Today is Sunday, October 5 – I know, October already.  It seems like only last week that we were exclaiming surprise that it was September.  There are only 53 days until the Christmas music season starts.  The lovely Elaine does allow Christmas music on my birthday, but only for that day.  The official season starts 16 days after my birthday this year.  Speaking of birthdays, today we remember Chester A. Arthur, Allen Ludden and Ken Noda.  On this day in 1582 the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Italy and other Catholic countries, in 1877 Chief Joseph surrendered, ending the Nez Perce War and in 1990 a Cincinnati jury acquitted the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center of obscenity charges for displaying Robert Mapplethorpe’s The Perfect Moment exhibition.  It is Independence Day in Bulgaria, Sports Day in Lesotho and Grandparents Day in Massachusetts.  I thought they celebrated that day earlier this year, but maybe they just forgot they had.

We attended a wedding this past week and I have to say that things have changed since the lovely Elaine and I got married.  She did her own makeup and hair and nails and she was at home when she did it.  The bridesmaids got dressed and then came to her house to be picked up by the limo.  Nowadays, everything has been raised to a much higher level.  All the women involved in the wedding meet in a hotel room where a makeup person comes and does the makeup, a hair person comes to make sure the hair is done properly and the nails are done by a specialist.

Weddings are so obviously about the women.  The men show up, get dressed and go to the church.  No specialists come in to make sure that the men have clean underwear, have “dressed” in the proper direction and have zipped their trousers.  I am guessing that no one has checked to be sure their hair was done or that they had put on socks.  It is just assumed that they know how to do this stuff, they do it and they show up for the ceremony.  Apparently, they don’t become stupid until after the wedding.

Where the show really starts is at the reception.  We showed up at the catering hall early.  The route we would normally have taken was blocked because of road work.  We ended up having to take a rather round-about route that required taking several side streets that were unfamiliar.  This was a cause for major distress for some of the other drivers.  They came to the road they wanted and were confronted by signs saying they could not go where they wanted to.  They were given the option of going in certain directions, but not the one they intended to use.  So, instead of going one of the other ways, they sat there and stared as if by doing so the barricade would magically disappear and they could continue on their way.  By the way, it didn’t … but I digress.

Because of the convoluted route, we allowed for extra time.  As it turned out we did not need it and, as I said, we arrived early.  Fortunately, we were not alone.  We walked into the cavernous lobby and were greeted by a person handing out champagne.  Not wanting to appear impolite, we accepted a glass.  As we looked around, we met up with several people we knew and stood around chatting with them.  I thought it interesting that they provided beverages for everyone, but not a single place to sit.  I guess they didn’t want you to get comfortable and end up missing the cocktail hour.

The cocktail hour was interesting.  They provided tables and chairs for everyone and the food stations were located throughout the room.  The group at our table went in various directions, doing recon on what was located where.  We loaded up our plates and came back to report our findings to the group.  This was a great way to handle it because it saved time looking for the stuff you liked and avoiding the stuff you didn’t want – like the various mushroom dishes(right Pat?).  We ate, drank and chatted until it was time to travel to the big room for the evening’s festivities and food.

Let me just say that when you have a room as big as this one was, you need to have some kind of material hanging on the walls to absorb some of the sound.  You also need to explain to the band that this is not their concert, it is a wedding reception and they need to remember that the focus should be on the bridal couple.  As an example, the maitre’ d had the band stop playing when it was time to cut the cake.  The band stopped briefly and then launched into music again while the ceremony was going on.  If you are going to provide music during this, it should be quiet, background music allowing everyone to focus on the bride and groom.  You do not have to sing the “Bride Cuts the Cake”, but somehow “Luck Be A Lady Tonight” just did not seem to fit with what was going on.

As I said before, the room was not great as far as the sound was concerned.  The band was so loud that it was difficult to talk.  One of the people at our table suggested we would be better off texting each other.  When the band played, if you recognized the song, you could sort of make out the words.  There were songs I did not know and what I heard was – “Nnnh gwen mog to jask ohh.  Boshk in plek to berg ves bren I know!”  All this done with music so loud that it could probably be heard out on the road.

I know you are probably thinking that I am complaining simply because I am old.  My son always says that if it is too loud, you are too old.  In this case – NO!  I should not have trouble hearing when I am talking to myself.  There were people much younger than I with their fingers in their ears.  Sitting next to me was a young lady who is in her twenties and she was complaining , too.  Keep in mind that this is a person in the National Guard, who flies helicopters, so she knows what loud noise is.

Don’t get me wrong.  Overall it was a great wedding, the food was good, the people at our table were great and we had a good time.  The wedding was for the daughter of very good friends of ours and we were pleased to be included. 

This week our fact tells us that chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.  Just don’t get caught doing it in Singapore where chewing gum is outlawed.

Just one more quick request – I continue to notice that there are people accessing this blog in other countries.  I would really love to know how you happened to come across the blog.  Please go into the comment section and let me know.  Thank you.