the end of an adventure

The wedding and the reception for Josh and Andera was both nice events, carried off without a hitch. The wedding chapel was nicely decorated, Andera and Josh both looked great, and Andera was so excited walking back down the aisle that she showed off her ring to her side of the family and excitedly whispered "I'm married! I'm married!!" I did end up sitting us on the wrong side of the aisle, but then again, I didn't recognize anyone on the Perkins side anyway apart from the group up at the front.

The ceremony was very religious, which is fine, but the pastor was unaccountably morbid. He started with a story about how he had just this week visited a couple whose marriage was coming to an end- not by divorce, thank God, but because the wife was dying of terminal cancer. And then he told another one. I'm not sure what the message here is. I'm assuming that he's talking about the heroic loyalty qualities of love that drive people to stay with fatally ill spouses, but it's way out of line for a wedding. It was fucking morbid, and I don't know why he felt it appropriate to tell those stories. The other slightly strange thing was the lighting of the Unity Candle, which is where Josh and Andera light individual candles, then light the Unity Candle with both of their candles, and then they blow out their candles. I'm ok with the symbolism, but then they waited with backs turned to the audience while the song played out for about five minutes. The song, by the way, was "Love never fails."

I have no doubts about Josh and Andera, they will love each other forever, but seriously, his father and both of his uncles had their marriages end in divorce. But then, I'm a bit of a cynic. After the wedding, there was a big photoshoot mostly directed by Andera, who called up grandparents, parents, step parents, cousins, friends, in numerous but planned combinations. I even got to be in a few. Here is a girl who is not afraid to be girly, but also not afraid to step up and take control of a situation.

The reception afterwards was held in the clubhouse of a nearby country club. There's something relentlessly bland about Edmond, Oklahoma. It's like an entire class of white collar worker decided collectively that they wanted to recreate the experience of the anonymous three and half star chain hotel. Everything looks exactly the same- the same type and color of roof, the exact match of the brick, the homogenous distance between things. I have a disturbing feeling that if I peeked into the nearly identical houses, I would find the same bland artwork hanging on the same walls with the same furniture from the same store.

The clubhouse at least, was nice. The food prepared for us was surprisingly good, and we got little glass coasters with the picture of Josh and Andrea as take home gifts. The speeches were excellent and emotional. Andera's father, Robert, a very nice guy and experienced truck mechanic, got a little choked up reading his speech, and when uncle Jeff came up behind and put his hands on Robert's shoulders to show his support, Robert nearly attacked him in surprise. Actually, the speech was very touching, and mine were not the only misty eyes at the table.

During the rehearsal dinner, I overheard him telling a story to uncle Jeff- apparently the week before, Andera had suffered a flat tire. Robert said that well, he should have just said, call your fiancee, (especially since Josh is also very mechanically inclined), but since he was giving her away at the wedding, it was a moment he realized that she wasn't going to call him for car trouble much, so he came out and helped her. It must be a hard thing to be a father. Someday, I should be so lucky.

Anyway, we stayed too long at the reception. Because Tay needed to be back in Bloomington sunday night early enough to rest, we had to take off for St.Louis from the wedding reception. We got a long goodbye from uncle Jeff who was incredibly happy we came for the wedding, but we didn't want to make a big scene with the wedding couple who were happily line dancing, so we quietly spit. We loosened our ties, took off our jackets, and hit the road.

Took about eight hours to get back to St.Louis. We pulled in around 4 am, after making a memorable pit stop in Vinita. We stopped at the Braum's for some fries and root beer floats right around the time that the local rodeo was dispersing, so we got a Braum's full of cowboy hatted folks, where everyone from the gentleman with the long white beard to the kid bouncing in his seat all wore cowboy boots.

What a trip! Thanks to brothers and grandmothers and uncles and aunts and cousins and granduncles for hosting/feasting/feteing us!