An Indian Reception

Sameer, Natasha, Me and Martin

Have you ever experienced something that afterwards you thought, "Wow, you really haven't lived until..."? That's how I felt after going to Natasha and Sameer's Indian Reception. There was 500 or so people there. Everyone looked amazing! The dresses on the women were dripping in beads and the most amazing vibrant colors but not at all gaudy, just breathtakingly beautiful. Food like you wouldn't believe, the kind that as you're eating it you know that you are forever ruined for all other Indian food because it will never quite be like this. A drink bar that Martin learned not to tip the bartender first because he had to go back for more soda because the drink was so strong. Dessert...oh the dessert. Tables and tables of dessert. There was a photo booth where you took a picture and then put the picture in a scrapbook with a message to the bride and groom. I seriously want to find engaged Indian people and make friends very quickly.

The Benesch Family

The coolest part of the whole thing was the dance, let me tell ya ... Indian guys can dance! A big group of guys had a whole dance choreographed that they performed for everyone. It started out to Michael Jackson's Thriller and then morphed into this very cool and hip Indian take off of Thriller. The guy in front was moon dancing and everything. I so wished we had gotten this on video!

Dancing to Thriller

In high school Terah, Emily, Natasha and I were tight. It was so cool to see everyone again since we all live pretty far away from each other. We still manage to get together every so often one way or another. It was awesome getting to share the whole experience with them.

Dancing it up together ... just like in high school!

Martin and I enjoying really got some good time together out of all this. Nolan stayed at my parents Azusa house with a babysitter while we got to live it up. There was a woman, Rosalina, who lived with us and helped to take care of us while we were kids. It was the first time we had left Nolan with someone he didn't know. Normally, that would have been out of the question but there is something extremely reassuring about leaving your child with someone that you know how they treated you as a child. Even when my sister and I had pushed Rosalina to the end of her rope the most she ever lost it on us was a deep sigh followed by, "Aye, Chiquitas!" As expected, Nolan fell in love with her instantly and spent the whole night leading her around from toy to toy and even talked her in to watching a movie. When we came home they were snuggled up together .... he didn't want to go to sleep without her.

There was also a kind of cool side effect to all of this. It really got me out of "mommy mode" for awhile. All these days of hair, makeup and beautiful clothes were hard to give up. I think I did my hair, makeup and dressed nice everyday for a whole week when we got home! Well.... that insanity is over now ... well almost.