Monday, July 14, 2008
Weddings
Nora and I have been pretty busy with our wedding videography business. We had two weddings a week apart from each other. The last one we did, on Saturday night, was so unique I'm sure we'll never, ever, do another one like it.
The bride and groom met at a performing arts school in Chicago and are both actors, performers, musicians and teachers. All their friends from the school came down to be part of the ceremony. The bridal party had over 20 people in it, there was a choral piece early in the ceremony that had the guests clapping along and finished with a thunderous ovation. A second musical number, during the ceremony, included a girl singing and playing guitar accompanied by a harmonacist (followed by a great deal more applause).
The reception was a riotous affair at the Uptown Theater. Starting with a stage entrance of each of the bridal party couples performing some unusual moves (belly bumps, pantomimed spankings). The toasts were tear-laden and heartfelt -and in many cases drunken and indescribable, and ended with a huge performance of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by about a dozen of the wedding participants. It was awesome.
On Thursday I took Pierce and Anna to the pool (Nora was out for the evening with a friend). Shortly before we arrived, there had been an incident at the pool: an eleven-year old boy had a seizure while in the pool and the guard went in to get him and performed first aid. There was no risk of drowning (the guard acted very quickly), but it had the pool closed down for a short time, and an ambulance, fire engine, and police car all made an appearance. As far as I know, the boy is fine.
I kept our kids on the playground until events settled down (there were more than enough parents and spectators involved already). Anna was fascinated by the whole series of events and had lots of questions about the boy, the gurney (the "rolling table" as she called it), and events in general. While I was reluctant to get into the whole idea of seizures, I tried to explain events as best I could.
We did manage to get about an hour's worth of swimming in once everything calmed down. Pierce, Anna and I played a new game: sharks and minnows -where the minnows try to swim across the pool without getting caught by the shark. Minnows caught (tagged) by the shark also become sharks, until there are no minnows left. Then the last minnow caught becomes the shark for the next round. They loved it and insisted that we play again the next time we went to the pool (its a great way for them to continue to improve their swimming skills).
After baths and the usual bedtime routine, Pierce ended the evening by telling me that he thought I was the best Dad in the world. Wow. Talk about walking on cloud 9.
Pierce had second shining moment this weekend. As I've previously mentioned, Pierce and Anna play great together, and many times the form of play is imaginary stories complete with cars, Princesses, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, horses and more. After awhile, Pierce prefers to have some time alone to play his "stories" without involving Anna. On Saturday morning, I heard Anna politely asking Pierce to play with her -Pierce was deeply involved in some sort of car-based story.
I took a break from making breakfast and asked him to allow her to participate in his story with the understanding that she would follow his lead. Pierce certainly had the option of telling me that he preferred to continue play by himself, but very graciously agreed to have Anna join in. I know he's growing bigger, but he's obviously growing more mature too.
Last for this entry, about a week ago I was waking Anna, and remarked that I thought she had grown at least an inch from the day before. Out of curiousity, I had here stand against her height chart. While she might not have grown overnight, she had grown almost 1. 5 inches since we last measured her in February. As she raced to tell Nora the news, Pierce asked to be measured too. Yup, you guessed it, he's also up about 1.5 inches since February. I'm guessing we'll be buying lots of new clothes this fall when school starts.
-Eric (Dad)
The bride and groom met at a performing arts school in Chicago and are both actors, performers, musicians and teachers. All their friends from the school came down to be part of the ceremony. The bridal party had over 20 people in it, there was a choral piece early in the ceremony that had the guests clapping along and finished with a thunderous ovation. A second musical number, during the ceremony, included a girl singing and playing guitar accompanied by a harmonacist (followed by a great deal more applause).
The reception was a riotous affair at the Uptown Theater. Starting with a stage entrance of each of the bridal party couples performing some unusual moves (belly bumps, pantomimed spankings). The toasts were tear-laden and heartfelt -and in many cases drunken and indescribable, and ended with a huge performance of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by about a dozen of the wedding participants. It was awesome.
On Thursday I took Pierce and Anna to the pool (Nora was out for the evening with a friend). Shortly before we arrived, there had been an incident at the pool: an eleven-year old boy had a seizure while in the pool and the guard went in to get him and performed first aid. There was no risk of drowning (the guard acted very quickly), but it had the pool closed down for a short time, and an ambulance, fire engine, and police car all made an appearance. As far as I know, the boy is fine.
I kept our kids on the playground until events settled down (there were more than enough parents and spectators involved already). Anna was fascinated by the whole series of events and had lots of questions about the boy, the gurney (the "rolling table" as she called it), and events in general. While I was reluctant to get into the whole idea of seizures, I tried to explain events as best I could.
We did manage to get about an hour's worth of swimming in once everything calmed down. Pierce, Anna and I played a new game: sharks and minnows -where the minnows try to swim across the pool without getting caught by the shark. Minnows caught (tagged) by the shark also become sharks, until there are no minnows left. Then the last minnow caught becomes the shark for the next round. They loved it and insisted that we play again the next time we went to the pool (its a great way for them to continue to improve their swimming skills).
After baths and the usual bedtime routine, Pierce ended the evening by telling me that he thought I was the best Dad in the world. Wow. Talk about walking on cloud 9.
Pierce had second shining moment this weekend. As I've previously mentioned, Pierce and Anna play great together, and many times the form of play is imaginary stories complete with cars, Princesses, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, horses and more. After awhile, Pierce prefers to have some time alone to play his "stories" without involving Anna. On Saturday morning, I heard Anna politely asking Pierce to play with her -Pierce was deeply involved in some sort of car-based story.
I took a break from making breakfast and asked him to allow her to participate in his story with the understanding that she would follow his lead. Pierce certainly had the option of telling me that he preferred to continue play by himself, but very graciously agreed to have Anna join in. I know he's growing bigger, but he's obviously growing more mature too.
Last for this entry, about a week ago I was waking Anna, and remarked that I thought she had grown at least an inch from the day before. Out of curiousity, I had here stand against her height chart. While she might not have grown overnight, she had grown almost 1. 5 inches since we last measured her in February. As she raced to tell Nora the news, Pierce asked to be measured too. Yup, you guessed it, he's also up about 1.5 inches since February. I'm guessing we'll be buying lots of new clothes this fall when school starts.
-Eric (Dad)
Labels: pool sharks minnows swim seizure aquarius uptown theater unity temple wedding video edited memories
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