Katelyn and Chad were gettin' hitched.
Folks began to gather from near, far and farther away two days before what promised to be the EVENT OF THE SUMMER! Or at least the FIRST EVENT of the summer.
The festivities began with a groom's dinner at the restaurant on the top floor of the Walker Art Center. This was a grown up function so arrangements were made for all the tinies to congregate at my sister's house for fun, food and fireworks. Babydoll got to hang with her besties, Bananas and Punkin. Half way through the evening, Katie sent Ty a video of the little girls on the trampoline, bouncing and crashing into each other and laughing their pretty little heads off.
Downtown, that's pretty much what we grown ups were doing, too.
The party was summer time chic so I wore white linen pants and a sheer blue top with silver sequins. Everyone looked scrumptious. The food was fancy but delicious so no one had to do a Tom Hanks with the caviar. The bar was open but I limited myself to one drink. If I were to get hammered at every open bar party on my schedule this summer, I'd wind up at Betty Ford by September.
The Walker does not feature the kind of art I'm interested in. The building itself is fun to see because it competes with the instalations inside; the floors, walls and ceilings are bent at crazy angles and the whole thing feels like you're in an Escher drawing. In other words, it tries really, really hard to be artsy in silly, obvious ways.
I didn't know there was an eatery (that's my term for super fancy restaurant) upstairs. Off the main dining room is a lovely outdoor patio with a breathtaking view of the west end of downtown.
Everything was wonderful.
The night was warm but not oppressive. The speeches were funny and light and we all had a terrific time. We always have a terrific time when we're together. The only drawback to a night out on the fourth of July was that the fireworks being shot off from Nicolette Island were at the far eastern edge of downtown so we couldn't see them.
I love fireworks but didn't mind missing this particular show because the night before, Jay and I had been invited to a fireworks viewing party at the home of friends who live in Bloomington, which for some fortunate reason celebrates the night before the fourth. I heartily approve of this, BTW. I think the celebration of the nation deserves at least a week long observance.
When the light show was over, a member of our party stood up, got dizzy and fell, smacking his head on the asphalt. Jay immediately went into first responder mode, kept everyone calm, staunched the bleeding and delegating jobs; call 911, get a wet cloth, let the victim have air and assurances etc. The ambulance arrived within minutes and the victim was taken to the nearest emergency room. Someone said to our host "Good thing we had a doctor on hand!" and the host said "Doctor? He's a basketball coach!"
I was immensely proud of Jay. He's terrific during real emergencies. He's the guy you want on hand for heart attacks and car accidents. He's no good when you've got a bat in the house. There's a story of a poker game that took place while I was out of town in which that occurred. The tale includes much screaming like little girls.
This was the second year in a row in which Jay was called upon to act when someone went face down on the asphalt.
Our yuletide motto is 'it ain't Christmas till someone's crying'. I guess our Independence Day motto should be 'it ain't the 4th till Jay's saved a life'. Hyperbole? Maybe. But the MRI showed a shadow on our friend's brain that wasn't caused by the fall but perhaps caused the dizziness. Would it have been caught and treated it if he hadn't bumped his head?
No one fell or was injured or inconvenienced in any way at the groom's dinner. It was a perfectly lovely evening in every way.