Hindu weddings are LOUD
So, I spent the past weekend in LA attending my youngest cousin, Carrie's, wedding. The whole weekend was an interesting experience.
The flight out was uneventful other than a bit of a wait in Denver. For some reason, nearly all of the people arriving on the plane I departed on had checked their luggage at the gate. That and air traffic control backup led to a bit of a delay. Fortunately, my immediate family had my flight information, so they were still able to pick me up at the Bob Hope airport on their drive in from Vegas.
The wedding itself was divided into two parts on Saturday. First, was a morning civil service for Carrie's family. It was pretty standard stuff held at a place called the Inn of the Seven Day. And it was really fun seeing my oldest cousin, Mike, direct an army of photographers to document everything.
At the morning reception, I learned that my cousin Mike was mostly doing filmmaking this year, including cinematography for his first feature film. He and his wife also have a second kid on the way in October.
My cousin Matt flew in from Jordan by himself, and didn't get to take advantage of his embassy being closed since he was already on leave. His wife is also going to have another baby, and stayed in Jordan because of that and their first child doesn't adapt well to the time change. He's also starting look like a senator.
Back at the hotel, we relaxed for a bit and teased my sister about the sari she planned to wear in the evening for the Hindu ceremony being held for Carrie's husband's family.
It was an interesting experience, and we got the impression that Carrie was donated. Her new father in law kept trying to correct the official conducting the ceremony in case Carrie's parents were offended. My uncle was actually amused, and my aunt was wondering if she could claim some sort of tax write off for the "donation."
After the ceremony, we discovered that my uncle's advice on how the food worked at a Hindu wedding reception was wrong. It's actually like a western wedding reception, but with Indian food, not a long series of main course sized hors d'oerves.
While all the wedding ceremony stuff was being cleared out, and my sister got some help with her sari, the main part of the reception began. It was a lot of traditional India music and dancing. Very beautiful, and it looked just like the dance numbers from Bollywood films in a good way, but it was extremely loud. My sister, her husband, and I took to texting to communicate since even shouting wouldn't have helped. My usual response was to text, "WHAT?," back at whatever they wrote.
After getting some food, and enduring the music for a while, my sister, her husband, and I left for the evening. My ears are still ringing a bit.
Surprisingly, my aunt, who was very sick (the wedding was canceled for a while she was doing so poorly), actually partied for most of the night.
The next morning, after convincing my family that food was a good idea, I had a pleasant breakfast, and suggested to my cousin Mike that I should visit for a bit longer sometime next year.
After food, my family and I parted ways, ans I spent the afternoon checking out the science museum and natural history museum with Vince. It was fun. We saw Endeavor, I shared amusing tales of my odd relatives, got to be social for the first time in a while. I also now have him convinced he needs to set aside bail money should I visit again when Dev is there. I cant say he's wrong.
After that we had a nice meal, and he dropped me off at the Bob Hope airport to fly home. That's also where things got interesting. I was supposed to fly to San Francisco to get a connecting flight to Chicago. It was delayed and eventually cancelled. At first, United wanted to reschedule for 9:30 the following morning because the computer system didn't see my connecting flight for a while. After a couple hours, things were sorted out, and I was sent on a shuttle to LAX for a flight that went to Chicago, and met up with my original final connection to Lansing. The lesson here- flying I to Bob Hope airport is fine, but flying out can be a pain especially if your destination is San Francisco. I got a seat upgrade for the flight to Chicago out of it. Sadly, the connecting flight to Lansing was delayed a bit due to a glitch in the plane's communications system.
I have now collected my cat from his stay at the vet, and it's taken a couple hours longer to write this than expected because he's so happy to be home and have his human again.
The flight out was uneventful other than a bit of a wait in Denver. For some reason, nearly all of the people arriving on the plane I departed on had checked their luggage at the gate. That and air traffic control backup led to a bit of a delay. Fortunately, my immediate family had my flight information, so they were still able to pick me up at the Bob Hope airport on their drive in from Vegas.
The wedding itself was divided into two parts on Saturday. First, was a morning civil service for Carrie's family. It was pretty standard stuff held at a place called the Inn of the Seven Day. And it was really fun seeing my oldest cousin, Mike, direct an army of photographers to document everything.
At the morning reception, I learned that my cousin Mike was mostly doing filmmaking this year, including cinematography for his first feature film. He and his wife also have a second kid on the way in October.
My cousin Matt flew in from Jordan by himself, and didn't get to take advantage of his embassy being closed since he was already on leave. His wife is also going to have another baby, and stayed in Jordan because of that and their first child doesn't adapt well to the time change. He's also starting look like a senator.
Back at the hotel, we relaxed for a bit and teased my sister about the sari she planned to wear in the evening for the Hindu ceremony being held for Carrie's husband's family.
It was an interesting experience, and we got the impression that Carrie was donated. Her new father in law kept trying to correct the official conducting the ceremony in case Carrie's parents were offended. My uncle was actually amused, and my aunt was wondering if she could claim some sort of tax write off for the "donation."
After the ceremony, we discovered that my uncle's advice on how the food worked at a Hindu wedding reception was wrong. It's actually like a western wedding reception, but with Indian food, not a long series of main course sized hors d'oerves.
While all the wedding ceremony stuff was being cleared out, and my sister got some help with her sari, the main part of the reception began. It was a lot of traditional India music and dancing. Very beautiful, and it looked just like the dance numbers from Bollywood films in a good way, but it was extremely loud. My sister, her husband, and I took to texting to communicate since even shouting wouldn't have helped. My usual response was to text, "WHAT?," back at whatever they wrote.
After getting some food, and enduring the music for a while, my sister, her husband, and I left for the evening. My ears are still ringing a bit.
Surprisingly, my aunt, who was very sick (the wedding was canceled for a while she was doing so poorly), actually partied for most of the night.
The next morning, after convincing my family that food was a good idea, I had a pleasant breakfast, and suggested to my cousin Mike that I should visit for a bit longer sometime next year.
After food, my family and I parted ways, ans I spent the afternoon checking out the science museum and natural history museum with Vince. It was fun. We saw Endeavor, I shared amusing tales of my odd relatives, got to be social for the first time in a while. I also now have him convinced he needs to set aside bail money should I visit again when Dev is there. I cant say he's wrong.
After that we had a nice meal, and he dropped me off at the Bob Hope airport to fly home. That's also where things got interesting. I was supposed to fly to San Francisco to get a connecting flight to Chicago. It was delayed and eventually cancelled. At first, United wanted to reschedule for 9:30 the following morning because the computer system didn't see my connecting flight for a while. After a couple hours, things were sorted out, and I was sent on a shuttle to LAX for a flight that went to Chicago, and met up with my original final connection to Lansing. The lesson here- flying I to Bob Hope airport is fine, but flying out can be a pain especially if your destination is San Francisco. I got a seat upgrade for the flight to Chicago out of it. Sadly, the connecting flight to Lansing was delayed a bit due to a glitch in the plane's communications system.
I have now collected my cat from his stay at the vet, and it's taken a couple hours longer to write this than expected because he's so happy to be home and have his human again.
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