Okay, so I’m now back from my trans-Pacific trip, and there will be a few posts forthcoming about the trip to Terra Australis. In addition to the Australia trip there have been a few other major things going on, such as moving out of my old apartment and into Isaac’s house, and going to a wedding in Indiana. But let’s start with the wedding.
So on Fri 30 July I gave a seminar on my research at 9am in the Water Tunnel Bldg on campus, the same seminar I was to give three times in Australia. After I finished that and some other things I had to take care of, I hit the road for Kettering, Ohio (a suburb of Dayton), to visit my friends Daniel & Katie. It took a lot longer than expected to get there, however. It was fine until I approached Pittsburgh. For some reason Yinzers are scared to death of driving through a tunnel, so they slow to a crawl for two miles leading up to it. It’s happened every single time I’ve come into Pittsburgh on I-376/US-22 from the east — and this wasn’t even rush hour! Then I hit another inexplicable traffic jam in downtown Pittsburgh, most likely caused by Yinzers being afraid to merge properly (or at all). Then I hit another traffic jam on I-79 near Washington, PA, as it approached a junction with I-70, which had construction both ways on it (several mile standstill backup). Then on I-70 near Wheeling, WV, traffic was backed up several miles up the hill because the tunnel in Wheeling was closed — and so were two of the three lanes of the I-270 bypass around Wheeling. What genius! In all, it took me about three hours to travel 60 miles. UGH. When I finally got into Ohio it was smooth sailing though.
Once I got to Daniel & Katie’s and brought my suitcase into their house, Daniel innocently asked, “Is that everything?” because he wanted to shut the garage door. Then it dawned on me all of a sudden. I had forgotten something. Namely, the clothes I had picked out to wear to the wedding. They were hanging in my apartment’s closet. By themselves. (I had packed up all my other clothes and taken them to Isaac’s in preparation of moving out, so those literally were the only clothes left in my closet.) I remembered to pack the shoes, just not the pants, shirt or tie. SIGH. Anyway, I felt like a dolt, but decided not to worry about it that night or the next morning, and instead wanted to enjoy my time hanging out with Daniel & Katie and their two young daughters, Paige (17 mos.) and Claire (5 mos.). They’ve sure got their hands full, but not as full as they will be when they’re both toddling around. 🙂 It was fun to hang out with them again, but unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of their young brood. I’m looking forward to when they come visit State College sometime in October!
On Saturday I headed north and northwest from Dayton, angling over to Goshen, Indiana. Along the way I stopped at a JC Penney to purchase some wedding attire. Considering all I had was shorts and a t-shirt, it was pretty necessary. 🙂 But I found something agreeable to me at an agreeable price. I still wasn’t thrilled about buying more clothes when I already have so many and am preparing to move to Colorado by trying to fit all my possessions into my car.
Anyway, onto the wedding. I hadn’t ever met Mary Rose before, but I’ve been friends with Luke from way back in kindergarten/1st grade in Mountain Lake, MN (which, incidentally, doesn’t have a mountain but does have a lake). We were on the same bus route and were practically best friends back then. When I was in 2nd grade my family moved to Wisconsin, but Luke & I kept in touch through letters periodically, and he and his mom even came to visit once when they were in Osceola for a Bible camp. Through middle and high school we lost touch, but when I was a freshman at Gustavus, I saw a poster in Björling Hall (the music building) advertising an upcoming concerto performance in nearby New Ulm by the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra, featuring guest pianist Luke Norell. I thought it was worth a drive over to the concert to see if it was the same Luke Norell that I knew, and when he walked out on stage with his red hair, I knew it was him. So we’ve kept in touch ever since then, but still haven’t been able to hang out much.
Luke & Mary Rose are both pursuing their DMA in piano performance, Luke at Indiana University, and Mary Rose at Northwestern University. So of course there was some fantastic music at the wedding! 🙂
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Luke even broke from the script at one point and turned to Mary Rose to say, “A long time ago I told you that I’d love to play you some Chopin at our wedding. I’d like to play you some now.” It was a total surprise for Mary Rose!
The reception was held in the atrium right outside the recital hall where the wedding took place. It was nice to have it right on-site. Partly because it wasn’t a large space, and partly because both families are quite conservative, there was no dancing at the reception, and there wasn’t any alcohol either (not even champagne for toasts). It’s not an arrangement that I’d prefer for my wedding, and some people might say that a wedding without any alcohol or dancing is lame, but for this one it actually worked great. I was at a table of people who all knew only either the bride or the groom but pretty much nobody else there, which was kind of nice, actually, in that nobody felt totally isolated. A funny moment came when one guy at my table accidentally lit his program/songbook on fire, hehe. 🙂 The reception was also filled with music throughout, with lots of family members and friends getting up and playing/singing various pieces, many of which were in small songbooks that were at each seat so that everyone could sing along as well. It was great fun!
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Even Mary Rose’s grandmother got into the act with a rousing rendition of “He Is Jehovah,” which I unfortunately only caught the tail end of. But she got a standing ovation, quite deservedly!
Luke and Mary Rose also played a few piano duets:
It was a great wedding and reception, and I was glad I could make it. Even though I of course didn’t get much of a chance to catch up with him, I was able to catch up some with his family, which was nice. Not many of Luke’s friends were able to make it to Indiana, so they had a couple of receptions back in Minnesota for folks there in mid-August. So they were especially appreciative that I was able to make it. I think they enjoyed my story about forgetting my clothes too, and that I was in the process of moving out and about to travel to Australia on top of that, and that I still could make it. 🙂
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After staying the night in Goshen, and staying a bit longer than planned for breakfast because of a conversation with Luke’s dad and some other folks, I hit the road for my 8-hour drive back to State College. I got there around 7pm, and then worked furiously to finish cleaning and getting my stuff out of my apartment around 1am, before leaving for our Australia trip at 7am the following morning. Nothing like a nice, relaxing weekend right before international travel, haha! I wouldn’t change a thing about the weekend though, other than maybe being a bit further along on cleaning/moving out prior to the weekend. 🙂 It all worked out though!
I had hoped to fly to my cousin Jonathan & Lindsey’s wedding in Spokane last weekend, just a few days after returning from Australia, but I realized I couldn’t afford it, what with the Australia trip and moving to Colorado. It would’ve been nice to bookend the trip with weddings, but I think I would’ve been too exhausted to hop right back on another plane for another cross-country trip!