Tonight we attended Jamie and Cristina’s wedding. Jamie is a good friend of Wayne’s from Pixar, a foundation from our childless days in Seattle. Jamie was our single friend who would invite us to cool parties. He had the projector screen that made playing video games a must. He had a houseboat as a batchelor pad for awhile. We spent one amazing 4th of July watching fire works and eating amazing food. Some folks even kayaked away from the party, just off his “deck”.
Things are different now. Jamie met Cristina at SIGGRAPH. A beautiful, friendly Italian woman with golden hair and a golden personality. She has a broad, inviting smile and lilting accent. Two years ago, Jamie moved away to San Francisco to join the “real” Pixar. We haven’t seen much of him since. Though I’ve only met Cristina a few times, I’ve enjoyed the warmth of her personality.
That changed last week. We saw them at the Pixar Wrap Party for Cars.
“By the way, we’re getting married next week,” smiled Cristina.
“Oh, really?”, I replied (obviously I had missed something).
I guess our email invitation got lost in the ethernet. Wayne and I did some quick calendar calculations and decided we could go especially since Sara was invited.
So that gets us to tonight. Wayne, Sara, and I attended a wedding reception at Salty’s on Alki (West Seattle). I was just commenting that this is the period of my life where I expect to go to baby showers, not weddings. Most people I know are already married. So this was a welcome event.
It was wonderful. We were located in the Alki room with 50 other people. There were 4 kids total ranging in age from 9mo-4 yo. Sara was attracted to a little 14 mo girl named Rillian (after Prince Rillian of the Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis). They would crawl on the ground chasing each other. At one point, Sara, Rillian, and her 4yo brother were all coloring together from Sara’s book.
The food was splendid. As Wayne said,”If that’s their buffet food, I wouldn’t mind eating in the dining room.” Crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, and egg rolls for appetizers. A buffet of luscious fruit, 2 nice salads, crab dip, cheese plate, tortellini, shrimp, corned beef, and roast. Wayne liked the smoked salmon the best. Sara continues on in vegetarian style eating crackers, strawberries, broccolini, and sips of my coke.
The thing I notice about Jamie these days is profound happiness. Cristina glowed most of the evening. I’ve known Jamie as the consummate batchelor, mischevious with a sly humor and excellent video game skills, a local grown Arlington boy. I didn’t expect him to find Cristina. I don’t think he expected it himself. But the thing that was evident was that it seemed so right.
