Taylor Swift (泰勒斯威夫特, テイラー・スウィフト, 테일러 스위프트)

 Nothing makes me feel old more than spending a day with my sister, who's part of another generation apparently even though she's just 9.5 years younger than me. She has multiple tattoos, is into the most recent social media news, supports Palestine 100% in the most recent Gaza conflict, still keeps in contact with her college friends, and has the very 1970's attitude of "don't trust anyone over 30." (Wonder what happens when she turns 30? She doesn't trust herself anymore?) The most noticeable thing she does that separates her from me most clearly, though, is her undying love for Taylor Swift. 

Have you heard of Taylor Swift? She's only anywhere and everywhere you look. I looked up her name in different languages, and yup, she's famous enough to have a specific translation in all the key languages. International superstar who is probably more the face of America than anyone in America rigth now, including Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and a host of other candidates. She played "kingmaker" to Travis Kelce, a formally successful tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs but unknown outside of the sports world, who has suddenly become the most famous famous sports star in teh world and transcnding sports by dating Taylor and having her show up to the games. Football fans have been complaining that the telecasts featuring the Chiefs cut to Taylor in her box seats more than the game itself. Superlative, superlative, superltive, Taylor has lived up to all those superlatives. 

My sister went to watch the Eras Tour concert film today in theaters; I abstained from spending time in the theater, but on Netflix I'm watching the Renaissance Tour concert film from 2018 (before her mega-mega-star status, when was just a mega-star). 

1.) Some questions: How does she not sweat through all her outfits and makeup after dancing so actively? She really gives it all in her performances, but she looks fresh the whole way through 3 hours of concert action...she has costume changes, sure, but I'd be sweating my ass off........it's not like she has a private shower backstage. Magic. 

2.) She's 33 turning 34 in December. Are Taylor and Travis going to make a baby soon? That baby will likely be the most discussed baby in the history of the world, eclipsing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's babies, Kim Kardashian's babies, the Jon + Kate babies, the Octomom babies, Baby Jesus, etc. 

3.) Does she write all of her own songs? If so, she's the Moazart of her generation, a virtuoso who generates hit after hit after hit, where she played 30+ songs during her live performances but people like my sister still got "super salty" (yes, that word makes me feel old too) that she didn't include certain songs out of the 100+ hit songs she's ever had. 

4.) If Taylor ever performed at the halftime show for a Super Bowl, it migth be the most watched event ever, not just of Super Bowls. She definitely has the stage presence for it, and her shows have the entertainment quality for it, with massive props (like giant snakes, drummers baging on gong drums, half-naked dancers (both men and women), strobe lights, etc., etc.) I have to say she'd probably be better than pregnant Rihanna in the last halftime performance (unpopular opinion I guess). 

5.) I've never been to a Swiftie concert of course, but I imagine that watching it from home in the comfrot of my own couch and big-screen TV is a more pleasant experience than paying upwards of 4-digit prices (per ticket!) to go to a stadium to sit in the nosebleeds, wearing adult diapers (apparently fans this summer reported wearing them to not take bathroom breaks so they didn't miss a thing). It's just like UFC events, any sports events, really: you get to see more not going live. This is the old geezer Bobby Yan talking though: the film had close-up shots of fans who were pleased as punch, screaming their heads off when Taylor came onstage for the first time, shedding tears throughout the performance and when Taylor was speaking, holding up lights while the lights went dark, and I'm sure shouting the lyrics of the songs as Taylor was singing throughout along with 50,000 other screaming fans. Sounds stressful for me; heaven for others. 

6.) She has very quotable lyrics and catch phrases, like "Shake it off, shake it off." Also "Cruel Summer" (also title of a different song by Bananarama, "You Belong with Me." "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22." (For me, it's soon to be I'm feeling 42). And of course, the one I say to my sister everytime I see her: "I knew you were trouble when you walked in....." surprised that one hasn't made it into the cultural zeitgeist: it's a classic. 

MJ and I just want to go see U2 in Las Vegas's new Sphere theater, Achtung Baby Live. 

Bradycardia (心动过缓, 徐脈, 서맥)

 Bradycardia is a term for a slow heartbeat, a term I recently learned from an episode of Jeopardy but also from my intermittent viewing of the Good Doctor, a series that's not really available on any of the streaming services I've ever subscribed to (Hulu, Netflix, HBO) but is curiously readily available on the Southwest WiFi system. That's pretty much how I learn stuff these days: it comes up on Jeopardy, I forget about that term because it's new and I haven't developed an interest in it yet, but then it shows up in another medium in a memorable way (in this case, Freddy Highmore's character Sean, a surgeon at San Jose Hospital, is rushing a 10-year-old patient to the ER explaining her syptoms including slow heart beat aka bradycardia), and now I've mastered that term hopefully forever. Also I created the image in my mind of a Tom Brady-like heart being slow, which the New England Patriots QB was famous for, solidifed it for me. Also tachycardia is a irregulary fast heartbeat- helps to know sets of opposite-meaning words, like hyper (over) vs. hypo (under). 

The Good Doctor pairs nicely with the Korean drama MJ and I have been watching recently, detailing the lives of nurses and doctors at a psychiatric hospital in Korea. It has plenty of interesting elements like treatment of patients, the causes of patients' trama and symptoms to look out for, scientific terms originating in Latin then to English then turned into Korean, but it also includes an element of every medical drama I've ever seen has to have: the dynamic between doctors and nurses. It's inescapable, like the "chicken-or-the egg" dilemma except for hospitals, or more like Batman and Robin. Doctors are supposed to be the more advanced level, or at least have received more schooling than nurses, but they often overplay their degree and disrespect nurses, often criticizing them and not listening to nurses (at least, according to the Good Doctor). I may be biased because MJ is a nurse and she reports plenty of drama about doctors who don't know anything or are too arrogant or are not responsive to nurses' advice, but it seems to me doctors need to value the nurses they work with more, even in situations where the doctor is the direct supervisor. Just because someone obtained the necessary qualifications for becoming a doctor, doesn't mean he or she is a good doctor (pardon the pun), I often say there are plenty of lawyers who became lawyers who shouldn't have, and to go further with that, some doctors should not be supervising others. Supervision in itself is a totally different role than being a doctor, so a lot of doctors are not fit for supervising others, despite having to play that role at the hospital. Conversely, just because nurses don't have the necessary qualifications for being a doctor doesn't mean they aren't just as knowledgeable about certain aspects of a patient's treatment. 

MJ is currently working for a doctor who pushes MJ and other members of the "team" around without regard for MJ's well-being and quality of life, and it's really disappointing; the doctor has even threatened in not-so-subtle messages that if "the team" doesn't perform well enough to gather patients for a study that there's not enough money for MJ to get paid her salary. (The doctor uses team to her advantage when it suits her to boss people around but not when it comes to not paying out people's salary or other disadvantageous situations). An unethical move to threaten people's livelihood and salary if they don't meet a certain level of performance and depending on the situation and employee contract, not a kosher way legally for a boss to incentive her employees. Doctors like that really bring down the whole profession and further make me realize I shouldn't be looking at real doctors (I can trust Freddy Highmore!) with rose-tinted glasses and assume they know best about everything. They don't, not even about medical issues, but definitely not about how to be a good boss and supervise others. 

Rant (on behalf of MJ) over. 

Nyad

 "naiad" or "nyad" in Greek means water nymph, a recurring theme in the movie I watched on a whim today about Diana Nyad, the famous swimmer who swam from Cuba to Florida, 110 miles through the gulf stream and shark-infested Caribbean waters. I'd only know her name through Jeopardy clues over the years, as trivia circles like "first ever person to" accomplishments and adventures that had a lot national buzz, and apparently it was a huge buzz in 2013 that Nyad accomplished this feat......at 64 years old! (Where was I when this story broke? For many years of my life I just completely tuned out the news and current events, apparently, or just completely dislodged this story from my brain). 2013....I vaguely remember Batkid, Edward Snowden, the Boston Marathan bombing......yup, that's about it. I was barely part of this world participating in its daily events. 

But yes the story of Diana Nyad is actually one of perserverance and various failures and believing that one is never too old to do something......we're a society that incentives being young and accomplishments...I always envied the Forbes "30 Under 30" editions and "College Students making a difference," especially after I had passed those ages/milestones and hadn't accomplished what those people had. So for a swimmer to come back after 30 years from her last attempt to cross from Cuba to Florida is really a pretty significant feat, a reminder for us that as the movie says, "a diamond is just a lump of coal that stuck with it." (I believe the actual quote from Henry Kissinger is "a diamond is just a lump of coal that did well under pressure,") but both apply as inspirational messages. I appreciate those stories about perseverance and personal accomplishment that also highlight the trials and tribulations that it took to get there, the toll that it took to get there. Too often nowadays I see people wanting to get famous or get rich with the easy route, like snapping your fingers and turning into a millionaire (for a crazy story about how making crazy amounts of money insanely quickly, read "Going Infinite" by Michael Lewis about Sam Bankman Fried, who was just convicted of criminal fraud this week and will be spending quite a lot of time in jail now), and the grind-it-out determination and grid and "10,000 hours" gets overlooked as part of that process of accomplishment something great. Diana Nyad apparently had to fend off sharks, cold water, violent waves, and jellyfish attacks while swimming the 110 miles (doesn't feel like a lot for walking, running, or driving.....but swimming? I don't think I've swum even half a mile consecutively my whole life). Just the logistics of getting a boat to be by her side monitoring, having to refuel with food every few hours (because she's burning so many calories every hour), keeping her head above water, keeping an even pace (apparently a lot of Beatles songs helped set the beat), not suffering any diseases, darkness, and just the fact of being 64 years old! My dad stopped playing tennis with me around age 60 because he couldn't run anymore, my mom had issues with her kidneys at 64, and both just go on long walks now. 

I met a guy today at chess club who mentioned during our brief conversation between games (yes chess players talk, not just bury their heads into the chess game) that he was locked up for awhile and played chess there- I should mention this gentleman was not Sam Bankman Fried. I did a double take at first, hopefully not rudely, but recovered quickly and kept the conversation about chess, but it was certainly unexpected information: here was a guy around my age who was talking to me normally and seemed pretty friendly, nothing out of place, who had just revealed to me he had spent time in prison. Talk about a big setback in life; but he got through it and is rediscovering his life, partly through chess. Him and Diana Nyad remind me that there are people suffering much bigger setbacks than I have the last few years (not getting on Jeopardy, not having a baby yet), and I really haven's suffered real loss that compares to spending one's whole life dedicated to trying to accomplish a single goal of crossing Cuba to Florida, but then not completing it three times in 2 years (like Diana Nyad had in 2011 and 2012 before she finally made it in 2013) and feeling life slip away as one just gets another year older wondering if I'm ever going to reach my goal. 

The Big, Terrible Thing

 Over Halloween weekend, an actor most poeple of my generation know intimately passed away: Matthew Perry, who played Chandler "Muriel" (I saw a trivia question asking about his middle name) Bing on friends. Not Matthew Calbraith Perry who fought in the War of 1812 and opened Japan's doors to foreign trade, the funny Matthew Perry who was apparently originally from Canada where he was pretty good at tennis for a Canadian, but it turns out a country that sends all its best athletes into hockey and winter sports doesn't have too many great tennis stars. I know all this about Matthew Perry because immediately after his passing I put Matthew Perry's memoir "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" on hold at the public library, hoping I'd be the first one to get the news and think to check out his memoir which just came out last year. Is this a faux pas to do? I felt just a tiny bit guilty about trying to "beat the crowds" to get at a recently dead man's book, like I was capitalizing on his death like buying art right before an artist is about to die. 

I don't usually like to read celebrities' books because I don't like putting famous people on a pedestool (see many previous entries on this blog) but I wanted to read what most people were interested in: the stories about drugs. It's like when people bought Bill Clinton's first book after his presidency called "My Life": they all wanted to see what he had to say about Monica Lewinsky. I wasn't reading it to spite Matthew Perry or anything: I generally wanted to see how a seemingly good guy can just let drugs and alcohol spiral out of control and get addicted so many times, go through rehab so many times, only to relapse and get back on it. When I was a kid I always thought that only bad people were addicted to drugs and took to the streets; as an adult I realize it's not that simple. Apparently Perry was a colicky baby so he was fed barbiturates as a newborn baby to get him to calm down....that seems unhealthy and starting off life on the right foot. Kind of reminds me of how lucky I got to not be pre-trained to have a disposition towards drugs, or be in an environment growing up of drug use, or have that much of an addictive personality. Perry apparently had all of those, and as much as I wanted to point out holes in his story about blaming addiction like "HA! You had a choice! Don't just blame it on drugs!" I couldn't help but wonder if there are good people who just can't control themselves. Perry says that "he can only control the first sip of alcohol...." once he's had one, he's going to have them all. Fatalistic catchphrases like "you take the first drink of alcohol, but then the alcohol drinks you..." or something like that. 

Especially now with really lethal substances in street drugs (aka fentanyl) and opiates, it is SO DANGEROUS to do drugs (although Perry apparently did not have meth or fentanyl in his system and his death is being called a drowning so far)... it is literally life and death. Perry called the drugs and alcohol in a lethal combination the "Big, Terrible Thing," aptly named because it really is like an invisible demon you carry inside you that makes you a zombie (I've been hearing a lot of people call San Francisco the scene of the zombie apocalypse because of the drug users, and from the little time I spent there in 2018 that I've hard the 2023 version is a lot worse, I'd have to agree) that can focus on nothing else but brains......... I do think those drugs do rewire one's brain so that you only get stimulated by those drugs... the drugs just take over all of the impulses and instincts that a brain normally would do. That's what I always say, you can get hurt playing sports or other body parts, but you gotta protect the brain, from the outside (skull) and inside (drugs). Such a shame, I had a good time reading Perry's book, I recognized a lot of the comedic timing and writing that made Friends gold (Perry apparently pitched a lot of jokes for the show); it's too bad there won't be any more of his work. Just 54 years old; I would be distrought if I knew right now I'd live to 54, and he died without any children, which he laments throughout various parts of the book, one of the greatest joys in life sacrificed mainly because he couldn't settle down due to drugs, even a guy as successful as Matthew "Chandler Bing" Perry. Really is a big, terrible thing. 

Danse macabre (死的舞蹈, 死的舞蹈, 죽음의 무도 )

 I feel like I'm late to a meeting; the writing of this entry was delayed 15 minutes due to looking up old blog entries from 2013: from my 26-year-old self, indeed a pivotal year as I predicted back then; too bad I only wrote 31 entries, which makes sense considering the monumental nature of moving into my new career, beginning my long journey to find a partner. The posts aren't too bad, actually, and with some work and editing I could become Amy Schneider, Jeopardy superchamp and trans activitist and now writer; quite an awesome story of how she got to where she is now. She's also very humble and realistic about her own abilities and some of the breaks that she's gotten (as well as setbacks) so it's a refreshing take contrasting with some actors and celebrities' memoirs that have some arrogance and "of course I made it in this world, I'm just that good!" underlying their stories of their own life (I understand MJ's boss kind of has that attitude now too, unfortunately). I'd like to think IF (and when) I become that successful I would also be able to keep a level head about it like Amy; all I need is to win like 40 games on Jeopardy and get to be as famous as her. 

The "Danse Macabre" is a famous classical music masterpiece by Camille Saint Saens, a French composer who was a genius in his own right but just had the misfortune of coming just a few decades after Mozart, Beethoven, and all the most famous classical composers that became household names, and perhaps accordingly his pieces don't get their proper due (as you might gather from some of my posts, I'm a big fan of people who don't get their due from the public eye). Last night MJ and I went to a "Halloween fusion musical concert" with classical music intersperced with other forms of music like rap, pop music, ("Uprising" by Muse was somehow prominently involved in a Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Finale piece. Whether you agree with the decision to have "fusion" music can be debatable (I persoanlly liked some of the pieces but thougth others were jumbled excessively to become cacophony) it reminded me how much I like classical music and how many movies, songs, operas, cultural events, etc. is shaped by classical music. I was proud to have once by a classical musician again; I often am when I go to any classical music concert, but especially where there's a long violin solo or prominent violin parts. That's my jam; those violinists are my people. 

Danse Macabre is a piece that most people wouldn't be able to place, but you've probably heard somewhere before. (Google it now). For MJ, she was immediately reminded of a Yuna Kim skating program in 2009 (Yuna Kim is the most famous South Korean figure skater of all time, the GOAT really). It has like a 2-minute violin solo at the beginning where the first violinist can just go crazy as a "Macabre Dancer" would....and at our concert the soloist definitely did. I was never that expressive when playing violin, and I never had a chance to do a solo at a concert, which suits me just fine, I was always one of the "backup violins" towards the back who just tried to make sure I didn't stick out like a sore thumb. It reminded me, though, that I once played Paganini's No. 24 Caprcie as part of a solo competition and did it.....OK, especially for a high school violin player. It's one of the trickiest violin parts in history, and Paganini really proved that violin is the devil's instrument; he created music that only he could get through and his rivals wouldn't be able to play due to just how hard it was. (For bonus points, listen to "Paganini's La Campanella," which I have humming in my head all the time now because it's the beginning of a Blackpink song called "Shutdown." More pop music songs should try to use some classical music if only to throwback to an earlier time and hook some classical music lovers; instead we get Doja Cat and "Paint the Town Red." Sigh. 

But yea, anyway, 2013, 2023, 2033, whatever comes my way, classical music will always be my jam. I was embarrassed to tell peopel as a kid when other kids asked me what my favorite type of music was (I think in 7th grade I HAD to say Eminem in order to not be bullied) but the great thing about being an adult is that things deemed uncool in middle school are flipped and become really cool........classical music, learn it! Also it might come up on Jeopardy (Jeopardy writers get it). 

Egg Retrieval (取卵)

 I've learned a lot about the female reproductive system through the process of trying to get pregnant, and a big lesson is that there's a lot going on in the uterus and vagina, fallopian tubes, etc. Thanks to the wonders of science, I've been in the room to watch as MJ's doctors inserted ultrasound devices into her reproductive system to check out "what she has going on down there." One of those things going on in the uterus is that egg cells are being developed each cycle after a period, and eventually they turn into follicles that get really big in size (doctors can somehow measure it on the screen to the precise millimeter) and determine when they are ready to be fertilized by the sperm (this would normally be where I would come in). However, thanks again to the miracles of science, there are other options now to try to fertilize those eggs, and the one that MJ and I have tried once already was to retrieve the follicles through a sort of vacuum or suction cump, artificially inseminate them with sperm in a lab, and then let them develop into fully fertilized embryos. Hopefully, one or more of these embryos are deemed ready to go and sent for testing, where it's determined whether they have the right number of chromosomes, look good in appearance and shape, etc. For a truly miraculous process like childbirth, the egg retrieval process sure sounds more like making dumplings on Chinese New Year for the Yan family (gotta be in the right temperature with the right amount of ingredients, and must look good in apperance and color). 

Egg retrieval, unfortunately, is NOT an easy experience for MJ, and I imagine not a great experience for most potential mothers out there. I've learned over this process in order to feel sympathetic to what MJ is going through, I actually need to be experience what it's like to be in the room, (kind of an empiric style of observation) so I've followed her to the medical clinic, and luckily the fertility clinic has allowed the big, bad man to go into the examination room with MJ. The "operating table" that MJ lies down on is unique for expecting mothers or wannabe-mothers in our case, where there are leg posts up high and apart so that MJ can rest her legs while the doctors inspect her reproductive system, and the doctors physically insert a tube up through her vagina into her body. I can't imagine the tube is very warm and comfortable, and although the doctors are nice about going in and trying to do their best I can't help but compare it to an unwanted guest coming into your most private areas and rustling around trying to find the best angles to take a look inside. I can only imagine how it feels if someone were to push a tube into my reproductive system: probably one of a man's worst nightmares. 

It's sad to think that this is just the BEGINNING of the journey of childbirth: if we do somehow succeed at egg retrieval and egg deposit and implantation and getting a blastocyst/ fetus/ eventually a baby, that's where the real fun starts of doing testing, etc. All for the chance to add a person to one's family who you don't even know what he or she will be like: life is like a box of chocolates, you don't know what you're gonna get, you could get a well-behaved angel kid....or the opposite. 

Statistics show that people who believe in religion tend to be happier than those who don't. That's just on average over a cross section of like 9 billion people, but one side effect of religion is being involved in a community and seeing the same people week after week. That's what I miss about being part of human society now; the community aspect of it. The closest I come to believing in religion, ironically, is being in a room of science, the examination room, seeing those follicles that the doctor pulls up: somehow, women were born with those eggs inside them, and the only way to create more humans is to have trust and love enough to have someone with sperm to connect with those eggs. It's really the closest I come to beliving in religious forces, no matter what the science says that it is just part human evolution/ how the human body works. I'm sure egg retrieval is probably not looked on fondly by religion, maybe relying too much on science and man-made techniques? Well, maybe we can just give the religious forces a little bit of a boost to help with this baby-making! (and with a little less pain for MJ, please). 

Echoic Memory (回声记忆, 반향기억, エコー記憶)

 The Proust effect is the effect that smells have on memory; appraently the writer Marcel Proust's works including "In Search of Lost Time" theorized that smells can help people access their childhood memories. I agree on a certain level; certainly the first things people think of when accessing memories is a visual memory of seeing someone's face, or a particular color, or seeing an event take place, but smell definitely plays a big part when I go back to childhood places like going into a school, my parents' closet with the same smell of old clothes, the aroma of dumplings and other Chinese goodies being cooked. Sometimes I crave the smell of chocolate that permeated downtown Chicago when I worked there oh so many years ago now because there was a chocolate factory nearby; everytime I drive down to Camarillo and pass the fertilized fields the familar smell of manure and whatever else is in the fertilizer reminds me that I'm back in Camarillo (It's not all bad; I do like the green grass, abundant flowers, and fresh air smells of Camarillo as opposed to the smog and urban city of L.A.). Not to be hentai (perverted) but I also like the smell of new books, and often crack open a new book partly for the scent. 

However, I think at least for me sounds are more memorable than any other non-vision senses; probably has to do with my good sense of hearing. Even with earwax constantly stuck in my ears most of my life, I hear pretty well; my mom used to marvel that I could hear her conversation with my dad despite being several rooms away and upstairs. (Chinese people call it having "sharp ears.") I don't actively think about it when I go back somewhere I've been before, but I do get a jolt of recognition of familiarity every time I start heading towards a dodgeball gym and hear the balls thudding against the wall, or turn on a baseball game and hear the dim murmur of a buzzing crowd; there are a lot of sounds I appreciate, which is probably why TV shows all employ a catch theme song at the beginning of each episode, or commercials create musical jingles to be memorable like Kit Kat Song or the State Farm ad. There's a ton of sounds from my youth I just don't hear anymore, like ring tones from a non-smart cell phone; old radio shows, the dismissal bell signaling the end of class; echoic memory is important. 

Which is why America has to improve some of the sounds that its country represents. When I went to Japan, getting on the subway was a joy a.) because the trains run on time, b.) because the subway stations and cars themselves were clean and organized, c.) the people riding the subway were generally disciplined except maybe during rush hour traffic, and d.) the spectacular chime that Japanese trains lead off with before their announcement. It's a very soothing sound that is just what you need when being in a high-stress environment like a train where you're worried about your surroundings, you're surrounded by strangers, you might be late for an appointment and in a hurry to get somewhere......the little jingle just makes everything OK. Contrast that with any metro system I've ever been in the U.S., from L.A. to Chicago to NYC to DC.....not very welcome at all, just announcing the next stop and if there are any delays; and "beware of the closing doors...." I know subways are for mid-to-lower-class society people, but at least act like you actually want people to use the service (we did actually pay for it!) Without that magical chime that Japan and some other Asian countries have, the lasting impression of the American trains are just garbage, the smell of marijuana (constant on L.A. trains), the sound of train rushing by, and people talking loudly (MJ got annoyed the other day on the subway listening to a fellow passenger carry on about her personal life while the rest of the car had to listen in). Even arriving at the airport in American cities, I don't really feel welcomed, just a bunch of corporate signs and PA announcements about Flight so-and-so departing in 5 minutes or final call looking for a passenger who hadn't shown up at the gate yet, or "This is Mayor Karen Bass. Welcome to L.A." Give us some tunes! Something to welcome us to the city! 

MJ and I crashed a wedding on Saturday night; not really crashed but witnessed a boathouse wedding from a public bridge that we were passing by; a perfect way to see joy and harmony as well as listening to piano music as the bridesmaids, groom, and finally bride walked down the aisle. A perfect harmony of memories ranging from visual (great sunset after a rainy morning that cleared up), smells of autumn and falling leaves in an urban park, (relatively) fresh air filling our lungs, the sounds of a wedding going on nearby reaching our ears even through the occasional gusts of wind blowing through, and of course the collective wonder and celebration of the wedding guests at the boathouse but also other uninvited guests who had stopped on the bridge to witness the occasion. An unforgettable scene.