Wednesday, June 29, 2005

food poisoning

my close friends know that my sense of humor most often lies at the intersection of "hilarious" and "sick."

this posting, sent to me by fuckface (aka bloodninja) is hilarious. but sick. and not for family-audiences.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/51760058.html

dry cleaning for wedding dresses?

hey atlanta folks, any recommendations on where we should take katie's wedding dress to have it cleaned and preserved?

here's a nice pic of katie and her dad walking up the aisle:
katie+jerry_procession

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

one pic preview

taking our vows:

katie+sahil_christian vows 3_zoom

recap

i'm now somebody's husband.

ok, pics to come, of course. what a great weekend. we started with mendhi on thursday night for the ladies. brief description (taken from the web):
  • Mehndi is the Hindi word used to describe the art form of painting henna designs on the body. Mehndi is practiced in many parts of the world. Traditionally, it is associated with romantic love and the ritual of marriage. Henna designs are integral part of bridal adornment in Hindu, Moslem, and Sephardic traditions. It is also used for everyday adornment. In India, North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, henna is seen as a talisman, a blessing upon the skin with the power to bring the wearer happiness and wealth.
  • Design details vary from culture to culture. Generally, Indian designs are made of finely drawn floral and paisley patterns. Arabic designs concentrate on larger floral motifs on the hands and feet and African designs include bold geometric shapes.
  • Traditionally, Mehndi is practiced exclusively by women, and taught in the oral tradition, with recipes and patterns passed from one generation to the next.
  • While Mehndi retains an aura of Festivity, it remains a sacred practice intended not just to beautify the body, but to invite good fortune into one's home, one's marriage, and one's family. Henna is still used throughout the world today as part of the marriage ritual. It is said a good dark design, applied to the bride's hands and feet, is a sign of good luck for the married couple.
then we had the rehearsal on friday, which was achingly long but really created the image of what this thing was going to look like. fuckface and the chief were only an hour late--not bad. the rest of our attendents were on time.

the rehearsal dinner at frateli di napoli rocked. wonderful food and service and a kick ass slide show by fuckface. also, some great toasts. i gave one for my brother...an emotionally overwhelming event, in a good way. then we hit manuel's for some late night. have the eagle's nest reserved for ourselves worked out brilliantly.

woke up the morning of the big day pretty nervous, but i forced myself to sleep until 10. ran a few errands (had to get cash for those tips!) and met up with the family (all 40 of them) for a "small" brunch. then headed back to my place to relax. went swimming and lay by the pool for an hour. the g-men and ushers were there by 4 to suit up. unsurprisingly, fuckface and the chief showed up three hours late (i asked the guys to be there at 1). while my brother is rehearsing his toast with the ompg on the balcony, cherie and will (who drop by on a pleasant surprise) are writing last minute table cards and the photo list on index cards. i pull the dudes together for a toast and then we are off. three glasses of champagne plus a few pulls from the bottle and i'm feeling nice and calm.

hometown advantage lets us bypass all the traffic from gay pride weekend (350,000 in town to celebrate at piedmont park...which adjuts the botanical garden) on the way to midtown. funny store: a couple of the g-men keep commenting on how the "dyke parade" starts at six and may be noisy while we're doing the ceremony. after a few times, i say, "uh guys, you know, some folks around may not like you calling it the dyke parade." turns out that the official name of the event is actually the dyke parade.

and then it's time to start the the three ring circus. amazingly, my ENTIRE family (who normally consider one hour late to be on time) show up EARLY for pictures!

i'm not going to go the entire evening minute by minute, but it went exceedingly well. i've been told that the bride and groom are the most critical of their own wedding b/c they're the only ones who are aware of every detail. well, we were and we really had nothing to critique. everything actually worked out like it was supposed to. events not only ran on time, but a little bit ahead of time. the vendors delivered beautifully. we could not have asked for better weather. the rain held off and the cloud cover moderated the georgia humidity, saving all of my yankee family from melting. katie and i relaxed the entire evening and then retired to the ritz-carlton.

and so it's done.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

beginning to believe

how great is that even in the marriot courtyard lobby i can get a fast connection?

watched iron chef last night to calm the nerves. nothing beats watching the iron chef show some young whippersnapper how eel is properly filleted and grilled while still squirming.

now i'm watching the matrix on the lobby TV. neo and trinity are breaking into the building and rescue morpheus.

we were supposed to start lunch at noon (two minutes ago) but the caterer isn't here yet. nice.

t minus seven hours.

twas the night before...

...my wedding, and here I am. it's about 3:00 AM. everything has gone well, if not smoothly. the rehearsal went well, the rehearsal dinner was fantastic, and everyone had a great time at manuel's afterwards. great way to kick off the weekend.

gotta say, the rehearsal dinner was an emotionally charged event. while i was giving a toast, seeing so many people who are close to me and katie in the room really made me lose it.

kenny made a phizat slide show. it was ridiculously good.

well, we are down to a matter of hours!

am i nervous? not really. i think i'll feel a big letdown when everyone leaves. you spend a year putting all this stuff together, and then you blink and everyone is gone and you have a pile of crate & barrel gift receipts. so i will try to walk slowly, breathe deeply, smile a lot, and (literally) smell the roses in the rose garden where we are getting married.

Friday, June 24, 2005

almost there...almost there

one one my favorite lines from episode IV. alas, it didn't make afi's top 100 movie quotes. credit to doug for using it in his blog.

well, it's the day before the big day. rehearsal, rehearsal dinner tonight, then meeting friends at the local pub, manuel's. it's an institution--been going there since i was a freshman in college. rumor has it that manuel malooker, a loyal democrat, got wind that newt gingrich was stopping by regularly on his campaign (this is back in newt's hey day. he's a local boy and emory alum). one day manuel came out with a shotgun, pointed it a newt's group, and told them to get the hell out of there. true or not, i love it. given that manuel has pictures with him and bill and al when they'd stop by, i believe it.

well, we're pretty much on cruise control. last few errands to do. trying to figure out how much to tip our vendors. i asked them directly. what does, "it's not expected, but it is appreciated" mean? here's what i'm thinking:
  • wait staff: $40 per waiter
  • florist: $0 (she told me not to tip her)
  • photographer: $0 (ditto)
  • limo driver: $20
  • videographer: $30 (he gave me the previously mentioned vague line)
  • dj: $40
  • officiant: $100
  • string trio: $0
while, i'm at it, i thought i would rate all of my vendors. my criteria:
  • professionalism = how much i like them as a person (i.e. are they nice to work with, punctual for meetings, responsive to questions, willing to use technology like email and electronic payment)
  • flexibility = wilingness to work with our needs
  • value = getting a good service/product at a fair (not necess. cheap) price
  • do they pronounce my name correctly
  • overall = would i recommend them to a friend (that i like)
i've forced ranked them to make it meaningful (maximum of two vendors in each tier):
  1. the best you can get (definitely go with them): melissa at artistic touch and johnathan at evolution video
  2. really, really good: monique at awesome blossom (would give her top tier status if she could pronounce my name) and reci at the courtyard marriot
  3. they're good, but you might do as well with others: dj dan allen at dj unlimited and karleen at carole parks. i have to say, karleen has been an angel and cleaned up a major mess that our first coordinator at carole parks created. more about this later
  4. great product, but kind of hard to work with: bonnie at london string trio, savvi formal wear (tuxedo shop)
  5. they really made things a lot more difficult than they needed to be: the Palace (the Indian caterer) and our first coordinator at carole parks. on the former, it was really just a case of missed deadlines, not returning phone calls, and absolutely no concept of using email. it's 2005. come on. at carole parks, it so bad we were considering forfeiting our deposit and finding another caterer. thankfully, the coordinator went on maternity leave. the good news is that the second coordinator was actually fantastic. so i think the catering company itself is great--just one bad apple.
  6. people who should refund the world for all of the oxygen they are wasting: you know who you are.
from what i hear from ms. wintermute, the folks at bride beautful are good as well.

and i don't rate dr. patteson (our officiant) b/c she is a saint and mentor and great friend and in another league.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

best movie quotes

afi just released their non-scientifically-polled top 100 movie quotes. check it out here.

the top 10:

#

Quote

Movie

Year

1

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

GONE WITH THE WIND

1939

2

I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.

THE GODFATHER

1972

3

You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.

ON THE WATERFRONT

1954

4

Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.

THE WIZARD OF OZ

1939

5

Here's looking at you, kid.

CASABLANCA

1942

6

Go ahead, make my day.

SUDDEN IMPACT

1983

7

All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

SUNSET BLVD.

1950

8

May the Force be with you.

STAR WARS

1977

9

Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bupy night.

ALL ABOUT EVE

1950

10

You talkin' to me?
TAXI DRIVER

1976

stay on target

wed and three days away. both sets of parents arrive this afternoon.

the new place is great. after living in a 500 sq. ft. dorm for two years, i don't know what to do with all of this space. not one, but two bathrooms! and a pool. oh, funny story: the first night here we saw a couple having sex in the pool (my apt. is on the 4th floor and overlooks the pool) at 2:30 AM. not just a little kissing. we're talking a nice session here with multiple positions.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

last night in the shire

we're moving tomorrow to our phat new place in the inman park village.

will not miss the vermin-infested hellhole that katie and jen have had for the last year.

their landlord is a dick. to protect his privacy, i'll just say that his initials are jim elasmar. he is the worst landlord ever. i expect this house to be condemned pretty soon. some examples of why he sucks:
  • rats are found. he refuse to call an exterminator. instead, he lays some home made traps.
  • cockroaches are constantly crawling around. same story. refuses to call an exterminator.
  • rat dies inside the walls. the smell is atrocious. he suggests "waiting for it to decompose. then the smell will go away." (this happens several times, including once in the dead heat of august).
  • different small animal is found crawling in the woodworks and the kitchen. will not call exterminator or pest control. instead, drops off article about how said animal is known to be "friendly."
  • water leaks through the roof into the family room ever time it rains. he nails some more shingles to the room and applies spackle and paint to the ceiling. surprisingly, this approach fails to actually fix the leak.
  • decides to "spruce up" the place by painting the railing in the driveway. ignores the fact that the wood is rotting. does not apply primer to the wood. just paints directly on it. halfway through, decides, for whatever reason, to quit. now we have a half-painted, rotted railing in the front yard. it looks sweet.

swinging johnsons

last week gaffer threw a phat send-off party for our section as we bid goodbye to the big old H.

after a few brewsers, i conned the cool bar band, the swinging johnsons, to let me play a few tunes with them. they were nice enough to indulge me. i jammed on some hendrix and neil young, among others. thanks to my section-mates for cheering me on.

here's me rocking out, stage left.

sahil+swinging johnsons

T minus 7 days

Seven days to the bigday.com

many friends ask: "are you ready?"

well, ready as i'm going to get!

the to-do list never ends, somehow.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

how the patels spend a weekend together

will, my oxford-and-havard-educated best friend in boston, had his parents visit him last week. their daily activities including visiting the museum of fine art, having brunch in beacon hill, and enjoying the classic architecture of old boston.

my parents visited this week as well. i have an aunt and uncle who live in suburban boston; two other uncles came in as well (it's graduation week). the patels do things a little differently. that is, we have no interest in sightseeing, or in fact, doing anything with culture. here is how we've spent the last few days:
  • go to home depot to buy wood for home improvement project. dad and his brother spend 40 minutes arguing over which wood to buy. one type is apparently double the cost of the other. when we get to the check-out aisle, i discover that the wood is for a mailbox platform (~ 6 x 8 x 1), and that they were arguing over one that costs fifty cents and one that costs a dollar. forty minutes over fifty cents. this from two brothers who have collectively put five kids through private universities.
  • arrive at my uncle and aunt's home. dad proceeds to create his own workshop in my aunt's family room. he lays newspaper down, finds hammers, drills, saws, and tape measure, and works for several hours to make a new platform for the mailbox. i should mention that my dad is an engineer who single-handedly built a screened-in porch, put a deck on top of it, and then finished our basement.
  • four hours later he's skipped dinner but finished a state of the art mailbox platform, measured to the fraction of the milimeter and perfectly balanced. my uncle complains that the lettering is slightly crooked.
  • for the rest of the weekend, we actually stop the car every time we leave the driveway in order stare at this marvel of engineering for one minute and fully appreciate its beauty.
  • at night, we watch my cousin's wedding movie. not the highlight reel. the entire thing. then we watch the rehearsal dinner video, which an aunt recorded with her camcorder. all of the parents announce that the camcorder version is better than the $2500 professionally edited video.
  • the next day we sit in the family room and complain that nothing is on TV. then we discuss for two hours what time we should go to my cousin's house to have tea for thirty minutes. then we go there.
  • while we are having tea at my cousin's apt, the uncles, in between making fun of each other, grill me about wedding plans and have me go through the wedding budget line item by line item. the idiot that i am, i have my laptop with me.
  • finally, our major cultural event of the week: we go to the local cineplex for Cinderella Man (it's really good, btw).
  • dinner is the worst thin-crust pizza ever at pizzeria uno's. good garlic bread, though.

in the meantime, i think will and his parents have seen a few more museums and are enjoying the boston pops.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

i still have both my eyebrows

well, i survived my bachelor party and still have both my eyebrows and all of my hair (in its natural color). i think that's just about all that katie asked.

sorry folks, no details that i'm willing share.

but suffice to say, my groomsmen did a unreal job. they are the best i could have asked for. special extra props to my brother (sunir) and my cousin (raj). i know they did a shitload of work for it.

to the g-men: hope you enjoy the shirts. to shoobie, nils, jwall, reyes, rob r-b, et al--thanks for joining.

to blondie. you rule. of course.

ok, i'll leave you with one pic.

sahil_after_friday night

Friday, June 03, 2005

shears and peroxide

after many trash-talking emails and arguing over the plans, my bachelor party weekend is here. my groomsmen have been awesome--i haven't had to do a damn thing. they're all flying int to atlanta for 2 days of debauchery. my brother, brother-in-law (to be) and cousin got here last night. two of the other groomsmen get in today, and bunch of my boys that live in town will be down.

my only request is that they don't cut off my hair or bleach it.

i have a pretty good feeling that the weekend will include the clairmont lounge.

will blog on monday to tell some tales.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

does everyone have to throw around "hotlanta"

having moved (back) to atlanta this month after two years in baaastun, i notice many more people asking me how things are in "hotlanta." even worse, they sometimes put it in quotes, as if i'm not going to get it.

hotlanta isn't even accurate. you want hot? go to phoenix, where my brother lives. it's 135 fucking degrees at night in the shade. dry heat my ass. atlanta's got nothing on phoenix.

but anyway, come on, hotlanta is so overused and so old. to the new yorkers: does it bother you when people say "how's life in the big apple?" i'll admit, when i lived in baastun, i didn't really mind when people asked "how's life in the shitty-ass frozen tundra where shitty bars have last call at 11:30 PM and people's accents make your ears bleed wicked bad?" then again, it's a pretty descriptive nickname. "beantown" is lame.

calling it "hotatlanta" just has a ned flanders ring to it. find something new. for the love of lucifer, call it vicklanta if you have to.

anyway, it is cool to see how much vicklanta has changed. greg is this guy who rides his bike to work and takes pictures from key vantage points around the city and matches them against historical pictures taken from the same point. it's a revealing way to see how a city can change. click here to see his website and collection of amazing pics at atlanta time machine. here's a great set, comparing midtown atlanta in 2005 and 1955:

North looking south 2004

North looking south 1955

fat as a toddler i was, too

hopefully i won't be such a porker when i grow up. i think this pic is circa 1979.

fat toddler sahil in jogging suit

strong with the force at a young age I was

this pic is from my first day of school ever. note the index card tied to my belt (it has my name and address on it in case i forgot).

sahil first ever day of school

more importantly, look closely at the t-shirt. yes, i'm sporting a return of the jedi t-shirt featuring darth vadar in the background and luke skywalker in the foreground.

and katie tells me she is just now realizing how into the force i am!

thanks to mom and dad patel for scanning a bunch of my childhood pics from the vault for the wedding slideshow. click here if you care to see more of these pics.