vovat | At My Father's Wedding

On Saturday, my dad got married for the third time (he and my mom divorced when I was a kid, and his second wife died a few years ago), so

bethje and I flew out to Albuquerque to attend the wedding. So did my brother and his wife, and my sister and her friend, but on different flights, all on Friday. When we reached New Mexico, I got a sandwich at Schlotzsky's Deli. This was the first time I'd been to one of those, even though they do have them in my area. I had a ham and gouda sandwich that I quite enjoyed, although I have to wonder why they normally come with barbecue sauce. I got mustard instead, mind you, but it still seems weird to me. Anyway, we went to a rehearsal at the church, then had dinner at Phyllis' relatives' house. They had fajitas, with three kinds of meat available. The shrimp were particularly tasty. The actual wedding was at 2 on Saturday at St. Chad's Episcopal Church, and I read Psalm 100 out loud. Actually, I read it along with everybody else, so even though I was ostensibly leading, it didn't really feel like it. Normally when I read out loud I go way too fast, and it's difficult for me to tell that I'm doing this. I remember my mom telling me the elementary school wanted to put me in speech therapy because I read too quickly. They never did, though. My problem is that I really don't know how I sound to other people. I guess nobody does, but at least other people are better able to realize when they're too loud. Whenever I've heard my voice recorded, I just thought I sounded kind of dumb. Anyway, my dad and Phyllis signed the marriage license at the ceremony, which struck me as odd because I remember having to do that some time before the marriage. Maybe it varies by state.

After a reception at the church, we all met again at a hotel that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, the only way to get there was on a series of winding roads. My dad had talked about ordering pizza, but then was waffling about it. I ended up getting a little pizza at the hotel bar, then it turned out they ordered the pizza anyway. Not that I mind having pizza twice in one day, but I probably would have skipped the bar pizza if I'd known. On Sunday morning was our flight back home, and there was a considerable delay when we transferred in Dallas, so we got back a lot later than I'd been intending. Since I worked at 7 AM today, it pretty much meant going right to bed. As soon as we showed up at the door, Reagan immediately started asking for food. Hey, kitty, couldn't you at least tell us you missed us first? I'm actually reading a book about cats, so maybe I'll find out something about that. Cats being obsessed with being given food is actually a fairly recent thing, as they traditionally would catch their own food. I'm not sure Rea could catch rodents even if she did have access to them, but who knows? She does eat bugs sometimes.