Hurray for Uncle Mike! (Roth) Is There Anything This Guy CAN'T Do?

Mike Roth is here for the weekend. Mike is Rose's Godfather. (She has 2, but we'll get to that.) When I was pregnant with Rose, Andy asked if Mike could be the Godfather. I said yes, of course. Andy and Mike are so close they are more like brothers than just friends. Mike also married Andy and I, that is to say, he officiated the ceremony. Right after we got engaged, Andy asked if Mike could officiate, and of course I said yes. His other request was that we have a band called The Travel Agents play at our reception. (They are a Grateful Dead cover band) I said yes right away as we both love them and saw them play all the time before we even knew each other. I don't even remember if I had met Mike when Andy asked to have him officiate. It was a good decision, because it was a very personal, and fantastic ceremony for us. He took the job very seriously, and I know I'm biased, but it was one of the most sincere, intimate, personal ceremonies I have ever heard or been a part of. And it was MINE!! A quick side story... Mike asked of we cared if he went barefoot for the ceremony. It was important for him to feel connected to the earth, or something to that effect. Now, if you know Andy or myself even a little, you can see we are VERY easy going. This request didn't bother either of us in the least bit. He also asked if we cared if he wore shorts. Honestly, neither one of us cared. You see, neither of us even really wanted to be bothered in planning a wedding at all.... so we were pretty easy going about all of it. After Mike was dressed and ready for the ceremony he was asked in a convincing way by a family member to put on some pants and shoes, and Mike respected them enough to comply, so by the time we saw him, he had on long pants and dress shoes. They had to beg borrow and steel to come up with the attire as Mike didn't bring any of it..... He did keep on his top hat though, so he did have a bit of his own personality. Regardless of what he wore, it was a beautiful ceremony.....one that I still hear was one of the best people have been to.

We struggled what to do for our kids as far a baptism or baby naming. I was raised Catholic and Andy is Jewish. Neither of us has pushed raising the kids one way or another, but it was important to me that we do something for them as far as formally introducing them to a religious life. We DO both believe in God, so that's something! I thought about it for a long time and talked to Andy about it and we decided to do our own baby blessing / naming ceremony for the kids. Now, following our theme, we asked Mike if he would officiate again....this time for something even more important to us. We decided to give the kids Hebrew names in keeping with the Jewish tradition. Andy asked his Mom and her sister (his other Mother) Aunt Paula, to pick the names. Rose is Ruchel Yisraella, David is David Leib and Joey is Yussel Herschel. It was also important for me that we incorporate water into the cereomny to include the Baptism aspect of Catholicism. Mike incorporated what we suggested along with his own ideas into a great ceremony. Since we were making this personal (yet unconvetional) for us, we decided we would have Godparents from both families for the kids.... so they each have 2 Godmothers and 2 Godfathers. Rose has Mike Roth and Mike Bittner, and Helene Langer and Karen Bittner. David has Bob Johnson and Eric Stitzer (David was named after Eric's father and my brother) and Roz Langer and Lori Asaro. Joey has David Heffernan and Erik Bayus, and Liz Heffernan and Liz (Stitzer) Salinas. It was another beautiful ceremony and it all works for us. Mike is really good at all this ceremony stuff!

Back to this weekend. Fortunately for us the JETS got this far, so Mike flew in for the game and we get to see him. The unfortunate part is the JETS got this far and play the Chargers tomorrow and someone is going to have a big let down tomorrow night. For now, we just get to enjoy Uncle Mike being here. Mike has a fabulous wife, Susan, and 2 beautiful girls, Stella and Chloe. They didn't come out for the weekend, which is too bad, but we will take what we can get! Mike and Andy are such good, close friends, like brothers who actually like each other. Anyway, they are having a good "guys" weekend.... and we get to enjoy a part of that too. Now tomorrow is another story.............. More on that later, I'm sure. And GO CHARGERS! .......Thunder Bolts and Lightning....very, VERY FRIGHTENING......