May 3, Houston: The big one -- the Inprint reading -- occurs at the Alley Theatre on Monday, May 3. Do not miss it or you'll be sorry. I'm not kidding -- I'm going to say the craziest, most intellectual yet hilarious stuff I can think of, and I'll be sharing the stage with the ultra sexy Oscar Casares, too.
June 24, Houston: I'm one of the peeps scheduled to read at Poison Pen, at Houston's famous Poison Girl bar. Besides me, everyone there will be ultra, *super* sexy. Come see me and drink!
June 26, Washington, DC: I'll be reading at the American Library Association conference. Come on down.
My other blog: Go read my the Houston Chronicle parenting blog (or my ChronMomBlog, as I like to call it) and make sure my kids won't resent me more than other kids resent their own parents.
Buy my new novel, Lone Star Legend. Already did? Well, buy a few more for your friends, then. :)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
[I got married on Saturday. This post is about my wedding.]the flowers
I couldn’t find fake or real flowers for my hair, and I was running out of time to do so. I asked my oldest son to go with me to pick up lemons and limes and goi, five hours before the wedding. As we rode from the grocery store to the restaurant making the goi, I thought aloud. I said, “You know what would work? Oleanders. But those peach-colored ones. If only I could find some of those. But I probably won’t… they’re usually fuschia or white….”
And then we were passing Home Depot on the right, and their parking lot was bordered by ubitiquous oleander hedges. But not the fuschia ones or the white ones – the peach ones!
I pulled over. I parked in the corner past the wheelbarrows. I left the engine running and my son watching from the shotgun seat as I disembarked and snagged several sprigs of oleander flowers.
An hour after that, I walked into the salon with a small bouquet tucked into the outside pocket of my purse.
“Ooh, what beautiful flowers!” the receptionist cooed.
“I got them from the Home Depot parking lot,” I said.
I don’t know if they believed me, but what does it matter?
the rice
The rice came out bad. Or wrong. Or something. It tasted okay to me, but as my new father-in-law painstakingly explained, “It tastes good now, but in one, two hours, it’ll be bad.”
So we threw it all away. Dumped it all into a trash bag. The early guests gasped.
My new brother-in-law sped to the restaurant where we’d gotten the goi, to pick up replacement fried rice.
Everyone looked at me, as if it had been my decision. I looked at my in-laws. My mother-in-law was upset. Disappointed. Embarrassed? My father-in-law, though, had the impassive face of a man who cold-bloodedly performs sacrifices for the greater good.
He will serve no rice before its time. Not after its time, either.
cakes
We had two cakes. The main cake (“wife’s cake,” as Dat explained it to his parents) was supposed to be Italian cream with raspberry filling, but I think it was just yellow cake, and the raspberry was combined with cream cheese. It had simple off-white buttercream frosting and edible candy pearls that surprised everyone who encountered them.
I’d wanted pineapple filling, but changed the order at the last minute out of deference to my mother-in-law, who was getting us an Asian cake (groom’s cake, “man’s cake”) so that the elder Asian palates in attendance wouldn’t go into sugar shock. I was told that the classic Asian wedding cake was pineapple flavored.
I was relieved, because I’d been afraid they’d order taro root cake. I don’t care for taro cake, but I was ready for anything.
We cut the bride’s cake first, then the groom’s. We fed each other bride’s cake. Then my sister-in-law Van very graciously took the cake server from me so that I wouldn’t be stuck serving cake for the rest of the night. Someone else manned the groom’s cake, and everyone was served sweets tout de suite.
“Oh my God, the cake is so good!” said a friend of the Caucasian persuasian, later.
“You think?” I said. “I’m kind of annoyed because I told her Italian cream, but I think she used yellow, instead.”
“What do you mean? I thought it was mocha or something.”
She meant the Asian cake. I went and tasted it. It was very moist yellow cake with whipped cream icing and mocha filling. It was very, very good. Immediately, I cut a slab of it for my dad, who’d eaten the first slice of bride cake. “Eat this one – you’ll like it,” I told him. (All dads love mocha, don’t they?)
Later, one of my Asian friends said, “Your cake was so good.”
“Wasn’t it? It was mocha.”
“What? I thought it was raspberry filling.”
She’d eaten the bride’s cake. Someone else told her, “You should have tried the Asian cake.” She said, “I never eat Asian cake. I don’t like pineapple and taro.” But we made her try it and she was happily proven wrong.
Everyone liked the cake, whichever one they tried. I was glad.
Dat and I didn’t shove cake into each other’s faces. We’ve always said that we don’t believe in that sort of thing. If you look at the pictures that got posted on Facebook, though, it does sort of look like we’re shoving. But we’re not. We were just hungry by then, I think.
Labels: culture, wedding stuff
5:29 AM #Comments:
Congratulations, Gwen!!!!!! It sounds like a pretty great day.# posted by
lumenatrix : 2:51 PM
Congratulations!!!
# posted by
Rob Rummel-Hudson : 3:14 PM
Your wedding sounds lovely. Congratulations and best wishes for your new marriage!
I need to become your Facebook friend so I can see all your fab photos.
# posted by
Kaijsa : 3:21 PM
Sounds fabu! And what could be better than flowers from the Home Depot parking lot. Something stolen should totally be a bridal tradition. Wedding are so much more fun when nobody goes crazy.
Congratulations!
# posted by
Justin : 3:36 PM
Congratulations Gwen.
Sounds like you managed to keep the panic/turmoil down to a dull roar instead of the air raid siren level.
It's all about balance and compromise and you did an outstanding job.
All the best for your new family!
Dude Steel
aka
Mike in Ohio
# posted by
еdë §téè£ : 8:00 PM
Congratulations!
I need to friend you on facebook to see your wedding pics.
It sounds like a great wedding--I love that you got the flowers in the Home Depot parking lot.
# posted by
: 9:46 PM
Congratulations on your new marriage, Gwen! Your photos are lovely, and I'm so happy that your wedding went the way you'd hoped.
# posted by
Christina E. Rodriguez : 10:10 AM
Many heartfelt congratulations from me, as well! You don't know me from adam, but as a long time reader, I've always loved the honesty in your writing. Really enjoyed "...Last Man.." as well, right up until the ex took it with him when I kicked him out. :)
# posted by
Karen : 10:46 AM
Congratulations! May you have a long and happy marriage.
# posted by
: 10:52 AM
Congratulations!
# posted by
: 1:14 PM
Best wishes to all of you!!
# posted by
CJ : 12:11 PM
Funny! When I got married a few years ago I came **this** close to stealing some clematis blossoms from a house around the corner. "I only need one or two!" I ended up using a lily from my bouquet.
# posted by
Heatherkay : 1:12 PM
May you and Dat have many more happy years together!
Teresa B
# posted by
: 3:21 PM
I'm so happy for you guys, and the bit with the flowers is fantastic.
# posted by
jagosaurus : 8:09 PM
I think you meant to write "obiquitous" right? when you wrote about finding the oleander flowers you needed for your hair. you knew what it meant but the spelling is tricky.
# posted by
: 12:49 PM
Correction of the previous comment on obiquitous: it is ubiquitous. there i got it this time! :)
# posted by
: 3:14 PM
Congratulations! It sounds like everything fell into place beautifully and delightfully. Best wishes for you and your families.
# posted by
Anna : 10:50 AM
oops, I'm late...but at least I remembered!
Congratulations from San Diego, and the Rest of the World!
# posted by
: 2:01 PM
Thanks, everyone!
And thanks, Anon, for correcting my life-long dyslexic misspelling of ubiquitous.
:)
# posted by
Gwen : 9:16 PM
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