1/7/2018: Thursday
was the day of the "bomb cyclone", whose name naturally left me apprehensive. We got up at 5, dressed & got ready, I
dragged my huge heavy suitcase down the stairs and over to the side door,
received messages that our 11:10 AM flight would leave at 12. I went out and shoveled away the maybe
3" of snow on the walks & driveway (cold and windy) and brushed off
the cars, feeling, I must say, v sorry for myself & put upon.
Streets mostly not plowed, so driving to the parking lot
was kind of fraught (S used to drive better in snow than me), we got to Smart
Park, and I was glad I was wearing hiking boots, since lot not plowed. The van got us to the airport (the Eddystone
roads were pretty well plowed), I checked in our bags, we got a wheelchair to
the gate, got there by maybe 10, only to be told the flight was cancelled. There was a huge line in front of the nearby
customer svce, but our trusty wheelchair person took us to the head, where we
got on a 3:20 PM flight, so our fate wasn't desperate. We got taken to our new gate on a series of
carts (with me on the back, holding on to Steve's walker), and found seats by
the window, where nothing much was happening.
I had an Agatha Christie from the library; S read his
iPad. No flights leaving; v little
action. Around maybe 1 PM, snow plows
got more active, and maybe 2 PM a plane landed from Dublin and pulled up to our
gate (promising). They boarded S and me
onto the plane early, the plane lifted off maybe 5ish, after a stop at de-icing,
which was cute -- all these vehicles with cranes spraying our wings -- they
looked vaguely alive.
I was kind of Christied out, and it took a while for me
to figure out the entertainment system (we were in the first row, with funny
screens that pulled out from between our seats.
The only movie I'd heard about was Wonder Woman. Our systems kept losing sound (Steve and
mine), and having to be rebooted, which was a lengthy process, and the movie
had some startling transitions (how did they get from a tropical island to
Victorian London by sailboat? The evil
poison gas bombs were being made in Turkey, then Belgium.) but it kept me
amused, and after it was over there were only a couple hours till we landed.
We landed maybe 7 PM, our bags arrived (thank heavens),
we took a taxi downtown. We'd been going
to dine w/ the Shepards and Aaron & Alex, and then Aaron & I were going
to have a dance lesson, but it was way too late. By the S and I were organized for dinner, too
late for anything but room service, which, of course, was expensive, and, being
initially hungry, we ordered too much.
Rebecca (S's niece from Cleveland) had her flight delayed
while they warmed up the fuel, which had frozen. Beth's flights from Boston cancelled, and she
initially thought she wouldn't make it--first flight out was on Sunday. (Alex and So flew out on Wed). Ed & Eileen were cancelled from 2 flights
at JFK and headed home, to find 3' drifts in front of their house.
We got up, had breakfast with Russ and Kathy, talking
genealogy, horticulture, and, eventually, TF-CBT when I hijacked the
conversation. I had a bridesmaid's
luncheon at noon -- dressed in unaccustomed pantyhose, slip, skirt and top
(warmish, sticky, rainy day), and hurried off to get a manicure, the manicure
I'd gotten Saturday having chipped pretty badly. 4 v long blocks to a nice Vietnamese place,
where they fussed over my, but I hadn't allowed enough time for my nails to
dry, and I messed up two fingernails trying to get my phone out of my
pocketbook to call an Uber. Got to lunch
only about 5 min late (this was a woman's club -- no sign and I had trouble
finding the bldg numbers), drank water & champagne and talked with Sonia,
Alex's grandmother, and Shaina Li, who took Mandarin w/ Alex at Pton & went
w/ her to Shanghai
Then we went downstairs to lunch, where the conversation
was general. Bridesmaids got big, canvas
tote bags with wedding-day essentials, I got a lovely linen handkerchief from
Sonia. Nice luncheon, and lovely
Pavlova's for dessert -- conversation pretty general -- I was trying to figure
out who was who (of course, I'd been introduced, but I was flustered as usual
& didn't take in names -- it took me several minutes to recollect Claire,
whom I'd met 3-4 times -- her family put Aaron up when he first arrived in SF
-- he slept wherever Claire's sister Frances wasn't (Claire's parents being
divorced, with joint custody)).
Eventually I figured out who Jackie was (e.g. She addressed Sonia as
"grandma") and most of the others sort of fell into place. Prosopagnosia in action.
And finger bowls!!
I’d never been presented w/ one (it arrived on a plate, with dessert
fork and spoon on either side. You
dipped your fingers, then moved it to the upper left side of your place, and
put the dessert utensils on either side of your setting). (I was copying Sonia at this point).
The room was warm -- I was probably the only one wearing
stockings.
We dispersed -- Alex summoned an Uber to take herself
& me to the top of Nob Hill (she was at the Fairmont). I spent some time trying in vain to edit the
PowerPoint I'd made of slides of Aaron & Alex-- Rod had commented it would
be nice to have slides showing Alex & Laurie -- I'd only brought my iPad,
not my laptop, and I could see the slides I wanted to insert on the Google Drive
app, I just couldn't save them as photos that were accessible to the PowerPoint
app. Sat in the lobby and talked with
Jeff, Helen, Carolyn (who offered to come set up for the Rehearsal dinner -- I
gladly accepted).
We learned Beth was on a flight from Boston, via DFW, and
Ed & Eileen were also making their way across the continent. David Shepard (Rod's brother) and his family,
had a car breakdown.
A bit before 4, we set off for Le Colonial, in the rain,
I with a shopping bag full of candles, candlesticks, placecards, table number
cards and table number card holders.
Some trouble gaining access -- front door locked and we had to call in,
but of course I'd allowed way too much time for setup. Carolyn, bless her, alphabetized the place
cards. We charged our phones. I had a
timeline for the rehearsal dinner (inspired by Melissa the wedding planner's
huge timeline for the wedding weekend).
Guests started arriving, and I stood by the placecard
table greeting them and trying to remember people. (Aaron had taken time to go over people w/ us
during the weekend -- I should have remembered more). Claire's biological father looked a bit like
the Shepard brothers -- I kept mixing him up with them. Manny didn't have a fro any more. (Probably hadn't for years). There were some Calif friends of the Shepards
I didn't get very straight. Aaron &
Alex detained by last-min changes to wedding seating arrangements.
Hors d'oeuvres were good -- I probably ate too many.
We herded people to seats and & did candles/blessing
A2 (I left Sarah out of the matriarchs and then couldn't figure out why I had
only named 3 -- and I'd been drinking soda water, not alcohol)/kiddish.
We did an open-mike for 45 min. S talked about how when A was 3, and
fascinated w/ pirates, he'd asked A did he want to be a pirate when he grew up,
and A said no -- he'd have to drink al-co-hol.
That got a good laugh. Kim,
Alex's aunt, and an ENT at Stanford, talked about an illness of Alex's during
freshman winter break that had required multiple surgeries, where Alex went
back to school long before most people would have summoned the strength. Rose had a wonderful, short speech, as did
Jeanine. As did many others. All speeches were v decorous and appropriate
(next day, Claire said that in the ladies' rooms, there were fuller accounts of
several incidents (but I got no details)).
Aaron had to get to the bar by 9 to welcome people. We had the place till 10 -- I'd said to
people to stay and talk, but in fact was glad when people left -- I was still
on East Coast time. There was
uncertainty about where the bus would pick people up, and Rod got it
straightened out and got the bus driver to wait for laggards -- I was so
grateful; I'd run out of steam.
Next morning, a lovely, sunny day, I got up and got some
oatmeal & practiced dancing briefly with Aaron, and then drank coffee while
he & Haishang (one of the groomsmen) had breakfast. Showered, and showed up at the bridal suite
at the Fairmont (Aaron and the rest of us were at the Mark Hopkins, across the
street) as instructed, with damp hair and no moisturizer. The bridesmaids had matching blue robes, each
with their initials. The hair-and-makeup
was quite a process -- and of course I sweat and was afraid I would sweat off
the makeup. Took pics of the bridesmaids
and Alex -- they were so lovely -- and Sonia.
The bridesmaids chignons looked simple, but in fact took
huge amounts of blow-out and hairspray and pinning.
The photographer arrived, and took pix of Alex's shoes --
lovely high heels with red soles (that denotes Christian Louboutin?), and I
took pix of her taking the pix.
There were pix of the bridesmaids lined up & holding
champagne flutes. The dresses (which had
been freshly ironed) were lovely -- v classical looking. Alex was radiant -- luminous.
There were pictures in the Fairmont courtyard of the
bridesmaids. I hurried over & helped
Steve into his tux. There were pictures
in the Mark Hopkins courtyard of the groomsmen.
The groomsmen' shuttle came; a car came for Steve and me
and we were whisked off to the Asian Art museum's service entrance, and back to
the bride's / bridesmaids holding room.
The ceremony was lovely -- Aaron's face lit up when he
saw Alex-- Steve said afterward he'd never seen Aaron that joyous. We went downstairs for pictures (elevator
floor covered w/ some v slippery plastic -- I got them to put down a rubber mat
later)
1/8/2018: It was a
lovely evening. Jeanine Cotter (Claire
Hill’s Mom) officiated – her service was just right. Actually, she’d had multiple obstacles to
overcome – her hair & makeup appts took longer than planned, and she hadn’t
emailed herself the service, but fortunately she’d given me a copy to look at,
and she could read from that. Her
dress’s delivery got delayed, and getting it from the UPS (?) center was a
great effort.
I was so glad to see Beth (I’d spent the day in the
bridal suite) and get my picture taken with her. I felt so funny with my hair teased & so
much makeup on. (Did I say they put
shadow on my double chin so it wouldn’t show as much?)
Paulie was there!!
With his new wife. I’m not sure
when I last saw him.
When I was circulating, Louise and Barbara Almario (who I
don’t think had met before the weekend) were deep in discussion about the background
for Eve and the Flowers (Eve was a v. difficult accountant at MetLife – v.
vexed she didn’t have a high enough rank to get an office under the new “open”
plan, who had gotten her bosses’ boss to call me after Mother’s Day 2016,
alleging that the peonies and lilacs that L&A had sent were giving her an
allergic reaction. She was let go some months after I retired). I felt like a famous author.
Rose was drinking whiskey!! (Aaron having recommended it
for her sore throat.)
Excellent passed hors-d’oeuvres (my favorite was the rare
lamb chops). The seating plan was more
detailed than I’d seen – not only were you assigned a table, but there was a
menu at your place w/ your name on it, nestled in your folded napkin.
Dance w/ Aaron went ok – we went in ½ way through In My
Life, which is only a couple min long.
Only problem is he doesn’t quite follow the beat, so I had to remind myself
to follow him, not quite the music. Then
I danced w/ Rod (Alex’s Dad). Then I
danced w/ various women, and Steve got up and danced some, too. The Shepard cousins were adorable – all 4
were dancing together—like puppies, sort of in a heap.
Aaron’s speech at the cake cutting was sweet, and he
quoted the she-hechiyanu, which was v. touching. And the cake was good!! (lemon poppy on some layers, and chocolate
caramel on others, which sounds weird).
My only problem was by then I couldn’t eat enough to even finish it, and
I’d had a good deal of wine.
Steve and I left soon after the cake cutting (around 11
or so, so as far as we were concerned it was 2 AM). HOWEVER, I missed the finale, apparently a
Carleton tradition. At 11:50, Aaron had
asked that the band play Like a Prayer,
and all the Carleton men took off their shirts and danced around topless.
Anyway, next morning, S and I got up and packed (we were
going to stay at an airport hotel, to catch our 8 AM flight out), and Rod and
Laurie had a brunch for everyone at the Top of the Mark, so lovely views. Caviar station, shellfish station, carved
lamb chops. Excellent lox, but the
bagels weren’t up to NY standards (my only small quibble). And Aaron and Alex looking so happy.
Did I say the bride’s gift to the groom was an 1831
cavalry sword? Aaron was overwhelmed.
Anyway, Alex & Aaron sat and talked with Steve and me
a little after people left – they’re headed for New Orleans for a few days of
honeymoon, and then back to NYC.
S and I headed to our airport hotel, where I started
writing this screed (and we also napped).
Flight home uneventful – watched a silly Reece Witherspoon movie (home again?) and
read yet another Agatha Christie (I have to stop reading her, the plot elements
are repeating a little). Airport parking
lot v icy, but the nice shuttle driver scraped off my windshield. Our street was a sheet of ice, and all I
could think to do was pull into our driveway as far as possible (S’s car not
parked close to the house, but that was my fault), totter in with our
hand-luggage, and figure out how to get our suitcases out tomorrow.
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