Stepping out
January 15, 2006
So, so, Happy Eid to my Muslim Diaryland friends. Hope you had lots and lots of sheep�s meet. (Yuck.) My Eid was busy as usual, with the first day spent visiting ALL my family members (as Mini put it, �How is it possible to visit all the 101 Dalmatians that make up your family in one day?��I have 48 first cousins from 12 aunts and uncles on either side, and then there are the second cousins with whom we are also close). The second day of Eid, for me, was spent going to the gym and then at the salon for two hours. That evening we would be going to the fanciest wedding I have ever been to�that of the youngest son of my New Jersey �Aunt� and �Uncle��at the Four Seasons Hotel. I�d been stressing about this wedding for a couple of weeks because it was being held at such a fancy hotel, but also because it was going to be the first time for me to be seen by a lot of our New Jersey friends in at least two years if not more. And, yeah, there was one particular guy I was hoping to see (and impress), but in the end he didn�t show.
In any case, I also just wanted to look nice for the wedding because, as I discovered here so many months ago, one of the keys to enjoying a wedding is in getting all gussied up. Also, since I guess I�ve lost more weight than I thought I had since that last wedding in June, none of the dresses I had fit right, so I figured if I was going to have to get a new dress I might as well get a really nice one. And nice shoes to match. I spent more money on the outfit for this wedding than I have probably ever spent on any single outfit, and even though I will probably only ever wear this dress a couple of times in my life, it ended up being worth it. All night at the wedding I heard, �Oh my! How you�ve grown! What a lovely young lady you�ve turned into!� And my parents� friends were all so busy commenting on how nice I looked that they forgot to make with the sympathy, and the �you�ll find a man soon enough.�
Score!
So the wedding itself was really pretty, with everything done in magnolia white. I wish I had brought my camera and taken pictures of the awesome centerpieces, but alas I could not find a funky little bag to go with my outfit, and therefore decided against carrying a camera. But it was class all the way with fresh flower garlands hanging from the ceiling, and white roses strewn about the place. The desert buffet also had something I�d heard about before, but had written off as a myth�the chocolate fountain. This thing oozed chocolate from the top, which then flowed down and pooled in a reservoir at the bottom where you dipped your piece of fruit or marshmallow. It was as good as it sounds.
The bride and groom (whom I�ve known all my life, and is like an older brother to me) seemed really happy, and actually seemed to be having fun at the wedding (something I take issue with at a lot of Egyptian weddings is that everyone seems to be having fun except the couple supposedly being celebrated). So all in all it was good.
My sister and I met some Saudi women in the bathroom right before the wedding began. They complimented us and asked us who we knew in the wedding etc. Talking to them reminded me of what I love about the Gulf�they smelled of that sweet, smoky, Gulfy incense, and the 4 younger women (there was one older woman who seemed to be their mother) had huge, beautiful black, kohl-lined eyes. And I love the guttural Gulfy accent�nothing turns me on like the sound of someone almost choking on their uvula. I�m serious. Anyway, we spoke with them for about 5 minutes, and later my sister and I spotted them standing at the entrance of the hall as the bride and groom came in.
But now for the pictures. I again borrowed some serious bling from my mama. My poor Mama�a few years ago she did what so many Egyptian mothers do and bought all this expensive jewelry to hand down to her daughters. Unfortunately, I�ve never been big on diamonds, but that seems to be starting to change as I quite liked the sparklies I wore to the wedding:
The dress was this really nice silvery/ aquamarine color with sparkly gem thingies (I�m so down with the fashion lingo) though the pictures don�t quite do the dress justice:
And my favorite part of the outfit was the shoes�these strappy silvery-grey numbers that I can�t wait to use again:
My brother claimed me as his date to the wedding, and he dressed in an all black with a silver tie. We made quite the striking pair, though I didn�t get a picture of the two of us together. He was very (atypically) complimentary throughout the evening, and asked why I don�t go all out more often. Usually I think it�s such a hassle to do all these things that apparently a lot of girls do to �take care of themselves,� but it was actually really nice getting my nails done and my hair straightened, and I�m thinking about making it a more regular thing since it�s pretty easy and cheap to do here in Cairo. Most people tell me that they like me better with curly hair, but it�s so much easier to take care of straight. I�m seriously thinking about learning how to straighten my hair at home and doing that all the time�what do y�all think? Those of you who know me�is Newgy just not Newgy without the curls? Is it time for me to grow up a little and be a little more glamorous?