What a Weekend!

So last weekend was one for the ages. I returned to Oakland to witness my oldest sister getting married! There are too many things to write about, and I hope over the next few weeks I can address them all. But in the meantime I'll just take things one at a time. So I begin this series of articles with:

Chapter One: She Picked the One

I remember when I first met my sister's would-be-husband a few years ago, and he made a nice impression. I liked him. But inside, I wasn't sure if he was THE ONE. My sister has had close calls before, and I couldn't help but be skeptical. Even after the engagement, I wondered whether they were getting married just because they were getting older and were just settling for each other. On the day of the wedding, I would find out if he was for real.

The day of the wedding didn't quite start off the way I would've liked. I was scheduled to sing for both the wedding ceremony and the reception, and I had no practice with my cousin who was taking care of the accompaniment. So I stayed with him the night before, assuming that everyone there knew they should be at the church about an hour before the wedding started. Well, forgetting that Filipinos believe nothing is ever on time anyway, I got there a good 10 minutes before we were set to start. Oh, and because I didn't have time the night before to pack my clothes, my parents had to bring my clothes to the church.

So there I was, still in my sweats and T-shirt, in the lobby of the church, ten minutes before I was to sing "Ave Maria" for the opening procession. I ran to the side room where my sister, who was absolutely stunning in her wedding dress, was just listening to her iPod. I changed, explaining why I was late, AND that my cousin didn't know he was supposed to play accompaniment to "Ave Maria," and we had to go to a backup plan.

"Here it comes," I thought. Here was my oldest sister who, while I always loved her, was known as a big nagger. She would always order me around, trying to impose her authority as the oldest, and as the youngest, I would rebel. I felt she would try to correct me whenever she had a chance. And now, having already messed up on what's supposed to be the greatest day of her life, I expected my sister to go ballistic. And she had every right to be.

But she surprised me that day. She just told me not to worry about it. She said she knew I would get to the wedding as soon as I could. And that the regular church organist was there as a backup, that she was a pro, and she could play for the opening procession. She had a quiet confidence I had never seen before. She had this sense that in the end, everything would work out. It was almost like the wedding itself was a formality. This wasn't a big transition into marriage. The transition had already happened. She picked her man.

For most of my adolescent and adult life I've been skeptical about love. I saw too many instances of cliche, of childish notions of "Happily Ever After," of infatuations filled with roller-coasters of drama. But at that split second, on Saturday, September 8th, 2007, at 1:55 PM, when I saw my sister just sitting there in her wedding dress, listening to her iPod, when that skepticism melted away. My sister found THE ONE. And there's no one on Earth who deserved it more.