Home, Hope, and Future Happy Ever Afters

So it's amazing how a trip home to see the fam can change a person's mood. I went to Texas this past weekend to see my sister graduate from nursing school - she is a full blown RN now (Congrats again, Abra). Also, my cousin Colley got married, and it was one of the most unique/ fun wedding I have ever attended.

Between the hot weather, Mexican food, Posey family antics, and traditional Buddhist wedding, I began to feel better about being so far from home and not having a job. So I'm back in the good ole' northwest feeling hopeful and working my butt off to that opening (that I know is out there).

But I HAVE to give some details about my cousin's wedding. Let me just start off describing the Posey family. We are talkative, competitive, hot-natured, large (meaning most of us are over 5'6 and 160 lbs) and Methodist. So when we were told that Colley was marrying a Vietnamese woman in a traditional Buddhist wedding, my sister and I prepared for a wedding of a lifetime. In a Buddhist wedding, it begins in the morning and pretty much lasts all day. The parents of the bride give her away at their home and then travel to the groom's home for a similar ceremony, and there is a reception in the evening.

All of this took place in Houston where even the Devil sweats. So please imagine the large, sweaty, extremely caucasian Poseys interacting with the bride's polite, quiet, small, Asian family. It was quite humorous, and absolutely a blast. The bride's family was extremely sweet, but I am sure they were thinking what is wrong with these white people who can't stop sweating.

The reception was the riot of the day. It took place at a Vietnamese restaurant and was hosted by the most exuberent if slightly less than fluent Vietnameses DJ. The reception consisted of a 10 course meal which I think I ate 4 courses. Although my brother-in-law next to me ate every course even if he wasn't exactly sure what it was. All the time we are eating, there is Vietnamese karoke taking place. My mom and dad threatened us within an inch of our life (especially Abra) to not laugh at any of the wedding, but when the soloist sang "Only You" with a strong Asian accent and my mom started crying with withheld laughter, I knew we were exempt from the rule. The evening continued with Abra and I singing a duet to "Stay" by Lisa Loeb and my uncle Matt singing "Stangers in the Night." Of course the reception held the usual amount of toasting, cake cutting and bouquet tossing, but the night was topped off with the DJ getting couples to compete in saying love the longest, and my dad doing the robot/ "chollo"/ seizure dance on the dance floor to some indescript hip hop song. If you have never met my dad, just imagine a cross between Forest Gump and Tom Hanks in Castaway wiggly his booty and throwing gang signs to hip hops songs. Abra and I did our own fair amount of embarrassing dance move. But I think I enjoyed watching my dad play around with his brothers and sisters and Colley marrying his lady love more than any of the food or drinks I usually enjoy at a wedding. But of course one of the highlights of the night would be my family stopping off at the most disgusting gas station on the way home, and Abra and I cracking up over our hover technique when emptying our bladders.

It was a beautiful if little hilarious wedding. It made me start looking forward to my own upcoming wedding. Dale and I are working out the details of the whens and whats (when we will do our first dance, what song will he dance to with his mom, etc). And we just decided to take a honeymoon - Hawaii here we come!

Exciting stuff.