I'm sure I'll forget something,but here goes:
flight from Austin to St. Louis: somebody wrote all these
silly "official" directions on the barf bag in the airplane, it was
funny. He put his email addy on the bag, so we could send comments.
Kinda cute.
Friday, Indy: Jen's flight got done just fine, I met her outside the
security check. We got our car. The lady said it was a cavalier, but
it was a Sunfire. Little power, kind o silly, but a cute little car.
We got to Greencastle and mom was home. We walked over to Greg's work
and then we all went to dinner at Sugar Moon, where Hathaway's used
to be. Our waiter was cute. He was from Houston. Nice kid. DPU class
of 2000. It was a good dinner. Jen treated us! wow.
Then Jen and I wandered around campus a bit and got Marv's a couple
hours later. It was vile. Not as garlic-salty as it used to be.
bummer.
Went to bed early-ish. Jen had been up since 2:45 a.m. her time.
Which is still damn early indiana time.
Saturday, we got up and sat around having breakfast for a couple
hours, visited w/ Mom & Greg, said tacky things about Amber, then got
ready for the wedding & on the road. Some drama finding the tiny
little car key for the rental. It was raining like a big dog. There
was an accident between Cloverdale and Spencer that had traffic down
to 1 lane. Yes, one lane for traffic going both directions. One lane.
It sucked. We got to the wedding just barely in time. Found our spots
at the tables (wedding was inside, guests sat at their tables to
watch the ceremony) Our table was full of married couples kind of our
age and our spots were close to the wall, kind of hard to get to
without smushing people at other tables, and I didn't have a chair at
my spot. Hm, do you think whoever did the seating arrangements had
issues with me and Jen? Invidious thought, utterly unworthy of me. I
am thinking that originally the ceremony was supposed to be outdoors,
with the reception following inside, but with the rain, they kind of
had to make things more compact.
so anyhoo, we found our spots, and then Jen went to the loo and I
went to Andrew, interrupting his convo with the minister. Bad me. I
said "come get your last kiss as a free man" and planted one right on
the lips. Luckily, my Revlon Colorstay lipstick was still working
properly at this time. Note to self: get Outlast next time, it REALLY
doesn't wear off or kiss off. Colorstay eventually loses its
indelible qualities. Lousy false advertising. Anyhoo....Jen joined us
and he hugged her and was glad we'd come to the wedding. As if we
would miss it for ANYTHING! So, he had to finish getting things
squared away with the officiant, so we went back to our grubby little
spot in the corner.
The lodge wasn't the most glamorous place in the world, but the
decorations were cute. The bride's colors were apparently Silver,
baby blue, dark blue, lavender, purple, light green, and dark green.
There were balloons in all the above-named colors tied around the
room. The candles on our table were dark blue, dark green, and
purple. apparently there were also dragonflies in the decorating
scheme. As well as a dark blue/gold celestial thing going on at the
table where the guestbook and bubbles were. Hm.
The floors were sticky and Jen thought it was because they were
dirty. My theory is that they were mopped with something like Pine
Sol which left a sticky residue. That's happened to me at home
before, so even though it was kind of gross, it didn't bother me as
much as it bothered her.
The bride, as it turns out, didn't sew her own dress. She and the
flower girl matched in their dress fabrics. It was a nice dress. She
jumped the gun on the wedding march a bit, she was halfway to the
altar by the time the "dun-dun-ta-dun" part to signal the guests to
stand up was playing. Kind of embarassing. considering the fact that
she'd done this twice before, she should have known when to begin to
make her walk. As it was, it gave the impression of "Come on, Daddy!
I'm gonna go get me a Man!"
"Casually formal", by the way, was interpreted variously by the
guests and wedding party. The mother of the groom was in a gorgeous
champagne suit, ankle length skirt & jacket. Quite lovely. The father
of the bride was in a blue short sleeve button up shirt with a tie,
and apparently unconcerned about his missing teeth. Sorry, but if I
did a traditional "man giving me to another man" ceremony, dad would
have to get a bridge or partial or whatever in time for the event.
Father of the groom was in a nice black suit. Stepfather of the
groom, same, but he took off his jacket pretty early on. Mother of
the bride (we assume, we didn't actually meet anyone and there wasn't
a reception line) was very large, peroxide blonde in an upswept sort
of hairstyle, lavender skirt just below the knees, some kind of white
shoes, and a white sleeveless top with pastel flowers on it.
One bridesmaid was in a sleeveless light green silk cocktail-length
dress. The other was in a long medium-blue shade cotton short-sleeved
dress that I'd classify as 'business casual'. I suppose there was a
third woman in the wedding, but I don't remember what she was
wearing. The groomsmen were all in tuxes. It was a little odd.
They wrote their own vows, or I suppose, LM did. There was also a
self-written little "how the bride and groom met" story that the
minister/judge/officiant read. It was fairly tacky, but sweet and
well meant. The only part that Jen and I took offense to was the part
about how the bride had been married, "admittedly in haste" twice
before and that she didn't regret those marriages. Well, why the fuck
not? The last 2 husbands were abusive deviant pervo sickos and one of
them had 'forced' her to have an abortion. I sure as hell would
regret a romantic past like that. All in all, that part of the
officiant's speech read like "I've been wrong before, but this time
I'm serious--no really, I AM"....even though this one looks just as
hasty from this (admittedly biased) onlooker's POV. Bride rather
gargled her lines, something about being so in love and loving him
forever, and then Andrew came out with his about being lucky and
being in love with her forever. he cried a bit. It was sweet. The
exit music was the Empire theme from Star Wars. Everyone laughed, and
it was a given that there would have to be some Star Wars reference,
being as how the groom is such a Sci Fi geek, but....the music was
for the bad guys, and everyone knows what happens to bad guys. Not
necessarily the best omen.
Anyway, the groom was adorable in his tux and purple vest & tie. The
groom was gorgeous in her ivory dress with pink roses and pearls
embroidered on. She was wearing a little too much makeup which
emphasized the wrinkles around her eyes a bit. But...what can ya do?
It's very obvious that she tried really hard, and mostly succeeded in
being radiant.
Reception: no alcohol. Jen kept whispering "God, I need a drink" thru
the rest of the festivities. Since the ceremony was early enough in
the afternoon not to do a sit-down dinner, there was a little buffet
of finger foods, sandwiches, chips, veggies & fruit & dips, mini-
quiches, taquitos, and odds and ends like that. Kinda wierd. I think
one of the other guests was trying to draw me into saying tacky
things about it, but I didn't know who she was and I didn't want
anything I said being conveyed back to the bride & groom in
unflattering terms. Granted, I was thinking tacky thoughts, but
whatever. They did their best and it was their day, so whatever.
No reception line. Instead, bride and groom circulated to each table
and chatted with everyone at each table for a few minutes. When we
saw them getting near our table, we made sure that we were not
trapped up against the wall behind everyone else, but were instead
standing near the gift table, so we could hug LM and really get a
chance to visit with him. I kissed him on the cheek and the damned
Revlon crap left a mark.
So...then we sat around a while, then we went outside and took
pictures of the lodge from the outside. I found a robin's egg on the
ground. It was cold and wet and would obviously never hatch. Another
omen?
We stayed around for the cake and the toasts (sparkling grape juice),
which the bride and groom drank from plastic gobllets with red LEDs
in the bottom. Didn't get enough of a look to see if they were Lord
of the Rings cups or Star Wars cups. I am not sure if Star Wars
merchandise encompasses such a thing, but if they made such a thing,
that's what they were. Otherwise, I think they were the LOTR
promotional cups that some gas station or fast food place was selling
during the buildup for that movie.
After a decent interval, we bid our farewells & made our
congratulations. I said the L word to the groom & he said it to me,
and I told him he deserved to be happy. Then I hugged the bride and
slipped a bit...I told her to take care of "my" LM. Quickly covered
for my bizarre possessive blurt by telling her she was incredibly
lucky. Hopefully, that will make it OK. I really didn't mean to
say "MY" as in "my man" My, but as in "My friend" My. *sigh* I do
love him, but not in the boy-girl-forever kind of love. And I do feel
possessive of him, but in the "I don't want your marriage to exclude
our friendship" kind of way....but so many women (especially insecure
ones) don't believe that men and women can be friends and love each
other like that and will not allow their SO to have friends who care
that deeply...*sigh* I am keeping my fingers crossed, but not hoping
too high.
Then we went to Bear's Place for beer and onion rings. We sat in the
booth where we first met LM and mourned his freedom a bit, both
hoping that he will stay in touch. Feeling fairly certain that he
will not.
Then back to Greencastle in the pouring rain, where we changed
clothes and relaxed a bit before heading to Indianapolis for Push
Down & Turn's 10th Anniversary show. What an awesome coincidence--Jen
and I had been talking in the car about how we should have checked
their website to see if they were playing anywhere this weekend. Then
we got to Mom & Greg's house and Mom had cut out an article about
them from the paper, and yes, they were playing Saturday night. Not
just ANY show, but their 10th freakin' anniversary.
So, off to Indy, again in the pouring deluge, got lost, despite
having stopped and bought a map, but eventually found it. We missed
the opening acts, but got there as they were setting up for Pd&T to
play. Got drinks and started to get into a good spot to see & hear
the band, ran into a big guy in black, just a little bump. Then he
grabs my shoulder."Oh shit," thinks E. then "ERIKA?!?" he says, and I
get a good look, eye-to-eye. It's our old friend Ryan!!! He used to
go to the Truck Stop with us gals all the time, we'd hung out in his
room at the frat house, he and I were DJ's together...etc, etc. Lots
of history. Lots of fun. Turns out his band had opened for Pd&T --
we'd just missed watching him play!! Damn! So we got caught up a bit,
he introduced us to a friend (bandmate?) as "These are the ones I was
just telling you about; when I got drunk and they braided my hair,"
He hugged us, so apparently Ryan talks enough about us that he felt
like he knew us. Or maybe we were just so damned attractive that he
had to touch us, who knows?
It was awesome, just a great show. I hopped around and sang along and
drank whiskey sours and just enjoyed the hell out of myself. I have
to say that if you are a modern urban witch, this is probably the
best way to celbrate a full moon.
The guys had lots of energy and were goofy and fun, seemed like they
were still having fun with the band and still good friends. We hugged
Sam and Tay and Jason B. and congratulated them on being together and
still rocking like Satan & having so much fun together. Tay said 3 of
the guys had just gotten over being sick, but they were still
drinking like rock stars & playing great music, so I never would have
been able to tell.
Told Sam they need to come down to Austin for SXSW, & I have a spare
bedroom :) He said they really did want to come down for that
sometime. I really hope they do--it would be great fun.
Jen met some guy she really liked & thought was cute. I think it was
the G&T's talking...I thought he was kind of a jerk. A short, balding
jerk. But J has to find these things out for herself, I can't pop her
bubble or harsh her mellow, or whatever. Let her glow about
the 'nice' 'cute' guy she met in Indy and let him hang himself, ya
know?
We were looking at the Pd&T memorabilia and I was looking at the
older pictures of the guys and smiling, and he walked up to me and
pointed at the words "push down and turn" and said "Push out a turd".
I made a fist and told him "The guys are my friends, so you'd better
shut up unless you want me to kick your ass." He smiled and backed
off a bit, said he was friends with a couple of guys in the band,
too, bla bla. Then he asked us how old we were. (two strikes:
bathroom humor with women you don't know, and then asking a lady her
age!) Turns out he and J could bond, because they were both
attorneys. Ryan and I were joking about some kind of "lawyer hormone"
that lets them find each other. Strikes 3 and 4: I believe he made
some sort of implication about Me and J being lesbians, and then the
piece de resistance: he has 3 first names. Like all good serial
killers in history.
http://www.snappopmag.com/columns/2001/witmemo301.html http://now2000.com/jokes/jokes/redneckif.shtml Anyhoo...the show wrapped up after 2 am.. and we didn't get back to
Greencastle until after 3.
Sunday: Up at 7:30. Breakfast with Mom, then she gave me a bunch of
stuff to take home, so I repacked my bags a bit and then Greg got up
and we visited a bit, hugged everyone and off to the airport. Met a
guy who was also returning to Austin on my flight and we chatted a
bit. Nice guy. Checked in, checked one bag & got my boarding passes,
then Jen and I went to the Friday's in the airport and drank soda. We
were both feeling kind of icky-sicky from drinking too much and not
sleeping much, so we didn't eat breakfast. We both got pretzels for
the road, though, after our Friday's stuff. We had different security
points to go thru, so she walked me to mine and we hugged bye. Then
off to my gate. They were boarding my group just as I got there, so I
hopped right on. For the changeover in St. Louis I had 20 minutes to
get from gate D20 to gate C28--a serious haul-ass kind of thing. But
I made it in plenty of time, they weren't even boarding when I got to
C28. Turns out they'd assigned my seat to me AND another lady. I
asked the steward where I should sit, and he put me in another seat,
which was bad because the lady who was actually assigned to that seat
came and evicted me, so I went back to snippy little steward man and
informed him that I would accept a seat in first class. My Jedi mind
trick failed, however, and he put me only about 4 rows closer to
First Class than I had been. *sigh* Ah well.
Sweetie was waiting for me when I got off the plane, down in baggage
claim. We got my bag and then went home, where all the critters were
happy to see me. Then had BBQ at Pok-E-Jos and came home and watched
Sunday Night TV. I was dead tired, but figured if I went to bed at 5
or 6 in the evening, I'd be up at some silly hour Monday a.m. so I
forced myself to stay awake until the end of X files. Then I crashed
an burned. I'm still exhausted today, but it was all totally worth
it. I got to see my wonderful friend J, I got to see my mom & dad, I
got to see my friend LM tie the knot (hopefully this time A will
decide that forever really means something long term) and got to see
my friend Ryan and my friends in Push Down & Turn. What a great
coincidence that all was. Next time I start to think that the
universe is just a random bunch of misery, I'll have to remember this
past weekend!
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