Saturna

last night i played the wedding of my friends john and melanie. early in the day, i loaded all of the system including the PA into the car, bundled up jah isaac, and we headed out east to drop the equipment off. the wedding was held at the residence of some friends of john. i cannot rightly say 'house,' because the term does not begin to express the grandeur of this place. 'estate' would be more appropriate.

when i pulled up, i was paged through the gate and directed to the front door. thankfully the baby was sleeping in the car, so i was able to load in quickly and without much hassle. the home was huge, we are talking 27,000 square feet. i got this about it immediately, and thought, "yeah so its large, big deal," for in my mind that doesn't necessarily mean well-built or solid, or even 'nice,' for that matter.

once i stopped in the bathroom, i had a moment were i realized the enormity of the place. there i am sitting on the toilet, and i look over and realize that the chair-rails, which in most homes are made of wood, here are made of marble. then i was able to realize the unfathomable nature of this home. every little (or not so little) thing about it was detailed. marble floors throughout, mantles that cost as much as a house i would be happy to live in for the rest of my life, not to mention that the house was fully automated. when you open a closet, the light comes on for you.

we only had access to a quarter of the place, if that. the main hall, the ballroom (where i played), the home theatre, and the bar and terrace. i really would have liked to see the master suite, particularly the master bath, since i am addicted to baths. there was also a thirty person hot tub in the back (woo!) and a 12,000 sq. ft. garage.

i have never, in all my time cleaning some very nice homes in this city, seen or imagined a place like this. the sheer excess of the whole thing blew my mind, and might have pissed me off if it weren't for the fact that the gentleman who owns it greeted me that morning in some old levi's, a sweatshirt, carrying a coors light, his drink of choice the entire night, as guns and roses was his choice of music.

the whole thing set jason and i to pondering on the way home. we wondered, what is it like to have that kind of money? seems like more of a burden than anything. we wondered, does he do things like donate money to buy a school all new furniture, or send poor kids to college? because having that kind of money, one could have a tremendous impact on the lives of others. i personally wondered where in the house they really live. in other words, where is it messy? where can you tell that people have been, where there might be some crumbs on the floor or a shed pair of socks that hasn't been picked up yet?

i am glad for melanie that she was able to have her wedding in such a place. i know she has always dreamed of a fairytale wedding, and she got it, and through the generosity of this man. i enjoyed playing despite the fact that the room where i actually played was empty, as every one was around the corner in the bar, or maxxing in the home theatre. folks came through to tell me that they could hear clearly, and that they were enjoying it, they just couldn't get their butts out of those comfy chairs.

the highlight of the evening in regards to my set was my last track. i had set up the cd player so i could try out playing some mp3s. i am quite the luddite and only play vinyl, but lately i have found some excellent music in digital format. i tried to open with an mp3, but it skipped, so i just played vinyl, straight house, the whole night. for my last track i wanted to play "answer" by sarah mclachlan, it being a beautiful love song, and because the ballroom had wonderful acoustics for voice. problem was, it was on the cd that was skipping earlier. i gave it a try anyway, deciding that if it didnt work, i would just sing the damn song. thankfully it worked, and john and melanie ran in and danced, telling me that this was their song and how did i know? i didn't know, i just knew i had to play it, and it made my night that it made their night.

here's to a wonderful relationship for john and melanie, a hope that the humble couple who owns the mansion are happy in their humongous home, and a load of gratitude for being thankful for my little life, my partner, my son, my friends and family, which are all huge in my heart.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 12th, 2004 at 9:12 am and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.