COFFEE & BISCUITS

Some weddings are priceless. Although the Chicago-LA plane ticket can buy me a flat screen TV, this wedding — that of an old friend, one of my first friends, and the first person in US who ever gave me a Christmas present — cannot be substituted by any material goods. So I spent four wonderful days in Los Angeles, seeing family and catching up with a lot of old old friends, but most of all going to the wedding.

This wedding is special, because it is the FIRST of all the high school friends, those who grew up with me. I am hard suppressing my tears during the vows, although they tried not to make it sentimental. What with all the reminisces, catching up, picture taking, not the whole experience is thoughtless happiness. With all that brightness is also that glaring wariness. The fact that nearly every friend is followed by a guy and several wearing glittery diamonds and talking about their career reinforce the feeling that everybody is moving on, that I must move on as well. It is altogether a different world from the one which I am living in.

But the wedding was not the only thing in these 4 days of LA that really struck my heart. While the wedding was the bright star of those 4 days, I found out about an extremely depressing news. That my father’s best friend died in July. I had dim-sum with this friend of his just last Christmas! When my Aunt continued to tell me a string of death news from other people, I just could not help to be taken over by this sadness. Of not being able to feel certain that your loved ones will live to see you get married.

If that is one fantasy very dear to my heart, and one that is again rekindled by my high school friend’s wedding, it is a daughter/Dad dance at my own wedding to the following song, which my Dad and I shared since I was young.  And I will always get weepy eyes when I hear this song.

Unforgettable (Nat King Cole, and his daughter, Natalie Cole)