Nine weddings

As I mentioned in a previous post, this has been a busy summer (and fall). So far this year, I have attended seven weddings (with another one in a week and another three days before the end of the year); I've been in two of them; I was the co-best-man in one of them; six of the couples are still together; one was a Hindu wedding, two were Catholic, one was Jewish/Middle eastern, complete with vocalizations; one was in a barn; one had a ten piece band that sang in Farsi and Spanish; one will be a second high school reunion, which is good because I missed the first one; and because of the weddings I've traveled to Los Angeles (thrice), Napa, Chicago, and Philadelphia (yes, that is six, one was actually right here near home in San Jose).

Among the happy couples, not including intermediary degrees, are six bachelor's degrees, three teaching credentials, seven master's degrees, two JD's, and four PhD's (soon to be five). So I guess I tend to hang out with overeducated folk.

Another fun fact is that even with nine weddings, there will have been only one person to attend more than one with me. I guess this means that I have at least nine separate groups of friends.

Also of note were the two famous people that were in attendance at two of the weddings. The first one was attended by Bill Nye (the science guy). I've actually hung out with Bill before. I went with him, his family and my family to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream once. After we got our food, we were siting at a table next to the windows that face the street. A couple of young teenagers walked by, and after they passed us, they backed up and started staring and pointing. Bill was gracious enough to call them over, and asked if they would like to take a picture. He then signed some autographs and talked to them for a moment.

At the wedding I was at, he was related to the groom. As the day progressed, you could see the kids from the Bride's side pointing and whispering to themselves. Finally, they couldn't take it anymore, and one of them went up and asked for an autograph. He agreed to sign it, and that opened the floodgates. All of a sudden, he had a line 10 kids deep asking for autographs. Once again, he was quite gracious, and signed for them all and took pictures with all of them. He then rewarded himself by dancing with all of the single ladies from the Bride's side.

The other famous person was Danielle Fishel. You may remember her from such roles as Topanga from Boy Meets World and as the host of "The Dish". She is by far one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was gracious, humble, interesting, and quite pretty too. I can't say enough nice things about her. Not at all what I was expecting from the co-star of a top rated TV show.

All in all, it's been a fun year. I'm looking forward to next year, when there will almost certainly be fewer weddings, although I already know of at least three.