We arrived on Friday afternoon, October 10, and drove our rental car to David's parents' home in Ann Arbor. After months of orchestration and coordination with Dave's dad, we managed to surprise his mom for her birthday, which had been the day before. Earlier in the day, Dave's
sister Lisa and her husband and daughter arrived from Boston, which provided a big happy surprise, and then David arrived with me (she knew I was coming). We are all a bit worried that she was going to tip over from the shock.In the end we all went out for a big happy family meal at a local restaurant and Dave and I weren't even too jetlagged.
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The next day before I left, we all drove out to a
local pumpkin patch to see the animals and pick out pumpkins. We hadn't seen Lisa, Kevin and Keira since Christmas, and we found Keira to be much more fun as a toddler than as she was as a sick baby.That afternoon I took off for Royal Oak to meet up with Katie and go for my first and last bridesmaid dress fitting. Thankfully (whew!) we could zip it up with some assistance, and the only thing that needed changing was the hem.
From the dress shop we drove up to Clarkston for Katie's bachelorette party. Her roommate Sam threw a great Katie-style party that started with a private yoga lesson. I hadn't done yoga in nearly two years, and I realized how much I've
missed it. After that we had Katie-style dinner - sushi, edamame dumplings, etc - and did a little craft project. Sam bought paint and stencils and everyone decorated their yoga mats.Well, everyone but me because around 6 p.m. I started feeling the effects of the time difference. I had to excuse myself to the living room and promptly conked out for a good 3 hour nap. When I awoke I had missed the painting and the gifts, but the girls were just firing up the Sex and the City DVD and pouring cosmopolitans. I flopped myself onto the floor and enjoyed my second viewing, this time in English. Much funnier.
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That night I slept at Katie and Sam's house, and the next morning drove back to Ann Arbor to meet with my parents. My family didn't have an itinerary planned (just the way I like it), so we decided to go to the mall to exchange some stuff. I had a really nice time shopping with my mom, and afterward we met up with Dave's whole family at Pizza House. Just like the old days. Plus a baby. Oooh, plus another one in the oven, Lisa's pregnant again!
After we bade farewell to my parents, David drove me back to Katie's house and dropped me off. Kate and her mom were haggling over the seating chart, and her aunt Jane was ironing chair sashes. I felt a little bit of an identity crisis as I felt myself shifting from French professional to daughter-in-law to daughter to bridesmaid all within the span of 48 hours. Took a deep breath, hugged Katie's mom, and asked if there were any bows that needed tying.
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Monday and Tuesday, October 13 and 14 I had to go into the office. I really didn't want to, but I was running short on vacation days (please don't hate me for having 5 weeks of holiday and complaining about running out) and needed to exchange for two days at work. It was very strange being back in the Detroit office; the vaguely familiar smells, the new walls and offices, and people staring at me as if I was a ghost. I had to answer the same questions over and over again with "France is fine", "We like it well enough", "David's fine", and "No, I'm not here permanently, just for a few days".It was great to see my old colleagues, though, catch up on the news and gossip and be able to joke around in my own language. And of course, I had some excellent lunches. With so many restaurants that I miss, Katie and I had to take a long hard look at the priorities and the time allotted. Over the course of the week we managed to hit all of my favorites: Thai, Jimmy John's, and sushi three times. How I missed American sushi!
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On Wednesday Katie had to work, so I dropped her off at the office and decided to work on my shopping list. And what other store is open at 8:30 a.m. than Meijer? So I plunged myself into full reverse culture shock and cruised Meijer for a while. I picked up the candy and tea that my colleagues had requested and a few boxes of powdered Gatorade for David. If you're curious as to what candy French people could possibly want from the US, I was asked to get peanut butter M&M's, any kind of cinnamon gum, and tootsie rolls. Plus I bought a bag of Starburst to send our German friend Clemens, who is a bit of a Starburst fanatic thanks to us.After Meijer I started feeling a new panic - this time some kind of cultural identity crisis - driving around metro Detroit in an SUV and hanging out at Meijer probably did it to me - so I decided to calm myself down by calling my friend Deidre in Kalamazoo. We had a great chat for a long time before her baby started fussing and I felt grounded again. On with the shopping.
Next I hit Best Buy and picked up a stack of DVDs for the Louchets, then to Borders for a Portuguese phrase book for our trip to Lisbon next month. And you know how a bookstore can suck you in, the next thing I knew it was time to pick up Katie.
Kate drove us up to Rochester for her final dress fitting, and I got the privileged tour of the
underside of her dress as the seamstress instructed me on how to tie the bustle. Her mom and sister arrived to help fuss over the beautiful bride-to-be, but Katie cut us all short in order to make our lunch date. Her boss had invited her out for lunch to celebrate the upcoming wedding, and I was allowed to tag along. While she chatted with her colleagues, I sat there marveling at how big drinking glasses and lunch portions are in the US. Massive!After lunch I dropped Katie off back at work for a short afternoon and ran a few more errands before returning to the office. Back at the house, Sam had returned from work with the wedding programs (Sam works for a printer...lucky Katie!) and we spent the rest of the night collating and tying them together with blue ribbon. I figured the task would take us a couple of evenings, but Kate popped in a Friends DVD and plopped a glass of Bailey's in front of me, and the next thing I knew I was staring blurry-eyed at a full stack of neatly tied programs. Well maybe the last few weren't quite so neat, but some day I'll share a funny story about about Katie, a few bottles of beer, and my wedding programs.
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On Thursday, Katie and I ran around on wedding errands. We dropped off a big carload of stuff at the reception site at Meadowbrook Hall, which is an historic mansion that used to be owned by the Dodge family. The weather was perfect, the trees were in full color, and I started to get excited about the big day. While Katie explained the place cards to the wedding coordinator, I ran around the grounds taking photos. I had no idea such a beautiful place existed in metro Detroit.
That night we had the rehearsal, which was a bit stressful because it was the priest's first American wedding (he just arrived from Poland) and the ceremony contained some Philippino wedding traditions that no one was entirely sure about.
Next came the rehearsal dinner at a fun restaurant in downtown Royal Oak. Katie gave each of her bridesmaids a beautiful handmade quilt, every one different. What an amazing and touching personal gift. We all did a lot of crying.
That night most of the wedding party ended up at Katie and Sam's house to hang out. We played RockBand on the Wii and made a giant pot of macaroni and cheese. I felt like I was in college again, and I was silly with happiness (and a little bit of wine).
* * *
The next day all of the girls gathered for an afternoon of manicures and pedicures. Only 24 hours before the wedding and despite the zen mood of the spa, the stress level was climbing. That evening Katie's family hosted a family reunion dinner and I was invited to tag along. I met a number of Katie's cousins, aunts, and uncles, and even got some time with her baby nephew Brady, who practically had a wait list of people who wanted to cuddle him.After dinner we met the other girls at the hotel, where Katie had reserved a large suite. We sat and chatted for a while before going to bed at a responsible hour.
* * *
Bright and early on Saturday, Sam did the rounds and woke everyone up (note: if you have a wedding coming up, I recommend you find yourself a friend like Samantha Schubring). A team of hairdressers
showed up at 7, and within an hour we were five girls running around the hotel suite in some state of pajamas, dresses, and hair rollers.By 11:00 Katie was swishing out the door in The Dress. The Girls followed in her Jeep, sporting matching floor-length navy blue dresses and sunglasses.
The ceremony was beautiful, and everyone seemed like they knew what they were doing. The photographer took some family photos in front of the church as the bridal party looked on, shivering in the cold and watching the traffic on Woodward Avenue.
We had a few hours before the reception, so a friend of Rob's opened his sushi restaurant early
for us. The wedding party took a massive limousine to the restaurant while Katie and Rob drove a Challenger that Rob got from work. Needless to say, the bride and groom had to wait a while before we caught up.The restaurant staff was smiling when we arrived and had big platters of sushi waiting. And then as we sat down they started distributing "saki-tinis", which were fantastic. I was perfectly happy to spend my whole evening there.
But the reception was awaiting. When we arrived at Meadowbrook, more photos followed between visits from cocktail waiters and running around the house saying hello to friends and family. I ran into my old friend Forrest, who coincidentally married a good friend of Katie's. I was
so busy, I underestimated the startling effect of telling a childhood friend "Oh, I'm fine. I'm married and I live in France."The rest of the reception flew by in a blur. I distinctly remember seeing some friends from the old office, dancing with David, and an incredible 15-piece band that was led by a reincarnation of Frank Sinatra. And ooh, carrot cake. Katie had the baker add a tier of carrot to the wedding cake and - thoughtful even on her own wedding day - made sure I got a piece.
After the reception wound down, most everyone headed back to the hotel to crash. That left Kate and Sam's house empty, so David and I slept in "my" room - the spare bedroom I'd taken over for the week. The next morning we packed everything into the boot of the Viper and drove back to Ann Arbor.
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By the way, if you'd like to know what Dave did all week while I was in Royal Oak with Katie, I'll summarize for you: shopping with his mom, discussing politics with his dad, washing and driving 
his car, hanging out in the hot tub, taking photographs of the leaves, eating, and sleeping. I guess it's obvious which one of us was more relaxed by the end of the week, but I'm not sure which one had more fun.By early Sunday afternoon we were back to Dave's parents' house. While Dave tucked his car in for another long sleep, Roch and I made a last big breakfast. Then we repacked everything and Roch drove us to the airport. The weather was still beautiful and sunny, and after such a great week we started whining in the car. We wanted to stay, we were going to move into the Bassons' basement, and we were never going to worry about the prefecture, conjugating French verbs, Paris traffic, or our jobs again. Roch laughed at us, a bit nervously I think.
Back in the France, it took me a few days to remember why I love living here, the small beautiful things that one tends to forget when life can be so much easier in Michigan. I'm not entirely sure that David has recovered yet, but it's pretty hard to beat a week of hot tubs and Vipers.
Anyway, one last congratulations to Katie and Rob on their beautiful wedding, and cheers to Katie for a job well done! oxox
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