September 22, 2006
Almost, but not quite
Jane and I had an amazing time at Babs' wedding last weekend. We hadn't seen each other since Christmas, so it was great to catch up and spend some quality time together.
The wedding was held at a beautiful lake surrounded by hills and maple trees with leaves that were yellow, orange, and deep red. It's not until you go out east that you realize that this is what the Canadian Flag was based on - the leaves really do look like that. Our entire national identity hinges on this symbol that is not found in the majority of the country. But that's a rant for another day.
Jane is very spontaneous, which I admire about her. We make a good pair, because she's the one who comes up with the crazy ideas and I'm the one who plans them out. The moment she saw the lake, she said, "We should go skinny dipping!" My eyes lit up at the idea, because it was something I would never normally do. All the more reason to do it. The rest of the day, I began surreptitiously asking questions about the lake. How deep is it? Can you swim in it? Where exactly can you wade in to go swimming? How cold do you think it gets at night - like, for instance, tonight? By the end of the day, I had it all planned out. Unfortunately, that night, it got incredibly cold and the water even colder, foiling my best-made plans.
So, all I have is the story of how Jane and I almost went skinny dipping, instead of the story of how we actually went, which we totally would have, if we could have, but we couldn't, so we didn't. How lame is that? Why am I even writing this? Oh, yeah, because I raised everyone's expectations by telling you about our usual wedding antics and now I feel like I have to apologize because I didn't bring you back something salacious. I tried, I really did. Oh, well, there's always next time.
We did make a bit of a spectacle of ourselves after the ceremony, which was held outside at one of the cabins by the lake. While the bride and groom were getting pictures taken, Jane grabbed my hand and we ran down the peer, which wobbled underneath our feet. As a Prairie girl, I have no sea legs and almost fell into the water a few times. (Now, that would have been a story. But it wasn't, so there you go - another almost story. I'm really bad at this, aren't I?) When we got to the end of the peer, we lay down and took silly pictures of each other, and rolled around, giggling like a couple of little kids. We caught the attention of the wedding photographer, who took a few interesting shots of us from the shore.
Jane couldn't stay for the reception, so I was on my own. I learned that teaching bellydance lessons on the dance floor at a wedding makes you incredibly popular. I also learned that I am a magnet for Jewish wedding crashers. Three guys wearing yarmulkes came from the wedding down the hall to crash ours and made a beeline for me. They spent the rest of the night spinning me around the dance floor and trying to convince me to ditch this wedding to come to theirs. Apparently, I've got shiksappeal. Who knew?
It was amazing to see Babs again and reconnect after so many years. Man, that gal knows how to throw a party. I've never seen anything so meticulously planned or experienced such hospitality. It was worth the plane ticket, the trip, and the hassles at the airport to be there. I definitely would have regretted not going.
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