Oksana arose unusually early this morning (September 21), at 5:20, to get ready for a six o'clock hairdo appointment. I am sure you will agree that it was worth the effort when you see the wedding photos.

I didn't understand the scheduling -- a groom who attempts to understand these things is probably condemning himself to but a brief moment of marital bliss. It goes something like this. She had a class at nine o'clock this morning, and she couldn't sleep on her hairdo. The class was something that she did not want to miss. Her music therapy teacher is opening a new studio and will probably be looking for people to staff it. Anyhow, the household was up very early and the woman who was scheduled for 6:00 showed up at 6:30, which counts as punctual around here. Oksana's hair looked gorgeous.

I'll throw in the comment that her hair always looks gorgeous. Even just having had a cut, it falls down below the top of her jeans. Actually, as you can readily see from the pictures, just about everything about her looked beautiful this day. A lovely dress, a simple dress that suits her well. Very becoming makeup... all she uses is a smidge of mascara. She is blessed with a clear complexion, full lips and gorgeous coloration. But, there is not a woman alive who would not get her hair done on her wedding day, so the lily was duly gilded.

We met at the central marriage a bureau at 12 o'clock on the dot. She called it about two minutes to ask where I was. I told her I was two minutes away. She said that she thought that I had said I would be there 15 minutes early. I replied that she had said in the morning that that was quite compulsively German, 12:00 would do just fine. Apparently she mistook Teutonic relaxation for perhaps forgetfulness. Anyhow, we were right on time, and it turned out that we were the last wedding of the morning.

Oksana's favorite aunt, Lyudmila, joined us at the wedding. Oksana didn't tell her mother because mom suffered a stroke a little while ago and shouldn't travel, but had she known there is no way we would've been able to keep her away. Anyhow, smiling, sweet Lyudmila represented Oksana's family. My good friend Mark showed up with Polina, his elfin three-year-old. It was a small wedding party, but as good as you could hope. By the time they were all there, Oksana and I had surrendered our passports to a small office around the corner and paid the $25 fee.

None of us understood the process. I thought that was just going to be a paperwork exercise, getting a sheet of paper saying that we were married, one which we will carry to Paris next month for our church wedding. That is not quite the case. My guess is that since in Soviet times they had no church weddings, the state glorified the civil wedding, adding a little pomp and circumstance since that was all there was going to be.

Photographers greeted us and started to pose this as we walked upstairs. I had to put my hand on Oksana's elbow -- couldn't hold her hand. I glanced to Oksana to find out whose photographers they were. Nobody's, yet... but they knew their business, and could see that we will needed them.

We could have arranged for photographers when we set up the wedding a month ago, but we didn't understand the process. Today we said, "sure... go to it" for the amazingly reasonable sum of $38. They took us into a wedding bower reserved expressly for the photographers and they spent about half an hour posing us this way and that. As is always the case with professional photographers, they bend you into unnatural positions in order to make it look natural in the photographs. Somehow it worked -- it usually does.

After the session with the photographers we entered the wedding hall itself, Lohengrin playing, and presented ourselves before the lady who was certainly playing the part of a justice of the peace. She could not have been better cast. A serene, poised woman of a certain age and queenly bearing. Her questions were simple. Do you take this woman…  Oksana cued me that I ought to say yes, and I did. There were a few photographs and we left it through another door. You have a feeling that it's kind of an assembly line operation, but for all that they gave it quite a bit of dignity.

There were two photographers working the job, one with a photo camera and the other with what anybody could see was a video camera. I didn't give the matter too much thought. When the session ended -- the exact moment it ended -- they let us out into the foyer in front of a big TV. There they showed us a wedding video. Not the photographs -- the video. It was expertly spliced, edited, and everything else. A gorgeous production. And, of course, extra money. $90, to be exact. It took about a nanosecond to realize how much a production like that would've cost in the United States, and we said once again, sure. These guys had been pleasant, professional, and generous with their time. We were well disposed toward them.

In life you confront unknowns, and unknown unknowns. Also, regrettably, should have knowns. I should have put an extra couple hundred dollars in my pocket in the morning just in case, but I didn't.  Oksana and I pooled our shekels and had about a third of the amount. Mark ponied up the rest. And he dug a little deeper a few minutes later when the photographers came out with some prints that we might just want to take home with us... another $19. Thanks again, Mark!

Lyudmila was on her lunch break and had to dash back to make excuses. It gave me an opportunity to make a bank run. I found an ATM down the block and got another 250 bucks. We retired to lunch in this somewhat dated restaurant in the Soviet era hotel, but the food was excellent and we had the place to ourselves. Oksana and I walked home hand-in-hand, about a mile, talking about what a wonderful day it had been.

This is the year of vacations.  We celebrated the New Yeark in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, photos available through a link from the home page.  We took side trips to Cairo, Jerusalem and Mt. Sinai.  In May Oksana visited Rimini, side trips to Rome, Florence, Venice and San Marino, then took a week hiking in Crimea.  In August we visited Cracow, then spent a week in Barcelona.  We'll be in Paris in October for a church wedding, or rather, a small-scale blessing of the union by an Episcopal priest.  In truth, however, we already feel quite married, except for the wonder of this really being what we had been looking for.