Christina and Micah's Wedding Part II

The morning of the wedding, we paid a visit to the yard of Joe Minter, an outsider artist who lives and works in Birmingham. Although we didn't actually get to talk to Mr. Minter, we were able to see a lot of his work in the yard, where he creates sculptures out of found materials dealing with aspects of American history. We heard that he is happy to guide people through his "African Village in America," so we were disappointed that we missed him.







Right next to his yard is a historic black graveyard.


We couldn't spend too long exploring, though, before we had to go back to get pretty for the wedding. Here's Mags in her beautiful blue and gold sari.

She and Micah's best man, Reiner, sang a duet

there was a kiss

and they were married!




And then we got down!

Congratulations Christina and Micah!

Christina and Micah's Wedding

Last Thanksgiving, the halfie crew drove (yes, *drove*) down to Birmingham, AL to celebrate Christina and Micah's wedding. We stood around the kitchen with the bride's father,

made some new friends,


and sampled the down home cuisine.


What I'm trying right there is a specialty of Micah's family. It's orange jello with a marshmallow topping, sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese. I don't think it needs further explanation.
While the menfolk watched the football game, the ladies gathered to get a preview of the wedding dress.


A lot of Christina's family had come. There were pleats to be arranged, bling to be decided on, and a sister to snuggle.





Then we had a song, courtesy of Christina's mom.


Afterwards, we went out with friends of Christina and Micah's to sample some of Birmingham nightlife. Dinner,

and dancing, of course!

Halloween

Halloween, my favorite holiday, ever! The fun of dressing up, plus the joy of candy? What could be better? Right off, let me say that Angelique took the cake for best costume, as a dark cloud with a silver lining, as well as a shiny lightning bolt:

I went as "stripes," although I allowed people to say "zebra" if they were conceptually challenged.


We started off at Lovely Day, where there were several cool costumes to see. I don't know this girl, but she had a great thing going on, with a mask and antlers? antennae? That's Sameer next to her, dressed in scrubs.

Here's a group shot, so you can see everyone's costume. Monica is a gypsy (doing a booming business with the palm reading), Cara is a 60's airline stewardess, Angelique as the dark cloud, John is the killing moon (hiding his bloody machete for some reason), and Francis and Sandy as cat burglars.

After swinging by Andrew's fabulous party for a bit, we headed over to the party at the Angel Orensanz Center for a party.

Boy George was there.

As well as a couple of flamingos.

And cats...

and, something else...

and dancing!!

There was a fight right outside, that I kind of got caught in the middle of. Alas, I was too busy dodging blows (successfully, I might add) to take pictures. Ah, good times with good friends!

And strangers.

Triple Birthday

In celebration of Cara, Bich Thu and Nobuko's birthdays: a proper dance party that lasted until the wee hours of the morning--wouldn't expect anything less from NY-SEA's official Rumpshaker!