The prodigal uncle gets married

So my uncle C. is getting married at the age of 50. Well, he'll be fifty-one when he actually ties the knot, but that's close enough, I suppose. I can't call him the black sheep of the family, because my father's family seems to consist entirely of sheep who desperately want to be black. They're like a swirling vortex of dysfunction. Anyway, I always assumed he would stay a bachelor forever, since "commitment" is a four-letter word to him, but he's finally found himself a girl to whom he's ready to commit, it would seem. I don't especially like her, but if she floats his boat, then more power to them both. It'll be a little weird to have an aunt who's almost exactly my age (she's a bit over two years older than me), but since I only see my uncle maybe once a year, I can't see how that could ever be a big problem.

Most of the family never made it to the barbecue yesterday (it was put off by a day due to rain) which was too bad. This meant a lot to Uncle C., and I think he was disappointed that the family put in such a poor showing. My family and my Uncle V.'s family were there, and the rest was all my future aunt's family and their friends from work. I rediscovered that I have nothing in common with any of them, and that small talk is excruciating when the other person stops talking after two sentences. I'm no good at small talk to begin with, so I depend on small verbal cues from the other person in order to keep going. (e.g. "You watch horror movies? How interesting! I have a friend who's into that as well. What movies have you watched recently?")

I finally got into a conversation with my cousin's new boyfriend, who's a very nice guy. He's an actuary (is that even a word in English?), so he tends to be very literal-minded and not all that prone to flights of fancy. Still, he was the one person there who seemed to want to string more than two sentences together, and then we started talking theatre and the history of Montreal, and it was all good.

The wedding is set for next autumn. I'll be interested to see if they can last out the year. Lord knows, Uncle C. isn't known for his staying power.

In other news, I managed to get a slight tan while I was there, even though I wasn't trying for one. Better than looking like a ghost with a sleeping disorder, that's for sure.

Saturday was spent doing quiet things, and at the end of the day I joined luvenditti for dinner and a movie. Dinner was rushed, due to time constraints and a waitress who didn't understand the concept of "We have to leave very soon!" but the movie was fun. We met up with sandman7 to watch it, as I understand he's a big fan of the filmmaker in question.

As for me, I had never heard of this poor fellow before. Or, if I had, it was in a different context and I never put two and two together. I was simply going to see a movie based on a book that I really, really liked, which was Howl's Movingf Castle. I have since decided that I should see this fellow's other movies, since I rather liked the artwork and, while I kept twitching about the changes to the story, I liked some of the interpretive twists in the film.

I hold to my theory that no movie is ever as good as the book, and this was no exception to the rule.( Spoilers! )