Bienvenido a Miami!

A couple of weeks ago I was able to experience my first Indian wedding (and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it). Ramya's childhood BFF/former roommate Padmini got married in Miami, so we made a mini-vacation out of it. That's right- Miami on the 4th of July weekend. It was not chilly.

As weddings go, the only thing that was different from "us-people" weddings was the actual ceremony (and the groom's arrival, or "Barat"). Everything else was basically the same- mostly that I met a ton of people and had to try to remember names. And I usually suck pretty hard at names, but this time I had to try to remember ones like Bharath, Anagha, Saramati, Sandhya, etc. It's hard enough when you have to remember a bunch of Kelly and Steves, but with a lot of Indian names I don't even natively know the gender. But that's neither here nor there.

The ceremony was interesting, but it was long and complicated. And not only that, but the whole thing was conducted in Sanskrit, and I'm pretty sure the priest was the only person in the room who spoke it. As such, they passed out a little book that explained the various stages of the wedding in English (they also passed out little pieces of sugar and flowers, but I never really understood why). And because the ceremony is so long and incomprehensible, paying attention isn't necessary, or even encouraged. People were chatting amongst themselves while the priest went on and on, guests came and went, people would randomly walk up front and take pictures, etc. As Bharath put it "Yeah, you could start a poker game back here and no one would notice." There were really too many stages of the ceremony to count. They included (but were not limited to): Sitting on a swing while older women sung chants, passing around colored rice balls, eating a mixture of milk, sugar and bananas, all the guests walking up and throwing flower petals at the couple (my favorite) and taking seven steps together. Needless to say I was pretty lost, but everyone was very willing to explain things to me. I believe the most important part was when they walked around the fire together- everyone stood up and applauded, and I think this is the moment when they are considered "married."

At the conclusion of the Hindu ceremony they actually did a mini "western wedding," during which the bride and groom stood up and a woman who is a notary (who can perform marriages in Florida) does a brief presentation. This I was familiar with- it included vows, exchanging rings and all those other things I'm used to seeing at weddings. They even kissed afterward, which I understand is still pretty risque in this instance.

Of course, the wedding is followed by the reception (and the food was delightful, naan and all). Then, the dancing started. Now, I can barely dance in English so I was really starting from scratch when the Bhangra music started thumping. What the women were doing was easy to figure out: it's what I think of as stereotypical Indian dancing, what with the arms up and vague pushing hand motions and swaying to the music. This I can imitate. The problem here is that that's what the women do. The dudes, on the other hand, just kind of held their hands up in the air and kicked their feet around. It all seemed very random and disorganized. You would think this would make it easier to blend in, but it had the opposite effect- I just didn't know where to start. It got a little easier once they passed out the glow sticks (yeah baby) because then I had something to do with my hands. Anyway, I think I faked it pretty well until they switched to hip-hop music, and which point I could dance poorly in a more familiar style.

Here's the weird part: when they switched to hip-hop, all the Indian kids (and by "kids," I mean 15-30 years of age) started dancing like I'm used to. It seemed odd, but I guess that's not so much how Indian people dance as it is how you dance to Bhangra music- like you wouldn't dance the same way to death metal and bluegrass. See? You learn something new every day.

But the biggest obstacle on the dance floor was the video camera. Now, I know some people love to have footage of their special day, but I believe weddings should be still-picture only. Especially when it comes to the dance floor. This particular video camera had a very bright spotlight attached to it, so at least you were sure when it was pointed at you! I'm sure every time I'm on camera all you see me doing is shielding my eyes and awkwardly standing there, waiting for them to realize that there's no way my version of Bhangra is ever going to end up on YouTube and move on. Still, it wasn't as bad as an earlier wedding this season, in which there was a video camera mounted on a high tripod, permanently fixed on the dance floor. I mean, is there any bigger dancing buzz kill than knowing that every move is being caught on tape? I say live in the moment, take great stills, and screw the tape. But that's just me.So altogether it was a great time. We stuck around Miami for a few more eventful days, which I'm sure I'll get around to blogging about in the next few weeks!

Crashin' Update

I arrived at the wedding right as dinner was wrapping up, which was actually just in time for cake. It must have been about 9:30 when Carly called to give me the OK, and I actually considered bailing on it. I haven't left for an activity at 9:30 pm since college! But I went over, and boy am I glad I did. I had a freakin' blast!

I talked with a few folks for a while, heard about Carly and Daniel's toast (it wasn't really a toast, but a joint speech about the couple during the ceremony), and it looked like everything was great. As frantic as the setting was beforehand, now everyone was relaxed and saying things like "Oh, you should've come for the whole thing! It was great!" Well, wrap that idea up and mail it to 3 hours ago. But, the best part was when one of the bridesmaids came over to our table and told us they were trying to get the dance floor started, and asked us if we would head on over.

I am no dancer. But, Carly, Daniel and I made a pact that we would stick together out there, no matter how dumb we looked. We started bopping around a little, and within the first song I had an epiphany: I don't know a darn person at this wedding, and will most likely never see any of them again (well, other than Carly, Daniel, Sean and Jenny, but who's counting). So I started just bustin' moves. It was fantastic.

They played all the hits: Shout, Twist and Shout, and even some without shout in the title. They asked for requests, and we were debating either putting in for Ice Ice Baby or The Humpty Dance. Near the end of the night they played them both- I figure the DJ must have heard us. Those songs totally aren't popular enough for that to be a coincidence. I even got to dance with an extremely cute bridesmaid during a couple slow songs. Turns out she's a marathon-running mechanical engineer who works for NASA, specifically on the treadmill for the international space station. Be still my beating heart! It's unfortunate that she lives in Houston, but I was still pretty fortunate that I was the only single guy at the wedding.

The best dancer there was undoubtedly the flower girl- she really brought her A game! At one point she got into a little dance-off with one of the groomsmen, and totally schooled him. After he ceded defeat, I said "Dude, you got served!" but no one heard me. Then, 10 seconds later he says "I got served!" and riotous laughter erupts. Jerk- those laughs were rightfully mine. Like when I said the limoncello shot they passed out for the final toast tasted like a wetnap, and Carly totally bogarted the joke later. FYI, I drank about a half teaspoon just to see- I still don't drink. It reminded me why.

We left the premises sweaty and dishevelled around 12:30, but only because the DJ pulled up stakes and left. We went back to the hotel, but we were still pretty wound up so we played some Tetris DS before crashing around 1:30. Inevitably followed by me being completely awake at 6:30. Which is why I need to go to bed pretty quickly here.

All in all, great weekend. I've done more social activities in the last few weeks than I had in months, so it's been fun. I don't think I can keep up this pace in my old age though, so I might have to take it easy for a little while. Have a great week everyone!

Update: For the record, Carly's comment was totally true- after the cute bridesmaid laughed at the wetnap comment she totally gave me credit. And the college-era dress shirt was waaay too big. You can kind of tell in the picture. By the way, we were totally giving the camera the eye to be funny- we don't usually walk around like that.

Crashin' a Wedding

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while- after visiting Carly and Daniel in Connecticut, I flew straight to Jacksonville (FL) for our Navair national 4.3 (Air Vehicle Engineering- my division) Conference. That's right, three straight days of various presentations about all aspects of naval aircraft engineering. It's okay to be jealous- it's a pretty exclusive event. All jokes aside, I actually do enjoy it. I can get in to the technical stuff, but the first day is always a lot of the political/organizational talk that makes me drowsy. It was okay this year, but last year was truly spectacular: the current trend was an effort to make the agency smaller, so we were all a little concerned about losing people. The first keynote speaker's theme was "We are not getting smaller, we are simply re-focusing our efforts." He was immediately followed by the other speaker whose theme was "How to keep up with work while we continue to get smaller." You'd think they would have talked it over beforehand, or at least sensed the irony. I love working for the government!

So on my way home from the airport Friday, I got a call from Carly. She and Daniel were in Bowie for their friends Sean and Jenny's wedding, and they just realized how close that was to me. So they said "Why don't you come on up?" And I thought "Well, I'm not doing anything else. Why not?" I know Sean and Jenny well enough, but really only through Carly and Daniel, and it's a pretty small wedding. So, there isn't any room for extras at the ceremony or dinner, but I helped set up and I'm going to head back over later for the reception. This is extremely me in two ways: 1. I'll go to a wedding, help set up tables, chairs, flowers, etc but not stay for the actual ceremony, and 2. I have so little to do on a weekend that I'll drive an hour to not go to a wedding. But really, the main reason I came is to hang out with Carly and Daniel a little more. I know I just saw them last weekend, but once Carly starts her residency Tuesday, her free time is going to be pretty scarce.

So anyway, I better get changed. Here's another Marc fun-fact: I'm going to wear the exact same shirt, pants and tie that I wore for my college graduation five years ago. I haven't accumulated any new dress clothes since then. Thank you, business casual!