Holy Windstorm, Batman!

One thing I learned this weekend: you can't count on the weather to cooperate (not even in beautiful Las Vegas). And if you do bet on good weather, make sure to have a contingency plan. You may be asking yourself where these thoughts have come from, and you're in luck, because I'm about to tell you! We attended a wedding at the Lake Mead Marina on Saturday night. On paper, it sounded really nice: a mild October dusk overlooking picturesque Lake Mead. Sigh. We enjoyed a leisurely drive from one mountain range to another.

Over the Spaghetti Bowl and through the barrio to a Lake Mead wedding we go...

The wedding was actually a Jewish ceremony, which was very interesting. I'd never been to one before, so it was educational. I really liked how eloquent the nuptial prayers were. The wording was a lot more beautiful than the Catholic counterpart, although I love Catholic weddings. It just seemed more intimate but not in a spectator "us" and "them" kind of way. It was very nice. The breeze started up during the ceremony, so we were pretty excited to take shelter in the reception tent. It was shelter for a while. I'll illustrate my point in song:

(Think Wizard of Oz)
What happened was just this:
The wind began to switch- the tent to pitch
and suddenly the wall flaps started to unhitch...

And O, what happened then was rich.
The tent began to pitch. The buffet table took a slitch.
Full wine glasses crashed onto the floor as we waited for those who'd been hitched, which was not a happy situation for this girl who had an itch...
which began to twitch and almost made her more than a stitch
of what could be a Wicked Witch.

Hold your applause, please. Fortunately, the wind did die down after it had destroyed the hair we had painstakingly perfected at home and force-fed us literal "sand"wiches. Everything I ate after that had just a hint of earthiness that did not please the palate. Oh, well. I think the bride and groom had a good time. They seemed very happy. I don't know them very well, but Don has been in bands with them seperately at different times, so it was cool to say that we were there for both of them.

Ok, here's the vent (other than the wind): Why are female vocalists so self-important? Please try to stifle your laughter or the urge to utter the phrase, "Well, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?!". If I have ever behaved this way (recently) please shoot me: the end of the reception became open mic/band night because a third of the guests were "band" people, which was cool. Don even got up with his former bandmates to do a Beatles tune. That was great. No one was showing off; They were just having fun like old times. Enter the gaggle of female vocalists: Other than the bride, there were at least three super diva, mostly middle aged women vying for the big reception spotlight (big, flippin' deal! Anyway...) They all over-sang everything. I'm not sure that they knew how to do anything but belt. It actually pained me from time to time to think of how much their singing had to be hurting them. They weren't bad singers... they were just so over-the-top with ornamentation and unnecessary hand gestures. One of the best moments was when one woman made the band her personal karaoke vehicle and did an impromptu key change during Black Velvet and visably tried to make it look like the band's fault that they weren't together. They weren't a crappy band; she was a crappy vocalist for trying to use them as a scapegoat, and we all saw right through her. Other women took their turns screaming their way through Classic Rock tunes, and I was struck by the thought of how laughable they all were. It's funny how instrumentalists are so easily "cool" while female vocalists so easily slip into a caricature that isn't anywhere near cool. In their quest for the lime-light, they kinda' cheapened it. Do "non-musical" people eat this stuff up? I don't know. I wasn't impressed. Their vocals were all right, but their attitudes ruined it for me (not to mention the fact the no one seems to know anything about dynamics and nuance anymore, but that's a topic for another day...). No, I was not jealous that it wasn't me and no one was begging me to sing. I didn't really care. There's a time and a place and this sure wasn't it, although Don did prod me a little to do a song with him to show them up (we didn't). It was actually nice to be anonymous for a change. It isn't very often that I'm the face that no one knows. I wouldn't want that all the time, but for one night it was refreshing.

Des and Dobby Sickness Update: We both went to our respective doctors today, and we are both suffering from extreme allergic reactions to something in the air. I'm suffering from hives (Joy!) and Dobby just has a really sad looking, itchy rash. My doctor thinks it's weed pollen for me, and the vet didn't speculate much further from grass pollen for Dobby. We both got a supply of Prednisone to help curb our itching, and we are to re-evaluate in a week. Dobby sure is my dog! He has allergies like me and now we're both taking 'roids! So, if we look more buff next time you see us, that's why (not really). lol. He's my perfect little hairy child. I guess God didn't really want me to have a cat, either!