Musings of a Multi-Cultural Mind

So after picking my mom and Step-dad up from the airport, I forced my family into a little of the purification of Chaharshanbe Suri, even if we had to settle for stepping over a candle on the cramped patio in front of my condo. With as much going on and needs to be done for this wedding Saturday, we can use all the good luck and purification we can muster! So a little about the Sofreh Aghd used in a Persian wedding ceremony. The main part of the ceremony takes place in front of a table set up with many symbolic items, similar to the haft seen table set up for Persian New Year, as I mentioned in my previous post.  Here are the items and what they represent: Coins - for prosperity Fresh flowers - to bring beauty Fresh fruit - for a joyous future Rosewater - to perfume the air Flatbread - Persian Sangak bread, for prosperous feasts together in the future Wild rue - an incense or herb that can be burned for purification Needle & Thread - to represent tw...

So some of my friends already know that I originally had the crazy idea of having our wedding on New Year's Eve - a black, white, & gold mega bash to ring in our lives together.  But considering that the weather was unpredictable and most of Stephen's friends are musicians who perform out that night, I'm glad he talked some sense into me and we made a compromise.  I will still get my New Year's Eve wedding; it will just be Persian New Year instead! I've only been celebrating Nowruz for about 8-9 years now.  As I've explained in previous posts, I didn't have any of the Persian influence in my life growing up raised here in San Diego with my Hawaiian/Italian mom and her family.  But my mom did always raise me with an appreciation for other cultures, despite her own mother's fears in regards to Iran and the worries my father's family would take me away.  So it took a few years after my grandmother's death in 2002 for me to feel comfortable w...

So the wedding is now creeping up on us at a break-neck speed, and with the recent stress of a last minute venue change and a bout of bronchitis, a break from reality was sorely needed.  So this past weekend I got just that when my bridesmaids took me to Las Vegas for a bachelorette weekend! 4 of us girls departed late Thursday night, avoiding traffic on the nearly 4 hour drive to the Nevada border from my home in Escondido, CA.  That first night we crashed at the Primm Valley Resort , a cheap, minimal room (only about $50/night) in the "resort" that is attached to the Premium Outlet mall there at the border.  That way we could tumble out of bed Friday morning and head straight to the outlet for a shopping spree.  A few hours and several full shopping bags later, we emerged with outfits for the bridesmaids and various clothes, shoes, & even kitchen gadgets. From there, Vegas is less than an hour away, so we checked into our hotel on the famous Las Vegas Blvd...