Dancing Queen

We had the good fortune to spend Saturday night watching while two of our favorite people in the world got married. To each other. John Vielee and Lisa Sirkin are now officially Mr. and Mrs.

It was Alison's first wedding, and it was made extra fun because we really like John and Lisa's families, and we got to hang out with Jonathan Swain, Tina and John Noel (Lilly and Jack, too!) as well. John the groom asked us which side we were going to sit on, and it was a real problem.

Once Alison learned the wedding rule of choosing between the bride or groom's side, she decided that we should spread across the aisle. We ended up siding with Lisa because we've known her longer, but it worked out OK because Jonathan joined us and Team Noel was across the way, so we ended up with equal numbers on both sides.

At the reception we learned that Alison is a dancing fool. She vogued. She twisted. She did a few handstands. She got really carried away once and jumped up into John's Dad's arms. I don't know if she thought she was jitterbugging or if she just wanted to leap and he happened to be there. He's Irish and she's a red-head. Maybe it was that. I'm not sure he's recovered yet, and I'm certain Jeff hasn't: he spent most of the night tormented by thoughts of Alison's future, which he fears will involve a stage and a pole.

At one point, she came by our table for a breather and a drink of water. The music had slowed and Jeff asked if she'd like to dance with him. She looked at him, gestured to the dance floor and said, "I don't think so Dad. That music is too slow."

He looked askance at her. "What?"

"I prefer rock and roll," she said.

She did dance a little with him to the B-52's Love Shack and I bounced around a little bit, too. But she really didn't need a consistent partner. She was wearing her black leather boots, little zebra skirt, pink tights and pink shirt with the zebra-patterned heart on it. For bling, she wore the oversize rink Caleb gave her a while ago and a necklace we brought her back from the Dominican Republic. She took it off about six songs in, complaining that it was banging around too much on her chest.

When we got into the car to go home, she flopped into her seat and said, "That was some party."
She was asleep before we got home.

We were in a rush so I didn't remember my camera, but I'm sure that I'll be able to steal from Lynn or John or someone soon.

Before the wedding, Ali and I got to hang out a bit with Hannah Ogden. The girls take a gymnastics class together, and sometimes we get to keep Hannah after. This weekend, we did errands and ended up at the library. Along the way, the girls got to chatting in the back seat and for some reason Alison called up to me that she was suprised that I was so weird.

Hannah and I have a special relationship. She's a delightful little girl and I love her a lot. I wasn't surprised at all when I heard her react to Alison's remark.

"Alison!" she said in her most school-marmy voice. "I can't belive you've lived with your mom this long and just now learned she's weird."

I considered dumping them both out right there on the street. They're smart enough to find their way home, though, and both of the little rats would have squealed on me...