Love and Marriage: June 2006

Carol and I attended our second wedding in a month this weekend. I have two more to attend this year, one in October, one on a date I do not yet know. Lydia came along this time.

Fiona is our most excellent alto soloist in our church choir. Michael is this great guy she met a couple years back. The three of us have played hearts together, although not in the last three months; last time we played, Fiona won, and I want a rematch.

This was an outdoor wedding at Moreau State Park, between Saratoga and Glens Falls. The weather in the morning did not appear at all encouraging, with yet another rainy night in Albany. But the weather cleared.

Carol seemed to think the wedding was at 4 p.m., rather than the stated time of 3:30, which turned out to be a good thing, because we got there at about 3:15, and she would have worried unnecessarily.

The groom, the bride, and her two daughters walked to the site of the wedding accompanied by a bagpiper. The choir sang God Is Love (not the lyrics in italics), accompanied by a guitarist and two violinists from the choir. The minister offered up a brief but joyous service, and then we ate. It was a pot luck, and it worked out well.

Some people commented to me how wonderful it was that the choir was there. I noted we pretty much had to be there. You spend 40 weeks a year, pretty much every Thursday night and Sunday morning with a group of people, and you almost inevitably develop a pretty tight bond. About a previous choir, someone once accused us of being a "clique", and that was probably true. this group may less cliquish, but still pretty close. (That said, Fiona is pretty swell - though she'd be embarrassed to read that.)

I met a woman I'd seen on the bus I sometimes take, who's a drinking buddy of the bride, and who I prostelized about, of all things, blogging.

The park had a playground not 50 yards away, and Lydia and some the other child had a chance to use the slides and do other activities.

To paraphrase the songwriter, "A splendid time was had by all."
***

This is a picture of Darrin and Suzy, from the reception of the first wedding we attended. Today is their first lunaversary. You don't know lunaversary? It is a word I invented: see this.
***
A person whose name appears very often in my record collection, producing love songs, and lots of other genres, died recently. Arif Mardin produced a slew of albums, especially on Atlantic Records, for such varied artists as The Rascals, Dusty Springfield, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, and most notably, the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha.
***
Unfortunately, the Ann-Adolf romance can never take place.