Monday, August 24, 2009

Bathroom bridesmaid

On Saturday I attended a dinner. It was being held in a party room at a civic center, which was quite large. There were simultaneous events being held adjacent to our room, specifically a graduation party and a wedding.

The food was scrumptious. There was chicken tikka, rice, salad, kibbe, laham b3ajeen (meat pastries), hummous, and plenty more, including a whole roasted lamb (even though I don't like lamb, it's still impressive). The dessert was awesome too, with many kinds of cakes and fruits and pastries waiting to make me fat.

After I finished my meal I went to the bathroom to straighten my hijab. I was just chillin in front of the mirror doing my business when a lady walked in. She had a sky blue halter dress on and she looked exhausted. Then she started talking to me. Usually bathroom conversations with strangers are awkward, but this one wasn't too bad. Apparently she was the bridesmaid. She told me about the bride's dress, and how on the back there was this long line of buttons that she had to fasten which took forever and she got sick of it. She wondered why the bride chose a dress with so many buttons that would just make it harder to take it off that night...

The conversation went on and I learned a big chunk about bridesmaid duties. She was so exhausted because being a bridesmaid was like a full-time job. She had to make sure the bride's hair looked good, that her dress was in order, that arrangements were executed properly, and many other things. I had finished straightening my hijab when she asked "So what's going on in that room? I can't tell if it's a graduation party or something else because people are kind of dressed up but some are still casual, and some are not dressed up at all, but there's a lot of people.."

I didn't really know how to answer, so I told her it was a dinner party. I told her about Ramadan and how it is the holy month of fasting for Muslims, and that sometimes we host Iftars to break our fast together. I don't think she knew much about Muslims or fasting, she just kind of nodded "oh..." and continued talking about the wedding and how tired she was. Some people just need to let it out sometimes.

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