California Trip (Crack and Joslyn's Wedding)

Well, I've been putting off writing this blog entry for about two weeks--nothing earth shattering--I just didn't get around to writing up my thoughts about my California trip.

Note: if you're not a Tep (or don't care about the Teps you've lost track of), go ahead and skip the next few paragraphs--just an update of who was there and what they're up to.

First I found it great to catch up with a bunch of Teps, including many that I have not seen in ages--just a set of different circles, that type of thing. The locals who were there included Quincy, Death, Perlick, Spooner and his wife Kate, and Ed Kohler and his boyfriend. Ed is a young professor at UCLA; he is unfortunately doing the commuter relationship, coming up to the Bay Area every weekend. Out of towners included Roadkill and his wife Margo, Ronco, Logger and his wife Constance, Ariel, Hardpack (doing a groomsman gig here), wife Milena and baby Oscar, and Rugburn and his girlfriend Linsey. Logger is doing stuff in real estate finance consulting (don't remember his exact name for it) in New York City. Rugburn is down in Florida (moved to be with his girlfriend, who is going to grad school down there), and is working in some kind of bank/high finance job. Apologies if I missed somebody here... I'm just reconstructing from my vague memories and the photos.

Death did a really nice job taking loads of pictures at the festivities beforehand and the wedding itself.

Okay. Safe now. Game on.

The ceremony and reception happened at the Marines' Memorial Club and Hotel--a very classy place, right in San Francisco--great view from the 11th floor, where the wedding was going on--check out this shot. The bride and groom wrote their vows--feels a bit trite to attempt to describe them, but they were wonderfully affecting and hearfelt.

And they got big points for using Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You" as the recessional music.

The bride and groom had asked me to play the piano that was in the lounge, between the ceremony and the start of the actual reception dinner. I was glad to oblige (though worried about how my piano chops hold up under stress). It went ok... started out with jazz standards and big band era stuff... Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller. Pretty soon, I figured nobody was listening that closely--I was just background music for conversations, so I started to relax a bit. I eventually played a relatively sedate version of Tom Lehrer's Masochism Tango. You can check out the shot of me at the piano in the lounge, with my gin and tonic.

While I was in town, I had a great afternoon hanging out with Lucky and Karthiga, and their young baby, Jayshan. What a total cutie. I actually got to hold him for a little while--I'm gradually overcoming my nervousness and aversion around babies... I think... perhaps. Enh... I have lots of friends who just had or are having children--I think I'm being realistic to admit early that this is part of my long slow slide into irrelevance in the greater scheme of life.

Lucky was laid off from his last job, and was job hunting while we were visiting, but he has since found a new one working for a company called Crossbow. Karthiga is now a licensed real estate agent--so any of you who need to buy or sell in the Bay Area, be sure to give her a call.

There was also a hot cocoa over at Christy and U-Boat's place, but Christy has already taken care of writing about that.

Overall--a wonderful trip. Many thanks to everyone's hospitality (Especially Perlick! Yay Perlick's swanky bachelor pad in Piedmont! Which unfortunately doesn't have a coffee maker.) and taking the time to hang out! I'm sure I'll be commuting back for another visit to the Bay Area pretty soon.