Goin' to the Chapel

Finally, day three. Just a note, first, tho. I only have pictures of buildings and cityscapes. We are supposed to get a CD of the partypics which will have more pics of interest to those who commented their requests.

We split up on Sunday. At 10:00am, Mimi came for Super Giant Killer and they hailed a cab and whisked away to American Girl Place on 5th Avenue. Mimi had made a deal with her that if she practiced exceptional finishing school manners she would be rewarded with a spree there and she really was a sparkling little angel the whole time. She got to bring Kit with her and they got matching letter jackets and Kit got some Converse hi-tops and crazy socks. That is sacrilege to hardcore AG freaks because she is dressing 'out of time', but SGK doesn't care. Then they spent the day getting hair and nails done on Park Avenue.

Meanwhile, YHWH and I took C. F. Kats on the Uptown Loop of the sightseeing bus. We got to see all the ornate French Renaissance buildings and Harlem. It was a nice relaxing trip of about 2.5 hours. About the only thing we really did that day was visit the MoMA and we shopped in a couple of little boutiques and an international grocery. MoMa is pretty pricey at $20 each, but every work in there is by a 'namebrand' artist, and most of them are the biggies like Starry Night and the Campbell's Soup Cans and Persistence of Memory, etc.

Then came the great hour. Time to get dressed for the Main Event - Wedding Part Three. The second iterations of the fancy dresses were donned and I put on my average looking gray suit, but I did wear a red tie with eyeglasses on it. Only later did I realize that I was to have worn a dark suit to a wedding. No one made a big deal of it, though. I made the fatal mistake of so many honest men and fell for the question, "How do I look?" No, actually, I was just trying to bring levity to the rather tense three-people-dressing-in-a-small-space scenario. So, I said that C.F. Kats' blouse made her look like a pirate and that YHWH's dress looked like something Mrs. Roper would wear. They weren't amused. But they were just ravishing anyway.

The third wedding was in NYAC itself, so we got there with no hitches. This ceremony was still not something to which I am accustomed. I don't know if it was because it was Catholic or Argentine or what. Evenso, I'm very tolerant of other cultures and customs - I even went to a lesbian wedding back in the early 90s before it was cool (or legal) - so I'm not judging it negatively. One thing I noticed was that there was still more speechifying. The father of the bride got up and read off a list of names of people who came all the way from Dubai and Argentina again just like the rehearsal dinner and then we all applauded. I was kind of thinking that if I wanted to know who was there, I would just go look at the guest book. Actually, we applauded lots of things at the urging of the priest. I'd never heard of wedding applause and it did make the solemn proceedings I'm used to seem a little riotous at times. Of course, SGK did a great job strewing flower petals around in the wake of the bride's steps. There were also lay readings by family members and I'm not used to that, either. That whole thing was pretty painless, though.

The hard part came when the ceremony was over and we had yet another open bar with cheese and hors d'oeuvres (I hope I got that right, I'm too lazy to look it up). I say hard because I was starving again having only had a knish from a stand in the street for nourishment all day and I was waiting in line for my gin and tonic and cheese when I was summoned away for family photos. Endless permutations of "now just the uncles", "let's have everyone over five feet", "all people born on Wednesdays!" were assembled for photos and each lineup was taken with about six cameras and two or three lighting scenarios each. So I had to endure all of that without alcohol assist. Speaking of which, once I had a drink in hand, I let C.F.Kats have a taste hoping that it would discourage her from partaking too soon. She was suitably disgusted by the taste, so hopefully it worked. The coolest part of this phase was when YHWH's uncle (the same from the previous night's speech) sat down next to the piano player, who had just played "Ode to Joy" and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" moments before, and taught him to play "Boomer Sooner".

At this point another unusual development occured. We were all asked to sit down at our tables for dinner (again, most receptions I've been to do not have dinner). But the food was not forthcoming. And once again, it was about 7:00 and I was starving. So, we all sat down and the dj started playing some anthemic Kool and the Gang or Raydio song and he belts out these booming introductions of the parents of the couple and each of the flower girls. Kind of had the feel of one of those pro wrestling introductions. And then the dj takes over the whole reception and starts playing dance music and we're all supposed to dance. OK. We're starving. Doesn't the dancing come after the dinner? But I'm cool with that. I've had two drinks and some champagne.

Everyone knew I was shy and reserved and would mope over at my table with Big Time Book Editor, but since that was what's expected of me, I did the opposite. I grabbed C. F. Kats and we danced the odd tangoish dance of people who can't dance, then I goofed around with SGK, then I danced with YHWH's sister, then I danced with YHWH's stepmom, and finally I did a Saturday Night Fever routine with YHWH when "Stayin' Alive" came on. Killer was all over that dance floor and in fact, the whole night she wouldn't have anything to do with her family. She wouldn't talk to us or dance with us or anything. She wanted Book Editor and family to adopt her. We did get to see some tipsy dancers fall over, tho, and C. F. Kats got some sage advice from a disgruntled woman hiding in the bathroom from her husband.

We finally got to eat appetizers at 8:30 - shrimp on a bed of some really gross cold grey noodles. No thanks. Then the entrees came out at 9:30. Filet again! And still no bacon. It was ok, but nothing to write home about. Dessert was wedding cake and it was pretty standard fare, even though the couple was too prim to smash the cake in each others faces. Bad sign...

So that was it. Final thoughts - it wasn't that bad. Once I accepted the absurdity of the entire enterprise and just let go, it was fine. I got rave reviews again, this time from the top, so I felt pretty good about it. I even got a verbal invitation to the brother-of-the-bride's wedding in Minnesota in May.