I was out of state this past weekend for the wedding of my husband's niece (which technically makes her my niece as well, but I wanted to make the familial relationship clear in few words which is totally pointless after this long aside). It became a semi-family reunion because we saw relatives we haven't seen in years. One of my nieces has a seven-year old daughter that we've never seen. That's the problem with family living all over. I live in New Mexico, two nieces live in Idaho, one in Utah, one Bro-in-law and family in Houston, the other bro-in-law in California; so family get-togethers like this one are few are far between. We had one member of the oldest generation, four of us from the next, ten from the next and three from the next. Plus one if you count the groom that joined the family that weekend. A ten-hour drive took us to the location of the ceremony. We stayed in town for three days, played, talked, and essentially caught up with one another and life. There is a bond there that blood provides, which overcomes the lack of contact, the different lives and beliefs, and the generational gaps that exist. Or I may be delusional.
A few odd observations (and don't you think oddservations might be a good word for that?): Every state has its own unique quirks. My husband and I like to claim New Mexico drivers are the worst (not understanding the use of blinkers, drunk driving, speed), but I think every state claims that; but I have never seen lookie-loo traffic as bad as I did in Utah. We passed three accidents, minor fender benders all, but from the way traffic was stopped, you'd think the next dinosaur-massacring asteroid had hit and everyone wanted a piece. Also, we are suffering from the most sever drought here in New Mexico (really, if they can consider piping oil from Canada to Texas, can't they consider piping water from all those flood regions here? Okay, there's no money in water; I get it), but both Colorado and Utah are green. I figured out why--they water! Every field had a sprinkler system and they were on. No wonder we don't have water here. Saw some odd businesses too--taxidermy and antiques at one; statuary and farm equipment at another. And in Utah on I-15 they have the HOV lane. We finally figured out we could drive in because we had three occupants in our car and one had to have 2 or more. HOV stands for High Occupancy Vehicle. I'm sorry, but two does not seem "high" to me. Seven or eight--now that would seem high. Those carpool lanes in California do the same. Two or more. Two does not make a carpool in my opinion. Those lanes should be three or more at least. Then they would truly be worth driving on.
Okay, so this was a slow and not very interesting blog, but, hey, we all have those days. The wedding was beautiful, very informal, and looked lovely. The bride and groom don't have a lot of money, but really, I like this wedding better than a lot of the fancier weddings I've attended. So congratulations to the bride and groom (they know who they are), and a hello to my family (They know who they are too).
--Gabi
P.S. Pixie isn't blogging this week because she's still mad that we left her behind. With a fine house-sitter, but Pixie hasn't forgiven us yet.
