Thursday, March 19, 2009

Disco Wedding

Last night I attended the wedding of my co-worker's daughter. He is the head of maintenance at school, (remember-- the 65 year old man who sat next to me at he Chanukah party...). He is not dati so I was preparing myself for a wild party. It was way out, in a hall near Netanya. I had volunteered to drive some co-workers because I didn't want to stay to late, and this way I could make sure I got home at a reasonable hour. Normally I would never offer to drive out of Modiin, but with our new GPS (thanks folks!) I felt I could go anywhere (though this would be my first time actually using it...). Yaakov entered in the address of the hall for me and told me which buttons to press, and I was all set. I warned my "carpool" ahead of time that I wasn't familiar with the route, and though I had the GPS, they should keep their eyes on the road to help me out. The wedding was called for 7:30 and the chupah for 9. Knowing how unlikely it would be for them to start on time, we figured we could leave Modiin at 7:30 and be there by 8:30-8:45. Deciding what to wear took some careful thought. After all when I asked the security guard if he plans on wearing something nicer than his uniform, he said, "What's the big deal, I'm not the groom!" He wasn't joking. That got me a bit nervous. Anyway, I decided to go with a low key outfit and stilleto heels. I hopped in the car and picked up my co-workers and we were on our way. Of course, the minute they got in the car they asked me how much I bought my car for and how much the GPS cost...The route was pretty simple and we continued on the highway for a while. I wasn't looking at the road signs at all, I was simply following the GPS. Apparantly my fellow passengers weren't looking at the road or the GPS. About an hour into the ride we were approaching a roadblock with soldiers and, one of my coworkers perks up and says, "Why are we entering the shtachim?!!" Oh Dear. We were entering Ariel, on the West Bank. We must have taken a wrong turn, or didn't take a right turn, and here we were, nowhere near where we needed to be! It took us a little while longer to find our way out of the mess, and back in the right direction. My car mates were very supportive and took full blame for the error, well... they questioned my GPS too, but at least none of the blame was on me! In fact, they told me what a good driver I was and how calm I had been throughout our confusing journey. We got to the wedding close to 10, after a 2 hour car ride. We missed the chupah and most of the meal, but we were just in time for... disco dancing! The bride and groom came out to flashing white lights, bubbles (yes, bubbles), and a loud, booming, floor-shaking rythem, and everyone started to boogey down. A whole group of us teachers cornered a little section in the corner of the dancefloor and stood around (me) or danced (them) to the rythem. On the dancefloor I had an opportunity to check out all the outfits. Bride- nice big poofey dress, nice hair and make up. Groom- all black suit (including shirt and tie), and slicked back hair in pony tail. Interesting. Friends of the couple- some in shirts and slacks. some in dressy outfits. mostly in jeans. As you might have guessed, I stood out like a sore thumb. And it wasn't because I didn't have cut-outs in my sleeves for my shoulders (is that a worldwide trend these days, or just here?). It was because I didn't have big fake jewelry, or big hair, or big platform shoes. My dainty stilletos and Sophie's jewelry made me look like the first lady compaired to the rest of these people. No matter. I had a good time, and we left within the hour. We got home in half the time that it took us to get there. I was home by 12 and in bed by 12:15. Not so bad considering I made it to bed around the same time as Sunday night after my midnight meeting...

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