A Wedding, and Surrounding Shuffling of People

I got back this evening (due to interesting people shuffling patterns) from the wedding of shirei_shibolim and his lovely bride, which was last night. The night prior to the wedding, tovah623 and chinchillama stayed at my house (arriving at 3:20 am, and yet I somehow woke up at 8:30), and we dropped the latter off before heading to the former's house, where we hung around and got changed and the like, before meeting some other folks who took us to the wedding (with all our gifts, and my stuff- I enjoyed wrapping my gift, and writing my card- neither was quite as prosaic as it might have been. There was a lot of shiny wrapping paper in interesting shapes, and a decorated envelope to match, and funny things too. It was Very obviously what it was. Not an easily wrapped shape.).

The wedding itself was Very lovely. I, as is quite usual for me, bawled through it, for the most part. For some reason, I found myself crying most when the couple was walking around each other, not at the actual exchange of rings, or anything like that. Maybe just because it was earlier on, maybe not. But it all got pretty well sprinkled. The party/meal was lovely- very high energy. I think that pretty much everyone was dancing at the hora at the beginning- unusual, from what I've seen of simchas. It was a very nice event, besides being a wedding of friends which of course made it more special. I was very surprised when I got to the door and had been given one of the brachot to say during bentching, althouhg it turned out to have needed to go to the person leading bentching. Nevertheless, I was quite flattered.

During the wedding, it struck me with exactly how good Jewish practice is at including lots of chances to honor different people. Between the more standard in American society bridesmaids, groomsmen and of course parents, there are at least 2 witnesses, and seven blessings to read, which often get 2 people each- one for the Hebrew, another for the translation. ANd then those get repeated at the blessing after the meal. Lots of goodies to spread around. Services with torah readings function the same way. It's a wonderful system for providing acknowledgement and making people feel good- probably also a good way for getting people to come back (for services, not weddings, clearly).

AFterwards I got my stuff from the car I'd come in, and moved it to thevortex's car, and went to his place. We talked some, and slept. I slept ridiculously late for me, and then read until he and his family returned from an event. We organized stuff, and he took me home on his way elsewhere. It was a nice drive, and it was interesting to see his house (I'd met his family previously).

I'm finding that I have a very limitted set of models for types of houses/furnishings. Pretty much every home I've been in over the last few years of visiting various friends has fallen under one of about 3 categories: kind of like home, kind of like my paternal grandparents' home (the one I grew up with them living in, not my grandmother's boyfriend's house although that was similarly furnished, or her more recent apartment), or kind of like my maternal grandparents' home. This latest fell into the last category- similar colors, some similar taste in furnishings, etc. FUnny how houses acquire a feel like that. There have to be other feels, but these three are I suppose what I'm most accustomed to, so they pop out of the multitude of options, I guess.

It does remind me of how lucky I am to have grown up with both sets of grandparents around. So few people seem to get that. I mean, I'm lucky that my parents are still married, and over that, I got to see both sets of my grandparents every week until just a handful of years ago. I wish that someday I can do that much for my family, but with the way the world seems to work, it doesn't sound likely, and that is painful on some level.

A Wedding, and Surrounding Shuffling of People

I got back this evening (due to interesting people shuffling patterns) from the wedding of shirei_shibolim and his lovely bride, which was last night. The night prior to the wedding, tovah623 and chinchillama stayed at my house (arriving at 3:20 am, and yet I somehow woke up at 8:30), and we dropped the latter off before heading to the former's house, where we hung around and got changed and the like, before meeting some other folks who took us to the wedding (with all our gifts, and my stuff- I enjoyed wrapping my gift, and writing my card- neither was quite as prosaic as it might have been. There was a lot of shiny wrapping paper in interesting shapes, and a decorated envelope to match, and funny things too. It was Very obviously what it was. Not an easily wrapped shape.).

The wedding itself was Very lovely. I, as is quite usual for me, bawled through it, for the most part. For some reason, I found myself crying most when the couple was walking around each other, not at the actual exchange of rings, or anything like that. Maybe just because it was earlier on, maybe not. But it all got pretty well sprinkled. The party/meal was lovely- very high energy. I think that pretty much everyone was dancing at the hora at the beginning- unusual, from what I've seen of simchas. It was a very nice event, besides being a wedding of friends which of course made it more special. I was very surprised when I got to the door and had been given one of the brachot to say during bentching, althouhg it turned out to have needed to go to the person leading bentching. Nevertheless, I was quite flattered.

During the wedding, it struck me with exactly how good Jewish practice is at including lots of chances to honor different people. Between the more standard in American society bridesmaids, groomsmen and of course parents, there are at least 2 witnesses, and seven blessings to read, which often get 2 people each- one for the Hebrew, another for the translation. ANd then those get repeated at the blessing after the meal. Lots of goodies to spread around. Services with torah readings function the same way. It's a wonderful system for providing acknowledgement and making people feel good- probably also a good way for getting people to come back (for services, not weddings, clearly).

AFterwards I got my stuff from the car I'd come in, and moved it to thevortex's car, and went to his place. We talked some, and slept. I slept ridiculously late for me, and then read until he and his family returned from an event. We organized stuff, and he took me home on his way elsewhere. It was a nice drive, and it was interesting to see his house (I'd met his family previously).

I'm finding that I have a very limitted set of models for types of houses/furnishings. Pretty much every home I've been in over the last few years of visiting various friends has fallen under one of about 3 categories: kind of like home, kind of like my paternal grandparents' home (the one I grew up with them living in, not my grandmother's boyfriend's house although that was similarly furnished, or her more recent apartment), or kind of like my maternal grandparents' home. This latest fell into the last category- similar colors, some similar taste in furnishings, etc. FUnny how houses acquire a feel like that. There have to be other feels, but these three are I suppose what I'm most accustomed to, so they pop out of the multitude of options, I guess.

It does remind me of how lucky I am to have grown up with both sets of grandparents around. So few people seem to get that. I mean, I'm lucky that my parents are still married, and over that, I got to see both sets of my grandparents every week until just a handful of years ago. I wish that someday I can do that much for my family, but with the way the world seems to work, it doesn't sound likely, and that is painful on some level.