(no subject)
Just got back from dinner with flata, which was fun despite both of us having no more energy than the average tree sloth. I'm starting to recover from the jet-lag of the Baltimore trip but as always it takes a while.
The trip was very nice. Eric and Clarissa's wedding was great- a very interesting interfaith Jewish/Christian wedding. The ceremony managed to clearly acknowledge and incorporate both tradtions with great sensitivity and a light hand. Eric always struck me as more of a Jew by tradition rather than particularly strong spirituality (i.e. when we were at Cornell together he was proudly culturally Jewish but didn't attend services). Clarissa on the other hand is an active churchgoer, and the kind of person that reminds me that there are many great people out there get a lot of good things out of Christianity and do good things in return. It was really nice to get a different picture than the frothing hatred/ignorance/bigotry that comes through in the news most of the time. It doesn't inspire me to get religion, but does remind me of the difference between fanatics and most people.
But aside from the ceremony and attendant fanfare, the most important thing was seeing a bunch of old friends (including Eric) again. Its been 12 years since most of us met during the first few weeks of our freshman year. Two people (Rob and Beth) married each other. With Eric getting married, the other four (Erik, Dave and Kendra) are all married (all straight). Which leaves me as the odd man out by being single, gay, and living inside a big city rather than the suburbs or small town. Rob and Beth live in the Berkeley hills, which is the closet thing, but they're probably moving somehwere more suburban like Castro Valley soon (not to be confused with The Castro).
So it was wierd. On the one hand it felt great to be around all of them and we easily slipped back into old familiar roles, conversations and memories. Even better, we're all old enough to not get stuck in old conflicts and the like. But wow is my life different from theirs. And as three of the couples have produce children (and Rob and Beth's 9-month-old Alex was with us) the baby conversations were just staggering. (Alex is adorable, though :)
I've been trying to think of some insight to tie this all up, but all I can settle on is "great trip, great to see them all, and as comfortable and fun as I could want, but wierd all the same".
The trip was very nice. Eric and Clarissa's wedding was great- a very interesting interfaith Jewish/Christian wedding. The ceremony managed to clearly acknowledge and incorporate both tradtions with great sensitivity and a light hand. Eric always struck me as more of a Jew by tradition rather than particularly strong spirituality (i.e. when we were at Cornell together he was proudly culturally Jewish but didn't attend services). Clarissa on the other hand is an active churchgoer, and the kind of person that reminds me that there are many great people out there get a lot of good things out of Christianity and do good things in return. It was really nice to get a different picture than the frothing hatred/ignorance/bigotry that comes through in the news most of the time. It doesn't inspire me to get religion, but does remind me of the difference between fanatics and most people.
But aside from the ceremony and attendant fanfare, the most important thing was seeing a bunch of old friends (including Eric) again. Its been 12 years since most of us met during the first few weeks of our freshman year. Two people (Rob and Beth) married each other. With Eric getting married, the other four (Erik, Dave and Kendra) are all married (all straight). Which leaves me as the odd man out by being single, gay, and living inside a big city rather than the suburbs or small town. Rob and Beth live in the Berkeley hills, which is the closet thing, but they're probably moving somehwere more suburban like Castro Valley soon (not to be confused with The Castro).
So it was wierd. On the one hand it felt great to be around all of them and we easily slipped back into old familiar roles, conversations and memories. Even better, we're all old enough to not get stuck in old conflicts and the like. But wow is my life different from theirs. And as three of the couples have produce children (and Rob and Beth's 9-month-old Alex was with us) the baby conversations were just staggering. (Alex is adorable, though :)
I've been trying to think of some insight to tie this all up, but all I can settle on is "great trip, great to see them all, and as comfortable and fun as I could want, but wierd all the same".