J's Wedding Weekend

The drive up was pretty uneventful. We didn't have to leave by any certain time, really, so we both packed the day of (because I was overworked and exhausted the day before), though I'd already stocked the fridge and pantry with my provisions for the week. C drove most of the way, though I took over for a few hours so he could nap. It was much different than the other times I've made that drive, where I've always been by myself and had to drive the whole way. Then again, I'm also in a different place physically than I was the last time I made that drive a year and a half ago.

Due to traffic and construction, we arrived a little later than we thought we would, but in enough time to surprise J as she and a couple of others were preparing to leave the house and stay in Lton for the weekend. While I wasn't able to sneak up on her like I would have wanted (she knew that a "surprise" would be coming up the driveway), she was definitely enthused and surprised. Funnily enough, so was K, because she had forgotten that we were coming that day!

C and I spent that evening recuperating some, as we were both exhausted and not feeling well after the long trip. He fell asleep super early and slept all night. It was difficult to get a good rest upstairs because it was so very hot (no AC, much to C's consternation lol), but we managed. The next day was Friday, and we headed into Otown to pick up my medical records, show C the town, and see a few old friends. We also had a lunch date set up with a couple of my friends, but I found some time in the morning to go out to the gardens and relieve a few strawberry plants of their burden. I didn't even get close to picking all of them, as they're not being picked on a regular basis and so are overloaded, but I got a sizable batch that I split into 3. One was for B, one for my friends M and S, and the other for J. We hung around in Otown for the afternoon then drove into Lton for J's rehearsal dinner. I'm glad that I wasn't able to make it for any of her bridal showers, as I admit that I would have had a hard time swallowing my jealousy. I know that the pre-festivities have no bearing on the wedding or marriage itself, but I still do feel gipped. Oh well. It is what it is, and I'm very happy regardless.

At the rehearsal dinner (which was beautifully set up, I might add!) C got fed with some good food and I munched on what I had brought with me. Before we even got around to the dinner, W and J led an entourage the block and a half from the church to their new little apartment that they're leasing. It's really cute! Small, but cute. They actually don't have much less square footage than we do, but the way ours is laid out makes it look much bigger.

The next day we headed into town to hang out with H, her husband S, and the two kids S and A. The kids were so excited at the rehearsal dinner when they found out that we would be coming to their house the next day! S was actually jumping up and down with excitement. It brought a warm glow to my heart, because it was me he was so excited to see. They call me Auntie Cassandra, which I think is awesome. Anyway, I made it into the gardens before we left again, so we went to H's house armed with a large tupperware container full of freshly picked, ginormous blueberries. We ended up eating most of them while we sat around looking at wedding pictures on my computer and telling funny stories. C and S seemed to hit it off quite well, and C was very impressed with the K's as a whole. He could tell that they are good people, and he said that if all Christians were like them then the world would have a LOT less problems, and the church too. I was invited to "girl's night" at the hotel in Lton, but it's 2 hours away from home and I knew that I'd need to be rested up for the next day, which was the day of the wedding.

We left the house on Sunday at a compromised time of 10 so that I could get to the hotel in time to finish getting ready with the girls of the wedding party. C took my laptop and a movie and sat in the hotel lobby (fully dressed for the wedding in a 3 piece suit!) to watch the movie. The timing was perfect, because I had just enough time to get myself ready before we headed over the park, and I also arrived with enough time to be partially through curling my hair when J showed up and I got to help her into her wedding dress. She was a truly beautiful bride, and I loved her hairdo with the fresh flowers that were slipped into it. She appeared to be much calmer than I was on my wedding day, but then again I have no way of knowing what kind of vibe I was giving off, so... Then again, she had everything organized and laid out, whereas I didn't as much.

When I was done getting ready I collected C and we headed over to the park to eat a light lunch. We wandered around sorta helping out, greeting old (for me) and new (for C) friends, and just observing. I was careful not to do too much because I was already not feeling too hot, and I knew that I'd need a lot of endurance to make it through the rest of the day. I got called over to join the family wedding photos at one point, which made me feel very special. I know that we consider each other to be sisters, but it's the public inclusions and acknowledgments that seem to be able to make or break the affiliation, especially in others' view. D was not there, obviously, and that was a sad thing, but W and J used his Bible with the well worn pages for their service, and there was a chair reserved for him with a single red rose placed in front of a sign that read, "In Loving Memory of D S".

C and I were in the third row, so we had a clear view of all the proceedings, and they were beautiful. I liked that the service was short, sweet, and to the point, but obviously very meaningful and thought out. You could just see the happiness radiating off of those two! It made me smile :)

After they ran back down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. for a little quiet time, we wandered over to the reception area and sat at an empty table to see who would join us. Our table was sparsely populated until toward the end, when H and S joined us, though H was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. It only makes sense, as she was the wedding coordinator, and was probably doing the same at my wedding though I hardly noticed! The couple took pains to provide gluten free options for everything, so I ate very well and even had TWO pieces of cake! I had not had cake in so long, and it was a bit shocking to my stomach because of all the sugar, but it was totally worth it. I went through the receiving line and hugged the bride and groom and was once again hit with how grateful I was to be there. I would have been so very disappointed to have missed that.

There was only one hitch, which happened sometime between pieces of cake, and that was that a yellow jacket somehow crawled up my dress. The bees and yellow jackets are terrible up there this year, and as J's decorations were comprised primarily of flowers we had a lot of them hanging around the wedding and reception. We were leaving each other alone just fine until I felt some sort of a itching sensation to the right of my sacrum (lower back), so naturally I reached back and sort of felt around/scratched to get rid of the problem. That's when I felt the stab of pain, instantly realized that I had been bitten or stung by something, and crushed the area with the flat of my palm as hard as I could. I guess I got the thing, because I didn't get stung again. I did, however, scream very loudly, jump up and knock both my chair and my neighbor's water glass over, and shout some sort of expressive phrase like "good grief" or something. (I am soooooo glad that my brain's filter was firmly in place this weekend and I didn't drop a huge, loud F-bomb right in the middle of my sister's reception. Considering that 99.9% of the attendees were good, staunch conservative SDA's... that wouldn't have gone over so well.) H came to the rescue with a plaster of mud and wet paper towels, and that took the heat out of it for a while. One of the other guests picked some plantain that was growing at the park, and I chewed up the leaves and held the poultice on with a couple of bandaids overnight. The sting went away with no trouble, but I had a lot of itching and redness, even some swelling, from the adhesives on the bandaids. Oh well. It was the lesser of two evils at that point.

After the festivities had wound down, the marriage license was signed, and the garter and bouquet thrown, the guests formed a corridor for the couple to dash through to their getaway car while we showered them with dried lavender flowers. The park smelled great! Hehe.

C and I headed home and pretty much collapsed into bed. Well, I did at any rate... (Ok, maybe after having a little fun of our own...) I had to say my goodbyes at the reception, as that was the last we would see of anyone before we skipped town. The next morning C and I packed up the truck, tidied the house, and headed back home. That trip is a post in and of itself, so I'll save it for later. I will say that I am thrilled to have Juneaux back home with me, though! He seems to be adjusting well, though he hasn't been outside yet. That'll happen in a few days, after we get him a collar and tag. We wanted to make sure he'd come back, so we've been keeping him inside. I don't want any Milo and Otis/Homeward Bound stuff going on, with him trying to get back up north! This is home now.

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