The Wedding Warm-Ups

Me with Heather, Alex's mom, with Renna and Alex looking over our shoulders.

     When Renna called to say we would join her and Alex with his family for dinner at The Commoner at Hotel Monaco, Renna told Simone, too. We would drive up to Ambridge anyway to hang out while she baked cookies. On the way, we stopped to get Dairy Cream and Arby's. While there, Simone and Ted shared what they knew about Alex's family so we could chat better. We stayed with Simone and Ted until 5 pm and drove back to our place in Pittsburgh where Renna and Alex picked us up.

     Heather and  boyfriend Rick sat alongside Laura and Steven on one side of a high marble counter and we sat along the other side; we stood to defer seating arrangement to them them when they arrived. It was not the casual meet-up I was longing but we met and chatted before the wedding practice dinner. Alex's father, Rich, did not attend .      At dinner, we chatted about Taiwan, Pittsburgh and Virginia, where Heather lives, and a bit about our families;  It was funny when we compared injuries at one point; Steven  showing us the leg he'd broke skateboarding and Leona talking about her arm injury falling off a see-saw. We compared some of our worst injuries. We learned Laura, Alex's older sister,  had sung on a luxury resort ship once, moved on from copy to video for a company called Bark-Box. We didn't get around to talking with Heather about her glass engraving talent but found out Steven works for Atlantic Records. I promised I wouldn't mention that to my rapper son but Amanda might like to chat with Heather about art. We enjoyed dinner and left after two hours to meet again Friday at the wedding rehearsal.

     Amanda would be getting in from Portland Friday morning  at 10:00 and picked up by Simone. We met for lunch in the Strip and spend the day together until the evening event while Simone and Ted went home to walk Honey and Indiana Jones; the dogs. 

     Ariel and Alice arrived just as the wedding rehearsal dinner was to begin.

      We had dinner at Hofbräuhaus Pittsburgh with Alex's family, Simone, Ted, Ariel, Alice, and Amanda. It was fun being there but getting there was a problem. Ariel and Alice contacted us and we told them to meet us at our airbnb at 5:15 but then Simone, caught in traffic, changed her plan to pick Amanda up for the wedding rehearsal, and drove there directly. I had to bring Amanda instead of going  to the dinner at 7:30.

      The route to the venue was complicated; over a dozen roads, culminating in a single lane traffic jam. Furthermore, I couldn't find the practice hall address. Leona gave me the wrong address; the restaurant instead of the practice place, so Amanda stayed with us. We waited outside. That's when Ariel and Alice showed up, an hour earlier than expected. Simone had said Ted would be at the bar for Ariel's arrival, but wasn't there when Amanda went in to find him; he came later before Simone, Renna, and Alex.

     We went inside and arranged the tables and even thought of a seating arrangement, but all stood up when Alex's father Rich, paternal grandmother, aunt and uncle, his mother, Heather, and his sister Laura and her boyfriend, Steven, showed up. We all deferred to their seating preference which had the Temple-Knaflec party on the right side, but Ariel and Alice ended up on the left. Ariel was a bit upset not being seated near us but I explained his being situated between two divorced parents was conductive to the conversation; he understood being the toaster and glue between our two families. We had a very nice evening. 

     We got home by 11 pm and I fell out in bed but awaking at 2:30. I couldn't really get back to sleep after that and ended up sleeping on the futon in the kitchen area. In the morning, had coffee and the baklava I'd gotten on the Strip. 

     I think Simone said we have to be at the wedding venue by 5 pm.