Sunday Post, Part A

Ironically, I didn't take many pictures of the wedding week at all. I had the camera with me most of the time, but was so busy with everything that I rarely got it out of the bag. I had high hopes to get some significant knitting done during my week+ away, but that didn't happen either. Well, I did get *some* knitting done and *some* work done, but not as much of either as I had planned.

It was a wonderful week in many ways. Max was terrific, and I had a wonderful time with my mother-in-law who has graciously agreed to move closer to us (as in--to State College) sometime in '07. While there will be some advantages to this move for her--including the most obvious, which is that you can get a really sweet apartment for what she's paying in mortgage in Northern California--we're really encouraging her to do it for purely selfish reasons. There's no changing the fact that she was born and raised in Northern California and that moving to Central PA at this point will be a sacrifice. We intend to make it up to her (and to paint her interior before the sale and to handle as much of the moving hassles as she'll permit us).

But I digress. My sister was an adorable bride-to-be and a stunning bride. Her husband-to-be was appropriately excited about the nuptuals and beside himself with joy during and after them. It was an auspicious new beginning for them. Many happy tears were shed. I met her in-laws for the first time and was just so pleased to find them as charming and warm as you could hope for. I don't suppose I can say it to her directly, but I'm so grateful for a year of learning to understand Max's Ukrainian piano teacher. Her accent isn't exactly the same as the elder Veytser's but it's close enough that I didn't have too much trouble understanding Yefim, a wonderful, big-hearted man who still carries a thick Russian accent. Alycia had mentioned that his English wasn't as good as his wife's, but I only had to ask him to repeat a few things over the course of the weekend--and we were honored to be seated next to them (our hosts) at the rehearsal dinner--so we enjoyed a nice long talk about American education, the importance of a strong music education, American sports, and the basic nature of a ten-year-old boy. I didn't grasp how lucky I was to be able to understand him well until one of my cousins came by to chat and it rapidly became clear that he missed absolutely everything Yefim said. His eyes got that confused look and his nodding and smiling became robotic. Yefim gave up and let his wife do the talking. So I picked up with him where we'd left off before the cousin came over. I felt priveledged to be able to enjoy the conversation with this witty and warm man. Thank you Mrs. Bernstein for giving me the key to that door. (And it's stuff like this that really make me wonder if there really are any coincidences at all.)

Flying was tough. I don't enjoy it. I was just trying to keep it together to avoid freaking out Max. Nutty parents make poor travelling companions. Being away from Chris and the kids for a week was tough. I didn't enjoy it. Financially it was prohibitive to take the whole crew, but it was too bad we couldn't all go. The twins would have had a blast around all of those relatives. My parents are visiting in another few weeks, so at least they will get to see the twins. It's been a year. They've grown so much!