![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I survived the wedding and the aftermath.
As the subject says, I survived.
I've been sleeping a great deal this weekend, no doubt to make up for the continuous stress I've been under for the month before the trip, and the work-week immediately after, when I had three deadlines due on the 26th. Speaking of, Seraph vol 4 is completely finished, Skip vol 34's first draft is done, and so is the first volume of Requiem.
The trip itself was fine, if hurried. It's always a shock to be back in Texas, where it looks like someone ironed out all the buildings to make them so short and flat. Here in Portland, the limited land area means you build up instead of out. Not so in Texas. Everything there just SPRAWLS, which is also a big reason why public transportation there is pretty much a joke outside of college cities. Anyway...
I arrived Tuesday late afternoon and my mom picked me up at the airport, after she got off work. Hit some rush-hour traffic, but it wasn't too bad. Had one of my two requested dishes for dinner: my mom's roast beef. Mmmmmm! I'd asked for parsnips instead of carrots, since I'm now allergic to the latter, but mom couldn't find them! So I only ate two delicious roasted carrots and took a Claritin after. (At least I'm not very allergic!) We watched the newest Jack Ryan movie, where Jack is played by Chris Pine. I don't remember too much about it, as I was distracted by my pretty new laptop and really only watched the movie b/c my parents wanted to.
Oh yeah, I have a laptop now. C: It was a very-surprise birthday present from my sister and parents. It's a refurbished laptop from my sister's job, no doubt bought at a discount and that's just fine with me! Windows 7, also fine, and the battery lasts 5 hours!!! OMG!!! XD Now I can finally write fanfic properly when I go to write-ins. C: *happy sigh* I need to do some reading and see if I can't get my legal copy of Photoshop installed on it, b/c then I can work remotely, too!
On Wednesday was my 2nd birthday present, an hour-long full body massage at the spa where my mother goes. It was quite nice. My lower back was sore all day afterwards, though! I'd like to have professional massages more often. That was my 2nd.
That evening was a games-party with old family friends and friendly coworkers, hosted at my parents' house. I've known some of these people since I was in the 3rd grade. XD It was tons of fun, and much laughter and cheating was had. Not everyone could come, but I was glad to see the ones that did make it! We had four-bean soup for dinner. Good stuff. My Mom sent out the recipe via email, and I made some for myself yesterday. :9
Thursday we piled into the car for the hour-long drive to see my paternal grandmother. She's doing pretty good for being almost 90! She was in a cheerful mood, and it was a pleasant visit. Her longtime neighbor took our group pic, and we went to Chili's for lunch. Then we drove home. Mom made my other favorite home-cooked meal: Chicken and dumplings! No restaurant makes it like she does. It's her own grandmother's recipe. :9 We then watched the movie Burlesque, which my sister had brought over the previous day for me to see. When she visited me here in Portland earlier this summer, I'd shown her Rock of Ages, and she'd noted how similar the two films were. After watching Burlesque, I agree!
Friday morning we had to hit the road again for the 6-hour drive south to Galveston. We took back roads there, which is fine with me because I always prefer to drive them. A lot more to look at than endless stretches of highway embankments and billboards. :P Anyway, I enjoyed chatting with my parents and watching Texas roll by. My phone's mapping function saved us in Houston, when we abandoned the car's GPS route that wanted us to drive through inner Houston at rush hour. YEAH NO. I used my phone to find an alternate route, an outer loop on the west to south side called Sam Houston Tollway. We had to scramble for $1.75 for toll booths four times. XD It became fun, actually. Heh!
We finally arrived in Galveston (OMG so humid) and found the hotel my parents were staying at. Right on the beach, and oh so fancy. O.o They checked in but didn't go up, as we were due at the wedding beach house. It was east of the hotel, and required us boarding a free ferry run by the Department of Transportation. We arrived at the huge wedding beach house right at 7, on time for dinner.
I was able to see two cousins and my aunt, who I haven't seen since I moved to Oregon. I also saw my uncle and other aunt, who I haven't seen in almost that long. The house was very full, as my cousin who was getting married and her hubby-to-be are both very sociable and nice and awesome people, and they had tons of friends and SOs-of-friends there. My sister arrived about an hour after we did. ^^
My parents went back across the ferry to their hotel, while I went with my sister, my cousin, her mom, and the bride's parents to my uncle's (father of the bride) rented beach house. There my sister and I shared a room. The house was AMAZING, and had a private dock into the bay between the long skinny island and the mainland. The only drawback: NO INTERNET! *splat* I'm glad I could still check email and such on my phone.
Saturday was the day of the wedding! All those aforementioned friends were taking care of the preparations, so my sister and I didn't have any jobs to do. Which was fine with me, because I had a mission: I was finally going to make my horse sand sculpture! I'd watched some Youtube vids before I left for TX and knew I'd need a shovel, a bucket, and a watering can. We found the shovel and bucket at a store, but no luck on the watering can. Another guest of the wedding found a colander for me, though! That worked well.
My sister kindly helped, and my cousin (the one staying in the uncle's beach house with us) joined us not long after we began. With their help, I finished in two hours. :D
Here is "Sandy's" right side, looking out at the ocean. My sister sculpted this side of his mane. She did a good job! I didn't intend for him to have big 80s horse mane, but the bared neck I'd originally envisioned wasn't sturdy enough to hold the weight, and kept cracking. I had to triple the size of his mane to keep things stable. Side note: if you look at the ocean line just to the left of his ear, you'll see an oil rig. ^^ Pic taken by me with my phone.
And here is a much more detailed pic taken by my father with an actual camera, instead of my phone. This was taken after the wedding. You can see four-wheeler tracks where at least one person circled him to have a look. Not sure where the pink rope came from. Also the tide juuust reached his left side while we were watching my cousin be married. ^^
That's me, being silly and pretending to ride Sandy while waving my hat in the air. He's supposed to be rearing out of the sand. :B And no, I have no idea why my left arm looks deformed. It's a perfectly normal arm, I assure you, just a bit chubby. :P This is also a good time to share that the only place I ended up sunburned was on my back between my shirt and shorts, b/c I was bending over so much, and I forgot to put sunscreen there. Oops. If you look above the sand dunes, you'll see the top of the wedding house. ^^ Pic taken by my sister with my phone.
Here we are, the three artists! I'm the tall one in the middle. ^^ My sister is to the left, my cousin to the right. We're in our wedding finery here. I couldn't have done this sculpture nearly so quickly without their help! I made sure to thank them profusely. :D Pic taken my by dad, again later in the day after the wedding.
Right after the sculpture was done, we pulled my cousin to be married down and showed it to her. She loved it! She had her pic taken with us, though I don't seem to have a copy. I'm so happy she enjoyed it!!!
The wedding dinner was a whole roast pig and sundry, and was quite tasty! :9 Of all the weddings I've been to, this one was the most fun. Informal, not stuffy, no attempt at religious pressure, and I was able to make a sand sculpture. Sweet. :D
After the wedding, my dad wanted some more pics of Sandy (he really liked my sculpture) so we went back to see him, but...someone had run him over. Yep, Sandy was killed during the wedding reception. I suspect it was this guy roaring around on his four-wheeler and popping wheelies and stuff. I'd rather some kids had destroyed him while playing, or even just the tide, but oh well. Sand sculptures on the beach are meant to be transient. ^^
We hung around for a while as night began to fall, but then the mosquitoes started eating us alive. ^^;;; We split for my uncle's beach house. I ended up with bites on both arms, my feet and ankles, and some big ones on my back. Little bastards got me through my shirt. And they all still itch! Argh!
Anyway, at the non-wedding beach house where we were staying, we played cards for a couple hours. Conasta, I think? I've never played it before. I finally got the hang of it about 30 minutes in. XD And as a surprise, my aunt and cousin baked me a chocolate birthday cake. :9 I wasn't expecting any real acknowledgement of my birthday, since my young cousin was being married on the same day, but yay! It was a lovely surprise. :D
We finally crashed, and woke up at 7 the next morning. I made it to the private dock and chatted with my aunts and uncle as they fished. My sister cast my uncle's fishing pole and brought in a little 6-incher. I held it for about 10 minutes, too, but got nothing. :P Fish don't like me, what can I say? Then it was time for my sister and I to head to the George Bush airport for my flight out. Two hour drive to get there! We had to leave the highway when it turned into a tollway again and make our way via surface streets and a freeway, but we made it. Only to find that my flight was delayed 45 minutes. So I hung around the airport, reading. Finally I boarded, and when we arrived in Chicago, I had only 20 minutes between disembarking and boarding my plane to Portland. O.o We boarded early for some reason, then the pilot came on and said he had a friend in the flight control tower who would expedite our departure, so we ended up landing in Portland half an hour early!!
My sister gave me a huge batch of frequent flier miles to buy my plane tickets for me, and thanks to good fortune, those miles let me be first class, both ways. :3 I looooove flying first class! The only previous time I've flown it was also due to miles, when I brought Kakashi home and couldn't really enjoy it b/c I was taking care of a distressed kitten. Anyway, the Chicago to Portland flight was on Alaska airlines, which I've never flown before. The attendants gave me this ipad-like gizmo that played movies or games and such. It took three tries before I found one that completely worked. I ended up watching the new Godzilla, which I missed in theaters. I really enjoyed it! :D I had just enough time to play half a round of spider solitaire before I had to give the gizmo back for landing.
Knastymike kindly picked me up from the airport so I didn't have to haul myself home via the Max and a 3/4th mile walk lugging my heavy suitcase and bag. Yay! I was so relieved to be back with my cats, b/c I worried about Spicer every day. Both kitties were all over me the entire evening. Spicer wasn't happy unless I had a hand in his fur. I ended up only using my right hand for keyboarding and mousing b/c the left was busy reassuring my cat!
And there you have it. One almost week away. Whew! The next morning, I really hit work in that mad scramble to make all three deadlines on Friday.
I loved making the sand sculpture. I'm definitely going to do it again! I live only 45 minutes from the Pacific coast, after all. :D And I'll be able to buy a watering can, too! Just gotta pick up a shovel and a bucket, and some impromptu sculpting tools. :3
I've been sleeping a great deal this weekend, no doubt to make up for the continuous stress I've been under for the month before the trip, and the work-week immediately after, when I had three deadlines due on the 26th. Speaking of, Seraph vol 4 is completely finished, Skip vol 34's first draft is done, and so is the first volume of Requiem.
The trip itself was fine, if hurried. It's always a shock to be back in Texas, where it looks like someone ironed out all the buildings to make them so short and flat. Here in Portland, the limited land area means you build up instead of out. Not so in Texas. Everything there just SPRAWLS, which is also a big reason why public transportation there is pretty much a joke outside of college cities. Anyway...
I arrived Tuesday late afternoon and my mom picked me up at the airport, after she got off work. Hit some rush-hour traffic, but it wasn't too bad. Had one of my two requested dishes for dinner: my mom's roast beef. Mmmmmm! I'd asked for parsnips instead of carrots, since I'm now allergic to the latter, but mom couldn't find them! So I only ate two delicious roasted carrots and took a Claritin after. (At least I'm not very allergic!) We watched the newest Jack Ryan movie, where Jack is played by Chris Pine. I don't remember too much about it, as I was distracted by my pretty new laptop and really only watched the movie b/c my parents wanted to.
Oh yeah, I have a laptop now. C: It was a very-surprise birthday present from my sister and parents. It's a refurbished laptop from my sister's job, no doubt bought at a discount and that's just fine with me! Windows 7, also fine, and the battery lasts 5 hours!!! OMG!!! XD Now I can finally write fanfic properly when I go to write-ins. C: *happy sigh* I need to do some reading and see if I can't get my legal copy of Photoshop installed on it, b/c then I can work remotely, too!
On Wednesday was my 2nd birthday present, an hour-long full body massage at the spa where my mother goes. It was quite nice. My lower back was sore all day afterwards, though! I'd like to have professional massages more often. That was my 2nd.
That evening was a games-party with old family friends and friendly coworkers, hosted at my parents' house. I've known some of these people since I was in the 3rd grade. XD It was tons of fun, and much laughter and cheating was had. Not everyone could come, but I was glad to see the ones that did make it! We had four-bean soup for dinner. Good stuff. My Mom sent out the recipe via email, and I made some for myself yesterday. :9
Thursday we piled into the car for the hour-long drive to see my paternal grandmother. She's doing pretty good for being almost 90! She was in a cheerful mood, and it was a pleasant visit. Her longtime neighbor took our group pic, and we went to Chili's for lunch. Then we drove home. Mom made my other favorite home-cooked meal: Chicken and dumplings! No restaurant makes it like she does. It's her own grandmother's recipe. :9 We then watched the movie Burlesque, which my sister had brought over the previous day for me to see. When she visited me here in Portland earlier this summer, I'd shown her Rock of Ages, and she'd noted how similar the two films were. After watching Burlesque, I agree!
Friday morning we had to hit the road again for the 6-hour drive south to Galveston. We took back roads there, which is fine with me because I always prefer to drive them. A lot more to look at than endless stretches of highway embankments and billboards. :P Anyway, I enjoyed chatting with my parents and watching Texas roll by. My phone's mapping function saved us in Houston, when we abandoned the car's GPS route that wanted us to drive through inner Houston at rush hour. YEAH NO. I used my phone to find an alternate route, an outer loop on the west to south side called Sam Houston Tollway. We had to scramble for $1.75 for toll booths four times. XD It became fun, actually. Heh!
We finally arrived in Galveston (OMG so humid) and found the hotel my parents were staying at. Right on the beach, and oh so fancy. O.o They checked in but didn't go up, as we were due at the wedding beach house. It was east of the hotel, and required us boarding a free ferry run by the Department of Transportation. We arrived at the huge wedding beach house right at 7, on time for dinner.
I was able to see two cousins and my aunt, who I haven't seen since I moved to Oregon. I also saw my uncle and other aunt, who I haven't seen in almost that long. The house was very full, as my cousin who was getting married and her hubby-to-be are both very sociable and nice and awesome people, and they had tons of friends and SOs-of-friends there. My sister arrived about an hour after we did. ^^
My parents went back across the ferry to their hotel, while I went with my sister, my cousin, her mom, and the bride's parents to my uncle's (father of the bride) rented beach house. There my sister and I shared a room. The house was AMAZING, and had a private dock into the bay between the long skinny island and the mainland. The only drawback: NO INTERNET! *splat* I'm glad I could still check email and such on my phone.
Saturday was the day of the wedding! All those aforementioned friends were taking care of the preparations, so my sister and I didn't have any jobs to do. Which was fine with me, because I had a mission: I was finally going to make my horse sand sculpture! I'd watched some Youtube vids before I left for TX and knew I'd need a shovel, a bucket, and a watering can. We found the shovel and bucket at a store, but no luck on the watering can. Another guest of the wedding found a colander for me, though! That worked well.
My sister kindly helped, and my cousin (the one staying in the uncle's beach house with us) joined us not long after we began. With their help, I finished in two hours. :D
Here is "Sandy's" right side, looking out at the ocean. My sister sculpted this side of his mane. She did a good job! I didn't intend for him to have big 80s horse mane, but the bared neck I'd originally envisioned wasn't sturdy enough to hold the weight, and kept cracking. I had to triple the size of his mane to keep things stable. Side note: if you look at the ocean line just to the left of his ear, you'll see an oil rig. ^^ Pic taken by me with my phone.
And here is a much more detailed pic taken by my father with an actual camera, instead of my phone. This was taken after the wedding. You can see four-wheeler tracks where at least one person circled him to have a look. Not sure where the pink rope came from. Also the tide juuust reached his left side while we were watching my cousin be married. ^^
That's me, being silly and pretending to ride Sandy while waving my hat in the air. He's supposed to be rearing out of the sand. :B And no, I have no idea why my left arm looks deformed. It's a perfectly normal arm, I assure you, just a bit chubby. :P This is also a good time to share that the only place I ended up sunburned was on my back between my shirt and shorts, b/c I was bending over so much, and I forgot to put sunscreen there. Oops. If you look above the sand dunes, you'll see the top of the wedding house. ^^ Pic taken by my sister with my phone.
Here we are, the three artists! I'm the tall one in the middle. ^^ My sister is to the left, my cousin to the right. We're in our wedding finery here. I couldn't have done this sculpture nearly so quickly without their help! I made sure to thank them profusely. :D Pic taken my by dad, again later in the day after the wedding.
Right after the sculpture was done, we pulled my cousin to be married down and showed it to her. She loved it! She had her pic taken with us, though I don't seem to have a copy. I'm so happy she enjoyed it!!!
The wedding dinner was a whole roast pig and sundry, and was quite tasty! :9 Of all the weddings I've been to, this one was the most fun. Informal, not stuffy, no attempt at religious pressure, and I was able to make a sand sculpture. Sweet. :D
After the wedding, my dad wanted some more pics of Sandy (he really liked my sculpture) so we went back to see him, but...someone had run him over. Yep, Sandy was killed during the wedding reception. I suspect it was this guy roaring around on his four-wheeler and popping wheelies and stuff. I'd rather some kids had destroyed him while playing, or even just the tide, but oh well. Sand sculptures on the beach are meant to be transient. ^^
We hung around for a while as night began to fall, but then the mosquitoes started eating us alive. ^^;;; We split for my uncle's beach house. I ended up with bites on both arms, my feet and ankles, and some big ones on my back. Little bastards got me through my shirt. And they all still itch! Argh!
Anyway, at the non-wedding beach house where we were staying, we played cards for a couple hours. Conasta, I think? I've never played it before. I finally got the hang of it about 30 minutes in. XD And as a surprise, my aunt and cousin baked me a chocolate birthday cake. :9 I wasn't expecting any real acknowledgement of my birthday, since my young cousin was being married on the same day, but yay! It was a lovely surprise. :D
We finally crashed, and woke up at 7 the next morning. I made it to the private dock and chatted with my aunts and uncle as they fished. My sister cast my uncle's fishing pole and brought in a little 6-incher. I held it for about 10 minutes, too, but got nothing. :P Fish don't like me, what can I say? Then it was time for my sister and I to head to the George Bush airport for my flight out. Two hour drive to get there! We had to leave the highway when it turned into a tollway again and make our way via surface streets and a freeway, but we made it. Only to find that my flight was delayed 45 minutes. So I hung around the airport, reading. Finally I boarded, and when we arrived in Chicago, I had only 20 minutes between disembarking and boarding my plane to Portland. O.o We boarded early for some reason, then the pilot came on and said he had a friend in the flight control tower who would expedite our departure, so we ended up landing in Portland half an hour early!!
My sister gave me a huge batch of frequent flier miles to buy my plane tickets for me, and thanks to good fortune, those miles let me be first class, both ways. :3 I looooove flying first class! The only previous time I've flown it was also due to miles, when I brought Kakashi home and couldn't really enjoy it b/c I was taking care of a distressed kitten. Anyway, the Chicago to Portland flight was on Alaska airlines, which I've never flown before. The attendants gave me this ipad-like gizmo that played movies or games and such. It took three tries before I found one that completely worked. I ended up watching the new Godzilla, which I missed in theaters. I really enjoyed it! :D I had just enough time to play half a round of spider solitaire before I had to give the gizmo back for landing.
Knastymike kindly picked me up from the airport so I didn't have to haul myself home via the Max and a 3/4th mile walk lugging my heavy suitcase and bag. Yay! I was so relieved to be back with my cats, b/c I worried about Spicer every day. Both kitties were all over me the entire evening. Spicer wasn't happy unless I had a hand in his fur. I ended up only using my right hand for keyboarding and mousing b/c the left was busy reassuring my cat!
And there you have it. One almost week away. Whew! The next morning, I really hit work in that mad scramble to make all three deadlines on Friday.
I loved making the sand sculpture. I'm definitely going to do it again! I live only 45 minutes from the Pacific coast, after all. :D And I'll be able to buy a watering can, too! Just gotta pick up a shovel and a bucket, and some impromptu sculpting tools. :3