ceebeegee | Larson's Wedding

So I spent this weekend up in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. I've driven through this area several times, mainly from when I was a kid living in New Hampshire with my dad, and even visited once (we took a daytrip to Salem). But I haven't seen it in a long time--my LORD, the area is so beautiful, such a perfect marriage of land and sea, saltwater and freshwater, soil and marsh and river. I love all the old, old buildings with their typically New England style--impassive Federals, quaint Victorians with their cupolas, gables everywhere. I literally did not see one tacky building--even the houses that hadn't been kept up as well had charm.

And their food is pretty damn good as well--behold, the lobster roll, paired with an Ispwich Ale!

The wedding events were all over the map--the rehearsal dinner was in Ipswich, the house where all my aunts were staying was in Gloucester (whence the fisherman of The Perfect Storm originated--sadly, I never glimpsed the Crow's Nest), and the B&B where a bunch of other guests were staying was in Essex. I left Thursday afternoon, catching one of the Chinatown buses to Boston. A word to the wise: do not ever ride Lucky Star bus lines. That was one of the most disgusting experiences of my life--the bathroom was covered with graffiti, insects in the cabin and water on the floor. Absolutely revolting. When we finally pulled into Boston, I had to take the T and then a commuter train to get to Ipswich. (How sad is it that the floor of the train station where I waited was cleaner than the bus? The T was also very clean--nice system.) When I was on the commuter train, I was looking out the window and noticed as we passed through the Salem station--between the constant rain the and the advent of dusk, the light was very odd, murky and mysterious, and I was thinking "just a few miles from here, the witch trials happened--this inexplicable, overwhelming tragedy." Just imagining those girls listening to Tituba in their kitchen during the endless Massachusetts winter, being fascinated and disturbed, and finally exploding and finding that, for the first time in their lives, they could actually wield some power, some actually listened to them. I find the Salem witch trials absolutely riveting--The Crucible is one of my favorite plays. And any girl who has ever suffered through a New England winter can understand completely how that happened.

I got to the rehearsal dinner which was basically over by then, but I scrounged a burger, some chips and a beer. All the guests had been invited to prepare "something creative" for the bride and groom--we're a musical family so I figured a lot of people might be singing, so I thought I would do Juliet's monologue, "Gallop apace" which went very well. Lots and lots of new people to meet--then we all repaired to our various lodgings. I was staying in a big house in Gloucester with my four aunts, Clarissa, Nancy, Carroll (Casey) and Suzy, plus my cousins Chandler (he and Larson are Clarissa's sons) and Roslyn (Suzy's daughter), and Chandler's wife Angela and two kids, Ella and Alexander. The latter two immediately figured out that I love kids and GLUED themselves to me for the rest of the weekend. I kid you not. Every free chance they had, they ran over to me asking me questions, wanting me to dance or play with them, trying to tickle me or get me to tickle them. Extremely cute kids with beautiful mops of red hair, both of them. Alexander, whom I promptly nicknamed Alexander the Great, was very confused about how Roslyn (one of my cousins) could be younger than me, but so much taller. Ros told me about his Socratic dialogue to try to figure THAT one out--"but...she's so much smaller than you! How can she be older?"

Once Ella discovered I could French-braid, she wanted me to do her hair for the ceremony (she was one of the flower girls) and had VERY specific ideas on what she wanted--two small braids going back from the forehead and merging at the back into one. Then Angela asked me to do her hair, so I braided it into a loose chignon and tucked the end under with lots of bobby pins.

Polly's (the bride's) mother's family is Greek--apparently there is a large Greek population in the Cape Ann area. She's an interesting mixture of superWasp (her father's name is Cushing Titcomb) and Greek, and the ceremony was actually at a Greek Orthodox church. I've never witnessed an Orthodox service before (of any kind--Greek, Russian, Serbian...)--it was VERY different from other weddings I've seen, almost no congregational interaction whatsoever. Literally all we did was stand and sit, save for one iteration of the Lord's Prayer. No hymns, no prayers, no nothin'.

There were two different kinds of music at the reception--a Greek band and a DJ who mostly spun '80s pop. There is a Greek step that all of them knew, called the syrto, that was performed a lot--it's easy to pick up and then everyone would join in. So much fun! I love to dance any kind of dance, no matter what--as long as I can move to the music. Ella and Alexander insisted on dancing with me--I tried to teach Ella some moves but she's a little young yet so we basically just helped hands and jumped around like crazy to the music. Sometimes I would pick up her or Alexander and bounce them on my hip.

My great-aunt Jean (younger sister of my grandmother) was there as well. I couldn't believe it, she was actually dancing--so cool!

She asked me why my dad wasn't there and I said "uh, well, he's in New Hampshire, he couldn't make it this time." She gave me this GIMLET stare and said "NONE of the boys could make it, could they?!" She was disgusted with them and said "as the senior member of the family" she was going to write them.

For those who are unaware, my dad and his two brothers are engaged in a huge, ridiculous feud with my aunts--it's too long and boring to go into, but it stems from the circumstances and aftermath of my grandmother's death, and some of the root causes go back even further. All of the cousins think the whole thing is ridiculous and have refused to take sides. I was quite the cousin celebrity for even showing up to the wedding, since I'm the daughter of a brother--Chandler said "You're the family rebel!" I was all "Listen, I'd love to get that rap but I'll tell you, Daddy has never ever put pressure on any of us to side with him--in fact, he's never even told me his side, just that he's very angry with his sisters." However Chandler thinks there was some kind of...pressure, either overt or implied, by my uncles--my cousin Courtney canceled at the last minute, literally the day of the rehearsal (and she had had hotel rooms for her and her three kids, she's out all that money). Also Chandler had spoken to our cousin Skip who said "look, I've finally been accepted back into the fold by my dad--I don't want to do anything to piss him off again." (Skip is a bit of a black sheep.) I gotta say, though, that does not sound like either Metty's or Chips's (my uncles) style. They may be personally engaged in this silly feud but I just don't see them trying to mess it up for the next generation, Metty and Chips are both very kind. Anyway, Larson was very touched that I had come and hugged me hard several times. He was really hoping more of us could make it and had tracked down every single cousin's address to mail them invitations. I know Bart wanted to come but he'd made vacation plans a long time ago. I am a little annoyed Chips's kids didn't make more of an effort though--they live in Auburn, not that far away.

ANYWAY. So we danced for a LONG time, the reception lasted for like 5 hours.

Me with my aunt Nancy, and my cousin Roslyn.

Princess Ella with me and Aunt Casey. When Casey was a teenager, she was a print model--she did ads for Kodak and several other companies. Then she became quite the hippie in the late '60s and '70s--she was one of my "cool aunts" (my aunt Jenny on my Mom's side was the other).

We finally left around 12:30 and crawled back to the Gloucester house, where everyone just hung out in the living room in a daze.

I'd planned to leave the next day, Saturday, but as it turned out, a room at the B&B opened up and I grabbed it. After showering I walked around Essex and took a few pictures--Essex is full of these delicious-looking seafood restaurants and I was craving lobster big-time. And antique shops! There had to be at least 20-30 antique shops, they were everywhere. There was a pool party later that afternoon at Polly's parent's house and the kids were there--at one point they were literally climbing on me, like cats. SO CUTE. I let kids get away with murder as long as they're sweet-natured. We also played Airplane and we did kid "acrobatics"--i.e., I lay on my back and lifted them up with my feet so they could "fly." Also one of the guests brought his guitar and we sang some--Michael, I did request "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"! Eventually some of us went out for a seafood dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Essex River, where we were also treated to a view of fireworks.

One of Clarissa's friends drove me all the way back to Greenwich and I was able to have some Dairy Queen--the Blizzard of the Month, a peanut butter concoction made with peanut butter, peanuts, and crushed Tagalongs. YUM. It is a tragedy of geography that Dairy Queen does not see fit to open a branch up in Manhattan.