Home Sweet Home, Or Something Like That

I got home this evening from Rochester and then Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was a pretty energy-intensive experience, but really worked out pretty well, I think. The drive out there was pretty uneventful, and we found the hotel where the wedding was (said wedding was of jakal88's cousin to a lovely gentleman neither of us had previously met) (and also where we were staying) without trouble. While I was waiting for jakal88 to park the car, I was hailed by the bride's brother-in-law, whom I had met, who had their new baby and two of the younger cousins in tow as well, who were very sweet children (all of them, as far as I could tell- quite impressive, that). It was reassuring to see a mildly familiar face, as I was pretty freaked out at the number of jakal88's relatives I was going to be meeting, and making a good impression, etc.

We settled in and got ready, and jakal88 went off for family photos. I settled in to call my Mom while I had some time before the wedding actually got started. Mom and I had been talking for not so long when I get a phone call from jakal88 telling me that his mother thought I should come upstairs to where the photos were being done, to start meeting people. So I talked to Mom a bit more, and then headed up, and got taken on the rounds of much of the family. It was pretty intense, but not as bad as I'd expected, and they all seemed quite pleasant and friendly, including the bride who seemed legitimately pleased to meet me. She and her new husband will be living quite nearby, so next time I have jakal88 in the area, we're hoping to have them for a shabbos meal or something. Also in the course of this chunk of time, I got a few pointers on officiating at weddings from the uncle who's a rabbi, and met that uncle's wife, who is rather a big name at the Conservative rabbinical institution in Israel. It's an amusingly small world. I also finally met jakal88's nephew, and gave him a kippah with dinosaurs (jakal88's idea, my crocheting), which he did seem to like.

The Kabbalat Panim was long and quite crowded (it was a pretty big wedding), but we managed to hang out with the family and in general enjoyed ourselves. However it started at 4:30, and the chuppah was at 6- which seemed a little bit long. Certainly we were well fed, though.

The chuppah started with some confusion- the seating was in 4 sections, in the round, and there was some back and forth figuring out whether the seating was mixed or separate. It turned out to be separate, but some folks never quite figured that out- so it was separate seating- with the occasional member of the opposite sex thrown in. So I ended up sitting with jakal88's aunts, as his mother and sister were sitting in the reserved seating to "catch" his nephew (age not-quite-3), who was walking down the aisle, along with the other younger cousins. The aunts were lovely, and actually rather fun. One's maiden name is my last name, so we made some attempt to see if we were related- probably not, certainly not closely, but still fun to investigate. They had both immediate families stand by the sides of the (quite large) chuppah, which was a lovely gesture, but problematic for seating in the round- the folks on the side, myself included, couldn't really see the ceremony at all. Those planning weddings: please take note.

The party was nice, but too loud. By 10pm, we were pretty zonked, and left shortly afterwards. The bride's friends, at least, were still dancing pretty wildly. jakal88 observed that there was a rather problematic overtone to the celebration that seemed to feel like getting married was the most important thing one could possibly do, which was troubling him. I didn't pick up on it quite so much- but it's something I want to think more about. Certainly the vibe among the women/girls dancing was different from what I usually see among my own friends, and I'm still trying to get a feel for exactly how it was different.

Today we had breakfast, and then packed up and went to see my good friend from home, previously known as "doctor_nine" on LJ. We met at the Carnegie Art museum, which was closed, so we walked around for a good while, and then sat at Starbucks for a little while, as I had a nice gift card there, and go myself quite rarely. The two guys seemed a bit tentative with each other for the first while, but seemed to be warming up and getting more comfortable by the end of the visit. Not bad, for a first encounter, I think. Certainly I don't think that I did much better with "doctor_nine"'s girlfriend when we met.

Then jakal88 dropped me off at the airport, and I came home. I've unpacked and finally caught up with my emails, and even though I took a very deep nap while on the plane, I'm quite exhausted now. Furthermore, classes start tomorrow morning, and I'd like to have some reasonable amount of sleep before my first day. So off I go to bed, with hopes of starting the semester on the right foot. That means reasonable amount of sleep, getting work done during the day with less procrastinating, keeping a somewhat cleaner apartment-or-whatever, and eating at least fairly healthily. Let's see how it goes.