A Weekend Wedding

Brian and I escaped for another night away from the kids.
My dear friend, Pam, from college, got married this weekend outside of Philadelphia. She married a Brian—who not only has a great name, but is a terrific guy. I love that they got engaged in Venezuela en route to the South Pole. Not very many people have an engagement story like that!

Due to some miscommunication with my Mom about when the kids would be dropped off on Saturday, and having to call in an emergency favor from my friend Leslie to briefly stay with the kids, we drove like crazy. We arrived 2 minutes before the ceremony began—I was so relieved! Everything was beautiful, most of all Pam, who literally glowed down the aisle. Since I got married before many of my friends, I'm a little bummed that I did not reap the benefits of getting to attend numerous weddings before my own so I could have gotten some good ideas. I really needed your wedding, Pam, in my hat of ideas. Really, the traditional Polish veil removal dance would have been a nice addition to my reception.

And isn't her dress gorgeous?

Pam was a year behind me in college—besides sharing Polish roots, we became fast friends through taking a number of science courses together. She was by far my favorite lab partner and as Pam tells it, “I knew we’d be good friends when I saw we were wearing the same shoes on the first day of class.” We endured a lot of tough science courses together, but one thing is true—I would not have passed immunology my senior year if it weren’t for her. While I was cavorting back and forth to North Carolina to visit my Brian, Pam was recording lectures, taking notes and collecting homework assignments for me. She has always been a rock solid friend—much better than I deserve. In fact, for the last several years she has lived just 2 miles away from us in Silver Spring (until we moved, of course). We haven’t taken advantage of it nearly enough, but it has been so great having her nearby.

Although we were good friends, we didn’t run in the same social circles—mostly because I was a year ahead. I knew some of her friends and she knew some of mine. At her wedding reception we sat at the Oberlin table--I didn’t know many of them tremendously well, but spending an evening with a group of Obies took me back to why I love Oberlin so much. Obies are quirky and substantive. They often have out of the ordinary experiences and stories—several at the table were involved in PhD programs, one was currently serving on the jury for a murder trial (not by choice, of course), they had traveled to interesting places. And although they were out doing remarkable things, they were humble about it, in addition to accepting and interested in my decision to be home full-time. (Brian and I were the only married couple at the table and the only ones with kids.) A good number were vegetarian or vegan, they were musicians, they drove hybrids and cared about making a difference. Leaving that evening, I felt somewhat refreshed—I had returned briefly to some of my roots. Being with people from my past helped remind me of how I came to be who I am.

And the girls did great with Grandma and Grandpa Munk this weekend. It always slightly amuses me when grandparents are reminded of the challenges of taking care of little kids. They have memories of it when they raised kids, but so much of it fades into the folds of time. What I do know of Ella and Sam’s time with their grandparents was:

Treats were abundant

Car seats were not used

There was a pacifier emergency, where an evening run to Safeway was made for a replacement so Sam would stop screaming and go to sleep.

My Mom also remarked how involved it is getting ready for church in the morning with little kids and how it took four adults to keep Samantha under control throughout the church meetings. Never-the-less, the girls had fun, it’s always a treat to have a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s and Samantha once again reached a developmental milestone while her parents were away (you’ll recall she started crawling when we left her with Brian’s parents this summer): she has now started pulling up on furniture. That tricky little girl. Pictures will have to follow in the next post.