Monday, July 12, 2004

This Summer at the Lake House

Every June for the past five years we have traveled to Tennessee to spend a long weekend at the Lake House in Lake Norris.  Omega's husband's family, a bunch of builders, constructed this magnificent home for their parents as a retirement vacation get a way.  It is a mammoth home with four bathrooms, two great rooms, two kitchens, six bedrooms, two levels high build overlooking the forest dense Lake Norris. It is really gracious of them to allow our family a family reunion at this paradise once a summer.

It is a typical lake mini vacation.  Boat rides, tubing, canoeing, cooking, eating, beer drinking, swimming, sun bathing on the dock.  One year we were decided to have a swimming competition!  I was doing a mental review of the mouth to mouth resuscitation! This year we had fireworks.  The really good kind you can only get in Tennessee! Always included is a trip to Dinosaur Island. This is a continuing game for the children.  A pirate map washes up on shore in a grimy bottle.  The map leads them to Dinosaur Island and a treasure hunt!

All my brothers and sisters and their families attend the week end.  And sometimes we are visited by Omega's brother-in-law who is married to her husbands sister.  They live close to the area, out side Knoxville. He is great fun. One night playing charades with my mother he acted out Moonstruck...but that is another story!

I just have to share with you all this story he told us about his recent visit to France.

He and his wife were invited to attend a wedding in Paris.  She speaks fluid French and actually stayed with this family while an exchange student. He can only speak a few phrases of French and understands even less. The morning of the wedding they ate a light breakfast of only yogurt and toast.  Then set out to attend the wedding which was to take place in the late morning.

Civil ceremony                                   1 hour
Drive to church                                 45  minutes
Wait for church wedding                     1 hour
Wedding                                           1hr 15 miutes
Reception at church
  for those unable to
  attend big reception                         1hr 30 minutes
Drive to reception                               1hr
Waiting for doors to open                   30 minutes.
   
Remember, nothing to eat all day since  the light breakfast.  Now they are being served wine, and a lot of it!  On top of the champagne they were served at the mini reception.  He is beginning to feel light headed...but the doors are finally opening and ...........

They are thrown open, everyone rushes in.  But wait, there are games to play first before any food.  And of course, they drink more wine.

Several people are chosen from the tables, and he is one of them.  Out of all the people attending the reception, he is the only one who does not speak French!  He does not understand a word of the instructions of how to play this game.  All he knows that is that everyone is running around frantically yelling at him and making gestures he cannot decipher!  His wife is red faced shouting English instructions at him.  He instinctively holds up the number he has been handed and the crowd cheers!!! They won!!

The next round, they lost and he had to sit down.

Oh happy day!  Food....wait, its only French Soup, and more wine.  And Jesus, Mary, and Joseph...another game!  All the men must gather on the dance floor while the women sit.  Once again he is clueless as the instructions are given, but he can see this time what he must do.  When his turn arrives, he must dance and gyrate in front of the women while they cheer and give the thumbs up or thumbs down.  He passes and continues on to the next round.  More wine. 

He passes through many more rounds doing the 20 second flash dance! More Wine. He is beginning to feel loopy.

Finally, he is one of the final two, him and the groom!

The music starts.  He thinks, "I'll do the Russian Cossack dance" (which he had been taught by his wife's brothers!  All handsome  hunks in the prime of their life).  He gets out on the dance floor and immediately gets right down into it

HEY!

Everyone is screaming at him!  Encouraging him! Cheering him on!  "I can make it" he thinks "Its only 20 seconds"  

HEY!!!

His wife is really red faced trying to get him to hear her. He finally does over the roar of the frenzied worked up crowd. This is what he hears, "SLOOOOOOOOOOW DOOWWWNNN!  PAAAAAAAACE YOURSELF!"

He had to keep it up for four minutes!   

 HEY!

Needless to say, he won. His great award was not the three tiered wine bottle, but finally getting to eat the main course. 

I was laughing so hard at this story that I had tears rolling down my face. 

My summers are turing into some really great times as I grow older.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an interesting story. Paula

Anonymous said...

Love, love, LOVE the French Wedding Story.  Makes me wish I was Gallic rather than Hungarian.  Sounds like SO much fun!

SO jealous of your "Inland Lake" vacation.  That's one thing I miss about living in the Midwest.  Nice, warm lakes to swim in.  Around here, you generally have three choices:  The ice-cold ocean, ice-cold rivers (that originate in the mountains) or ice cold reservoirs that are created from damming up the ice-cold rivers.  Needless to say, the only swimming I do these days is in the heated community pool!  Lisa  :-]

Anonymous said...

Lake Norris is beautiful! Do you go to Lake Herrington? I grew up very near there. I'm from Burgin orginally. Nice journal! Congrats!

http://journals.aol.com/wildflower121764/ExpressionsByWildflower/

and/or

Anonymous said...

I read something that interest myself.You said that you did not know whether to use your powers for good or evil.Which one did you choose,I hope for the good.God gave you that power not evil,so use what he channels,in your mind,body and soul,you see I have the gift also,and what a gift it is.Do not let others think of you as a crazy person.MY gift was handed down from,generations,my daughter started at the age of 4. Sweetpeawv

Anonymous said...

HA! That is hilarious! What a laugh....but that takes a sence of humor! How many times have you attended a local wedding and the people standing in the food lines act as if they have never ate before and will die if the person ahead doesn't move their butts along! Snide remarks about the wait and all that....this would have sent those types to their kness! HA!  Great story!
TJ
DailyRoundTrips

Anonymous said...

especially loved the wedding story!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like so much fun! (Both your lake vacations and that crazy French wedding!)

Anonymous said...

Your lakeside vacation sounds like loads of fun.  Reminds me of the grand family get-togethers at the beach that we used to have.  

Your sister's brother-in-law sounds like such a ham.  The life of the party everywhere he goes, I bet!

Anonymous said...

IN THIS POST IN YOUR JOURNAL, YOU MENTION SOMEONE NAMED OMEGA.  IS THAT A RELATIVE, OR SOMEONE NOT RELATED?  MY MOTHER'S NAME WAS OMEGA, HER MIDDLE NAME.  MEANS "THE END".  JUST SUCH AN UNUSUAL NAME, WONDERED WHO YOU KNEW THAT WAS NAMED THAT.  LOVE YOUR PICTURES AND YOUR ENTRIES.  HAVE A GREAT DAY.  (EMAIL ME AN ANSWER IF YOU SO CHOOSE)

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful story!!
V

Anonymous said...

What a great story! And, that mini-vacation on the lake sounds absolutely divine!
:-) ---Robbie