Wedding Reception

A good friend of mine got married last weekend, so I got to drive all the way up to downtown Salt Lake for the reception at his parents' home. It's a beautiful place, frankly I wasn't surprised.

After I had wandered around all by myself for a bit I was about ready to head out, but as I was leaving I ran into a mutual friend from school. It's been ages, so it was wonderful to see him. He happened to have another friend with him whom I've never met before, but who is also friends with the groom. The three of us stayed glued to each other for the rest of the evening. The guy I just met was really fun, and we had a great time. As the evening wore on, it got increasingly more chilly out. In an effort to warm ourselves I linked arms indiscriminately with either man and we huddled close. I'm sure we made a really interesting group for those around us: two boys and one girl, who didn't care who she was clinging to. As I sit here typing this I keep thinking about the boys I was with. My friend is from Ghana, and his friend is from the Middle East somewhere. So the mental image is: this pale red head standing around with a dark Middle Easterner, and a very dark African. We were the most ethnically diverse people around (not that I had anything to do with the diversity). Funny, until just now I hadn't really thought about that.

As we were meeting strangers who we'll never see again my friend from Salt Lake introduced us to his mother. I was tucked close to my friend from Ghana as we introduced ourselves around. She asked him how he spelled his rather unique name and then what his last name was, and how he spelled it. I laughed and exclaimed, "I still don't know how to spell his first name!" She laughed, too. I'm sure she thought I was kidding, since she undoubtedly assumed that he and I were involved. I love that about Utah. Spend five minutes with someone publicly and you're assumed to be dating.

At the end of the reception my friend's new wife was tossing the bouquet. The boys encouraged me to join in the "fun." As she turned away from us I called out to her to throw it to the side that I wasn't on. Her loving husband told her to throw it in my direction. Surprising to us all was the moment that I actually caught the stupid thing. I tried to give it back to her before I left, but she told me to keep it. So, now I am drying it, and shall ship it back to them along with their wedding gift. I don't know if she'll want it, but I do know that he will. That boy is more of a girl than I am.