Lessons from NYC

I learned quite a few things from our trip to Manhattan.

About Tea:
Someday, when I have money, I will need to go to a tea shop and buy a tea that costs $480/lb. that is only harvested in certain (unknown) months (possibly by monks or monkeys..) from wild plants that grow near an unspecified temple.


About Qi Pao:
The future mother-in-law and I both tried on qi pao.  She decided on a nice soft green one with purple accents.  I am stuck with communist red and so-yellow-it-looks-fake gold.  Apparently the beautiful green is too motherly for a woman my age.


About the Language Barrier:
There are definitely times when stories between the future in-laws and me get confused, no matter which side they start on.  It's linguistic.  It's lexical.  It's cultural.  This past weekend has proven that our missed communications have little to do with culture, linguistics and vocabulary.  And a lot to do with what we don't say.

When we got home, we proudly paraded our plunder to the patriarch.   The invitations had a shiny phoenix and dragon as well as a heart shaped hole revealing an equally lustrous double happiness.

Except...

The invitations we bought were not what he had wanted.  First it was that they didn't have enough room for my parents names.  And then the truth comes out: there is a heart-shaped hole.  And somehow--despite the fact that many Chinese invitations boast of the classy "window into love"--this is unacceptable.

He went upstairs, got a 5 year old wedding invitation and pointed saying this is what he had wanted: black red paper inside, square, with no hole and scented as if a mature Elle Woods had created them.  We had seen this before when they were explaining Chinese invitations to me, but none of us quite realized that he wanted it's long lost twin for our wedding.

A perfect "That man" moment, if you ask me.

About How Much Hon's Dad Likes Me:
At this point, the solution is to print the wording on pink paper that will cover the rest of the invitation, tie it in with gold elastic string and call it a day.  Elastic gold string is easy.  Hon's dad wants to print the double happy on the back of the paper to keep the hole from looking awkward.

I discover you could buy heart shaped double-happy stickers online.  Check for shiny.  Check plus for easier than figuring out how to print all this.  Problem solved.  Except that this means one more thing for me to do.

So, I turned to the future father-in-law as he sat at the kitchen table.  I smiled at him, then pointed at him and explained "I am going to buy you stickers, but you are going to stick them on the invitations.  And you are going to tie the paper in.  You are going to do crafts with me!"

He smiled and laughed and nodded.  He definitely loves my Irish temper.