Most Awesome Wedding Announcement Ever!

Dr. Stan Prusinger, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize, looking extremely happy at not being married any longer to Rick Turk's sister, Sandy.


Okay, so Eric stumbled across this while reading the Sunday paper, and I just have to post it, because it's possibly the greatest wedding announcement ever!

"Turk-Takeuchi Wedding

Rich Turk (55 years old) and Katie Takeuchi (47 years old) were married March 31, 2005 just days after her lengthy divorce was finalized. Her young daughter was the maid of honor. They got engaged on the top of the Eiffel Tower in March 2004, after a 7 week courtship. They are both glad to have found the love of their lives.

They are semi-retired in Marin, enjoying travels to Paris, Rome, London, Cannes and Cabo San Lucas. Favorites include honeymoon suites at Maui's Four Seasons, Vegas' Bellagio, Tahoe ski trips and even spring training.

The groom has a BA in Genetics from UC Berkeley, and the bride has a BS in Psychobiology from UCA. While pursuing her pre-med studies, Katie modeled part-time, appearing in Sports Illustrated, among others. Katie also attended a doctorate program at UC Berkeley. Rick sister, Sandy (Cal grad), was married to Dr. Stan Prusiner, a 1997 Nobel Prize Laureate. Rick and Katie's marriage is a merger of many UC grads. Katie's ex graduated from the Universidad de San Andres in the 1970's. Rick's ex dropped out of Polytechnic High School in the 1950's. Katie volunteers for a literacy program and for the Friends of the Elderly."

So is this a couple with an axe to grind or what? It's hard to know where to start with this one, but consider the following clues:

"just days after her lengthy divorce": Tells you two things-these two are impetuous, and also she had a tough time dumping her ex.

"Her young daughter was the maid of honor": Presumably since the daughter is referenced as "hers", then how young is this daughter? If her divorce was so lengthy, why was she having kids with her ex, who "graduated from the Unversidad de San Andres in the 1970's?" Katie and her ex were clearly not spring chickens, so...I'm just wondering. I think a pattern regarding Katie's thought processes is emerging.

(also, a quick google on the Universidad de San Andres" tells us this about Katie's ex: he was fluent or near fluent in Spanish, and in order to attend this small university in Buenos Aires, he had to at least have a 2.7 GPA. Remember this when we get to RICK'S ex later)

"They got engaged on the top of the Eiffel Tower in May 2004, after a 7-week courtship.": Further evidence of the couple's impetuous nature.

"They are semi-retired in Marin, enjoying travels to Paris, Rome, London, Cannes and Cabo San Lucas.": well, la-di-fuckin' da, aren't they special?

"Favorites include honeymoon suites at Maui's Four Seasons, Vegas' Bellagio, Tahoe ski trips, and even spring training." : does this mean favorite honeymoon suites? If so, how long a honeymoon did they take? Also, if it does mean favorite honeymoon suites, then I think this is just too much information.

"The groom has a BA in Genetics from UC Berkley and the bride has a BS in Psychobiology from UCLA. While pursuing her pre-med studies, Katie modeled part-time, appearing in Sports Illustrated, among others.": So I find this part fascinating. The non-sequitor about Katie's modeling career reveals a certain self-centeredness, don't you think? Also, apparently, Katie used to be something of a hottie.

"Katie also attended a doctorate program at UC Berkeley." Although it seems she never graduated? This merits a mention, however poor Rick is now forgotten because the next sentence reveals the following: "Rick's sister Sandy (Cal grad), was married to Dr. Stan Prusiner, a 1997 Nobel Prize Laureate." Go Sandy!

Futher bragging about the glory of UC education commences, then we get to this little nugget, which I believe may be the point of the entire announcement "Rick's ex dropped out of Polytechnic High School in the 1950's."

Wow. In your face, Rick's ex! You loser! Now Katie's got him AND his sister Sandy's oh-so-smart husband! Or possibly not, since Sandy "WAS married to the Dr. Stan Prusiner". No mention of whether the venerable Dr. Prusiner is still alive or not, so I'm assuming another "lengthy divorce".

Anyway, discuss amongst yourselves the wonder that is this marriage announcement. And thank your lucky stars for your own little disfunctional relationship, which cannot possibly be as messed up as Rick and Katie's promises to be!

I can save you from unoriginal dumb-dumbs....

Mike Parvizi. NOT an unoriginal dumb-dumb.

I'm the first to admit I've done a lot wrong parenting-wise. I was young when I had my first child, only 21, and quite frankly didn't like kids very much. As a teenager I hated babysitting, and avoided it like the plague. I had no tolerance for the younger siblings of my friends. I firmly believed that I would never be a parent, and the world would be a better place because of it.

So, yes...I made mistakes. Some of them unforgivable, I'm sure. Plenty of fodder for their future therapists to work through, compliments of me.

Still, it's hard to look at my two girls, now aged 19 and 15, and not experience a least a little surge of pride once in awhile at what terrific people they're turning out to be.

Indulge me while I recount the few things I know I actually did right in raising my children.

1. They like to read. A lot. An acknowledged bookworm to the extreme, I read constantly to my girls from pretty much the moment they could focus their eyes. We read aloud together, basic picture books, magazines, Kraft macaroni and cheese boxes-you name it. Until my girls were about 12 and 17 respectively, we read aloud together nearly every night. Chalk one up for me. I think they both will have a lifelong love affair with the printed word, just as I do.

2. They both have a great appreciation for theatre and the performing arts. I can't take all credit for this, as Ivy showed an early interest and talent for performing and I merely came along for the ride. Still, I threw myself into the venture with great enthusiasm and now I have two daughters who have a wide-reaching knowledge of the performing arts world. In fact, both of them aspire to careers in the arts. It's probably not the most lucrative and secure career-goal, and god knows they'll probably always live at home while I support them, I really don't care. In addition to all the wonderful things that come along with acting, like the ability to speak in front of large groups, excellent time management skills, and a connection to a communtity of people they probably wouldn't ordinarily encounter in their mostly white bread world, it pleases me to no end that Olivia, (playing Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird"), learned in a way not normally experienced what racism in the deep south felt like. How cool is it that Ivy, through appearing in two different productions of "The Crucible" not only has an appreciation for one of the greatest playrights of the 20th century, but also can explain how the Salem witchtrials dovetails so perfectly with McCarthyism?

3. They love music. All kinds of music. Like most youth, their taste can be sometimes questionable. Some of it, I would even consider execrable. Who cares? They love it, it speaks to them and it's yet another thing that makes them such awesome individuals. How many teenage old girls you know whose ipod playlist includes AC/DC, The Clash, Jason Mraz AND the original soundtrack recording of "Guys and Dolls?"

4. Speaking of music, the title of this post comes from a Jason Mraz song called "The Geek in the Pink", and it reminds me of another thing that makes me proud to be Ivy and Olivia's mom. Both girls have generally excellent taste in men/boys. I don't know if I can exactly take credit for this, but clearly they've gotten the message somehow. Everyone's allowed the occasional misstep (does the name Landon ring a bell?) but I doubt anyone would describe their choices so far as "Unoriginal Dumb-dumbs". Take Rico, for instance...Ivy's current boyfriend is not only a Stanford student with the overachieving goal of becoming a physicist, but I'm still in awe (and jealous of) of his expert manuevering out of what was possibly the worst theatrical performance I personally ever experienced.

(It's a long story, but I really think it bears telling: Last Spring Rico, Eric and I sat through about 20 minutes of a play at UC Santa Cruz that had something to do with a Greek mother and daughter working out their differences. I think that's what it was about anyway. It was hard to follow, possibly due in some part to the horrible writing, acting and greek accents inflicted upon we innocent theatre-goers but mostly due to a portly and quite hirsute young man in tighty-whities who paced about a catwalk above the stage through the entire performance. Why? I never did figure it out, and frankly really didn't want to. To make matters worse, one of the characters in the play was a "gypsy" who harrassed members of the audience, begging the audience to buy cheap trinkets. Also, the "gypsy" subjected a male cast member to a full makeover that I personally will never forget. The whole experience was terrifying, I tell you, terrifying. Anyway, there the three of us sat in abject misery, waiting for Ivy to make an extremely brief appearance as a greek dancer in a coffee house. Finally, Ivy and a group of "dancers", (I use the term loosely, believe me), made their way onto stage in a line, holding hands and inviting audience members to join them in their little procession through the scene. In what I can only concede was a moment of brilliance, Rico (who is of Greek heritage, by the way) whispered to us "here's my way out of here", yelled "Opa!", and jumped up and joined the dancers on stage, wending his way right off the stage and out the back door. Whereby he got to spend the next hour...well, I don't care how the little bastard spent it. The point is, he spent the next hour OUT of the theatre and we were IN the theatre. Eric and I spent remainder of the show wishing for sharp implements to kill ourselves (or the actors) with, and calling Rico lots of imaginative names.

As for Olivia, all I can say is her current boyfriend can play the Rod Stewart 70's chestnut "Do ya think I'm sexy?" on...the BAGPIPES. Yes, that's right. The BAGPIPES!



So, no unoriginal dumb-dumbs here!