the florida vacation, a play in three acts

We took a great vacation mid-June. Ten days in Florida divided into three almost entirely different vacations... And here it is, presented in the form of a poorly-written three act play!

Act 1: The Wedding
Setting: Gaylord Palms Resort, Orlando
Cast of Characters:
CAITLIN, wedding guest in her late 20s
DAN, her husband
JOE, groom and coworker of Caitlin
ROSHNI, the beautiful bride
WEDDING GUESTS: KATHY, JASON, CARL, and BETH, other friends/coworkers and associated spouses also attending the wedding

***

Scene 1: The Sangeet, Friday Evening (Ballroom at the resort. CAITLIN, DAN, and other WEDDING GUESTS are attending their first Hindu wedding, including the Sangeet on Friday which involves lots of singing/musical performances from the bride and groom's family and friends.)

JOE: Hi everyone!
CAITLIN, DAN, KATHY, JASON, CARL, BETH: Hi Joe! Let's take a group picture!
(Group picture is taken)

DAN, JASON, CARL: Joe, your clothes looks so much more comfortable than our suits. We are jealous.
JOE: They are! You should be jealous! Did you see that there are artists here to decorate your hands with henna?
CAITLIN, KATHY: Oh? Is it only for Roshni and the bridesmaids?
JOE: No, it's for all the girls!
CAITLIN, KATHY: YAYYYYYYYYYY!
(Caitlin and Kathy exit. Food is served. Musical performances begin. Caitlin and Kathy re-enter holding their hands carefully so as to not smudge their henna.)

CAITLIN, KATHY: Oh my gosh, look at all this delicious Indian food. They have our favorites: witch hats and maple balls.
(Other wedding guests roll their eyes at Caitlin and Kathy for not using the proper names for samosas and gulab jamun. Scene closes with wedding guests stuffing their faces with food.)

***

Scene 2: The Baraat, Saturday morning (Resort entrance. Wedding guests are waiting outside for Joe to arrive in a horse-drawn carriage. Up-beat Indian pop music blares from DJ booth.)

WEDDING GUESTS: There he is! This is so awesome and fun and silly!
(Joe exits carriage, dances awkwardly. Scene closes as wedding guests process with Joe to wedding venue in Resort atrium.)

***

Scene 3: The Hindu Wedding Ceremony, Saturday morning (Resort atrium)

WEDDING GUESTS: This set up is gorgeous. There are so many flowers... and fruits! Look at all the wedding guests watching the ceremony from their balconies. This is fun.
(Ceremony begins. Lots of Hindi chanting. Lots.)
WEDDING GUESTS: This has been going on a while. When does Roshni get to show up??
(ROSHNI enters, escorted by her maternal uncles)
WEDDING GUESTS: Oooooooh. She looks soooo pretty.
(Ceremony continues)

WEDDING GUESTS: We are getting a little hungry. Oh look our programs have little baggies of trail mix in them!
(Ceremony continues)
WEDDING GUESTS: Ok, we are hungry again and we already ate all our trail mix... including the extras from the empty chair behind us. Wait, are the bridesmaids serving snacks? This is the best ceremony ever.
(Ceremony continues. Lots of "auspicious moments" occur. Joe and Roshni perform many symbolic actions. They see each other for the "first time" [not actually] when a screen separating them is dropped at the beginning of the ceremony. Joe holds Roshni's face and pretends to point out a star in the middle of the day. She pretends to see it. They play a game where they compete to pick up a ring from the floor first. Roshni wins. They pour rice on each others heads. Multiple times. Wedding guests giggle. Ceremony concludes and scene closes.)

***

Scene 4: The Catholic Wedding Ceremony, Saturday afternoon (Resort atrium, different location)

CAITLIN: Oh my gosh, Roshni is in a completely different, amazingly beautiful dress for this ceremony. And all the attendants are in tuxes and new dresses too!
(Indian man sitting behind Caitlin explains to his wife that for the Catholic ceremony, the wedding guests do not process in with the groom, but instead arrive early and wait in the chairs. Scene closes with Caitlin reflecting that this experience is introducing a lot of "firsts" for everyone involved!)

***

Scene 5: Cocktail Hour and Reception, Saturday evening (Resort ballroom)

CAITLIN, KATHY: If we don't see some Bollywood-style dancing at this reception, we are going to be very disappointed.
(Dinner is served. Speeches and toasts proceed as normal. Wedding attendants proceed to center of dance floor and perform elaborate Bollywood choreography.)
CAITLIN, KATHY: YAYYYYYYYYY!

(Dance floor opens. Wedding guests dance and admire Roshni's third beautiful, elaborate dress. Fun is had by all. Scene closes.)

***

Stay tuned for Act 2: The Trip to Universal Studios!!!

and now i need a vacation!

As promised, an update on the fun parts of the last couple weeks. We certainly did a lot!

Two weekends ago, we participated in our church's 5K race, a new part of their summer fundraising festival. I am pleased to announce that we did not come in last (by a very narrow margin).

After the race, we checked out the public library's used book sale at the main downtown branch. There were thousand of books (of varying degrees of literary quality) set out on tables. The first one I snagged was a $3 copy of Birds of Ohio. I have no excuse for misidentifying my backyard birds now! I found the paperback mysteries section (only $1 a piece) and stocked up on Agatha Christie novels, my favorite! Birds, mysteries, and a little nod to Harry Potter... It's not hard to tell which pile is mine in the picture below. Dan clearly spent more time in the sci-fi section.

After the book sale, we met my friends Courtney and Luke who were in town for a baseball game. We had a drink with them at the bar across from the ballpark and then quickly checked out the All-Star Game flower bed, which was filling in nicely!

Last weekend, my family (minus Christopher and Emily who were traveling) came to visit to celebrate my Mom's birthday. On Saturday we went to a Reds game. It ended in a loss, but we did get a free bobble head! I was also super excited for an excuse to get "helmet nachos" for the first time. They always looks so amazing (giant pile of chips, cheese, and salsa in a plastic baseball cap) but are way too much food for one person. We polished them off so cleanly that I was able to wear the plastic hat to dinner at Hofbrauhaus afterwards.

After the game and dinner, we went home for Mom's cake and presents. I made this lemon blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting... my first cake entirely from scratch!

On Sunday we went canoeing. The river was flowing slowly so we ended up paddling much more than usual. I was sore on Monday! The highlight of the trip was finding hundreds of little tadpoles in a shallow area of the water. We got out of the canoes and managed to catch a few for closer inspection. Some had grown all four legs, some only had two tiny back leg buds, and the fastest ones just had wiggly little tails. So fun!

We crammed so much stuff into two weekends, I am just exhausted. I think it's time for a vacation!

due date

This is a sad post, but I can't let this day pass without writing down my thoughts.

Today was my due date... the day we were supposed to meet our little boy. Instead we said our hellos and goodbyes four months ago. It feels like just yesterday and forever ago, all at the same time.

I have felt so sad and anxious about this day, and yet I think a little part of me knew from the beginning that it was never meant to be. Maybe it was mother's intuition. Most of what should have been happy moments from my pregnancy were overshadowed by an overwhelming anxiety that something was wrong. On the triploidy message boards I read, many mothers wrote about how hard it was to realize they weren't going experience all the events they had already envisioned: meeting relatives, birthday parties, etc. I was different; I could never picture anything beyond this day. I feel cheated out of a happy pregnancy, robbed of time with my baby.

We visited Nolan at the cemetery today and left some daylilies from our garden. I wore this Tiffany heart charm engraved with an "N" from Dan's parents, which always makes me feel a little better when I'm particularly sad and lonely. We also planted a new serviceberry tree in the front yard with money from my parents. They have a "Grandpa" tree in their backyard (a gift from their friends when my mom's dad passed away), and now we have a "Nolan" tree as a little memorial.

I have bad days and good days, and this is a bad one. However, the majority of days are much happier, and I do have lots of fun things to share from the last couple weeks. Hopefully a much cheerier post will be published soon.