apropos of anything

This week so far has been about only the mehndhi, and now, 2000 flowers, 1000 lights, one arch, six tables, four trays, 65 chairs, and twelve tulip-shaped candleholders later, it is done. I think I can safely say everyone had an amazing time.

I am far too tired to write up anything resembling a description, so I’ll limit myself to the most important event: the stealing of the shoes.

I took Dave’s (borrowed) shoes when he went down to the basement for prayer. Some may say that was an unethical shoe stealing, but I prefer to think a savvy groom would have taken the shoes down with him and placed them somewhere among the men where he would know I wouldn’t go. (As a side note, that too may have been futile as I had secret compatriots in the boys, but he didn’t know that, did he?) After prayer, I was upstairs getting some of Sumaiya’s later-arriving friends settled, when I heard him bellow, “Hey! Where’s my shoes?” That was my cue.

The negotiation process was, like the wedding, a little different than the norm in that the girls didn’t crowd around Dave to pressure him into giving up more money. Instead, I wandered around and did my thing — whether it be eating dinner, herding people towards the henna-applying women, or mingling in the crowd — and he came to find me to work on getting his shoes back. The first bid, which was a genuine brand new Abraham Lincoln penny that Dave claimed to be worth $1000, was duly rejected with all the scorn it deserved. I countered with an offer of $250 per shoe. We eventually settled on $260 (plus an additional $40 Dave threw in just for kicks) for both shoes, but not until Dave received much taunting from both sides of the bridal party; his father and uncle in particular seemed to enjoy the whole process quite a lot, even to the point where Dave’s father offered to float him a loan.

My mother and uncle think I shouldn’t have agreed to less than $500. There was so much conversation about the “low price” of the shoes that Dave actually asked me if I was okay with it, which I was. I’d feel bad asking a grad student for too much more. He did offer me $100 protection money so I wouldn’t steal his shoes the rest of the wedding, but a mobster I am not. Yet.

More wedding news to come. There are three days left!

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