pecunium: (Loch Icon)
[personal profile] pecunium
It was... words fail me. Incredible, wonderful, lovely, quiet, abundant, overwhelming, joyful, chaotic, controlled, loving, mirthful, splendid, fun, silly, charming, moving, normal, thoughtful, abandoned; pick three, five; the lot, add some of your own choosing, and shuffle them any which way you choose.

It was all of that, and more, and less and there is not in me the skill to convey it.

But I shall try.

I've been looking forward to this for months. For purely selfish reasons I wanted to go. Home again to Ottawa (Cat and Marna have tattoos which say, "home is not a place" this goes in step with, "home is where the heart is," and I've made similar sentiments plain in dinners in messes where there were soldiers from lots of places. I call a lot of places home, and one of them is a duplex in Ottawa, but I digress).

So I arrived. Cat and Marna met me with timmies and we went to pho. Friday was quiet. I think this was when I cleaned the glassware. Saturday we did some wedding prep (Eugene and Adrienne and Allison came over, with chinese food, and we had an impromptu work party to fortify the port, and label the wine).The set aside glassware for Merav was used to soak the corks, and so some minor drama ensued; and it was being sought, and I was the only one who knew where it was... and I was the last one asked about having seen it. I also set aside a glass for my very own (it was etched, and delicate) Marna and I had a date.

Sunday was spent running wedding errands. We discovered the shop where she planned to get kilt-hose was either out of business, or moved.

I told Marna not to worry, there would be some other shop, or we could beg Les to ferry some from SF. I forget what happened on Monday. Some of it involved people dealing with dresses.

Tuesday I trekked out to the Scottish Shop, and picked some up. I didn't quite manage to figure out the quirks of part of the street connections, so instead of 8 kilometers, I walked a bit more than 11. Then I dead-reckoned the buses home (which I did poorly. This is when last year's bus strike bit me. This trip is when I figured out how to work the transit system). It was a good day. I got to be by myself some, and take some photos and enjoy a walk in the winter air.

Wednesday is also something of a blur. I spent it mostly at the house, and then joined Cat and Marna, who had gone to the airport to meet Mel, who had come out to do the cakes. I grabbed a bus, headed toward the Glebe (happily remembering the layout of the area; much helped by the previous day's walkabout). Grabbed some soup, sat with them some, and finished my coffee while they headed out to look at some needed stuff for making cakes. Caught up to them, and scoped out the cookware shop.

Plans were made to join Gibbs for rock-climbing on Thursday.

Thursday Mel came over, and started on cakes. She and I had already started (to quote her), "geeking out on cooking and knives" on the bus back the night before. I showed her the knife I had ferried up for Ian's father, (as a thank you for all doing the catering for the reception), and we discussed more strategies for cakes. Then I headed out to meet Suzanne for a walk in the park and some photography.

We saw snow, and trees, and heard chickadees. Deer stalked us (a juvenile, a fawn, and a three point buck. I don't know if later deer were the same (the buck didn't return), but we saw more. For a brief time we were surrounded. As we were heading back to the bus, so I could meet with Mel and Gibbs for climbing of rocks, Suzanne spotted a porcupine in the trees. He was doing his best sloth imitation. It wasn't very good and he fell. So we took some photos (the look deceptively cuddly, I didn't test this theory), and made our way.

I dead reckoned back to the climbing gym (stopping off at the Scottish Shop to get better directions. It's a sneaking climbing gym, hiding in a non-descript corner of a back lot. It doesn't help that the numbering in the plaza basically wraps around, so google maps places it about a km away; in an empty field.

Mel was too busy with cakes to join us, so I got to climb with Gibbs and Chantalle and Carol and Lorayne. They quizzed me on how I knew Gibbs, and why I was in town, and were slightly confused by the answers. I wasn't able to climb as much as I'd like; my hip kept locking up. I suspect I was also starting to suffer some low-grade sleep dep.

We made our way back, and then we had pho because Les had arrived (yay!) and Mel joined us. Afterwards we retired to Gibbs (so the side trip to pick up my tie and waistcoat wasn't needed, but no matter), and sampled beverages (I got to refresh my memory of Sortilege; ah...) and took a tour of the house (before it was turned into an impromptu hostel; being large, and near to hand and Gibbs being a dear) and headed home.

Friday... the beginning of the wedding proper (or im). People were arriving. I headed down to Luciano's to get bacon, and cheese, and bread and eggs; that I might make some breakfast. Omelettes for about a dozen people. The walk was the calm before the storm (and the most charming single moment of the trip. I was taken for a local at the market). The sense of, Oh My God, there is going to be a wedding started to be palpable. Dresses weren't quite sorted; kilts were in some question of needing pressed. There was a party tonight. FLAIL. All in a strangely contained way. Some frictions, as getting dressed for the party (hosted by us, venued by Gibbs, attended by many... the number actually uncertain; there were confusions in the spreading of the word). I was in tails (I'd left them in Ottawa last year. I may just replace the jacket, and move the more portable parts, so as to be able to dress when I feel like it, where I feel like it), and got to put faces to great swathes of names. Benet arrived, Nell arrived, The Other Kat arrived, Izzy showed up, Andrew made an appearance. Skyler (whom I knew already, but hadn't yet seen this trip, was there). I made the acquaintance of Merav (of whom I had heard much, and little, because we'd been figuring out how to manage a kosher service; of something, so she could eat). And a friend of hers from childhood was in the area, so she was invited. Josee was there.

Arnon (fabled in stories) was present. Dominic, and Eugene and Adrienne, and Tall Alison, and Mel, and Sara Jean, and Jenny, and the names and faces blur together. Cheese was eaten, bread was shared, wine flowed, whiskey passed, glasses were broken toasts were made and Marna and I made a valiant effort, but the week had been long, and I was fading by not quite midnight, be the company ever so pleasant and so by quarter of one we were walking home. Cat and Ian got in about 4.

Up in the a.m. Plans had been made for people to join us for breakfast, prior to going about the canal (on skates), or wandering around the general area on foot. Scrambled eggs and bacon for 22 (so I'm told, I don't know. I was just working the stove for two hours, one fully loaded pan of eggs at a time. On top of arms tired from the rock-walls it was a moderate amount of work). We got out the door about 2:30. Piled people into cars and off we went.

Various sorts of the miscommunications of large; separated, groups happened, and other minor difficulties. I ended up skating on my own, while Izzy waited on the Other Kat; she and I being the only two who ended up skating. It's been something like twenty years since I was last on ice, and maybe thirty-five since I was on wild ice. It was my first time on hockey skates.

I had a blast. I never really fell, though I did end up with moments of being off my feet. Some bit of rotten ice, or over-gouged would put my one-point too far ahead of my center and I'd have to wrestle my balance, and slow; place a hand on the ice and get back up. The skates didn't quite fit, so I spent a fair bit of time adjusting them.

that said, I probably skated 4-5 miles in the hour. I was working with an open coat for much of the time, and skated back to the rendezvous to Rush's Red Barchetta. The next winter I am in Ottawa, I will have my own skates. The trip to the Scottish shop would have been much simpler with a long leg on the canal.

Saturday night was quiet. I don't, in fact, really remember it. At some point Les, and the Other Cat, decided they were going for pho (the pho place is swell... open until 5 a.m., and friendly, and yummy). Les called out, "Karney, I'm not taking you to dinner if you don't put some pants on," and so I dressed (I was swanning about in a red union-suit, by way of Pjs), and we walked to food.

Other people joined us. I don't recall who all. Les tried to pay. Marna told her to put her money away. Les said, OK, but told Marna she was being prevented from being nice to me, and so Marna let her pay for my soup. It was a good time.

Sunday was der Tag. Dressing, and getting one's hair done. Rayne being made-up downstairs. Andrew helping everyone upstairs. Me wandering about half-dressed (I wore my dress blues, and the coat/belt, aren't things to be wandering about in). Got dressed, got in the car, headed to the venue. Worked on set up. Said hello to people as they walked in. It became crowded.

Over the course of the next three hours the hall filled. I nibbled. I walked about. I talked to people. I met Marna's mother, Ian's aunts and uncles, and maybe cousins. Took some photos. Laughed, hugged, wandered. Drank some wine; looked at all the people. Tall Alison; in heels, and a brilliant purple wrapped number, which was devastatingly gorgeous when she danced. Marna and Rayne and Cat and Ian; wandering about, and mingling, and keeping track of each other. Mel arrived with the cakes (at last; she had been slaving over them from day one, and now they were done; Playmobil, and fondant, and icing, and legos made of sweet-tarts and there they were; on the display stand, ready to be gone, a labor of love, and an ephemera). Food was cleared, tables were squared, and people took their seats.

I had the rings, and my camera. Les, in vestments of white, took the floor. Sacred things were done, and said, and the floor was open to all. Poems were read, songs were sung, recollections were shared, and hopes expressed. The moment was near to hand. I took the rings, and; at the slow march, showed them to all, bringing them back to Les; and the vows were exchanged.

They were wed.

And the party recommenced. The music was louder, there was dancing, there was singing. There were toasts. Men in kilts; one in a caftan made from a tablecloth, and he looked grand in it, and tails and a uniform and joy abounding. We stayed 'till the hall wouldn't have us, and then back to Gibbs to carry on. A quieter time; the fancy dress a bit reduced (my jacket back at the house, Cat, Marna, and Rayne to lesser dresses), more port, a bit of whiskey; and Mel and I claiming bottles of Sortilege to take home. Too soon it was time to go, and at that I stayed to the last minutes I could be awake. Home, to pack, and then to take a nap, and then to get up and go to the airport with Les.

We took a cab. Marna joined us, and saw us off. I managed not to cry. Marna waited for Mel to arrive; her flight was only a couple of hours after ours (reports have it that she got on the plane with icing in her hair). We saw Andrew at the gate, as he waited to head toward Texas.

Off we went. I looked out the window for as long as I could make out the house, and then to the studying I'd not been doing for my econ mid-term. Landed in O'Hare, where Andrew lay in wait for us on the way to our gate. We had lunch and talked about people.

On the plane to SFO. More reading, and some very pleasant conversation with my seatmate; on her way to Stanford to discuss some translation she'd done. Home again. Phone calls to let people, from Ottawa to San Francisco know we were safe. Emails sent out to other people.

So many faces, and names and friends. All spread out; collected in one place, and then dispersed again. The mundane of everyday life to resume. The same as it ever was, and not.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inflectionpoint.livejournal.com
how utterly lovely!

and if you rock climb, I'd love to meet you and climb sometime. I'm learning and in love with it. good exercise for body and brain!

Date: 2010-02-10 06:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sylphslider.livejournal.com
It sounds just splendid, and like you had a great vacation to go with it. :)

Date: 2010-02-10 06:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com
I didn't know about the drama with the corks, but for the future, rest easy. Glass cannot be contaminated unless it's stained permanently or in a state where you cannot remove grease or grit. You can dip glass in boiling lard, and so long as you can get it completely clean again, it's kosher, automatically.

It was a beautiful wedding, and I feel blessed to have been a part of it.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
I had ten days of wedding, and meeting people and haze. It was a great trip. I don't know that it will be digeseted anytime soon, and I don't know that I will ever be able to remember it all. This was just the bits I could recall. There are lost chunks of time.

It was so worth it.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
I call a lot of places home, and one of them is a duplex in Ottawa, but I digress.

Not noteably, I feel; one might even claim to detect a theme to your post ...

*is all sniffly and loves you with ALL THE LOVE*

Date: 2010-02-10 06:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
The drama was trying to pack things up, and thinking the glass plates set aside for you were lost.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
Oh, no, the drama was that we were trying to find it to pack it up with the rest of your stuff and it was missing in action... because nobody thought to either ask Terry or look on top of the floating corks to see if it was being used as a weight. :-)

Date: 2010-02-10 06:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
One might. I am not sure it's quite the theme you think; and some of it is that pesky subtext the author didn't mean to include.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] minnehaha.livejournal.com
That sounds like a lovely set of days. Weddings are always perfect, somehow, and hockey blades are harder to skate on than figure skates.

K.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
I don't think I want toe picks on the canal. Some of the rough/rotten ice would have grabbed a tooth and I've been knocking people over like duckpins. :)

It did take some adjusting. I don't know that I'll ever be doing those ice-spray stops in them.

It was a lovely set of days. I'd not have missed them for the world, and for all that it was too short a visit, and full of crazy, better to have been before, than to have stayed after.
Edited Date: 2010-02-10 06:33 pm (UTC)

Date: 2010-02-10 06:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
This is always possible of course. *looks demure*

Date: 2010-02-10 06:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
The women's rentals all have toepicks. EVIL. EVIL. EVIL.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inflectionpoint.livejournal.com
this. glass is great for kosher things.

yay for non-porous surfaces.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zingerella.livejournal.com
Funny. I learned to skate with them, and even when I've skated on the canal, I've found them easier to manage with. Without toepicks, I feel too slidey.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
This is the one thing which makes enamel ware problematic. The iron has to be exposed at the rim.

But yes, yay for glass. I am so glad I have a lot of Visionware.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
The slidey is different. I had to plan slowing a bit more, but some dragging pretty much made for easy braking. The real thing I noticed was the lack of flat to the edge. The bearing surface for pushing is a lot less.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] martyn44.livejournal.com
Thank you for sharing such a joyous occasion. Reading that put a big grin on my face. Long and happy and fruitful lives to everyone involved.

Date: 2010-02-10 06:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
See, I largely learnt to skate on wheels, and secondarily on hockey skates.

Toepicks on wild ice are a one-way ticket to a faceful of ice, for me.

Date: 2010-02-10 07:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
Well, and also, the women's rentals are not figure skates. They are hockey style skates with toepicks. They are not flesh nor fowl, and they are sort of abominable to skate in.

Date: 2010-02-10 07:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
you had a great vacation to go with it.

*has hysterics*

We worked the poor man like a willing mule. There was a reason the last song was [1] Home For A Rest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbEKzxu7MVU)... aside from it being an Obligatory Canadian Wedding Thing.

[1] Ignore the two little tape blorts at the start there, it's otherwise clear audio.

Date: 2010-02-10 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
I didn't know that song was for me.

Date: 2010-02-10 07:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
It was for a great many of us. And you were one. :-)

Date: 2010-02-10 07:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zingerella.livejournal.com
eugh. That doesn't sound like fun at all!

I did not bring my skates, this trip, as the point was to see you lot married (yay!) and spend time with [livejournal.com profile] mycrazyhair (yay!). Running off to skate would have cut into the latter (moreover, packing skates would have meant I could bring one less extra dress with shoes and accessories, and, well, priorities)—I didn't figure [livejournal.com profile] mycrazyhair would be into skating at all, as she likes not the cold weather. Turns out I was correct, and she does not skate. This seems strange to me—as though she missed a part of a Canadian childhood that, along with swimming and canoeing, I had assumed common to all children born in Canada (I think my parents told me when I was very young that they considered these Essential Life Skills for Canadian children. But she is wonderful and smart and fun, and therefore I shall not fault her for the lapses in her education :-P. I shall simply make time to go skating when I am next in Toronto or Ottawa for a weekend.

(Which will sooner in the case of Toronto than in the case of Ottawa, but not especially soon in either case.)

Date: 2010-02-10 07:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
... how have I been thinking all along that you WERE in Toronto? I mean, other than that that seems to have been where we sent your invite ...

Now I am all confused. Where DOES one go (broadly) to procure oneself a [livejournal.com profile] zingerella?

Date: 2010-02-10 07:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sylphslider.livejournal.com
hey there.

I added your journal to my f-list. Just thought you should know.

Congratulations, btw. :)

Date: 2010-02-10 07:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zingerella.livejournal.com
I am usually in Toronto. So most days, one can find this particular zingerella in one of several places in Toronto. I am in fact in Toronto at this very moment (in the Tower in the Wasteland, to be precise).

But I am travelling next weekend, so it's going to be at least another week and a half before I find myself in Toronto on a weekend. And that seems like a very long time, indeed, because there are many many things packed into that week and a half, so the time is subjectively longer.

I love my life, but it sometimes overflows at the edges.

Generally, though, should one find oneself in Toronto, in one of the environments hospitable to the zingerella (such as the Danforth, or Chinatown East, or the House of Cute), there the zingerella may be found.

Unless it's the weekend and there's a dance festival or an awesome wedding or other hijinks going on.

Date: 2010-02-10 07:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
It's worse, to look at them they were twice hybrid. The profile of the blade was in between hockey and figure, as were the uppers. Too rigid for figure, and too soft for hockey (and the sheer rocklike nature of the hockey skates was a revelation).

Date: 2010-02-10 07:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
Excellent *makes plans involving Future Procurement Of Zingerellas for Shenanigans*.

Date: 2010-02-10 08:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zingerella.livejournal.com
Whee plans! Whee shenanigans!

Date: 2010-02-10 09:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
Thank you! I have done the same, let us see how it all works out. I'm not usually this interesting, I should note. :-)

Date: 2010-02-10 10:01 pm (UTC)
ext_5457: (Default)
From: [identity profile] xinef.livejournal.com
Hang on, I was in tails, maybe I did meet you after all. Were you the person I had a wonderful discussion with about Madeira vs Sherry? If so, I'm sorry I didn't properly introduce myself! If not, sorry for the mistaken identity.

Date: 2010-02-10 10:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kd5mdk.livejournal.com
That was a very appropriate song to close with. For many of us, I think.

Date: 2010-02-10 10:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com
Oh dear. I'm glad it worked out. I feel oddly bad that people were chasing glassware on my behalf.

Date: 2010-02-10 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com
Oooooh dear. I'm glad this worked out eventually.

*hugs you*

Date: 2010-02-11 12:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
That was me. Charmed.

Date: 2010-02-11 12:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
Do not.

1: It was not massive drama.
2: You are worth it (just as all the other quirks and needs were worth it)
3: Profit.

:)

Date: 2010-02-11 03:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] harimad.livejournal.com
I'm not usually this interesting, I should note.

Your readership may disagree.

Date: 2010-02-11 03:38 am (UTC)

Date: 2010-02-11 03:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dianyla.livejournal.com
Thank you for this writeup, for those of us who couldn't enjoy it in person.

Date: 2010-02-11 05:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
You're welcome. If I didn't write it, I'd forget it.

She is in town in a month. Don't forget, 27th of Mar.

Date: 2010-02-11 06:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dianyla.livejournal.com
Pretty sure that's why writing was invented in the first place, no?

It's on my calendar. :)

Date: 2010-02-11 04:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] commodorified.livejournal.com
Love, it was great fun, and well worth it. *smooch*

Date: 2010-02-11 05:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com
*hugs you*

My purple mug is now hiding with the rest of the wineglasses, since [livejournal.com profile] pecunium suggested that it matched his etched wineglass, it seems to think its a wineglass too.

Date: 2010-02-11 05:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com
hurrah, and mazel tov
For myself, it sometimes helps to see weddings and funerals as being for the attendees, not the principals. It sounds like you carried at least your share of the load.

Date: 2010-02-11 05:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com
One of my memories of being at my grandmother's is the glass plates we ate off of.

Date: 2010-02-11 05:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
Darling, if you keep it with the wineglasses, it's a punchbowl (well, it might be better thought of as a loving cup).

Date: 2010-02-11 05:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pecunium.livejournal.com
I wasn't quite an attendee, and I wasn't quite a principal. Thereby hangs a tale, or two.

Date: 2010-02-13 04:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com
I think perhaps the latter, with a little of the former, so many can share in it.

If I ever have need to host a Heinleinesque water ceremony it may figure in.

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