There will be dancing

The US re-release of that acclaimed independently-produced thriller from China The Day of Angie and Lucien's Wedding is scheduled for its Stateside opening on August 1, 2009. The main event will take place approximately 7PM to 10PM, including good food, dancing, ceremonial cake cutting, and a fireworks grand finale courtesy of Sea World.

Who: Angie and Lucien and All of You
What: The Return of Angie and Lucien's Wedding
When: ca. 7PM ~ 10PM, August 1, 2009
Where: South Cove Beach on Vacation Isle, Mission Bay Park
Why: Angie is not a threat to national security
How: With your dancing shoes on, or barefoot

You will get a chance to RSVP by mail in a month or so, but RSVP by email or in the comments is just as good or better!

This post will be updated as plans develop.

Update:
Days Hotel on Hotel Circle has granted us a reduced rate, lower than the AAA rate.

The Standard room is one king bed or two queens (with a mini-fridge and microwave). The Kitchenette room is like the two-queen room, but with also a little two-burner stove, sink, and dishes. The parking is free for one car per room, but $10 for additional cars.

If you'd like something cheaper or nicer but still want to be nearby, there are lots of other hotels on Hotel Circle. But I hope you'll like this one -- it's highly rated, and a pretty good deal for the area.

Update 2:
The ceremony and reception will run 7-10 PM, but we will be hanging out at the park all day. You're welcome to come join us early if you can!

Driving directions: Coming from the north, get off the 5 at Garnet/Balboa. Right on Garnet or Grand 1.5 miles, left on Ingraham, then 1.5 miles to the entrance. Coming from the hotel, get off the 8 at W Mission Bay/Sports Arena, and turn right. Stay in the left lanes to end up on Ingraham, then 1 mile to the entrance. The parking lot at South Cove Vacation Isle (by the model boat pond) closes right at 10 PM, so it might be better to park on the south end of Ski Beach (on the other side of Ingraham), and follow the walkway under Ingraham. (See map)

It will be warm during the day, but there's lots of shade and a steady ocean breeze. Bring a sweatshirt or windbreaker for after the sun goes down.

We are privileged to have great friends and family who have already provided us with most everything we need. If you would still like to bring a gift, we welcome gift cards and such, but your participation with us at our celebration is itself gift enough. Thank you for coming!

A wedding like no other

On April Fools' Day 2007, I wrote a post about suddenly falling in love and getting hitched with a woman I met in a bar. I thought it was a pretty preposterous story considering I was the protagonist, but ultimately the joke was on me. Sometime in the prior month I had in fact met a woman at a bar, we did suddenly fall in love, and we are now married.


Our first impressions of each other were admittedly not great. I was cultivating my nerdy, girl-repellent look at that time, and when we were first introduced, her first words were "Do you wanna teach some English classes?", a line every native English speaker in China grows tired of hearing. But we ended up spending a couple days of our May holiday together, and I quickly realized I rather liked her. Besides her frankness and ease with strangers, she was pretty cute, clearly intelligent, culturally experienced, and unlike any woman I've known. It turned out all my friends already knew her, and everyone who knew her liked her. It took a little bit longer for her to figure out that I was a likeable guy, but before long we were spending all our free time together.



I delayed my planned return to the States as long as possible, but trying hard to not follow in the footsteps of my Fool's Day alter ego who quit school, and not quite able to believe she really liked me that much, I went back to school in California, with a visit scheduled for my winter break. It turned out she actually was as stuck on me as I was on her, and by the time winter break came, we were making marriage plans.




Marriage plans are a little complicated when the partners have lives on separate continents. It's taking a while, and still isn't done. It won't be official until after her visa process finishes, which looks now like it will be a few months more. But last month my parents came to visit, and we celebrated with her friends and family here, in a wedding sui generis, including scenic mountain views, fireworks, dancing, a bonfire, and lots of super people all having fun together.

It's almost February

of 2008. And I haven't said anything for far too long. But I have been having a fairly uneventful life, with little worth commenting on. I mean besides finishing my first quarter in the new program, seeing my sister for the first time in two years, meeting her fiance, going to their wedding, doing Christmas with the whole family, flying across the ocean to see my sweetie, getting engaged, coming back to school late, getting a bad stomach flu, then having my compy die on me, and having an impromptu whole family reunion last weekend, there hasn't been much happening with me. And most of my readers already know about those things anyway.

P.S. You may have noticed that I've moved this blog to my own domain. I'm also now running a proxified version (echo.discurs.us/fieldandgarden) so friends in China can see it without a proxy setup. (Yay!)

Decisions

As you folks know, I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about where I'm going to school next year, what kind of academic I want to be, and what I'm doing with my life in general. I've become convinced that I don't actually want to be a linguist, and perhaps not an academic at all. Neither of my options is really right for me, in any case. I've signed up for another year here. I'll probably apply to grad schools again in the fall, looking at cog-sci and psych programs. But since the sun has come out again this place has really grown on me, or I'm realizing how much I have liked it here, and I'm considering staying on long term.

In not unrelated news, I should introduce you to my fiancée. I don't have any pictures yet though, and my camera's broken. I met Quan Feili (全非丽) at one of the two bars in town, back in January, and in the time since I returned here, we've spent a lot of time together. It's clear to me she is my soulmate, and last night we agreed we should get hitched sometime or another.

[Edit: In case it wasn't clear, this is an April Fool's joke. But see this update.]