Archive for August 14th, 2004

The Treasure Coast, The Wedding, The Drive…

Well, we went to my brother's wedding today… the stuck car of the last post notwithstanding, we had a fantastic time. The wedding was held on the farm owned by the parents of Evan's wife, Stephanie. The farm is a five acre plot of land in a town called Fellsmere, which is about 10-15 miles due west of the town of Sebastian, Florida (where my parents currently live). Both places, Sebastian and Fellsmere, are about 170 miles away from Miami… but worlds away in terms of attitude. Sebastian is mainly a retirement community, while Fellsmere is mainly a farming community.

The ceremony was a rather simple affair, meant to be much more comfortable than formal. Good thing, too. It was held outside. In the afternoon. In summer. In Florida. And those of you from Florida know that if it's 4:00, in summer, in Florida, it's raining. Actually the weather throughout this end of the state has been whacked since hurricane Charley came through a couple days ago. Usually when hurricanes go through an area, they tend to pull all of the rainy weather away with them; however, with Charley, the jet stream had dipped down quite a bit further than it usually does, and caused a cold front to come through the area (cold is relative… the coldest it got here was about 80 at night), thus causing the rain.

The style of dress that was requested of guests was '60s fashion. Tie-dye, beads, etc. Evan wore a long-sleeved collarless cotton shirt and chinos; Stephanie's dress was a '60s-inspired modern casual wedding dress. True to form, she was a beautiful bride, and aside from the most beautiful woman there. Evan was easily the most handsome man there.

The ceremony started off with the Evan being escorted from the house to the gazebo by my mom, Helen, as an usher tossed flower petals at their feet.  Then Stephanie was likewise escorted by her father, Ali, from the house to the gazebo, with her flower girls tossing flower petals at their feet.  The only thing that I could think of the whole time they were coming out of the house was “I am Jaffe Joffer, Ruler of Zamunda” (those of you who know me know I love movie quotes… this one from “Coming to America”.)  Of course, my sons had to let it be known that they were there, and throughout the ceremony, Donovan was exclaiming that he saw a mouse go up the tree that was covering the back yard in which we were standing.  He's a cutie.

After the ceremony, we adjourned to the tent in the front of the house, and had roving butlers with hors d'oeurvre of wraps with hummus, prosciutto-wrapped mozzarella, and ceviche made by the bride's father, Ali.  Dinner was roast beef, chicken, rice, salad, and various other delicious fare, served buffet-style.

Prior to and after dinner, we had loads of dancing; mainly to salsa music.  While most of the music played during the run-up to the wedding was '60s rock, the music that got people out onto the dance floor was salsa and merengue music.  As I eluded to in previous posts, it's always interesting when you get two cultures together at a wedding… this was the primary difference between “us” and “them”.  Their culture seemed to win out, with the majority of the dancing occurring after dinner, after the lubrication of alcohol had been liberally applied, and after it was demanded that some of us join them on the dance floor.

Unfortunately, Donovan and Logan decided around 9:00 that it was time for them to leave.  As is the case with most parties… it is they who decide when we will leave, and not us.  So we got in the car and drove back to my folks' place in Sebastian.  It was good to get in out of the rain.

Stuck in the Mud

Okay… what do you get when you mix a field with three-inch thick grass, nice dirt, rain, a 1,800 pound vehicle, and a rut that was created by a 3,000 pound truck that went through that area about 10 minutes before?

Stuck.

Yes.  The Saturn is spending its first evening way far away from us in Fellsmere, on a farm, while we sleep in Sebastian.

My brother's wedding, which occurred on his wife's parents' farm in Fellsmere, Florida, was quite fun.  It's always fun when the wedding mixes cultures, with one that is straightlaced and one that cuts loose and parties.  Eventually the one that cuts loose and parties usually wins out… as it did here.

The boys were very well behaved; but they did tell us when they'd had enough (in their own special way), and we were able to borrow the 'rents car and come back to their place, where we will spend the night.

Hopefully we'll be able to get the Saturn unstuck tomorrow.

Get Ready

Okay… since two days ago, I have been a paying member of LiveJournal.  I'm one of the 2% of the elite…  well… it's only because I believe in the technology and its ability to connect people on a level that is far deeper than we are familiar with today.

So… Since I have paid, I can e-mail in my entries, or I can phone them in.  If I phone in my entries, you will need an OGG player to play them, as they are recorded in OGG format.  The best OGG player around that I can think of is WinAmp.  Also, you can get plug-ins for Windows Media Player.

I promise that if I phone in stuff, I will transcribe it as soon as I can.  But you may want to listen to my sharp wit as I record my trials and tribulations!

Happy blogging!