Token of Appreciation

Seriously, could my hair be any bigger?

I have been many things in my life, but coming from a small town in Wisconsin where everyone is German or Irish, Catholic or Lutheran, standing out in a crowd based on heritage was not something that I experienced in the first 18 years of my life. My dairy-rific town was a bit carbon copy prone, unfortunately. Needless to say, most of my life I managed to avoid being "the token" one at any given event.

This past weekend I can tell you I was in the interesting and obvious minority. This weekend I attended my first Jewish wedding with Task. I had the honor of being the token Shiksa. I swear I heard the "One of these things is not like the other things...." song played by the band at the reception. Ok not really. And actually I had a great time. Plus we all know I love attention. Being slightly different most definitely got me that. I even learned several things from this experience:
1) Task was right, they all knew I was the Goyeh. Apparently big church Deb-ish hair was one of the 800 dead giveaways. The bride even greeted me as "So you are the Shiksa date..." which of course made the three of us laugh.
2) Though I enjoy a good Catholic wedding, these folks do it right: short, sweet, to the point and no ridiculous greeting line to have to deal with post ceremony. Who can't appreciate that?
3) I have never seen so many people dance for hours on end at a reception before and it wasn't to the stupid-should-be-outlawed-chicken-dance either, thank god.
4) I actually knew several people at the reception. For once I actually was grateful having lived in the Towers.
5) It is possible to cry at a wedding even when you have never met the bridal couple. Seriously it was a touching ceremony, shut-up and stop laughing at me!