The weekend, quickly
So. Thanksgiving weekend was mostly consumed by a road trip to Oklahoma City. Here’s the ten-minute recap, which undoubtedly leaves out something important.
Thursday was deliberately low-key. We had been planning to attend dinner with Fred’s family, but backed out when we learned that there would be members of his extended family there. Instead, we slept in, did a little housework and a lot of laundry, and cooked a frozen veg lasagna from Trader Joe’s.
Thursday night, we started to head to Alton to exchange vehicles with Fred’s mother. However, on the way up, we noticed that Fred’s car’s engine was knocking so severely that it was causing the car to shudder, so we turned around and made it home. Fred’s mother then came down to us to see how she could manage Nigel’s manual transmission — if she could re-learn a stick shift in one night, then we’d temporarily trade her van for Nigel, otherwise we’d drive Nigel to OKC. Happily for our plan and Fred’s sanity, she and Nigel got along just beautifully. Spent the rest of the night gathering clothes and such for packing the next day.
Friday, we drove. For the most part it was an uneventful trip — no precipitation, light traffic — though we did sort of graze a large red-tailed hawk that swooped in front of us. (The hawk slid off the windshield and flew away, apparently startled but uninjured.) Arrived a little later than anticipated, but the rest of my immediate family was just returning from dinner as we arrived. We had a nice Mexican meal, supplemented with mojitos (which, we know, are not Mexican, but which are quite nice anyway), then went back to the rather swanky hotel for a quick shower before sinking into bed.
Saturday was the reception itself. Breakfast buffet with the family before I went to my younger brothers’ room to run through the musical contribution. After that, we had a couple hours free, so we perused the botanical gardens (indoors, w00t) and Oklahoma City National Memorial (solemn and tasteful). Aside from the memorial, the city was deserted; turns out the University of Oklahoma was playing Oklahoma State University in football, so the ENTIRE STATE was enthralled.
Reception was beautiful, if smaller than we had expected. It was held in what had been an insurance company HQ just down the street from where my father and his siblings had grown up; they had recently renovated it into a museum, and whoever did it was a freaking genius with frosted glass.
We mingled with the guests, many of whom were longtime friends of either my cousin or my grandmother; we had tasty hors d’oeuvres; we mingled more; we had cake; we mingled; I sang with two of my brothers, and those two also played a song with our older brother; more mingling; coffee. As the reception wound down, I casually mentioned a plan to take Fred by the old house; somehow this ballooned into a full-fledged tour, as the matron of honor is the one who bought said house from my grandmother. While waiting on everyone, though, Fred and I walked around the neighborhood, taking a few pictures of cool houses and observing that the mistletoe was not yet fruiting (dammit). The old house is now gorgeous, thanks to some heavy work in the kitchen and bathroom and some judicious work elsewhere.
Took my grandmother home, taking a rather convoluted route and seeing that her housekeeping skills didn’t get changed in her move. Drove back in the general direction of the hotel, with minor detours through the gay ‘hood (RIGHT. NEXT. to where the other grandmother always went grocery shopping. I had no idea it was all right there!) and past where my mother’s parents once owned an antique shop (it’s now a club or something). Got back, begged off dinner with the family, and putzed around a bit while recovering from the day. Dinner was at a kitschy Italian place nearby; the steak was excellent, even if the lights were really bright.
Sunday morning, we met for breakfast again, a little earlier this time as some nasty weather was threatening. Picked up a power adapter for Fred’s iPod and got gas before hitting the road. The highways were much, much busier than they had been on Friday, so the return trip seemed to take much longer than normal. The bad weather never quite materialized, though.
Back to work on Monday, in time for the fire mentioned here previously.
Tags: Fred, gay, Nigel, Wikipedia
