mmm...men in uniform--the Virginia Trip

ferries, planes, and yucky yucky smog

I'm finally back from Virginia! yes, I know you all were wondering why I hadn't continued my three or four posts a day streak, and it was because I was in Quantico, Virginia on the Marine base, watching my big brother, Buckshot, get married! It was a six day trip filled with me chasing boys, and other boys chasing me! (I'll tell you about that later.) And not to mention the ridiculous ridiculous Washington, D.C. traffic! absolutely insane. And all the Marines? oh...the Marines! *drool*
The trip was tiring and a little infuriating, but for some reason I enjoyed it immensely! We left on the third of August at five in the afternoon. All we did that day was drive down to Gramma and Grampa's in Sooke, and we stayed the night there. As far as I was concerned it was a total waste of time, and we should have left early in the morning of the fourth so that I would have been able to go to Laura's p-tay on the third which I missed. :( but at any rate that's what we did. the next morning we left about nine'o'clock, and drove into town (Grampa lives outside the village limits) to exchange our currency, and get last minute things (like a watch that looks like a thicker sex bracelet, more makeup, and more sex bracelets). Then we drove to Schwartz Bay, and took the Spirit of Vancouver Island (which is an extraordinarily large ferry) through the Gulf Islands and across the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver. On the way, we wound our way through all the islands, and we got to go through Active Pass which is a small strait between a bunch of islands that is no more that two to three hundred feet across. It's such a miniscule pass, and so picturesque! While in Active Pass, we passed by four other ferries! They all honked their horns at us as we passed, and we returned the courtesy. It was all very nice and West Coast. After we arrived at Tswassen Ferry Terminal south of Vancouver we drove through Surrey and then down to the American border where we saw the Peace Arch. I've seen it before, but I always like the Peace Arch Park. Big big lawns. Then we drove for another two and a half hours down to Seattle where we arrived at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. When we got there, we got all our baggage out and dragged it around with us in the outside part of the terminal. Our flight wasn't until eleven forty the next morning, so we had a TON of time to waste. We had some really disgusting soup for dinner with pathetic crackers that crumbled at the touch of a feather. Then we got a temporary pass that would let us in and out of security and into the concourses. Usually you'd get a boarding pass to do that but we couldn't get our boarding pass until two hours before our flight so we had to get that. So we went into the concourse to wait out the night.
Before the sun went down me and Mom went walking around the terminal and watched planes taking off and landing. It was okay. We left Sherayna watching the luggage because you can't leave it alone or airport security will take it and destroy it in case it's a bomb. When we got back, Sherayna and Mom went wandering, and I watched the luggage. I figured it was a good time to do my nails cause I hadn't done them for the wedding yet. So I did my fingers, and my toes, then had a really long conversation with this woman from Oregon about education options, and Mom and Sherayna STILL aren't back from wandering yet, and it's been like two and a half hours AT LEAST! so I start looking for one of the cell phones (we brought two with us) and I can't find either one. They had taken them both with them! silly girls. so I go over to a pay phone, pop my quarter in, and it won't work. I figure out that it wants fifty cents from me instead of twentyfive! Goddamn rightwingers. So I get another quarter. It STILL doesn't work! Finally I figure outt hat I'm trying to use Canadian quarters, and it needs American change. lovely. so that nice woman I'd been talking with lent me a couple of quarters. AND THE STUPID THING STILL WON'T WORK!!!!!! *brain anurism*finally, the lady agrees to watch my luggage for me while I run down to security in search of a phone. So I find the nearest security check point, and I go up to the supervisor, and give him this pathetic woe-is-me look, and say, "...I have a problem."he goes all sympathetic on me, and says, "ok, what is it?" (I've already got him eating out of the palm of my hand! ha ha!)i say, "i can't find my family, and they have both of our cell phones with them. could I use yours?"and he just melts, and lets me use his phone! it was so sweet of him! so finally I got Sherayna and Mom back, and we all read our books for about an hour.
By that time it was about eleven, so I figure it's about time to go to bed. So I stretched out on an airline bench and attempted to snooze for a spell. Not working. I'm freezing my bottom off. I sat up and told Mom I was uncomfortable and she said it was because we were in front of an enormous bank of windows, so we went and found a different bank of chairs to snooze on. I was still freezing my arse off there, but there wasn't anything I could do about it so I simply curled up into a teeny ball, and tried to sleep. It was really funny, actually cause I kept asking Mom for her jacket to wear, and she would let me wear it, but then she'd get cold, and ask for it back, and I wouldn't want to let her have it. So we solved that problem by Mom putting the jacket around her shoulders, and putting one arm in one sleeve, and letting me stick both my arms up the other sleeve while lying my head in her lap! I gathered it was quite a comical sight. Anyway, eventually even getting up at a ridiculous time of day was preferable to more attempted sleep, so we got some coffee, and made our way to our gate that we'd be leaving from at about six fifteen in the morning. I was still intensely tired.
Mom and Sherayna went to go check our bags, and get our boarding passes, and I stayed and people-watched. They came back, and we all ended up striking up a conversation with a woman with a South Western accent and two children. She was quite nice.
Now this leg of our trip was to be on a plane, obviously, and I'd never flown before. So as excited as I was when I arrived at the terminal, the sixteen hours of waiting I'd gone through before boarding the actual plane was extremely anticlimactic. But finally our plane arrived, and we boarded it. It was much smaller, and darker than I'd expected. Up to this point, I had entertained every single possibility, from a hijacking, to minor turbulence, and I was quite nervous. For a while there, I was absolutely convinced (although I kept my mouth shut) that somebody was going to be a terrorist, and the plane would be hijacked, and everybody on board would die. But I didn't say anything, even to my mom, and once on the plane, I of course claimed the window seat. The plane eventually taxied out, and started speeding down the runway, and I was extremely excited. I had my nose glued to the window with figurative super glue. Then the plane actually took off, and I was just like, "Oh...oh! Oh!" There was that crazy feeling of your stomach being in zero G almost that I'm sure all you flying veterans have experienced before, and watching the ground pull away from me at a rate of a hundred feet per second was incredible. I could not stop looking out the window at the houses that went from being defined, and recognizable to little teeny boxes laid out in a visible pattern. And all the highways went from an understandable route where cars, and trucks and motorcycles went to a foreign strip of gray that was identifiable only in theory. The Sea-Tac Airport is right by Mt. Rainier, so we went by the mountain about two minutes after take off. It was cloudy, so all you could see was this snow covered peak jutting through this thick carpet of clouds. It was in that general vicinity that I experienced my first bit of turbulence. And I didn't freak out, and I didn't point out the obvious to my family ("Mom, we're going through turbulence now! That's turbulence!"). Curiously, I took it in very staidly and stolidly, and decided that the feeling was akin to going over a bumpy road. I can't say it didn't occur to me that there was in fact NO road beneath us, only thousands of feet of space, but even knowing that, I was very calm and analytical about the whole experience. My nose never lft the window the entire flight to Salt Lake City, Utah which took about an hour and a half respectably.
What's that? Salt Lake City you say? You thought I went to Virginia, didn't you? Well I did! But the plane was not going on to Baltimore-Washington International, it was going on to a different place, and we had to switch planes. So we did.
At Salt Lake City, there wasn't much to look at. It was interesting upon landing and take off to see the huge salt deposits, the way the city was laid out around the moutnains, and glimpses of the lake that gives the city it's name. But we were only there an hour (cause our plane from Sea-Tac was delayed; it was supposed to be two hours) and no, we didn't see any Mormons. At least no one visibly Mormon. Although on the Spirit of Vancouver, and in Sea-Tac coming home we did see a few Quakers. The landing at Salt Lake City was extremely smooth, and entirely comforting to someone who has never flown before. We ate some Pizza Hut there, and I had an enormous mocha latte which was very very yummy. The pizza boy thought he was cute, but unfortunately wasn't. While waiting for our next flight, we went and watched more planes landing and taking off. Mom and I saw this absolutely enormous jet that looked like a jumbo jet, but I wasn't sure if it was or not. We had seen it taxiing around outside, so we were hoping it was going to take off, but we saw about fifteen planes take off without ever seeing Mr. Pseudo Jumbo Jet, so I suppose it had just landed. Mom came up with this whimsical name for the Alaskan Airlines jets that were teeny tiny as far as jets go. Since they always shot up upon take off like someone had kicked them in the arse, Mom devised the whimsical name for them, the Jolly Jump Ups. I think we amused the guy sitting near us with our bickering over who to ask if the Pseudo Jumbo Jet was a Boewing 747, or not.
Then we got on the second plane, and this time, because Sherayna and Mom wanted window seats, but I didn't want to give up mine, we all sat in different rows in the window seats! ha ha! Talk about monopolizing! The flight was full, so I ended up sitting beside a couple of guys that looked fifteen and thirteen respectively. The fifteen-year-old was acceptable-looking, but he was sitting in the aisle seat, and buried his nose in a book the entire time (except for when I forced them both to stand up because I needed to go to the bathroom! hee hee!). The thirteen-year-old was very unsuitable, not particularly attractive, and listened to annoying music the whole time so I pretty much ignored him the whole way there in favor of staring out the window. This flight was roughly three hours. It was supposed to be three and a half but we were early. The air over the east coast was totally revolting. There was a smog layer that reached right up to fifteen thousand feet above the earth. And there was another smog layer a few thousand feet above that that was a least a thousand feet high, and was intensely thick. Absolutely no breakage in the cover anywhere. When the sun went down while we were still in the air, the smog glowed this angry red that was rather terrifying. *I am Pollution God of Anger!* we went over Chicago, and Washington, DC after dark, and all we could see was this enormous spread of city lights, which was interesting. the entire flight from Utah to Maryland we had crazy turbulence. We were only allowed to take off our seatbelts twice. I don't know, though, for some reason, I was completely fine about the whole deal. The turbulence didn't make an impression on me even though it was seriously harsh. I don't know if there's a switch not connecting in there somewhere *points to brain* but I did not register.
We landed in Baltimore, Maryland at the Baltimore Washington International Airport at about ten'o'clock. About five minutes after we landed, on our way down to Baggage Claim, I noticed someone moving up quickly directly behind us. I turned and noticed it was Ucre, my big brother, but didn't say anything cause he motioned me to shush. Then he grabbed Mom's shoulder, and she nearly jumped out of her skin! It was quite amusing! We all had a round of hugs, and went to go find our luggage, which *relief* came through ok. I had had daymares about that, too! I watch too much Airline on A&E. About five minutes later, Lee (my mom's first husband, and my brother's and sister's dad but not mine) came strolling up, and we all went to go find a rental car shuttle, which was a bus that was identical to ours back home except for the coloring, and the luggage racks. We rode that for about five minutes, until we came to a huge rental car place that had about five different rental car outfits in it. We found an enormous van, and Ucre rented it. We all piled ourselves, and the luggage in, and off we went to go find Quantico Base.
Ucre was driving, and Lee was doing directions, but apparently the map service Buck had emailed to him was rather inferior, and they couldn't figure out the exits. The infuriating thing was, every time they pulled over to look at the directions, they'd fight about which way to go, and I'd try to say something from the back seat about it, but they either didn't hear me, or wouldn't listen to me and were ignoring me. And then every single time, I was RIGHT! It was so annoying, so I just went to sleep on the seat.

Quantico Base has some rather interesting "scenery"...

We didn't get to the security checkpoint entering the base until one thirty in the morning! The Marine who checked the adults ID (they didn't check mine cause I was with four ID'd adults) was extremely cute, and since we'd just gotten there, we had to have the van searched as well. The same Marine opened up the side door, and he looked inside. I had just woken up, and looked at him all bleary-eyed, and surprised. He asked me (well really all of us, but he looked at me), "How are you ladies doing tonight?" and Mom and Sherayna echoed fine, and I said"...alright" then for some reason, he didn't close the door right away, but he wasn't looking around in the van, either, he was kind of looking at me, and in my jet lagged stupor (losing three hours; blech!), I thought he was expecting me to say something. So I blurted out, "How are you?" Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either, but it didn't really matter at all, cause he just burbled an unintelligible answer, and closed the door, all gruff-like. I think I surprised him. Then I was in for unmerciful teasing at the hands of my sister and mother.Finally we got to the hotel on base, and we checked in. I fell directly into bed, and didn't get up until ten the next morning. Ucre came by the hotel room, and woke us up just in time to get the last of the complimentary continental breakfast. I stayed in bed, and got a bagel.
That day we all got up, and went sight seeing--kind of. We didn't go into DC to see any of the monuments, for which I was sad. But we walked around the base. We saw the chapel Buck would be getting married in. There was a funeral going on for which we felt bad. We found some forest which was very strange cause there was zero ground cover. Like NONE. Quite Virginian. We tried to go swimming but the pool was closed. We also went out to Q-town as the Marines call it (that's Quantico, the civilian town part), and bought some groceries for the stay. We got grapes, and turkey and bread, and this really nasty pop for fifty cents each that was so intensely laden with sugar, it should have been an energy drink. I couldn't even finish one of them! Then we went and hung out at the hotel room for a while. In the afternoon, we got a call from my Auntie Barb, and cousin Michelle who had also come down for the wedding from Nova Scotia. She was at a Ramada off base. So she decided to come in and check in at our Crossroads Inn, to be closer to the wedding. So they came, and we all talked in our hotel room for an hour. Sherayna and Michelle went off by themselves. I ate grapes while listening to Mom and Auntie Barb.
Barb and Michelle had to go to Wal-Mart for some reason so we all piled in the car, and went off to Wal-Mart where I got shoes and shampoo. That was okay. I got yelled at for sitting on office chairs, by an employee. I had strange muscle cramps in my legs, and Mom said it was from sodium depletion, so she bought me some chips. Miraculously, the cramps disappeared!
Coming back to the base, something so funny happened! At the gaurd post, we found another extremely sexy Marine, (they were seriously all over the place) who checked Barb's ID, and was like, "Noh-vah Scoh-tchya? never heard of that one before." Auntie Barb was just like, "it's in Canada" and he was like, "huh. you learn a new thing everyday!" and I was laughing hysterically at him from the back seat, and he glanced in and gave me a big grin! man was he ever hot!
When we got back to the base, it was time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. So we all got dressed, and went and watched the rehearsal. After that, we went over to the Officer's Club for the dinner. It was fantastic. Literally the best meal I had while I was there, including the wedding reception. We sat at a big table with Barb, Michelle, Ucre, Deon (his wife whom he went to pick up from the airport that day), Lee, and Buck's friend Lt. David Chin. Extremely extremely visually pleasing Marine Lt. David Chin! They'd roomed together when they'd first gotten into the core. He's twenty-two. Well anyway, David had nothing but good things to say about Buck so we all got on together fine. It turned out that he'd graduated with a degree in Mathmatics. He asked me where I was from, and I said, "Nanaimo. It's on the West Coast of Canada. On Vancouver Island." he gives me this look, and says, "where's that?" "British Columbia," I say, and he gets this look of recognition and says, "oh, ok! that's on the east coast, isn't it?" I was like...oh man! But he was still interesting-looking, and incredibly sweet. He had this nice aww, shucks demeanor that was (I'll be honest) rather endearing!
The night withered away among Shirley Temples, and and soon-to-be-newly-acquired family that we weren't quite comfortable with yet. We met Stephanie's parents, Donna and OJ. OJ is a Colonel in the Marines, and a very nice guy. Lots of fun to be around. Donna has this insanely thick Jersey accent even though she's from Southern California. Her side of the family is Italian. In fact a lot of the people there were from SoCal. Big West Coast family. Buck and Stephanie got married in Virginia because Donna and OJ had gotten married there on Quantico Base. The bride's side was noticeably larger than the groom's. A lot of Buck's relatives couldn't make it. Although Quinn tried really hard. He probably didn't have any good ID. Buck was really mad about Quinn not coming.
Eventually we headed back to the hotel, and coming in, heading to our room, the funniest thing happened! Another big huge sexy pectoral-muscle-laden Marine came out of his room as we were just entering the hallway, and passed us on the way down. Now I don't know if it was just that he had only came out to check the time on the wall in the lobby, or what, but he followed us back down the corridor a ways, and I was joking with Mom and Sherayna about something, and from behind, he made this funny little comment that related to what we were saying, and he gave us this big huge grin, and we all laughed girlishly. You should have seen this guy! Man was he such a stud! I'm sorry, but dear god, they don't come better looking that this guy. Chiseled features, sculpted arms, and what a grin. *sigh*
Anyways, that night, Auntie Barb, and Michelle stole my mom and sister for a game of cards that turned into two games of cards, then three games of cards. I was fine, though, cause Buck stopped by my room to take a look at the laptop he sent me which wasn't working right. So he looked at it, and narrowed the problem down to the backlighting in the screen probably had some damage where it connected with the base. He gave me a website to go to when I got home to check out, which I should do soon. Then we just sat back, and talked for the rest of the night. Watched an episode of JAG together. It was really nice, cause I almost NEVER get to spend a significant amount of time with him. We talked about Quinn, and Ucre, his plans for their honeymoon, religion, and Geoff. It was very nice. However, he didn't leave until twelve forty or thereabouts, and I'd planned to have a bath and shower, so I did until one thirty. I created an ocean out of the floor. Very nice shower, though.

wedding day--crunch time

The next morning, they got me up early to go help set up at the reception hall which was on another base. So I got up, got some coffee, and hopped in the car with Sherayna, Deon, Donna's best friends Kathy, and Chris and sped up to Fort Belvoir. It is such a lovely place. The trees, and grass, and the smell of the air! The architecture is so beautiful. Wonderful old Colonial houses with brick facades, and some Officer's Quarters with columns in the front. American flags everywhere. Such a beautiful place. I just loved it. I would be thrilled to have a plantation in Virginia one day. We were in the Potomac Room of the O Club on base, and we could see the Potomac River, and across the river, we could see Mt. Vernon, which is not a mountain, it is the house that George Washington lived in. Very cool. So Kathy put me to work organizing the place cards. I used the seating chart to put the cards in order, and as organized as I was, the whole thing got truly messed up, cause I found names that weren't on the seating chart, and the diagram that showed the table numbers was all stupid and incoherent, so I got all the tables wrong except for the head table, table one and table two. Eventually, OJ had to help me by calling Donna and finding out which people sat where, and who wasn't coming. He was a ton of fun. In one instance we were switching two groups of place cards from one table to another that was right beside it, and we missed two names. I got frustrated, and was like, "How can two cards just disappear from there to here?" and OJ just said, maybe they've been doubled up, and the first card he checked turned up the missing cards! He burst into laughter, and just crowed, "Oh yeah! Was that ever a good call!" he has this huge, enthusiastic laugh that isn't overbearing in any way. I like him a lot.
Halfway through this endeavor, I started feeling uncomfortable, and crampy, and by the time we left, I was feeling extremely nauseous. Well, I didn't want to be a bother at all to Donna's friends with whom I wasn't sure of myself yet. So I just suffered in silence. And of course, wouldn't you know it! We got stuck in midday traffic! Utterly ridiculous, bumper-to-bumper gridlock traffic! no one was moving at all! man, people might complain about their rush hour traffic! well I gaurantee you, it is a drive in the park compared to Washington, DC traffic on the I95 at midday ON A SATURDAY no less! it was simply to spite me, I am convinced. So anyway, I am sitting here squirming as little as possible, trying to just HOLD IT IN, as we go over each bump, each pothole. I'm telling myself over and over that no, I CANNOT get out of the car, and go throw up. But *it's not easy being green,* because Sherayna noticed, and was like, "Are you ok?" even though I hadn't said anything. Then we all went to McDonalds! Kathy and Chris were hungry. it was the most insane thing in the world. You're feeling nauseous, the last place you want to see is McD's! Kathy asked me what I wanted, and I just told her I didn't have any American money (which I didn't) but she said, "I'm buying lunch for everybody," and you just don't refuse that from a woman from the East coast. They take extreme offense to any suggestion of inferior hospitality, such as turning down a lunch. And yes, some of you may think I was being over sensitive, but believe me...you do NOT offend an East Coast American woman. You just don't. So I choked down a McChicken burger, and fries (one thing I thought would not make me more sick), but alas, after that, I was a complete loss. I coud not get back to hotel fast enough. I had to throw up, immediately. Thankfully, they took a short cut back to the base, so as soon as we got back to the hotel, i ran inside double time and vomited as soon as I got into my room. I felt so bad. Mom had just gotten her hair done at a salon, and looked lovely lovely and all I could say was, "move move move move!" quite sad. but eventually I made it out of the bathroom, and immediately medicated myself heavily. I love drugs. a lot. I collapsed on the bed in pain, and Mom was like, "No! You have to get up, and get ready! you have twenty minutes! you have to get dressed!" and I was like, "noooooooooooo" but eventually Mom dragged me off the bed and shoved my dress at me, and I was like "glorg" but I got dressed, and put my jewelry on, and my make up. Then medicated myself some more. Then I went out and faked it.
There wasn't any way I could just not go! Mom forced me out the door, and she knew that once out, I would not let anyone see me in that condition. So I had to smile, and be nice, and eat lots of tic tacs. it was so entirely not fair. so I went to the wedding, and I was sooo nauseous in the car going to the chapel. Before everyone got in, I was just hanging out the door dry heaving badly. But I didn't vomit. Congratulations to me. What an accomplishment. Once there, I sat in the pew, and was extremely uncomfortable. There was an honour gaurd of Marines that walked the mothers of the bride and groom up the aisle, and three of them sat next to me. I think I made them feel extremely uncomfortable because I sat there and squirmed the ENTIRE time. and this was a full-blown formal Catholic ceremony so it was not just a wedding, it was a full Catholic Mass, and it was about an hour long. the medication still hadn't kicked in yet, and I was NOT having a good time. But I was paying attention enough to get teary eyed when Buck and Steph exchanged their vows. When he slipped that ring on her finger, you should have seen her smile! Now that was a recipe for instant waterworks! even Lee sobbed a little!
Finally, it was over, and we went outside to wait for the display of swords that Buck and Stephanie would walk under. By that time the meds finally started working a little, and I started noticing things. I got a camera from Mom and snapped dozens of pictures of people, and finally the Marines doing the sword cross. It was so fantastic! They came out in two lines, with David commanding. They turned, took out their swords, and raised them in salute. Buck and Stephanie came out and stood beneath the raised swords. David (it was so funny!) then said, completely deadpan, "Welcome to the core, Mrs. Mattson," and whacked her on the butt with his sword!!! I laughed so hard!! I loved the whole display. It was so picturesque...so then, we all piled into cars, and went to the reception hall which, like I said earlier, was to be held at the O Club at Fort Belvoir. By then, kitchen staff had finished all the stuff that we hadn't done, like set the tables, and everything, so we all found our places, and signed the guest book. And I ended up being somewhat of a tour guide because I had been there before, and no one else had! So I led my entire elevator to where the reception was, and I even garnered an introduction out of it! woo-hoo! There were hors d'vours to start, and we all wandered around for cocktail hour. We really didn't know anybody, so Mom and I went out on the deck so she could have a smoke. Out there, this lovely old woman named Betsy from outside Tampa, Florida came up to us cause she'd heard that Mom was the mother of the groom, and struck up a conversation. I could sense Mom getting a little shy once the general hi-how-are-yous were out, so I just leapt into the conversation with some retarded comment about the county she lived in. I don't even know if it was correct information or not, because I'd gotten it out of a book that was set in Florida! But it did the trick, and got the ball rolling quite nicely, and before long, Mom and Betsy were chatting like long lost friends! I was quite proud of myself, and excused myself discreetly to find my way to a Shirley Temple.
At that point, Buck and Stephanie came in, and the reception began in earnest, starting with dinner. It was a four course meal, respectively, starting with salad (which I didn't touch), then meats and cheeses (which I also had none of), then the main course which consisted of one medium done filet mignon, two crab cakes accented with shrimp, steamed broccoli, and garlic mashed potatoes. Finally, there was desert, which was, of course, the wedding cake, which was five teirs, and five flavors. I got lemon. Out of the entire meal I ate one bite of the filet mignon, four bites of the potatoes, and one strip of broccoli. And one bite of wedding cake. And four Shirley Temples. I was still heavily medicated, but also still queasy.
After dinner, the most fantastic thing happened! The DJ, who was a twenty-nine to thirty-four year old white male, and not bad looking offered something to the wedding guests. He came on the mic, and said, "I have over 100, 000 songs in my database, so if you have a request, something you'd particularly like to listen to, come on up, I'll probably have it." Well, at this point, I was so heavily medicated that I just soared right up there; I was more than a bit "happy". I went up there and asked if he had Rufus. And he said, "yes, what song?" and I asked for 'Instant Pleasure'. He asked me if I was related to the newlyweds, and I said, "yes, I'm Buck's sister." Now that I look back on it, I suppose it was a bit of a come on on my part, because as soon as he mentioned the request thing on the mic, I got up, and stalked him down. When he saw me coming he had given me a big smile, and I gave him a big smile right back, and his grin became even wider. Now what I had intended to say with that smile was simply, "yeah you gave me a challenge, I'm gonna take it," but I think what he may have gotten was, "you're interesting." And when I requested 'Instant Pleasure'...well come on, he knows the song, and what it's about. It's only a small leap of concepts! I mean, hey, all guys live in hope. And this one was one of the worst, as you'll find out soon! Anyways, having made my request, I make my way back to my seat, and twenty seconds later, he comes on the mic, and looks at my brother at the head table and says, "she wants Liberachi, I don't know!" and we all laughed. Then, maybe five minutes later, Mom and I head over to the bar for some drinks, and the guy comes steaming up behind me, puts his arm around me, and says, "So, does Buck's sister have a name?" and I smiled and said, "Alleah." And he's like, "And is Buck's sister over twenty-one?"
!!!
Well, me and Mom just burst into laughter, and I was like, "no!" and he just went, "oh." and just zooms right back to his control panel! We laughed hysterically about it all the way to the bar, and then out into the restroom. I swear, if he had known I was sixteen, he would have shit a brick!!!! that memory still makes me feel real good about myself! *grin* *girlish laughter* I felt bad for him after that though, cause after that, he just kind of sat there fiddling with his computer screens, not saying much.
then they started doing a bunch of special dances for the father and bride, and the mother and groom, couples in love, and the requisite couples who'd been married the longest dance. That was quite amusing to watch. Then came the speeches. Oh...the speeches. First came OJ, and Donna who got all teary-eyed at speaking at her daughter's wedding. Then Ucre, who was Buck's best man. His speech just made me turn into Niagra Falls. He spoke about how Buck, and my Grampa were always said to look so much alike. Then he told this story about how he once asked Grampa when he knew that Gramma was The One. And Ucre said, Grampa thought about it real hard, then finally got this ear-to-ear mischeivous grin on his face, and said--he just knew. The Ucre went on to say that a couple months ago, he got the opportunity to ask Buck the same question. And Buck thought about it real hard, and got this ear-to-ear mischeivous grin on his face, and said--he just knew. It was such a beautiful speech! Me and Michelle were crying so hard by the time he was done. We were just weeping horribly. It was so sad. Then finally all the dancing started! For quite a while my table didn't really dance very much. I did more wandering than dancing really. But then I went and sat beside Ucre. Buck, and Ucre both were trying to get me to ask David to dance, and I was like, no, no! He's tall! But finally, he just did it for me, cause we started talking again at the table, and he asked me to dance! success! so we danced, and he was taaaaaalll. But it wasn't unpleasant. However, as we were dancing, he let it fly that he didn't like dancing to all this old stuff, and I was like, ??? huh? I looked at him, and I was like, "you don't like Frank?" cause it was a Sinatra song we were dancing to. and he says, "no not really." and I was at a loss. "the Beatles?" I asked. I got a sneer and a head shaking. I was totally flabbergasted. How can anybody who has any depth to them not like the Beatles??? place a minus on the chart. Demerit! but then he regained some credibility, because I suggested, "Led Zeppelin?" and he said, "yeah, I respect their stuff" so it was somewhat of a lesser evil. Respect can blossom into enjoyment, right? But I think he was just as flabbergasted by my obviously uncommon love for oldies. He asked me, "is this something all you Canadian high schoolers do up there, listen to old music?" and I was like, "yep!" *big grin* boo-yeah, Theatre People!
Finally, it was time for the bouquet toss! Of course, I went out there. And when she threw it, I wasn't expecting it, so I missed my chance to actually catch it, and besides, all the flowers were just falling out of it. But it landed at my feet, and before any of the other girls could think to grab it, I reached down and snatched it off the ground! I don't know how slick that was, but I got it! That counts right? :)
Anyways, so for the rest of the night, I wandered around with Michelle, and danced with my brothers, and talked with Mom. We had a few snaps taken by Stephanie's family. It was all in all a quite enjoyable night, I say.
Afterwards, we finally made it back to Quantico Base after getting totally lost in Fort Belvoir. Back in the hotel, after saying goodnight to Auntie Barb, and Michelle (was was half snapped), Mom and I went in search of laundry soap to do a load in the hotel laundry. But the front desk was all sold out, unfortunately. In the lobby, we saw David who was apparently waiting for Ucre. I said goodbye to him, and went back to my room. No heartwrenching parting scenes, so I suppose the feelings didn't run too deep at that point. But I say, I wouldn't disagree to seeing him again...

on the road again...

the next morning we had to leave to catch our flight at BWI. We missed the brunch Steph's parents threw to wind up the festivities, but it was ok. I was all partied out by that point anyway. I thoroughly missed my dogs. So I woke up at a ridiculous time, and we all checked out of the hotel. Ucre, and Lee, and Deon had to leave the same day, so we all drove there together. It was insanely early, so I just snoozed in the back seat on Mom's lap. We finally got to the rental car place, and returned the van. *sob* I had to drag about four huge bags back to the airport shuttle bus. I was laden down like a pack mule, I tell you! But nobody cared. meh. Anyway, we got on the bus, and then into the airport, and checked in for our flight. Mom set off the security thing as she went through it, but it turned out to be because of the hairpins that she'd left in her hair. So we travelled on. We went and sat at our gate for the hour and a half or so left before our flight. I was supremely stiff, so I sat on the floor, and did some dance stretches, which felt really really good. I was sitting there on the floor, spread eagled as far as I go, stretching my lower back, while fixing up my coffee, when this random guy walked by, and was like, "nice stretch!" I was like, "oh...ok, thanks." finally we boarded our flight which was actually to Pheonix, Arizona! just a little out of the way! Most of the trip there was cloudy so we couldn't see any of Illinois, or Kansas or anywhere else we flew over. And besides, Sherayna was in the window seat, so there was nothing I could do. However, I managed to snaffle it just in time for the descent, and landing into Pheonix. so I got a first rate view of--dirt! red dirt no less. NO vegetation, except for a few palms that they imported, and somehow teased into growing. it was crazy. I'm a West Coast baby. Temperate Rainforest! I'm not used to no greenery! Anyway, it was a lovely 102 degrees on the ground. Mom and Sherayna were dying, but I just basked. I absolutely adored it. However, there is no way in God's not-so-green earth that I could ever live in a place like that, where the only colour is blue and red. Sky and dirt. And kick in some gray for pavement. Yucky.
The flight from there to Sea-Tac was totally interesting though! No clouds whatsoever the whole way from ten minutes out of Pheonix all the way to Seattle. We saw the Grand Canyon from twenty five thousand feet! It was so fantastic! It started as this tiny (relatively) crack that just grew and grew, and the pilot announced over the PA that we were looking at the Grand Canyon. eventually it started getting wider, and deeper, and then it branched out miles and miles perpendicular to our flight path! and finally we flew right up a tapering arm of it. It was so fantastic! The rest of the flight was boring and flat. You could see west for miles and miles and miles, but it was all so boring! There were huge salt deposits in the ground that you could see, and I briefly entertained the notion of the polar caps melting, sending a gigantic tidal wave eastern over all that flat land to fill up the Grand Canyon, but eventually I decided that it was probably physically impossible for a tsunami to reach past the SoCal mountains, or for a western bound tsunami to make it that far across the continent, let alone let enough flow in the fill up the Grand Canyon. Still it would be interesting to travel 1000 years ahead in time, and see if there is a Grand Canyon Lake on North America...
yes I realize I am a hopeless nerd.
anyways, we went over Nevada, and probably Las Vegas as well, but if we did, nobody pointed it out. The terrain only started to get some shape and some altitude to it well after we'd entered Washington state airspace. As we came up of Seattle (around twenty minutes out) we started seeing mountains. First we saw Mt. Adam. Then came poor Mt. St. Helen's, hunched over like a bitter old woman, still feeling the pain of her wounds, 24 years after the fact. Spirit Lake is of course gone, but if it had been there, we would have seen it. And we went right past her proud strong brother, Mt. Rainier. I've always been jealous of Mt. Rainier for Mt. St. Helen's. You know, "why wasn't it him, and not me?" kind of thing even though I'm...not a mountain. *blush* But still I feel for her. My mom used to have this beautifiul painting of Mt. St. Helen's before the eruption that hung in our dining room before our house burned down. I always loved that painting. I wanted to inherit it as well as Auntie Pat's painting of the lake that hangs in Gramma and Grampa's dining room. But the fire put an end to that notion.
Anyway, we finally arrived in Sea-Tac, and Grampa was waiting for us, right at the gate! We walked down to Baggage with him, and I viewed that airport with a jaded eye after spending sxteen hours there getting aqcuainted with the place. We found our baggage, no problem, and loaded them up in Grampa's car. However, you might think that that was the end of our trip, but no. We arrived at five after five PM, and we still had seven or eight hours non stop travelling ahead of us. However it didn't end up being eight hours, because we drove to Grampa's house to sleep after the ferry, instead of going straight home to Nanaimo.So we started off on the I5 up north, and me and Sherayna just hung out, jetlagged from gaining three hours, while Mom and Grampa talked and talked in the front seats. We stopped once to get gas at somewhere around fifty cents a litre. Ridiculously cheap American gas. Then again before we crossed the border at a rest stop with an enormous tree that was so big it had the bottom cut out of most of it, and a car could drive through! It was very cool. Then we got back in the car, and drove until we hit the border, which took us roughly an hour and about forty five minutes to get through. It was so ridiculously gridlocked, that Mom and I were able to get out of the car in the middle of traffic, stroll over to the lawn, and walk all the way up, and through the Peace Arch itself. It says all sorts of patriotic, and brotherly things on it, such as Brethren living together under God, and May these Gates Never Be Closed. then we crossed the road to the other side, the Canada side, to the little water garden we made there. There were canna lilies, and this little hut made of six different kinds of tree bark to symbolize Canada's diversity. Mom was just plum tickled with that. Finally we got back in the car and waited and waited and waited and waited to go through customs. It was entirely stupid. Finally we got through, and back into Canada! land of beavers, and toonies, and Timmy Hoe's and my home. *sigh* anyway enough with the patriotism, life still sucks, Canada, or America.
We sped our way through Surrey and Tsawassen, and just missed the nine'o'clock ferry to Schwartz Bay. So we decided to grab a bite at the terminal commisary. It was the first real appetite I'd had in three days! I ate chili, and chocolate milk, and Coke, and it all tasted better than anything I'd had in the States. not cause I'm predjudiced. cause it was really really yummy, and I hadn't even been able to look at people chowing down at Burger King in America without feeling ill. The sight literally made me sick to my stomach. How can anybody eat that crap day after day after day? I'd starve! salad for me, thanks.
once on the ferry when it arrived, I immediately fell asleep in a horribly uncomfortable position on that old old forty-year-old ferry that smells like pee, the Queen of Saanich. (yes, spelt with two a's.) i was so exhausted. next thing knew, Mom was waking me up to get up, and go down and get into the car. So I stumbled along behind everybody else, and once in the car decided my purse was now commisioned as a pillow. And it lived under my head for another good two hours to Grampa's house where Mom again had to beat me into waking up, getting up, and moving my sorry ass into a real live bed. Once I did, though...didn't stir until nine, ten'o'clock the next morning, when Mom poked me into waking up, and having a cold peice of chicken for breakfast. I found my coffee, and stumbled my way out the door to where Mom and Grampa were. While they looked at flowers, and talked about plants, I collapsed on his back lawn and slept for another good half an hour. Finally Mom rousted me into getting up and getting ready to leave. She kept saying, "We're going home, you gotta get up, and get live." and I kept thinking, "what are you talking about? this is the island! I AM home!"
so we embarked on the last leg of our trip, the two hour drive home to Nanaimo, and dogs, and Hecate Street, and Brianna, and Laura, and ocean, and trees, and all that good stuff. very uneventful, very vindicating to get home to our estatic dogs and unfortunately ill children (they've all got colds. great).
but that was my trip. thanks for reading, and come see us here at Pinto is Fun Bloglines for all your vacation story needs. Welcome to Sleepsville.