 |
|
Michael and Wendy
What a graet wedding it was!!! Everyone had a great time! It was really nice to meet all of Dan's friends, play games, hear all the people speak so highly of the two of you, dance both Saturday and Sunday, and celebrate the union of two fantastic people! We can't wait to hear your reactions to how things went and continue celebrating many more simchas together in the years to come. Sarah Hickok I have to say, that even a few weeks later, occasionally alex would say, "bye Dan, bye Reena." sad you couldn't hear it... best memory of the weekend I think would be the hang-out time, especially on Sunday evening. It was a fun relaxed way to get to know some of your other friends and family members. Perry Rapp At the risk of repeating myself, I loved the wedding weekend, and the Shabbat and wedding ceremonies were both beautiful. I suspect some of the credit for making the Hebrew parts more accessible to us non-speakers is due to you as well--but in any case, Danny seemed like a very open, fun, approachable fellow. I guess it is some kind of testament to you'all's choice of friends that I spent 48? hours there and still would have very much liked more time to have some time with various people. But I really enjoyed gaming + playing + spending time with such a great collection of people. Late Friday Night Friday night we joined the game room, and had fun playing board games, and becoming acquainted with some of Dan's pals (reacquainted with a few that I had the pleasure to encounter at Haverford, four score years ago, or so it seems). As the evening got late and we broke up, to head to bed, I collared a few, asking if they were up to keep playing -- Joe, Patti, Anna, Tom, etc. Then, Dan asked if we were feeling up for some physical activity, and being pleasant, gullible people, we said we were. And thus we descended into the mad world of Dan's Crazy and Fun Games for Children And Adults At Any Hour of the Day or Night I can remember being embarrassed finding myself surrounded by creative people with neat animal sounds and motions -- Dan's trademark frog, Joe's rooster, Will's gecko, Tom's bird (seagull?) -- and I couldn't think of anything. I was further embarrassed by finally coming up with a pig (and Jess, if you see this, now you can appreciate how entertained I was by your pig in the game on Sunday, altho your pig was better than mine). But, it was all made up for by how very entertaining it was to watch everyone else forced to do the same silly pig, as we played the game. Later on, I got to be the first Air Traffic Controller (in that game), and I started out doing fine, slowly directing one person towards the landing strip, when Dan announced the time limit, and I started to panic. I realized it was inefficient to bring only one plane in, while all these other people with their eyes closed stood around going voom, voom (or whatever), so I started a bunch moving at the same time -- and promptly forgot about all but the one I was focussing on, and shortly thereafter had the wonderful experience of (beep, beep) crashed airplanes everywhere. Joe and Patti upheld the honor of the contra community with strong enthusiastic participation in the gaming, as did Anna for the teaching community, and of course Haverford had the strongest showing :) Jim Speer I met so many wonderful people, and saw many other old friends for the first time in many years. I delightedly played Dan's ridiculous games until very late Saturday night. It was like the old days, Haverford and post-Haverford. I was quite taken by the idea that Dan would choose to spend his last pre-wedding night this way, but knowing Dan it does not surprise me at all. I was honored to be among that crazy 2 am crowd; oink oink oink, craaacker! I think what really touched me the most was the morning of the wedding, when Dan gathered together 50 or so of his "people" prior to the ceremony, and we were standing up in turn offering any words we had of advice and encouragements. Then we all processed down the stairs, singing "If you're happy any you know it clap your hands" very loudly! As we entered the room to meet Reena and her corresponding entourage, they were singing "Siman Tov U'Mazal Tov." I will never forget the sound of those two songs butting up against and then dancing around each other! No one could have planned such a moment better. At first I had admired what a lot of wonderful, nice, diverse people Dan had collected over the years in his various lives. Then I corrected myself: It is us, Dan, who have collected *you*! That day you were our common shining jewel, who had brought us all together, in the same mind, in the spirit of the same joy. Thank you, Dan! We love you. |