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31 OCTOBER 2007 |
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nashville wedding
G: We went
to Nashville this past weekend, to attend the wedding of one Ken
Catania and one Elizabeth Halderman. We flew in Friday morning, rented
a car, and brought Tomtom with us. He/she led us to a vegetarian
restaurant called Grins (and pronounced Greens, we hear), which turned
out to be a little lunch counter in the Jewish community center on
campus at Vanderbilt. We got some yummy wraps and stocked up on some
vegan cookies. From there we went to our hotel, then took a nap (we'd
stayed up late at the Looney's the night before, came home and packed,
and got up early for out flight). After the nap Tomtom led us to Ken
and Liz's place for a welcome BBQ. There we saw everyone who came from
Maryland for the wedding - Thom and Kathy, John and Chris Amigo,
Chris's wife Linda, Barchan and Suzy, and Kevin Hunter. Also in
attendance was another member of the gang, Jeff Pringle, in from
California. We stayed late hanging around the sorriest little campfire
you ever saw (in an old planter that kept falling apart).The next morning we went to visit some folks I grew up with in South Florida - Bill Gregg (and his wife and 5 year old Ben, who is adorable) and his parents Bill and Sharon, who all live in the Nashville area. Growing up they lived just a few long blocks away from us, and our parents were friends. Bill I were in all the same classes through elementary school, and had most of the same classes in middle and high school. We were talking about how it seemed all the kids in our neighborhood were always in the same classes. I'd always thought it was because we were the smart kids, but Bill's mom told us how she was active in making sure that the elementary school we went to allowed us to go there, since we were bussed in from "the sticks." Apparently the parents at that school wanted it to only be local kids. But there wasn't any other school for us! So we went there (Pembroke Pines Elementary).
We all sat around the dining room table chatting and reminiscing for hours, then Bill Sr. took us all to lunch. Then we went to a lovely park and walked around for a while. We went back to their place from there and took our leave. We really enjoyed spending time with the extended Gregg family. It's fun to talk about when we were kids. Although growing up Bill and I rarely if ever hung out together on our own, we were part of the same group of kids and friends throughout our school years, and those people are just part of your spine.
It was time for another nap at the hotel before the wedding that evening. John dressed up in his all black suit (which I ironed for him in the hotel room) and I wore mostly black as well, and we both wore masks, since it was a masquerade. The event was held at a place called the Cannery Ballroom, which is often a venue for musical acts. It was a huge, brick walled room, with a (open) bar all along one side, lit with candles and red lighting. At each place was a fancy mask, so I switched mine and wore it about half the evening. There was also a little gold glitter covered pumpkin with the name tags at each place - and Kevin made sure that everyone got rubbed with it. Most people ended up with glitter all over them that night. There were lots of neat costumes. The ceremony was short and sweet, the bride was gorgeous, the groom handsome, the food was good, and the dancing was fun. I had a blast doing the time warp with a bunch of people. John and I also did a ouija dance with Kathy - she loved it and a woman came up to us later to ask us about it. She thought we'd choreographed it! She thought it looked fantastic.
When it was all over we went back to the hotel that most of the folks were staying at, and hung out in the bar lounge late into the night with John's old friends. A nice fellow and couple of young ladies from the bride's side joined us as well.
The next day I slept in but Lori called early saying Mango was having trouble - she took her to the vet and she's been doing fine since, but sleeps a lot. Once I got up we went around doing touristy things. We ended up going to things that Bill recommended to us. We went to Bicentennial Park near the capitol and saw a neat, huge monument of the entire history of Tennessee - from pre history to modern times, just little snippets carved into stone along a wall that was very very long. Near the end was a cool giant stone globe that was held up by water and turned slowly. John played with it, making it turn slower, or faster, and we even tried to get it going as if it were on it's axis, but didn't really get it right.
After that we headed over to Centennial Park, where there is a reproduction of the Parthenon. We saw a sign that said it would open at 12:30, so we walked around and waited, but when we headed back to the door is when I noticed that it was closed for the season. So we didn't get to go in and see the reproduction of the Athena statue.
We heard that there was a Woodlands Indian restaurant nearby, so we asked someone about it. They didn't know where it was, but had just come from another Indian restaurant, which they liked a lot and recommended, and I had seen it on the way there, so we decided to go there instead (since Tomtom did not know where Woodlands was (too new I guess)).
At Sitar the food was good, but a bit oily. Anyone know of an Indian restaurant that goes easy on the oil? We saw a very clean and powdered looking older gentleman there who John was certain was someone famous, but I didn't recognize him so we have no clue.
The heavy food made us sleepy, so back to the hotel for more napping. Once we finally got up again, we forced ourselves to go out to someplace to hear some music, because we were in Nashville for crying out loud. We went to the Bluebird Cafe (recommended by Bill and found by Tomtom), stepped inside, and found it completely packed. It was a pretty small place, and a full band was on the small stage. We heard half of a song then one more, and they sounded great and the songs were neat too. We just stood in the doorway, hoping some space would open up. Since the act onstage was finished, the waitress told us some folks would probably be leaving soon. So we waited it out. A guy came in behind us and was chatty, so when we were able to grab a table we had him come sit with us. There were two more seats there and John noticed a couple of young ladies waiting by the door and looking around, so I went over and told them they could sit with us. The guy's name was Hitton and he was from Britain - London, specifically. He was a musician, on a trip from LA to Nashville to NYC. He said he'd been to the Bluebird before and it was fantastic. One of the women lived in Nashville, the other was visiting her, but we found out she once lived in Silver Spring. Then the music started - and they have a no talking policy. It was writer's night - a whole bunch of singer/songwriters got up and did three songs each. All but one was really good, I liked at least one song from each of them, and more from most. The only one whose name I remember is Brice Ash, he was first, and ended up being one of the better ones.
So we had a lovely time and came home the next morning (Monday) and John went to work and I taught classes that night.
It's Halloween as I write this, and we spent the evening with Rich and Izolda (Rich is just back from China where he's been all month). Izolda was going to have a birthday party at Little Bennet State park, but when she and Rich tried to drive there, they found the Beltway was unpassable (something about 5 accidents between College Park and 270) and decided to call it off. So we hung out at their house (brought Katy), ate a bunch of food and chocolate and drank mead. We took a short walk in the dark woods (stopping by Paul and Susan's new place and saying hi) and did a ouija dance in the woods.
The end.