The Wedding Round-Up - June 2001

Well, the major-life-event-a-week spring of 2001 is about to be over. I think a recap is in order to orient the readership with my perspective of the last 10 weeks: I finished medical school, I matched in internal medicine at University of Maryland, I turned 26, we lost A’s grandfather Jack, A. turned 26, we got married, we went on a kick-ass honeymoon, I graduated from medical school, and in 2 weeks I begin residency. Not that I’m not thankful and all, but I wish the watershed moments could come a drip at a time rather than in the deluge that has been pouring from the spigot of existence lately.

So, the big question is: how is married life and why are you wearing your wedding ring on your index finger, Adam?

Married life, thus far, is exactly like life was when we were living together. I suspected this would be the case, but now I have some evidence to back it up. Exhibit #1 arguments: A. and I have the EXACT same disagreements as we did before the wedding. Exhibit #2 personalities: The wedding has not lead to any major breakthroughs or personality shifts. In fact, I still have all the deep-seated emotional blemishes and annoyingly obtuse speech patterns I had before the wedding. In other words, I am still sensitive and I talk (and type) too much. There are numerous other examples as well, but I will spare you.

And as for why my wedding ring has found its way onto my meaty index finger, well that is a long story. The short answer is because I like it there. Hey, at least this formally non-bejeweled bachelor can tolerate wearing his gasket-sized ring. So there.



The Wedding
BE certainly was a curious event. Having such a strong appreciation of rational thought (or as Peter says, having stamped out my brain’s touchy-feely centers) I tend to get weird around occasions that have high emotional content. I specifically remember trying to pay attention to Rabbi Steve, but being drawn to the window behind him. To his right, out the window behind the Chupah, was Mercy Hospital, where I spent a lot of the last 4 years. To his left were the big white letters on the top of the medical school research building at University Hospital. That was, in order from my left to right, my past, the present (Rabbi Steve and the wedding), and my future. Very curious indeed.

At least I was immediately slapped back to reality with opening of my tuxedo pants. See, I had a few comments following the ceremony that during the post-glass breaking recessional exeunt, I looked like, as my cousin Josh said, "I was going to lose it." My expression accurately reflected reality. It is a little known fact (or was to me) that tux pants that are rented often have a little sliding track and zipper like thing to adjust the waist size. To my surprise, I peri-nuptually discovered that said zipper like thing can, spontaneously disassociate from said track. Thus, at a rather inopportune moment, just as I stamped down on the glass, the waist size of my pants increased by about 7 inches. Hence, I looked like, “I was about to lose it.” Dead on, huh?

All in all, the wedding was way cool. My “Not the CEO of Disney” cousin Michael Eisner said, “ [BE had] All the elements of class without the stuffiness.” I guess we were jamming in tuxes and flowing gowns. But I think the real credit goes to Mood Swings. It is very clear in my mind that without a kick-ass 18 piece swing band, the wedding would have been very different. But it all worked out and even, though I had my doubts, the lemon cake with fondant icing was good.


The Honeymoon
France is a beautiful country, filled with many beautiful people who are destroying their lungs. A good portion of the day is spent sitting in cafes and restaurants drinking coffee and making American tobacco executives wealthy. The nights in France are filled with 4 hour 7 course meals. By my math this leaves roughly 4 hours a day for work. It is no mystery how the Germans invaded twice in the last 100 years.

Our trip started off an 18 hour trek across the Atlantic and then south, via train and taxi, to the town of Vaison la Romain (or this pic), which roughly translated means the town that has a hotel that A&A stayed in with no shower, no washcloths, and no Kleenex (prissy Americans). We spent the following 5 days on bikes traveling between the small towns in the shadow of Mount Ventoux in the Rhone valley. Man on man was this fun. However, we were biking so much that we made the Frenchies look bad. So on day 3, two French men were assigned, by the French Ministry of Looking Busy, to sit in Cafes all day and night so that the average amount of physical exertion in France remained constant while we were biking.

After 6 days of biking, the two French men needed to go home, so we turned in our bikes and headed to Avignon for 3 days. Here we got to hang out in the Palace of the Popes and on the famous Pont (Bridge) de Avignon. Here, we did a fair bit of sitting in cafes and people watching. I also was on a holy grail-like quest for additions to my pope–a-phenalia collection. And even though the Popes live in Avignon for over 100 years in the 13 and 1400’s, I was able to find only one small example of consumer goods emblazoned with the images of the Popes of Avignon. Either way, after seeing the castle that the popes lived in, Mel Brooks line from The History of the World seemed true, it is “Good to be the King.”

On the gustatory front, France is, as my Acidophilus milk carton says, “a Lactaid dream” with a freakish menagerie of animals. See, our nights in France were spent in a various restaurants eating the aforementioned 7 course, fixed price French meals that take 3-4 hours. These meals, without fail, consisted of at least 64 types of smelly cheese and the parts of 3 to 7 animals. In fact, the French eat such a wide variety of animals that I suspect zoos were invented to keep the animals safe from French chefs. Anyway, here is a list of all the animals that died for meals that A & I ate in France:

rabbit
guinea fowl
baby rabbit
duck
chicken
cow
snails
scallops
lamb
fish- all sorts
crab
goose
pig

So, this Honeymoon was by far, the best vacation A and/or I have ever been on. Fitting what with it being our honeymoon and all. Anyway, if you are interested in hearing more about the friendly Canadians at Randonee (our tour company), how the trip went, or anything else you think I may know about, send me an e-mail.

Closing

So, this little diatribe, by definition is it for BE and Adam and Andrea’s Third Millenial All-Star Wedding. I think the question is, what will be my outlet for writing and ranting about various things? Well, as I type, I am contemplating the construction and maintenance of http://www.DrAdamsApple.com. We’ll see what residency brings. In the meantime, thanks for reading and for all the wonderful comments over the last (gasp) 11 months.

Over and Out.

-AJW