My Goodness

So, sorry about the previous post. It was weird and I couldn't figure out what happened. Apparently in my settings somewhere I enabled a translation from English or whatever language I was using into Hindi. So frustrating because I don't know how or why I did that. I'm updating events from the last month in pictures. I'm not good with making slides either, so I'm just gonna try and do my best. It's been busy and fun and weird and great!
Cassandra and me at a AFSCME conference in Chicago.
We had a yummy-delicious deep dish pizza at Giordano's.
We stayed at the Chicago Hilton, went to workshops, I learned so much!! and yet some things could've been better, especially in regards to issues about "culture" in one particular workshop. I ended up losing my phone right after getting to the hotel. I have no idea where it is. Got a new one when I got home. The hotel was soooo nice. Cassandra and I got a got a nice room, two beds and two!!! bathrooms. We wouldn't have minded sharing bathrooms but it was nice to have our own. We saw a lot of the city, did a little tour of the Harold Washington Library, it was so beautiful and went on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

I haven't done a ferris wheel ride in a loooong time. Cassandra was great company!


Family came into town for July 4th. There was a new addition to the family, but all those pictures are on my phone and I don't know how to work the thing very well yet. It would help if I finally got around to reading the manual but who has the time... meanwhile, here are HRV and MGV at Nickelodeon Universe. He was scared of the walking Diego.


Here is the Bride and her maids. The bride is in purple.


The happy couple. My brother and my sister-in-law.

I actually like this picture because of YDL in the background. He's such a cute baby.
The wedding was beautiful, there were so many wonderful moments. The ceremony was really nice. Because both families are nonChristians, the mej koob from both sides of the family were present and spoke about the wedding and union. The first dance was hilarious and so fun to watch. They choreographed themselves to "Your Song" from Moulin Rouge! as sung by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman.

Mom and her girls.


Me and MGV.


In giving a tour of St Paul to family we had to make a stop at the Como Park gate. I really don't know what it's called, maybe I should find out. Other stops included the Taste of Minnesota and fireworks at Mounds Park and the Science Museum. We finally made it to the Sports Tournament.

un-Green Grandma

I had to participate in a wedding this weekend as the Bride's partner or niam tais ntsuab, the literal translation being grandma green. But in other instances I've heard that it's niam txais ntsuab, txais translating as "receive" which makes sense too. Anyway. I was that girl.

I had misgivings and little desire to participate but I had to suck it up and do it. I re-arranged my schedule for work and other planned events on my day off in order to attend the wedding in Madison. After talking to a wise co-worker, I made sure not to bring any bad/negative energy with me, no matter how I felt about the groom.

I was friendly and polite. Like, genuinely friendly and polite. I think the Bride's family liked me, in a "Oh, she's friendly and polite" sort of way. There was an aunt (Bride's aunt) there as well who started telling me about her son and that there were a lot of other "spare" sons there. So they asked me about well, me. It was fine. I know that this is definitely part of the job description as the niam tais ntsuab so I had fun with it.

We stayed and finished the negotiations and then the guys did their thing. We left around 3:30AM. I was going to drive us (6 of us in the Suburban) back to St Paul, but one of the other uncles wanted to drive. I know he only had 2 shots, maybe, and there was time between the shots and us leaving and he had eaten in that time as well, so I didn't force the issue. About an hour out of Madison he pulls off to the side of 94 and we switched. I drove us the rest of the way home. It felt like one of those nights when my friends and I are out until 3 in the morning because we went out to a Denny's or Perkins after a night out doing miscellaneous somethings and I'm driving, because I'm usually driving, the friends home. Except this time, it was a bunch of uncles passed out and drunk and the drive was 3 hours instead of 30 minutes. I got home at 7:30AM and went to sleep. By then, I think I 'd been up for a good 24 hours.

We go back August 1 to finish the Bride's family's part.