simonejester (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
simonejester) wrote2011-05-20 09:39 pm
simonejester) wrote2011-05-20 09:39 pm
It's been a good week.
May 12
It started with me worrying that I wouldn't be able to get to the airport, but (LJ)autumn_mourning and her husband got me there, and I stayed at the Best Western by the Syracuse airport that night and flew out the next day. The flights were uneventful and my stepmom picked me up from the airport and after some internetting, I went to bed in what is now a guest room, which was once Travis's and then Katie's. My stepmom's mom sleeps there when she stays over, and she apparently has the same love of soft surfaces to sleep on as I do, because there was the most wonderful mattress cover on the bed. It was like sleeping on a cloud.
Even though I was wide awake and would rather have driven to Titusville that night (despite the cloud-bed), my mom wanted to turn in early and she couldn't have done that if I'd shown up at midnight. But I stopped reading my then-current fic and went to bed around midnight.
May 13
I got up around 0615 feeling less than rested since it took forever to get to sleep since I hadn't really been tired, but I was out the door around 0630 which meant no Keva Juice smoothie. (There'll be time for those in the coming week.) The drive from Sarasota to Titusville was uneventful and I switched back and forth between Lithium (grunge/alternative rock from the 90's) and MSNBC on Sirius XM since that's in the car I was borrowing. I feel so spoiled. :P
It was great to see my mommy and I was gonna tweet "MOMMYMOMMYMOMMY" before going in but my mom was outside to meet me, mostly because she was just glad to see me but also because they have new grass in their yard and she didn't want me parking by the sidewalk like I'd done last visit. After not very long we went and picked up my Aunt Valerie from the hotel she and my uncle and cousin were staying at (they could have stayed with my mom but I guess they wanted to swim in the hotel pool, and my mom and stepdad don't have a pool...they have an absence of a pool. There's a back-yard area for one, but it's all concrete. I still think they should have painted a pool on the concrete.) and we went to Merritt Square Mall for an ordeal of shopping that was rather less of an ordeal than I thought it'd be. I was broke (stupid girl, why u no stay at USO?) so my mom paid for the stuff I wore to the rehearsal dinner and wedding, which will just be added to all I owe her (I have a list for my dad too) for someday when I'm more solvent. I got a nice beachy shirt and white capris for the rehearsal dinner and a sleeveless dress for the wedding. It's beach themed since both my cousin and her now-husband are into beaches and surfing.
A few hours after we got back we were off to the rehearsal dinner, and since I'd forgotten my meds that was a bit of a mess of me tearing up at every speech (ye gods and little fishes, can I get a Celexa up in here?), but it was nice, and not just the wedding party (clearly, since I was just a guest) but apparently everyone who was invited to the wedding the next day, and the food was excellent, and I finally got to meet my cousin's then-fiancee. He adores my cousin in a way like Chris adores me. I approve of him. His family seems nice too.
By the end I was a bit loopy (well, disoriented/dizzy/etc) from lack of adequate sleep and total lack of medication and sappy touching things that made me tear up at the drop of ahat line. But we went to Wal-Mart hoping to find a wrap of some sort for me to wear over the sleeveless dress and we didn't find anything so I went and got some matching yarn and started on making one that night. I wish I'd known we wouldn't find anything to just buy at Wal-Mart, otherwise I could have started the project between getting back from the mall and going to the rehearsal dinner.
May 14
The wedding day.
I got up early and got right to work on the wrap, and even though I concentrated and worked fast, I wasn't able to get the width I'd wanted. If I could have worked through the time between the mall and the rehearsal dinner, I probably could have gotten it but ah well, we can only travel in time one way, forward at one second per second.
My mom had left early to help my cousin with her dress and everything (they only asked her at the rehearsal dinner and she had her four bridesmaids and her mom my aunt and her now-mother-in-law, but okay, it's her wedding) so it was just my stepdad and me when we went to pick up my Great Aunt Mary. I was still working on the project. I finished the one round of fillets and lines around the time we got to where the ceremony was being held and since I forgot my scissors one of my uncles let me use his nail clippers to tie it off. I got some nice compliments on it.
I stuck with Aunt Mary for most of the wedding since we were both there without our husbands, she being recently widowed (well, in '08 I think) and Chris being back in New York on a field exercise (he's back now, and glad to be able to sleep in his own bed!). The ceremony was beautiful, and we guests spent most of it helpfully swatting lovebugs off each other. (O hai lovebug mating season! I hadn't missed that while I was stuck in places-where-it-snows!) The ceremony was on a boardwalk thingy with the beach in the background, and it was beautiful, and the groom's dad of all people did the ceremony. I would so not let my FIL do that, but hey, not my wedding. It was beautiful and they did this "sand ceremony" which is based on some kind of ceremony where my cousin had sand from the beach around here and the groom had sand from where he grew up in North Carolina and they poured them into the same big glass jar. It was lovely.
The reception was back in the building where the bride room was and while the food was good at that, the food at the rehearsal dinner was better. :P I was at a table with my mom, my stepdad, and Aunt Mary, and my Aunt Valerie and my uncle and cousin on her side, and a couple whom I'm apparently related to but I can't remember their names. They were a bit aghast that I didn't like shrimp but I pointed out that this meant more for them and they liked that answer.
Great Aunt Mary (who is 76 so's you know) told me this story that I thought y'all might like: When I was five, I asked my daddy if I could have a sip of his coffee, and he said, "If you drink coffee before you're twelve, you'll turn black." I thought about this and said, "I don't mind being a little dark. May I have a sip of your coffee?" Out of the mouths of babes, ya?
There was a very good DJ there that made every one get up and dance* and there were some goofy dances like the Cha-Cha Slide and the Electric Slide and even the Macarena (!) and the groom really threw himself into it. Apparently he and my cousin do a lot of dancing, because they're really good at it, and they were just so perfect together. (*tearing up as I write this out*)
This wasn't an evening reception where the bride and groom take forever to leave. The groom's family is pretty well off so the bride and groom left early to go to Orlando, and the next day they flew to Costa Rica for their honeymoon. We blew bubbles at them as they dashed through the rain (at least it waited until after the outdoor ceremony!) into their limo. After that my mom and stepdad took my Aunt Mary home and went home themselves and I stayed to help with the cleanup since I was too broke to buy a present (we didn't get paid until the next day, I think) and figured it was the least I could do. It was me and my aunt and uncle the bride's parents, and the groom's parents, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen that made short work of the cleanup and my Aunt Karen (bridecousin's mother) took me home, though on the way (it was a bit of a drive since the wedding was on Merritt Island) I mentioned looking forward to going to Michaels and other places to look for yarn, she decided hey, let's swing by now so we did since it was on the way and I got some nice thick wool yarn that's more of the new store brand Loops and Threads. I made a turquoise ruffle scarf and a light gray (with maybe a light bluish tint?) flat one that, once I go back and get a yarn needle and weave all the ends in, I'll give those as wedding presents, since my cousin and new cousin-in-law will be living in North Carolina and it gets warm enough to wear scarves there. Aunt Karen even took me through the drive-thru at Sonny's when I mentioned my restaurant list and wouldn't let me pay for it. For the record, I didn't ask in either case, Aunt Karen-on-my-mom's-side is just that nice. (I have an Aunt Karen on my dad's side too, just for...I dunno, the record?...and she's nice too, but I don't know her as well and Maternal Aunt Karen just has this lovely honest-to-goodness kindness about her that is awesome, and clearly my cousin inherited that along with the great decorating sense.)
And now for the pictures! :)
Lovebugs on the first row of chairs.
Lovely centerpieces: some kind of aquatic plant in different-height glass cylinders with floating tea lights at the top.
My cousin and her husband at their reception. Both were quick to smile but I'm sure their jaws were hurting by the time they left for Orlando.
Half my table at the reception. Unknown Female Relation Who Likes Shrimp, my mom, my stepdad, my stepsister, and my stepsister's boyfriend.
*not ableist terming in this case (otherwise I'd have phrased it differently, I'm getting pretty good at this inclusive language thing though I've no doubt I've got plenty more to learn) since everyone in this group was ambulatory, which is good since there were stairs going up to different areas. I think the only people with disabilities there were myself (depression, anxiety, possible Asperger's) and my now-married cousin's brother Tyler, who has severe mental handicaps but could probably have been an Olympic runner (or so me kind of competitive, I dunno) if he could be taught where and when to run and where and when to stop.
---
It started with me worrying that I wouldn't be able to get to the airport, but (LJ)autumn_mourning and her husband got me there, and I stayed at the Best Western by the Syracuse airport that night and flew out the next day. The flights were uneventful and my stepmom picked me up from the airport and after some internetting, I went to bed in what is now a guest room, which was once Travis's and then Katie's. My stepmom's mom sleeps there when she stays over, and she apparently has the same love of soft surfaces to sleep on as I do, because there was the most wonderful mattress cover on the bed. It was like sleeping on a cloud.
Even though I was wide awake and would rather have driven to Titusville that night (despite the cloud-bed), my mom wanted to turn in early and she couldn't have done that if I'd shown up at midnight. But I stopped reading my then-current fic and went to bed around midnight.
May 13
I got up around 0615 feeling less than rested since it took forever to get to sleep since I hadn't really been tired, but I was out the door around 0630 which meant no Keva Juice smoothie. (There'll be time for those in the coming week.) The drive from Sarasota to Titusville was uneventful and I switched back and forth between Lithium (grunge/alternative rock from the 90's) and MSNBC on Sirius XM since that's in the car I was borrowing. I feel so spoiled. :P
It was great to see my mommy and I was gonna tweet "MOMMYMOMMYMOMMY" before going in but my mom was outside to meet me, mostly because she was just glad to see me but also because they have new grass in their yard and she didn't want me parking by the sidewalk like I'd done last visit. After not very long we went and picked up my Aunt Valerie from the hotel she and my uncle and cousin were staying at (they could have stayed with my mom but I guess they wanted to swim in the hotel pool, and my mom and stepdad don't have a pool...they have an absence of a pool. There's a back-yard area for one, but it's all concrete. I still think they should have painted a pool on the concrete.) and we went to Merritt Square Mall for an ordeal of shopping that was rather less of an ordeal than I thought it'd be. I was broke (stupid girl, why u no stay at USO?) so my mom paid for the stuff I wore to the rehearsal dinner and wedding, which will just be added to all I owe her (I have a list for my dad too) for someday when I'm more solvent. I got a nice beachy shirt and white capris for the rehearsal dinner and a sleeveless dress for the wedding. It's beach themed since both my cousin and her now-husband are into beaches and surfing.
A few hours after we got back we were off to the rehearsal dinner, and since I'd forgotten my meds that was a bit of a mess of me tearing up at every speech (ye gods and little fishes, can I get a Celexa up in here?), but it was nice, and not just the wedding party (clearly, since I was just a guest) but apparently everyone who was invited to the wedding the next day, and the food was excellent, and I finally got to meet my cousin's then-fiancee. He adores my cousin in a way like Chris adores me. I approve of him. His family seems nice too.
By the end I was a bit loopy (well, disoriented/dizzy/etc) from lack of adequate sleep and total lack of medication and sappy touching things that made me tear up at the drop of a
May 14
The wedding day.
I got up early and got right to work on the wrap, and even though I concentrated and worked fast, I wasn't able to get the width I'd wanted. If I could have worked through the time between the mall and the rehearsal dinner, I probably could have gotten it but ah well, we can only travel in time one way, forward at one second per second.
My mom had left early to help my cousin with her dress and everything (they only asked her at the rehearsal dinner and she had her four bridesmaids and her mom my aunt and her now-mother-in-law, but okay, it's her wedding) so it was just my stepdad and me when we went to pick up my Great Aunt Mary. I was still working on the project. I finished the one round of fillets and lines around the time we got to where the ceremony was being held and since I forgot my scissors one of my uncles let me use his nail clippers to tie it off. I got some nice compliments on it.
I stuck with Aunt Mary for most of the wedding since we were both there without our husbands, she being recently widowed (well, in '08 I think) and Chris being back in New York on a field exercise (he's back now, and glad to be able to sleep in his own bed!). The ceremony was beautiful, and we guests spent most of it helpfully swatting lovebugs off each other. (O hai lovebug mating season! I hadn't missed that while I was stuck in places-where-it-snows!) The ceremony was on a boardwalk thingy with the beach in the background, and it was beautiful, and the groom's dad of all people did the ceremony. I would so not let my FIL do that, but hey, not my wedding. It was beautiful and they did this "sand ceremony" which is based on some kind of ceremony where my cousin had sand from the beach around here and the groom had sand from where he grew up in North Carolina and they poured them into the same big glass jar. It was lovely.
The reception was back in the building where the bride room was and while the food was good at that, the food at the rehearsal dinner was better. :P I was at a table with my mom, my stepdad, and Aunt Mary, and my Aunt Valerie and my uncle and cousin on her side, and a couple whom I'm apparently related to but I can't remember their names. They were a bit aghast that I didn't like shrimp but I pointed out that this meant more for them and they liked that answer.
Great Aunt Mary (who is 76 so's you know) told me this story that I thought y'all might like: When I was five, I asked my daddy if I could have a sip of his coffee, and he said, "If you drink coffee before you're twelve, you'll turn black." I thought about this and said, "I don't mind being a little dark. May I have a sip of your coffee?" Out of the mouths of babes, ya?
There was a very good DJ there that made every one get up and dance* and there were some goofy dances like the Cha-Cha Slide and the Electric Slide and even the Macarena (!) and the groom really threw himself into it. Apparently he and my cousin do a lot of dancing, because they're really good at it, and they were just so perfect together. (*tearing up as I write this out*)
This wasn't an evening reception where the bride and groom take forever to leave. The groom's family is pretty well off so the bride and groom left early to go to Orlando, and the next day they flew to Costa Rica for their honeymoon. We blew bubbles at them as they dashed through the rain (at least it waited until after the outdoor ceremony!) into their limo. After that my mom and stepdad took my Aunt Mary home and went home themselves and I stayed to help with the cleanup since I was too broke to buy a present (we didn't get paid until the next day, I think) and figured it was the least I could do. It was me and my aunt and uncle the bride's parents, and the groom's parents, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen that made short work of the cleanup and my Aunt Karen (bridecousin's mother) took me home, though on the way (it was a bit of a drive since the wedding was on Merritt Island) I mentioned looking forward to going to Michaels and other places to look for yarn, she decided hey, let's swing by now so we did since it was on the way and I got some nice thick wool yarn that's more of the new store brand Loops and Threads. I made a turquoise ruffle scarf and a light gray (with maybe a light bluish tint?) flat one that, once I go back and get a yarn needle and weave all the ends in, I'll give those as wedding presents, since my cousin and new cousin-in-law will be living in North Carolina and it gets warm enough to wear scarves there. Aunt Karen even took me through the drive-thru at Sonny's when I mentioned my restaurant list and wouldn't let me pay for it. For the record, I didn't ask in either case, Aunt Karen-on-my-mom's-side is just that nice. (I have an Aunt Karen on my dad's side too, just for...I dunno, the record?...and she's nice too, but I don't know her as well and Maternal Aunt Karen just has this lovely honest-to-goodness kindness about her that is awesome, and clearly my cousin inherited that along with the great decorating sense.)
And now for the pictures! :)
Lovebugs on the first row of chairs.
Lovely centerpieces: some kind of aquatic plant in different-height glass cylinders with floating tea lights at the top.
My cousin and her husband at their reception. Both were quick to smile but I'm sure their jaws were hurting by the time they left for Orlando.
Half my table at the reception. Unknown Female Relation Who Likes Shrimp, my mom, my stepdad, my stepsister, and my stepsister's boyfriend.
*not ableist terming in this case (otherwise I'd have phrased it differently, I'm getting pretty good at this inclusive language thing though I've no doubt I've got plenty more to learn) since everyone in this group was ambulatory, which is good since there were stairs going up to different areas. I think the only people with disabilities there were myself (depression, anxiety, possible Asperger's) and my now-married cousin's brother Tyler, who has severe mental handicaps but could probably have been an Olympic runner (or so me kind of competitive, I dunno) if he could be taught where and when to run and where and when to stop.
---