wedding whirlwind #2

[ursamajor]

saturday: finish packing. pick up bagel at bruegger's for breakfast. catch bus to noghri's. pack stuff into car, drive to fes42's and stranger78's. caravan time! moxy fruvous on the ipod. the masspike speeds by, the familiar counting-down of the exits, then onto 84 and across the connecticut border.

drive drive drive. switch to the a cappella playlist. drive drive drive, drive drive SCREEE. stop. inch forward. stop. inch forward. stop. stop. mrieser calls apparently drunk dials us at a quarter past ten in the morning, still intoxicated from the bachelor party the night previous, to tell us the water at the hotel we were planning to stay at with uncancelable reservations has undrinkable water. noghri says, "betcha he calls fes42 next." inch forward. stop. debate turning off car. debate doing a dual-car chinese fire drill. phone rings, it's fes42. of course mrieser called her to warn her about the water, too. bored. fes42 starts making little bunny foo foo motions. stranger78 plays the straight man. noghri and i start imitating them in the mirror - when fes42 pats stranger78 on the head strokes stranger78's hair, noghri does the same to me. at some point, he starts doing a variation on the hand motions for waddle-ee-a-cha (please to forgive, i have no bloody clue how that's spelled) and that just sets me off into a round of camp songs with appropriate hand motions. turn around, and the people in the car behind us are staring at us, horrified. inch forward, giggling. fes42 sticks her head out the window and screams. ah! there is a break in the traffic ahead! inch forward. drive over sand absorbing an apparent fuel spill. slowly start to pick up speed. laugh as the car that was stuck behind us throughout the traffic jam ZOOMS ahead and to the left to get away from the crazy freaks caravan. drive drive drive, hit hartford. spy asylum ave exit sign and giggle because hey, belladonna used to live on asylum ave, didn't she? drive, singing along with various a cappella songs the rest of the way through connecticut.

cross into new york, onto 684, still singing, and now the highway changes come a bit faster: 684-287 , across the tappan zee, looking south towards the city and musing and reminiscing and wondering. giggle over the "sprain parkway," having already laughed about "tolland, connecticut" (land of tolls, eh, they got that one right!). new jersey, and the town names. "mahwah is what bwings us together today; mewwidge is what bwings us together tomahwah!" ramsey and kinchley's, where i discover that fes42 wasn't kidding - damn good pizza, and i end up devouring SEVEN SLICES. THE HECK. remember marc ... oh, lordy, what's his last name? little skinny marc in fourth grade, talking about eating pizza "new york style," (no, he didn't say "new yawk style." *ggl*) and eat two slices of cheese, "new yawk style." wonder idly whatever happened to the rest of your bpc classmates. anyway, it was pizza like i'd never had it before - the pie-bit was so thin and crispy, it was almost like crackers, kind of. anywho, meeting up with old friends of fes42, and a good thing, because not long after we got to the restaurant, mrcoat calls and asks for directions help, because somehow, girlslopex made a wrong turn and ended up driving by herself IN MANHATTAN. now, i'm not overly familiar with manhattan geography, but when i overheard the words "SHE JUST WENT THROUGH THE HOLLAND TUNNEL?!", i knew that was an issue; luckily we had a bunch of native new yorkers and jersey girls (and guy!) to be able to direct her safely out and back to the highway.

after lunch, we get back on the highway ourselves, and the town names fly by as we speed down 287: ramapo, wanaque, pequannock, morristown and madison, cross 78, bridgewater and off the highway to 202 (OOH LOOK A WEGMANS); somerville, branchburg, a long long stretch of corporate campuses, and then raritan and flemington and look! the ramada! it has a pool, let's get in the pool. it looks kind-of under construction, but oh well, it's just the one night. go in; present names for our reservation. "yes, you have a reservation. but we're out of rooms."

stop. repeat, because we have two separate reservations for what will eventually be six of us, total. stranger78 and i leave fes42 and noghri at the counter to deal with officially trying to get rooms somewhere in new jersey while we call around the wedding party to find out if people have spaces - i call slwands; he has an extra space, but that's still five without. go back in, and we've got the last rooms around at the days inn "ten minutes north." feeling quite sorry for the very-screwed family behind us, we putter back out to the parking lot, encounter gary and maria, and tell them to join the caravan! caravan. pass signs for "jersey corn" and "jersey asparagus" and "jersey berries" and make crude jokes. keep driving. "uh, it's been ten minutes." keep driving. start wondering if we missed the turnoff. keep driving. keep driving. keep driving *growl*. finally see the turnoff for 22 and realize we're right back to 287 and bridgewater. make the turnoff, spy a liquor store, tempted to turn in and buy but realize that based on what had just happened 20 minutes ago to our supposedly "uncancellable" reservations, we'd better get to the hotel first and make sure we actually had a place to stay. drive. pass auto row. drive. pass auto row, part 2. spy the days inn and cheer! pull in. try to check in, whereupon they tell us that for every person in the room beyond 2 it's an extra charge. we ain't havin' that bullshit, because now instead of being 20 minutes away from the wedding events, we are now 45 minutes away, and we've already spent over seven hours on the road today, and haggle the room rate back down.

check in. collapse. send fes42, stranger78 and andrewbree out on a booze run. relax, chat up gary and maria, learn about cool technology that lets you pump 8-64x as much data through a given type of wiring due to sending information along wavelengths of different colors. spiffy. BOOZE. girlydrinkboozeyay! a smirnoff's apple for me, framboise for fes42, and "real beer" for everyone else. mrieser calls to try to persuade us to drive on down to chill with people and we're all FUCK NO WAY IN HELL are we getting back on the road tonight, plus the drivers are already mildly intoxicated. drink more. play apples to apples (which i eventually win - by putting "castles" on handsome for maria, "microsoft" on unprincipled for steve, and i forget what the third was, but it was another pretty good one, too. :) ). we're all pleasantly toasted by now, and getting hungry, so we evaluate our eating options, and decide the diner across the highway is our best bet. however, no crosswalks for miles, so we look for a break in the traffic, and in the dusk with oncoming highlights, someone shouts "GO!" and we all sprint for it. YAY DINER FOOD. (fried potatoes and eggs, nice runny yolk for me, and a chocolate egg cream.) fran buys the biggest, most chocolateychipfilled cookie ever, and then we sprint back across the highway to go drink some more. hee. start in on poker, have a couple of good rounds, a few not-so-good rounds, and then eventually find myself with a K-Q-J-10-9 straight and andrewbree betting 500 to force me all-in. "i'm going to regret this," i mutter, "you probably have an ace-high straight." stranger78 raises on andrewbree to start a side pot, which just serves to confuse everyone. but then it's time to show hands, and andrewbree has a pair of fives. :D i had a good night gaming!

and then mrieser pulls in with bryghtrose and dharmafool, round of hellos, but we're all tired and mrieser and dharmafool have a 45 minute drive back, and gary and maria have an hour plus drive back, and now that we have a 45 minute drive to breakfast the next morning? it's bedtime. and we only made it through 16/36 bottles of beer! we're getting old, sigh. so, bedready. hop in. can't sleep right away, and then someone *cough* starts snoring. luckily, i remembered this when i was packing. unluckily, i didn't remember this before i got into bed, so i had to pull my bags out into the bathroom and root around them for the pair of earplugs that i'd brought to account for this eventuality. but i did eventually find them, and then yay sleep collapse zzz.

sunday: wake up at 7 am to start the round of showers. repack. realize that we probably could've gotten away with getting up at 7:30 am when we're sitting around at 8:20, going, "okay, we're mad early." check out, drive. quick stop at wegman's to pick up sunscreen and stuff (and gawk over cheap cereal). drive. pass the ramada and flip it off. follow google map directions and get slightly lost, follow instincts and get found again. ringoes! in which we make silly jokes about the beatles. and then we get to the farmhouse and the breakfast and OMG BREAKFAST. omelet bar! belgian waffles piled high with whipped cream and fresh berries. an elemmire7 with an awesome necklace and pretty dress; a bowtie-decorated fractalspackle. a slwands and a doug (who then go to doug's house to mow the lawn for the afternoon until the wedding(!)). catching up with amhersty peoples. doing memerath's hair, which held up quite well if i do say so myself. (how come it is that i can do awesome stuff with other peoples' hair but not my own?)

back in the car, but then we realize, crap, where'd andrewbree go? commence search for andrewbree, finally discover he'd gotten into john's minivan. drive drive to new hope and the wedgwood inn (like, seriously, the entire parlor was decorated with wedgwood). chill with people, play cribbage with tom (i don't know if this was rochester minister tom? it was not em's brother tom). get dressed in girlslopex and mrcoat's room. have bra crisis. have shoe crisis. get back in car, drive to holly hedge. gratefully pick up water bottles on ice; stake out seats for slwands, doug and myself on the bride's side (right!) while everyone else i know sits on the groom's side (left!). minutes tick by. seats start filling up. wonder where scott and doug are. 3:45; 3:50; 3:51, 3:52, 3:53 ... boys, where are you? car screeches up at 3:54; they'd had to go get fans for the wedding party. chuckle as i notice the glasses of gatorade up by the altar.

wedding piccies. i took so many pictures of the ceremony that i ran out of battery by the time the reception rolled around. the ceremony itself was so perfectly emandben, combining jewish and episcopalian heritage with unitarian beliefs and scholarly footnotes. (two american religions scholars getting married. hee.) a minister and a rabbi; episcopalian vows and a ketubah; the updating of the kiddushin to reflect true partnering (instead of the bride circling the groom seven times, em circled ben three times, then ben circled em three times, and then they both circled each other one last time to make the proper seven). stomping on the glass together. and through it all, they glowed. ne'er a doubt, fully aware of the commitment they were making and joyously solemn throughout. god made the world in six days, rested for one, and ever since then, has been yentl - making matches. and though i admit i've become slightly more worldly and jaded over the years about finding one's soulmate and finding the one, watching ben and emily, it's easy to see - they've found their beshert. may i be that lucky!



also, i would so go to services with that rabbi. heck, i might still be a catholic today had the good monsignors been as engaging as the rabbi. *ggl* very sensible and down-to-earth, liberal, cheerful, hearty. LOVED the rabbi. perfect complement to the services. here, have a look:



so. yes. wedding. cocktail hour with YUMMY little finger foody bits. drink! run around and socialize like crazy. move to reception hall. take picture of elichten and noghri because they both ended up wearing the same tie. (star wars, natch. geeks. *ggl*) run out of batteries, oh noes! borrow memerath's camera. then she wants it back. mrieser presses his camera into my hands and says, "here, you take." lots of lovely toasts to the bride and groom. eat fresh greens salad with creamy balsamic dressing, chevre, strawberries. chat up chris and doug, mrcoat and girlslopex, bryghtrose. dinner! devour dinner. run around and socialize like crazy, saying the quickest of hellos in passing to bridesmaids mamdvany memerath wwfan mel and chris. suddenly time to go, it's 8:30! run around and grab pictures with everyone as much as possible; shoe crisis part 2 that results in me handing girlslopex's shoes back to mrcoat and hauling ass barefoot across the grounds of holly hedge, warm slate and the quickslap of my feet against it.

and then drive drive drive, flip the ramada off again as we speed by it, PA-NJ-NY-CT-NY-CT-MA, 202-287-tappan zee-684-84, caravanning into connecticut and through the night, awake the entire time except for a nap between danbury and west hartford; drive drive drive, 84 to the mass pike to 95 to 2 to home around 2:30 and collapsing into bed and dear gott, what a weekend.

so, highlights:
- harmonizing to noghri's a cappella mix through connecticut
- devouring seven slices of pizza for lunch at kinchley's
- boozing it up in a random hotel room in suburban new jersey
- chocolate egg cream!
- winning both apples to apples and poker
- delicious breakfast
- doing memerath's hair
- wonderful, personal wedding ceremony
- seeing faraway friends, even if only for mere moments
- the night-drive peace after the craziness of the previous 36 hours

Comments

[memerath.livejournal.com]

That photo rules.

[ursamajor]

doesn't it? :D

[elemmire7.livejournal.com]

I just laughed for about 5 minutes looking at Simcha's face. :-) Glad you got such a kick out of our rabbi.

[ursamajor]

*grin* he kicked ass.

[belladonna.livejournal.com]

1. Yes I used to live on Asylum :) I'm actually not far from where I used to live, though, so it sorta still applies. :)
2. There are no tolls in CT.
3. Watch the disparaging remarks about NJ *growls playfully* :P

[ursamajor]

1. hee, on leave from the asylum? ;)
2. hrm. i assumed there must be, but now that i think about it, you're right; noghri has ezpass, but fes42 doesn't, so we had to slow down for her to get tickets/pay tolls.
3. hey, we had a real authentic jersey girl with us, i knew better than to try to blame anything on jersey! except the pizza. :D

[belladonna.livejournal.com]

There haven't been tolls in CT for years ... going the way you did you shouldn't have hit a toll until after the bridge, if you took the parkway. Pascack Valley, I think.

[fes42.livejournal.com]

Ey, you're in Jersey! You got a problem wit dat?!?

[fes42.livejournal.com]

For the record: I was not patting stranger78 on the head like good little dog. I was stroking the back of his head where his hair is nice and short and it feels good! It's a typical roadtrip thing I do when I am bored and want to bug him a bit.

[ursamajor]

*ggl* oops, i didn't mean it like that. it was just very cute and couply and adorable, and we were bored and entertaining ourselves mimicking you guys. :)

[xphile101.livejournal.com]

play apples to apples (which i eventually win - by putting "castles" on handsome for maria, "microsoft" on unprincipled for steve, and i forget what the third was, but it was another pretty good one, too. :) ).

It wasn't "visionary" on Helen Keller, was it? That's always a crowd pleaser.

[ursamajor]

hee! no, it started with an i, that's all i remember.

[luminaepona.livejournal.com]

Little Bunny Foo-Foo is absolutely positively an integral part of any self-respecting road trip!

glad to hear a busy but good time was had by all.

[ursamajor]

hee, as should be camp songs in general!

[dharmafool.livejournal.com]

I like your pics... I was not aware that you took so many!

[ursamajor]

thank you! *ggl* nor was i! i just kept clicking ... and clicking ... and then worrying, wait, what if that didn't come out, better take a backup. looking back at past pictures i've taken, i'm best at outdoor day pics with my camera, too, so i have a feeling this was part of how i ended up taking almost 100 shots of the ceremony alone.

and the sad thing is, i had room on my card for another 200+; i just both ran out of batteries (proprietary battery type meant i couldn't borrow batteries off mrieser who kindly offered) and time.

[fes42.livejournal.com]

A nikon 885, yes I can tell from the body you were carrying around, does take a Li battery that is sold almost everywhere. Buy a 2CR5 and carry it in your case as a back up. Nikon never leaves their users without a battery option.