East Coast - West Coast

Muna, Aidan and I took a short trip to Boston to see my brother Steve get married. Lucy claimed she had too much schoolwork and work-work to come. We took the red eye, which lived up to its name. Aidan was the only one to get any substantial shut-eye on the plane, even sleeping through the landing! I guess sharing a bedroom with a snorer like Muna will either make you a deep sleeper or kill you. The trip was very short, but the boys got up to New Hampshire to see their Granny and shot down the Pike to Framingham to see their cousins Kyle and Kenzie. I got to meet the bride's mother and brothers, and got to know Gabe a little better. Except for one overcast day, the weather was warm and sunny, meaning we were there in that short spring window between too cold and too hot. It may have been comfortable for me in my suit, but it was hardly what you'd call kilt weather.

Steve's wedding at the inn which used to be the Framingham Town Hall was small and intimate and acknowledged our Scots heritage. Steve wore our family's tartan and hired a bagpiper to annoy the guests. Gabe's mother asked me in her thick Hungarian accent, "Where's your skirt?" At least that's what I think she said. Here the bride is naturally feeling shame at the realization that now she's married to Steve. The food was without a doubt the best I've ever had at a wedding: real Indian cuisine from naan to dal to tandoori chicken, which my boys love. I finally met Steve's old buddy Asif, who Steve's known for twenty short years. Asif made the trip all the way from England, and we got a chance to chat. We'll have to keep in touch.

Asif, who's an Imam, presided over the ceremony and wrote a moving tribute. I'm surprised my atheist brother allowed anything resembling religion in, but it was very appropriate. Not surprisingly, St. Paul's old reading on Love was replaced with a very beautiful passage (p. 43) from Pierre, a novel by Herman Melville, Steve's current favorite author. My favorite line: "Endless is the account of Love. Time and space can not hold Love's story." Both Steve and Gabe have been married before, but seeing them together makes me agree the story is indeed endless, and they're lucky to have found one another. She laughs at his jokes and he hides his ridiculous Heart fixation when she's around.

Of course we had to hit the Natick Mall to replace our tattered Boston paraphernalia: I switched from the blue Sox hat to the red one, and Muna got one, too. Aidan was somewhere else misbehaving so he didn't get one, but we placated him with some Ben & Jerry's. Here are all the cousins dangerously raising their blood sugar levels. I pretended to have the will power to resist ordering anything, but was secretly crying inside when the kids all finished off their goodies and didn't leave me so much as a cone wrapper to lick.

On the plane ride home I reread The Alchemist all the way through. Just like the visit, I didn't want it to end.