Full day today in beautiful, lovely, balmy tropical Muskogee, Oklahoma.   Or, in my continuing delusion that I’m actually in Hawaii and not really in Oklahoma, “Musko’oge’e.” 

1.  Wake up at neighbor’s house. Not because I accidentally got lost and couldn’t find my sister’s house, but because there were a lot of people at my sister’s house, so my Northern Calif brother and I stayed at the neighbors a few blocks away. It’s OK – prior arrangements had been made, so we didn’t just show up unannounced.

2.  Tell the friendly elderly couple we stayed with that I usually just have coffee in the mornings. Then eat the pile of food they cooked.

3.  Go with my brother-in-law (the father of the bride) back to his & my sister’s (mother of the bride’s) house.

4.  Hang out, while lots of people run in and out and rush to do final wedding stuff. (being the musician, there was nothing for me to do until the actual wedding time at 4pm, Central Time). Become reaquainted with Judy the dog.

5.  Talk to my mom, whose failing health was the deciding factor for me to come on this trip – although coming to play at the wedding was a cool thing in itself.

6.  Find out my brother-in-law had to go to the church 3 hours early, though neither he nor anyone else understood why. We still don’t. Anyway, I decide to go with him, and find an extra piano down the hall in the huge Southern Baptist church and jam for a few hours.

7.  Try to keep pretending Muskogee is actually in Hawaii. However, the heat, humidity, dust and southern accents are working against that fantasy.

8.  Rehearse with the singers. This point, #8, isn’t particularly interesting but merely informational.

9.  Take a picture of my mom, and text it to the Lovely Miss Courtney.

10.  Play the actual wedding thing – ecclectic collection of music, including 20’s style fast music while Chaplin silent movies played on screen, then play for my other niece to sing that 70’s song “Eres Tu” (not sure why, but it was just strange enough to be cool), then sit, then play for some rockin’ soulful singer named John to sing the Etta James song “At Last.” Then let the wedding finish.

11.  Take photos. Well, not take them myself, but wait for them to be taken and stand where I’m told to stand.

12. Go to Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame for reception. It’s an old train depot, with a kind of small country music museum and a big hall for receptions and stuff like that.

13. Eat, talk to people. The word “y’all” is used a lot, but it’s no problem, as I’m quickly becoming versed in the language.

14. Notice how quickly half the guests, consisting of older people from the local Baptist church, eat and leave. It was, after all, approaching 6pm and getting close to bedtime.

15.  Hang with the rest of the people who came from out of town.

16.  Enjoy the cake buffet. Yes, the cake buffet. Because my niece is apparently quite the fan of cake.

17. Go back to the house, eat a lot, laugh a lot, and go back to the neighbors’ house.

More tomorrow. Aloha, y’all.