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azuriteHey all! Back from the weddin'. @_@ What a ride. (I need a new keyboard. I had to press delete twice.) Dad picked me up at 12:30 (hence my rapid signing-off) and off we set. The directions he had were, unfortunately, from MapQuest, which we all know is the Root of All Evil. Or at least one of its minions. Anyway, so the directions wanted to take us to hicksville and back, so I ended up navigating part of the way-- it was a bit uncomfortable in all that heat, wearing my dress... Dad and Kathleen were in "traveling clothes," but since it took us so long to get to Fresno/Clovis, I'm glad I was dressed and ready by the time we got to the hotel and everything, since we were REALLY pressed for time.
We got quite lost, despite having 3 hours of buffer time and only stopping briefly (at Subway, where the people barely understood English, put too many pickles on my sandwich, and the cookies were like rocks). I actually managed to get some sleep in, to make up for the lack OF it the night before, but we didn't know where we were staying, and ended up taking forever calling people, getting rerouted, calling other people, yadda yadda... Mom better not yell at me for the long-distance charges on my phone. We were lost, and Kathleen's cell was being its unpredictable self. We had to call Erin, Shaina, Dan... everybody! And Dan wouldn't give us the address or the name of the hotel, he just wanted to direct us there step by step, YELLING at me because we were lost! He even said "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to!?" which upset me a lot more than I thought it would (yeah, I was a crybaby this weekend, so sue me). But we finally got to the Mariott Towne Suites in Fresno, with about 40 minutes to get dressed. -.- Then Dad lost his pants, so I had to run ALL THE WAY DOWNSTAIRS to find them, and it turned out someone had turned them in to the front desk. *sigh* Kathleen took FOREVER getting ready (she's quite slow, which is irritating) and getting to the wedding place (a nursery in the middle of NOWHERE) was just as big a pain in the ass.
Why? Because on ONE side of the streets, they use one numbering system, but on the OTHER side of the street, it's DIFFERENT. I looked at a street sign that said 300 --> implying that the houses/businesses/crops of empty land going in said direction got BIGGER in number. The nursery was at 10428 Willow Ave, so I figured, okay, we go that way for a while, and we get there! But for some reason, the numbers got SMALLER in that direction! We made it from 300 to 6500, but then they started going down, to 6200, 5900... o_O And on the opposite side of the street, it was the 1200 block! So we ended up going back in the other direction, practically GUNNING it. When we finally made it to the nursery, it was after 6pm, when the wedding was supposed to start... but nothing had happened yet. Whew! AND, we weren't the last ones there. Things got started shortly thereafter-- it seemed really quick, but I guess it DID take a long time-- the Universal Unitarian minister (a chick, no less! Ubercool!) had many speeches and symbolic things to point out.
In terms of clothing, well, the bridesmaids outnumbered the groomsmen, and they all looked pretty old, save Erin and Shaina-- and both Shaina and Michael (the groom) messed up in their speeches, which caused a tinkering of laughter. It was cute, but I would have been mortified. Then people got settled in at their tables... I was sitting with my Dad and Kathleen at this table in front of the gazebo, since everyone else was already settled... but Shaina asked me to join them (and Erin, the groomsmen, and another girl named Cameron) since they were "funner." Sad thing was, of course, they barely talked to me, for the most part. They served dinner and everything, Dan apologized... he was all high-strung because of course, he's the father of the bride and everything, and he had a speech to make (which, when he made it, didn't sound all that "prepared") ... I was still really hurt, but hey, this is me, I never try to let such things on. Besides, I made enough of a spectacle enough later ON... Anyway, on the bright side, everyone really liked how I looked in my dress, but a) I don't like pink, no matter how cute the dress is and b) isn't it bad to wear black at a wedding -unless it's a suit- and besides, we were in raging hot weather! Still, cute dress. Kathleen helped me secure the straps with a tassel string. And, thanks to the insoles and the cotton I stuffed in the shoes, wearing them was decently comfortable! But the Police 911 2 session from Friday caught up to me, so my legs were killing me (and STILL are!).
*deep breath* We watched this video about Brooke and Michael growing up, after a few more speeches and the like... the whole thing sort of just slapped me in the face, since Brooke really reminded me a lot of Michelle... her face and eyes and her baby pictures and everything. And the fact that I, unlike Shaina got to, will never see MY older sister get married. I will never be an aunt. Not biologically, anyway. So it was kind of depressing on my end, even though I was really happy for Brooke and Michael. So, by the time we all migrate back to the tables, I'm really trying not to cry. I told Shaina she was really lucky to have Brooke, and she got confused-- it only took them a few minutes to figure out I was crying, which freaked out the other girls and groomsmen there, since they don't know me and my "torrid past." ^^;; They actually BOTH came up to me and Shaina even said that if I needed her to do ANYTHING sisterly, I should ask her. This freaked me out, since these two have never really seemed to CARE about me that much. I mean, aside from the huge distance between all of us, the two of them have always been closer (being closer in age, though they're only a few months older than me) and of course, being richer... >_>; Well.
So I stopped crying after a while (doing my best to fake not being phazed anymore) and ... I'm not sure if this happened before or after the cake (which was yummy, since I got a piece of the bottom or top layers; the layers with vanilla and strawberry!) but there was dancing... Dad wanted to drag me, but I got embarassed, since he didn't seem to get how the father/daughter dance is JUST FOR THE BRIDE. And I wasn't even part of the bridal party. Dad saw this, and Dan's earlier attitude as a reason not to care much about the wedding, but he was having fun anyway. I was trying to cheer up Sammy, my youngest cousin (as far as I know), since David (our cousin; he's younger than me, but older than Josh and Sam) and Josh (Sammy's older brother) were being jerkwads to him, and Sammy wasn't standing up for himself... whenever he told his Mom, she didn't really DO anything about it, and ... yeah. So it was sad, since David and Josh seemed to think it was a joke, and that Sammy really couldn't take it, but it just didn't seem funny to me. There was the Jewish traditional Hora dance (hey, at least guys got to dance with girls this time, instead of the separated way at Fred/Suzy's wedding) that had Michael and Brook tossed up in chairs and such. Brooke looked terrified, she was gripping her chair so hard! My feet hurt though, so I didn't do any dancing. Besides, the Hora seemed to go on forever, and was all about tall people mashing into one another.
We finally left the wedding around 10 to 10pm, and headed back to the hotel-- but I ended up staying up till midnight watching Home and Garden TV and the Food Network. X_X I need cable! Dad woke me up the next morning around 8:15... I was still zonked and everything, but we had to get going for the brunch at Dan's house. Dad had to take care of this confusion with the room, and everyone was leaving... plus getting directions to the house again was a pain in the ass, since Dan refused to give us an exact address! ;_; AUGH! Plus Kathleen took forever again, so we were somewhat late, and I missed my chance for this boat ride-- er, ferry ride. They have this MOAT in the friggin' gated community where they live. And it looked like a HUUUUGE mansion on the outside, but the entryway is just really high-- only 3 bedrooms, one floor... really nice space though. They even have a fountain with goldfish in it!
Anyway, I didn't get my chance to go on the boat or whatever, but I did get some clothes from Shaina, including this cute lacy top... ^_^ We left around 1pm or something... this time, we knew how to get out! Before, we'd wandered around the entire gated comminity because the gate guard was whack and gave us this strange address number, so we went ALL the way around. We wouldn't have even found the place if I hadn't spotted Joyce (my aunt)'s SUV with the UCLA (Erin's school) Mom on the front, not to mention the Water Polo (sport that both Erin and David do/did) license cover.
Kathleen drove for the majority of the drive... I sprawled out on the backseat in this weird position made only slightly better by my dress acting as a shade and the clothes Shaina gave me acting as a pillow. We stopped in Pleasanton to go to In-N-Out-- the birds there are very finicky, you know? Dad drove the rest of the way back into the city... I came home, took a nap, and now, here I am. X_X I'm still pretty tired though, so I might just go back to sleep and use tomorrow to do everything-- I still have lots to do before I work Tuesday and Thursday-- and my aunt from my mom's side of the family is coming from New York (I think) with her Irish fiancee on Wednesday. X_X
And, yeah, I have to say it-- no word from Lonnie. Blah. I actually found a place with INVU fanfiction, so I want to get started on that site soon (I've already got a sort of layout and site title in mind! Whee!). Plus there's still the awards, other fics, and Archive Obscura. X_X Joy. Well, better jet now, I've ranted enough.
