2003-11-16 - 11:15 a.m.

ooooh, what to blog about... I was all set to review last week's TV, but I had such an unbelievable evening yesterday, I feel compelled to share it with you!

Hubby and I were invited to attend the engagement party of (pay attention, it's complicated!) the sister of my husband's brother in law. That's right, my husband's sister's husband's sister!

This is her and her fiance's second wedding. I would guess them to be in their mid to late 40's, he has 3 kids, she has 2. He's very well off. So we felt very out of place. I mean, we do know them well from spending holdiays with them at my husband's sister's house, but still, it was a bit of an ackward situation. First, we didn't know what to get them for an engagement present. They are moving to a new, huge house, they already have two households full of stuff and they can afford to buy anything they want. So we opted for a donation in their name.

The party was at her mother's condo. I'd say there were between 40 and 50 people, mostly family, mostly in their 60's and 70's, save for my husband's sisters and their husbands. It was appetizers and dessert table. At first, I had no one to talk to, so I hung out with their kids. They think I'm super cool, and I found their converstion much more stimulating than the old ladies discussing their various ailments!

But the jewel of the evening, the thing that makes we want to blog about this was the "entertainment". This lady had invited her piano teacher, along with a Baritone from the polish opera and a soprano from a local music school to perform for us. Grant it, her living/dining room is quite spacious, but the mike and amplifier were a bit much! Think of period movies, where someone plays the piano and everyone sits properly on a straight wooden chair... That's what it was like. Mr. Opera Man was so full of himself. He had to be in his mid 50's with a black gotee but bleach blond spikey hair, a really bad cheap black suit and shirt, with a crooked bow tie. The Lady Singer was wearing a mutltitude of black sheer layers, huge black curls and enough makeup for the people in the last row of the Paris Opera House. Except the living room couldn't have been more than 25 feet deep!

They sang all the Opera favorites: Carmen, La Traviata, Stangers in the Night(!!!!) and of all the Cats songs they could have picked, the sang something which I can only refer to as The Meow Song... the just Meowed at each other for the better part of 5 minutes! One of hubby's sisters was laughing so hard, her mascara was running down her cheek!

They did regale the jewish crowd with Sunrise Sunset, Fiddler on the Roof and Hava Negila.... Just when we tought we would be put out of our misery after 45 minutes, a man sitting in the back actually stood up and asked, in Polish, for some obsure Polish song. The singer, so flattered to be asked to sing extra songs (I'm sure he's used to having his sets cut!) went on to sing two or three songs in Polish, that only a handful of old relatives knew or undersood.

Of course, the entire thing was caught on tape by the videographer on hand to commemorate the happy occasion.... I can't wait to be invited over there to get to watch this again... NOT!

Why did we sit through this you ask? Well, the piano is right by the front enterance, so there was no way to make it out without being clearly noticed! We had to sit and wait. Also, the dessert table wasn't going to open until AFTER the spectacle, and frankly, I needed me some chocolates after that!

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