Amish Fake-out

So we went to Arizona last weekend for my dear friend Brenda's wedding. It was beautiful. Most brides are beautiful. Prior to this weekend I would have said all brides are beautiful not having any ugly brides in mind. (haha) But on the same day that Brenda got married there was another wedding at the temple, and although the girl was lovely, for some reason she chose a hideous dress. Why one would do this, I don't know. I assume she thought it was pretty, but it was not. Someone should have told her. It looked like it was made with lace feathers. Who thought that would be fun? Weird. I did have some minor interaction with the girl and someone whom I would guess to be her mother.

See, Brenda's wedding was nearly flawless. Other than her Father-in-law having a seizure and passing out after the sealing ceremony. This is never a good thing. (I hope he is on the mend now.) Anyway, someone mentioned calling 911 and someone mentioned water. I must admit, I did look for a moment at the large lovely cool looking pool directly behind the the fast happening incident but quickly reprimanded myself and ran into the temple asking for water. Of course the people who run the desks at the front of the Temples are generally ancient (but extremely kind). I don't think I will EVER qualify for the position simply because I am too much of a get-it-done person, and not enough of a loving-kind person. But alas, it is what it is, and we are who we are. (Also, I was not able to call 911 because for some reason I cannot fathom, I cannot consistently carry my cell phone anymore. I used to have it attached to my ear like an extra extremity and now, if I have it with me 25% of the time, well good on me!)

Anyway....so I have the two very cute bottles of miniature water and I am headed back outside and I see the lace feathered bride and her mom sort of peaking outside, trying to make the right out-trance. I don't think they know there is someone seizing so I say as I am running by them, "You may want to sit tight, we are having a bit of an emergency out there." Quite anxiously the mother says, "She CANNOT SIT in that dress!" hahahahahahaha. Apparently they missed the whole "emergency" part and only caught the "sit" part which was misconstrued anyway. I was in no mood to deal with feather dress or her mom, I was simply trying to be helpful. Their picture people were going to be held up a bit is all. Anyway, I quickly re-explained in simpler terms. Sometimes this is necessary.

Anyway, the rest of the wedding and reception was wonderful.

Also, I got to see my lovely friend Kristin and that is always a joy. And her husband James is such a pleasant man. I don't get to spend nearly enough time with her/them.

AND! I got to stay with and see Allison! She was one of if not my favorite companions on my mission! We had some serious fun serving together and have not seen each other since then (nearly 10 years) so we had a really nice reunion. She was an incredibly gracious hostess and I just loved seeing her again!

Anyway, on our way there, we pulled off the freeway to use a bathroom or something and there was a little restaurant called Byler's Amish Restaurant. I have been on an Amish novel kick for a while. A year or more maybe. And food is a major part of their culture. So I thought it would be really fun to eat at that restaurant. Of course, we were only about an hour from my friends house and she was making dinner, so we certainly couldn't eat at that point but we made note of where it was. (We really made a note of it, since I feel like I have Alzheimer's, I never would have remembered, so we wrote down the exit number.) On our way home, we weren't quite ready for a meal either but I was really interested in trying an Amish restaurant. So we pulled off only to find the most ridiculous excuse......oh! I am not Amish, but even I was embarrassed...it was like a dumpy, dirty, dive with waitresses like the ones in the old tv show "Alice" complete with died blond hair and cigarette stained fingers. There wasn't an Amish person in view. There were two Amish dishes on the menu when I asked to look at it-although we didn't' even make it to a table. It was so dirty, I just couldn't do it. Now, I haven't ever been to an Amish settlement, so please correct me if I am wrong, but from the books, I have read, their reputation seems to be hard working and clean.

There was a portion of the menu that said "Why Amish" and went on to explain that someone was raised on an Amish settlement. I didn't read it all. That is where I had had it. After looking around at all the touristy cookbooks and bathroom books (not sure those are Amish related) we went ahead and left.

I was sorely disappointed.

Its a good thing I went to see friends and not eat at the restaurant. It was a total fake-out.

Someday I will visit an Amish settlement and eat at an Amish restaurant AND I bet it will be clean!