My younger brother is now married. The wedding and reception were perfect and beautiful, and lots of family and friends showed up. I stood in "the line" and shook a million hands, but it was still fun. I particularly enjoyed going into the handshake looking firm, but then going totally dead in the other persons hand; my aunt said that shaking a dead fish made her nauseous. After shaking hands for 90 minutes, I decided I was done, so I simply left the line, and went to eat cake. If anyone felt annoyed at my departure, nothing was said to me.
Somebody (Mom) kept telling people about my forthcoming adventure to South Korea, and I was asked about it by like 40 different people. Although I was getting tired of explaining it, I did get rather good at condensing the whole thing to just a few words: "Yeah, I'm leaving in about 3 weeks to be an English teacher. Yes, I'm really excited. No, I don't know Korean. Is there any cake left?"
There were a few people who really did seem genuinely interested in my adventure, and I really appreciated them. For most other people, it was just [seemingly] insincere small-talk. Among my favorite new acquaintances was a woman from England - she married one of my dad's friends - and she was so nice and friendly. We talked about London and other travels...I think it would be fun to visit with her again sometime.
The whole day long we had perfect weather (except for the ever-present winds in my poor provincial town) and could not have asked for better. I had two songs in my head all day, the first - and most obvious - was "White Wedding" by Billy Idol, and the other was "All the Lovers" by Kylie Minogue. I have another brother who can scream-sing "White Wedding" pretty good, and since he is in Guatemala on a mission right now, he was unable to come. The song was a tribute to both the groom and to the missionary, I guess. (Just sayin', I can do a pretty good job at that song too...) The other song, by Kylie, was mostly in my head because I heard it the other day and liked it.
The day was long, but good in every way, and when I cam home around 9 pm I was so tired that I fell asleep while waiting for my computer to turn on. I woke up around 4 am and probably wandered around my house for a minute, then went back to sleep. Wow, that was a great story....
So, for now, I'm the older, unmarried, currently unemployed son who lives in my parents' basement and only occasionally plays video games. I suspect that I will be reminded of this fact by my dear siblings often.
But hey, at least I'm a college graduate, right?
Heya! I just visited your blog for the first time. It will be fun to read about your adventures in Korea. You'll have to update it often, so that those of us with boring lives can live vicariously through you - and add lots of pictures.
ReplyDeleteI felt so honored to be mentioned in your blog. I feel so famous. And yes, the dead fish handshake was creepy...and very funny. It felt like an old lady's hand. I was waiting for your teeth to pop out into my hand as you laughed!
I looked through your piano book to see if there was something we could play together, but it all looked a bit too hard for me to sightread. I could play some of it if I practiced for a while, but nothing on the spot. You must be getting pretty good to be playing that stuff. Congrats!
I'm glad we got to see you before you go. Sorry about taking over your room. The babies enjoyed opening your cupboard door repeatedly and playing with the old video game cartridges. I hope they didn't do any permanent harm to any of your belongings. Thanks for letting us stay there. Love ya. Ba bye :) Angela