Back to Work

Wow - has it really been 10 weeks since Lauren was born already? Pretty much. It's crazy, but in the first couple of weeks, and even sometimes during the last few weeks, I've been eagerly awaiting the day that I would go back to work. Not for the sake of going back to work and getting back to selling space on Evergreen vessels. Just for the camaraderie of the office and being with adults again. I love Lauren to death and I know I'm going to miss her terribly while I'm at work - I'll be lucky if I can even concentrate on work I'll be thinking about her so much, but there's really only so much one person can do with an infant day in and day out. Stay at home moms are tremendous people - I don't know how they do it. Maybe you just have to be wired that way to effortlessly take care of a child all alone for hours on end.

I know that going to daycare is going to be better for Lauren than staying with me all day every day. She'll have other kids to interact with and adults who are trained in working with infants to give them developmentally appropriate activities throughout the day to stimulate them. I think I've done a pretty good job so far, but it is exhausting both physically and mentally and there is always the worry that I could be doing more. Really, it's like teaching my classes again, but on a much more personal level where my failures affect my own child, and that's terrifying to me.

What wasn't terrifying to me was this weekend. My parents came down early on Friday so that I could go out to participate in Hema's Mehndi prior to her and Anuj's wedding on Sunday. The last time I had henna applied to my hand was in Morocco when I paid to have it done, with no particular event to accompany it other than my presence in Morocco. This time I found it to be very special because I was helping a friend celebrate her upcoming wedding to a guy that I think is a great friend in his own right and will be a wonderful husband to her. High maintenance, perhaps, but they will be happy together. I was one of three non-Indians there, which made me appreciate the evening even more because all of Hema's friends and family really welcomed us into the event, when they could have just left us on our own. There's nothing quite like sitting in a small room on a blanket-covered floor with Indian music blaring while everyone trades tales and greetings in mixtures of English and Hindi.

The wedding day was a piece of work, that's for sure. It started at 7:45 in the morning for me as Billy and I had to go to Hema's house so that her aunt could help get me dressed in one of Hema's saris. Tuhina had lent me some of her wedding-appropriate clothing, but Hema was really eager for us to wear sarees and eagerly insisted that we see if any of her stuff would fit. I look like I should be going to a Tennessee football game...except that the saree would never fit in at a football game. We got dressed and drove to the venue where we met up with Anuj's brother and sister-in-law who were leading Anuj's baraat. Alcohol would have made it easier to let loose and really dance it out in the middle of the street, but Indian pop music once again makes dancing easier. I wish I could have seen the looks on people's faces when they drove by our group dancing and cheering in the middle of the street in downtown Atlanta on a rainy Sunday morning, but I was too busy trying to not tear off my saree that I didn't really see what was going on around us.

The rest of the wedding ceremony went much as Tuhina and Karl's did, which was nice because I actually had a clue about what was going on thanks to my previous experience. Pumping breastmilk in a public bathroom in a borrowed saree was something I would have never thought I would have to do, but I can now say that it can be done, if not easily.

The couple left the wedding venue at 2:00 (keep in mind everything started at 9:00 am), and Billy and I went home to change for the reception (well, I changed clothes - Billy stayed in the outfit Anuj lent him). At the reception (which started at 6:00), Billy gave the greeting to the guests in Gujarati (I will probably never forget those four lines for the rest of my life, I heard them practiced so much), and then we sat through three hours of introductions, speeches, roasts and skits - complete with Bollywood musical numbers. The skit was actually really amazing as were the dances. Unfortunately, at 9:00, the food just beginning to be served and Billy had to be at work early this morning, so we had to leave before eating (just like we did for Tuhina and Karl's wedding). One day, I'll actually get to eat great Indian food at an Indian wedding. I'll just have to find more Indian friends first.