It's almost 10 AM, which means I have only nine and a half more hours to spend at the Columbus airport before my flight back to Fargo, and the combination of that enormous time frame and the eventfulness of the last week means that this could end up being quite a long blog post. I'll split it up into sections so you can decide what you're interested in to read.
New Friends
So, as you know, pretty much everyone I know is going to be graduating and moving far away in two weeks, and even as I write that I have that same stomach-twisting feeling I had when I was first moving here. Time to start all over again with some new people. With my impending aloneness in mind, on Tuesday I went to my first post-college Fargo transplants meet-up at pub trivia in South Fargo. Apart from the twenty-questions I subjected them to, I'd like to think I did pretty well. My suspicions that these were people I was going to like were pretty well confirmed when Erin, one of the group's organizers, mentioned one of my favorite, most cringe-worthy James Bond puns ("I thought Christmas only comes once a year." Kill me.). The next few weeks are a little crazy, but I'm hoping to go back to trivia soon, and hopefully hang out more with that group of people over the summer and during the next school year.
Then on Friday, Sam, Laura and I went out to dinner and then to the Fargo Brewing Company taproom for beers. First of all, this place is the best, the atmosphere is super relaxed and comfortable, and the beer is amazing, and I would just like to remind all my Fargo people that I have been trying to get you to go for months and months, and the fact that you only have another couple of weeks to enjoy it is definitely not my fault. Anyhow, the evening got off to an interesting start when a very, very drunk woman from Stillwater started talking to us about fireworks, her ex-husband and her dogs in a friendly-aggressive way you only really encounter in drunks of the Upper Midwest. Luckily, she and her boyfriend got into a cab after a few minutes with us, but not before she stole some beer in one of the taproom's water glasses under her sweatshirt. We decided it might be a good idea to move to a quieter area, and took a seat at one of the picnic tables, next to a guy who had also been talking to this woman. We struck up a much more comprehensible conversation with him, and after he made it through some of Laura's more horrifying stories, we decided he was a pretty cool guy. He seems to really like living in Fargo, gave me some suggestions about where the best tattoo parlors are (ahem, Teddy), and sounds like he's got a good group of friends in the area. He's in a sort of motorcycle gang, for lack of a better term, and they're having a benefit in September, with tattoo artists and, I don't know, motorcycles probably, which he invited us to. We explained that Sam and Laura would be leaving in a couple of weeks, but that I would be around for another year. As he and his wife were leaving, he gave me his phone number, and we agreed that he would get in touch when fun things were happening. So, basically killing it friend-making-wise right now.
School Things
I have put together a Dream Team thesis committee. My advisor and committee members are, first of all, great people, but also just seem really excited about my project -- investigating warning receipt and evacuation behavior following the Casselton train derailment and explosion in December. I told Dr. K that there was no way for me to propose by the end of the semester, and instead of objecting or anything, he just nodded and agreed. So there's a lot of pressure off for the next two weeks. Gurt, my GIS professor from last semester, is also on board, has been doing some work on Casselton, and I think is going to be a great addition. Nan, my stats professor, also seems excited about it, and I think will be really helpful in developing a survey. I'm anticipating having to figure out a lot of the logistical stuff on my own, but other than that I think it's going to be a great thesis, and I'm looking forward to it more than I thought I would be.
In other great news, I managed to shanghai a bunch of undergrads into participating in a focus group that I did on Friday. That was borderline miraculous. I still have to do all the focus group transcription, analyze my results and then write an entire paper, but at least I don't have to, you know, make up data. Also, still have just over nine hours at this airport, so I should be able to get a good chunk of that done today. I also have a paper to write for preparedness and a paper that needs quite a bit of editing for the independent study I'm taking, so even with today, I'll still have a pretty busy next couple of weeks, but it will all get done. It always does.
Old Friends, Married Friends
The reason I'm in the Columbus airport, instead of happily asleep in my bed, is that I went to the wedding of two dear friends from Carleton this weekend. Anna and Denis were in choir and Singers with me, and it was so amazing to watch them get married with friends from school and the choral department, including Lawrence (!), the choir director. I don't do sentimental and thematic very well, so I'll stick with a chronological description of the weekend. I got into Columbus on Saturday afternoon, rented a car, had a terrifying drive on 670, and made it to Lia's brother's fiancée, Paula's (whew) apartment, where Lia and I stayed, around 4. It's been almost a year since I saw Lia in person, so even though we Skype nearly every weekend to do the NYT crossword, it was so, so good to see her. We hung out, talked about books and school/work until around 6:30, when Paula got home and we all went to dinner at Aladdin's. We chatted about travel over baba and pita, and then Lia and I drove into downtown Columbus for Anna's bachelorette party. Thinking that, well, Columbus is not a huge city, it's sort of surrounded by agriculture, and surely nothing in Ohio could compare to Cleveland, I wasn't expecting much from downtown. As a matter of fact, I was thinking that I was going to be just about the best thing Columbus has ever seen, which is hilarious in retrospect, because Columbus, of course, is home to OSU, and home also to many, many attractive undergraduates. Disappointed as I was not to astonish Columbus with the attractive style I have honed in Fargo, I was impressed with the nightlife. I probably shouldn't say too much about the party itself, but it was fun to see Anna, Ronnie and Shavi, and to meet one of Anna's coworkers. The group was going to meet up with the bachelor party, but Lia and I weren't sure when that was going to happen exactly, and ended up going home a little on the earlier side. It seemed like Anna had a good time, though, which is the important thing.
On Sunday morning, after a long chat with Paula and Lia about American public education, Meghan picked me up and we went to get coffee together. I forget how much I love Meghan, and how easy it is to fall into conversation with her. We had a lot of catching up to do -- we hadn't seen each other since before I left DC -- especially about family and friends from school. We had overlapping but slightly different social circles in college, so we usually have fresh and interesting gossip about people for each other when we talk. Two hours of conversation passed incredibly quickly, and then Meghan returned me to Paula's apartment.
Lia and I changed and then went to the Grandview neighborhood, where we searched unsuccessfully for a New York Times and a snack. We drove around a lot (I'm a terrible navigator, as it turns out), ended up going to Starbucks for the paper and CVS for snacks and some last-minute beauty products before going to the hotel where most of the wedding guests were staying. Lia and I did a little of the crossword, and then headed up to the hotel room Lia's roommate was staying in, where we did our hair and makeup, and did a little rehearsing. A little backstory, here -- we agreed several weeks ago (well, I've been planning this since Anna and Denis got engaged, to be honest) to sing something for the bride and groom, because so many of the wedding guests were choir people. After a great deal of debate and an unbelievable number of Facebook messages (I left the conversation for a few minutes and came back to 42 of them, at one point), we settled on the old standby, "Benediction," which we sang at every choir concert. I have always hated this song, and will probably always hate it, but everyone agreed it was the right song for the occasion. After some back and forth about who would sing what part (I'm also a terrible sight singer, as it turns out), we rehearsed a few times before heading over to the wedding venue.
Anna and Denis got married at the Dublin Arts Center, which could not really have been more perfect. We took photographs and watched people setting up the chuppah. It was a windy day so they had their work cut out for them, and we have some photos that I'm sure include some out of focus people struggling in the background. We also used the time before the ceremony to do more catching up. Elena and I saw each other last right before she moved to Ann Arbor, I think, which would have been at the end of last summer. I felt a little guilty for the degree to which I monopolized Elena last night, especially because her boyfriend Matt was also at this wedding, and they're doing long distance and probably just wanted to enjoy each other's company. I couldn't help myself, though. Elena is another one of those people who you can talk to for hours and hours without realizing it, and as a result, we always have a disproportionately large amount of material to refresh each other about.
Anyhow, the ceremony got started around 4:30, right after we'd all had a chance to say hi to Denis. The bride was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful, and I cried a lot, which I don't imagine will surprise anyone. The vows were so sweet and sincere -- that was really where I lost it. I really don't have much to say about it, except that it really was quite remarkable that at the end of the ceremony all the women I was standing with and I did not have mascara all over our faces.
After the ceremony, we signed a wedding contract and then started drinking. After lovely toasts from the maid of honor and best man, all the choir people got together and sang "Benediction," and I think everyone who somehow didn't cry at the ceremony got their chance then. Anna and Denis sang along with us, which we weren't expecting, but which was great. Anna told Lawrence afterward that she also hates that song, but thought it was the perfect thing to sing. Of course, we have the problem now that for every future Carleton choir couple that gets married, we have to decide on a different song to sing. Moreover, given the difficulty we had organizing this one, I can only imagine future weddings will be more difficult. I guess we could always just keep singing "Benediction."
We spent the rest of the night dancing, drinking and talking. It was great to see everyone, and it was so nice to go to a wedding that was such a good reflection of the bride and groom, instead of just a huge, fancy party (although those are great too, frankly). The party is fun, but it's not the part of the day that matters. I hope I, and all my friends, are lucky enough to meet and get to spend our lives with people we love as much as Anna and Denis love each other. Congratulations again, guys, I couldn't be happier for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment