My desire to blog has been sapped by the hours spent in front of the computer in my efforts not to flunk the bar, but I would be remiss if I didn't write something about this last weekend.
We were in Asheville, North Carolina for John and Anna's wedding. North Carolina is a state I really like: beautiful beaches, great, evocatively-named mountain ranges and parks, clean and bounteous airports, and familiar-seeming people. Asheville lives up to all of this and adds its own weird element of hippie-dippie granola crunchiness. You look at the skinny bearded people traipsing around downtown with guitars slung over the shoulders and dredlocks springing out of their heads, and you wonder, how did you get to central North Carolina? Did your van break down or something? Because a lot of them were there.
The downtown was this beautiful tangle of art deco buildings -- sidewalk cafes, a great little bookstore, many art galleries, a metalworks shop, knitting supply company, art supply place, and the rest. We stayed in this palatial bed and breakfast with a wraparound porch and cool breezes wafting through the trees. John and Anna's families were staying in a sprawling old house with a backyard deck for grilling and a nice porch where we sat and enjoyed the day on the morning after the wedding.
The wedding itself was absolutely beautiful and very true to J&A. It took place in a vast old feed store with a high, beautiful ceiling. John and Anna walked in together in this short, brilliant moment of such simplicity and beauty, it really did catch my throat. During the ceremony they asked us to bring readings to share, so I read the third verse of LL Cool J's "Love You Better" and it went over very well. After the wedding the forty or so guests in attendance crossed the street to take a group photo, then it was back to the feed store for the reception. We danced, we drank. We went to a wine bar where it all continued. Too much white wine, but done in the name of a good and happy cause.
It was a beautiful weekend. I didn't do bar stuff, which caused me some guilt and heartburn, but it's ok. Our trip home proved to be a nightmare (disagreeable chicken from the Chili's in Charlotte produced its own problems, and then we didn't even get back to new York until 2 in the morning) but those things dissolved quickly in light of the time we shared in Asheville with J&A and their warm, happy families. We were lucky to be there and would not have missed it for the world.
***
PS -- I wanted to put up some photos of the occasion, but I don't like any of them. With the understanding that I am taller than most of my friends, apparently I am a lot beefier too, and my head is clearly bigger, resulting in a situation where I look like I am about to consume them with my giant, ever-expansive face. Maybe it was the alcohol, I don't know. Either way, in these photos I look like a combination of a Thanksgiving Day parade balloon, the late beloved Tim Russert, and that guy from "How I Met Your Mother" -- consequently, no photos. But it was still a great weekend.
1 comment:
That's too bad there aren't any pictures. Would love to have seen those Art Deco buildings!
Post a Comment