Over the father’s day weekend, I flew to NYC for my brother’s wedding. We had met Ronnie (aka Ron or Eran) and Lara in Israel for Gabriel’s wedding. Only I came. Susie and the kids remained in England. They were busy that weekend helping with the St. Paul’s Summer Fair. From what I heard, the fair was a success and the weather was comfortable.
But I digress, now back to the wedding weekend. I flew into JFK middle of the week. It was an easy flight from Stansted. The plane was pretty empty. So I could hang across an entire center row and catch some z’s. Mom and Dad picked me up and I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Connecticut. I helped Dad with setting up the house with wireless and configuring his new laptop. We had dinner with some of their friends, but mostly we took it easy and visited.
On Friday, I took the train into NYC and spent most of the day doing errands with Ronnie. We met up with Lara and her father and checked out the wedding venue. There were folks there just starting to setup. The wedding was happening in an old converted factory called The Metropolitan Building in Queens. It was very cool and from the beginning of the setup, I could tell the photographers would have a field day. It looked like something from a glamour magazine. That evening, we met at Frankie’s in Brooklyn for the rehearsel dinner. It was a great opportunity to meet Lara’s sisters, their friends, and visit with a small group of folks I knew from Connecticut. Tamar and Bernie were there, along with my cousin Steven, his wife Alison, and some high school/ college friends (Adam, Sully, Jonathan, and Dave) of Ronnie. At the end of the night, Ronnie and me along with his buddies, Tamar, and Bernie went to a bar in midtown for a few beers. It was nice catching up with his friends and hearing where they were living (a couple came from LA) and what they were doing. Ronnie and I cut the night short so as not be hungover or too tired the next day. Plus we had an ongoing story that we were going fishing in the morning and should be back in time for the evening wedding (with fish for cooking :-).
The next day was quiet. We slept in and were greeted with a nice breakfast from their neighbor Maggie. We hung out with her and chatted. Her boyfriend was on video internet chat from the south of France. It was pretty cool to hear about his sailing back across the atlantic. We did a short walk to a restaurant called Supper. I had eaten there before with Ronnie, Lara, Mom, Dad, and Lara’s father, Dave. It’s a simple place which serves a good brunch. We had discussed meeting some of his buddies for brunch, but we settled on just us. It was a relaxing time and we talked a bit. Not so much about getting married, but more about that we feel like the same person we were ten years ago (with more life experience). After lunch, we headed back to the apartment and printed speeches/ readings (also through their neighbor Maggie). Ronnie was a bit restless. So, he went out for some exercise.
