related to C. This explains why a lot of friendships falter when one of its constituents gets into a relationship or gets married. It also explains why a lot of weddings can seem burdensome, because a sizeable chunk of the +1s at the wedding would rather be doing something else. Like that one wedding I attended in San Diego, where our table was silent except for the clink of silverware on plates and random comments by an elderly, drunk professor.
Not only did Amanda and Daniel's wedding avoid the common pitfall of being boring, it was also adventurous. The wedding party did a hike and a boat ride, and followed the wedding couple as they re-enacted how them met. Spoiler alert: It was in Bolivia and Daniel was drunk on Thanksgiving. The skit was enhanced by the impromptu comment of the bride's mom : "Don't listen to the drunk boy". But I'm glad Amanda did listen to that "drunk boy", and I got to attend a memorable wedding. With Haribo wedding rings.
On the flip side, you value and cherish the time you DO get, and you try to pack years' worth of "being around" into a few days/weeks. Like the action-packed weekend in Bombay or the two weeks with Ajji in Feb 2018, when she narrated enough stories from her childhood to fill a book. Literally. [I'm getting the book reviewed by Anjali, who might have a few more stories to add about our grandmother].
While I've made my peace with missing other events, I hate to miss weddings. Especially 'fun' weddings. So when Amanda mentioned that she was considering Glacier National Park as a possible location, my first response was "Umm yeah, but isn't Yosemite closer?". But even as I RSVPed 'Yes' on the invite months in advance, I had a feeling of deja vu. "What if I plan everything, and work stuff comes up last minute?"
Luckily, history did not repeat itself and I got to Kalispell airport on that warm Friday evening. Met a couple Amanda's friends who gave me a lift to our cabin. It was one of the easiest conversations I'd had with strangers. And it was not a co-incidence. Amanda had requested that, as far as possible, none of her friends bring our girlfriends/spouses/+1s. Anu was exempt, because Amanda had stayed with us, but we figured she had a point.
Friendship is a tricky thing, and it's definitely not transitive. For the non-STEM audience in the house, here's a quick refresher on the transitive property. If A is related to B, and B is related to C, transitivity implies A is related to C. This explains why a lot of friendships falter when one of its constituents gets into a relationship or gets married. It also explains why a lot of weddings can seem burdensome, because a sizeable chunk of the +1s at the wedding would rather be doing something else. Like that one wedding I attended in San Diego, where our table was silent except for the clink of silverware on plates and random comments by an elderly, drunk professor.
Not only did Amanda and Daniel's wedding avoid the common pitfall of being boring, it was also adventurous. The wedding party did a hike and a boat ride, and followed the wedding couple as they re-enacted how them met. Spoiler alert: It was in Bolivia and Daniel was drunk on Thanksgiving. The skit was enhanced by the impromptu comment of the bride's mom : "Don't listen to the drunk boy". But I'm glad Amanda did listen to that "drunk boy", and I got to attend a memorable wedding. With Haribo wedding rings.
posted by shankar at 6:36 PM
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