cindy's world

One of my favorite bumper stickers on my Bumper Sticker application is a black square that has this text flashing through it, line after line:

“When I play ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’, I always choose Rock.
Then, when someone claims they’ve beaten me with their Paper
I punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say something like…
‘Oh shit, I’m sorry, I thought paper would protect you.’
…
OK, I understand that Scissors can beat Paper
and I get how Rock beats Scissors
but there’s no way that Paper can beat Rock!
Paper is supposed to magically ‘wrap around’ Rock leaving it immobile?
Then, why the hell can’t Paper do this to Scissors?
In fact. Screw Scissors!!
Why can’t Paper do this to people?
Why aren’t sheets of college-ruled notebook paper constantly suffocating students as they attempt to take notes in class?
I’ll tell you why!
It’s because Paper can’t beat anybody!
A rock would tear that shit up in about 2 seconds!”

Ah, logic after mine own heart…

Last night, I sat on the couch in our living room, my husband on an adjacent couch, and watched history being made. It was also a special evening for another reason. Daughter had called me a few hours before the polls closed and asked if it was all right if she came over and stayed overnight with us, since she has a late start for school the next morning and her first class wouldn’t start until 9am. It would be the first time she stayed overnight with us. Her life at home with her mom and half-brother has been getting increasingly hectic so it was nice that she could come to us for some peace. She’s talking of getting a part-time job near us and staying with us on nights she works, so we will hopefully see a lot more of her.

Daughter was in the shower when John McCain gave his extraordinarily gracious concession speech, talking of new president elect Barack Obama’s acquisition of his respect, how our democracy has performed its function in the election and he hears the will of the people spoken loudly and clearly (Obama winning more than 2 to 1 in electoral votes), and how despite their differences in opinion, McCain has, in his congratulatory phone call to Obama, offered Obama his support and help in running this country as “my president.” He urged his supporters to join together as Americans to heal and strengthen our country under the guidance of the upcoming 44th president of the United States. Daughter was still in the shower when Barack Obama gave his “yes we can” speech full of optimism and hope and faith that we will overcome our present two wars, the worst economic condition in 100 years, and severed international relations, and we will rise again and be great as a united people. He promised to be honest with us and to always listen to us, “especially when we disagree.” He outlined all the major healing to be done, warned us the uphill battle is steep, and it may take more than a year, even more than one term, to turn this country around, but that change IS at hand, and anything is possible, and “yes we can.” And then daughter came down and sat with us as we all watched and discussed the Proposition results as they started rolling in. So far, without all precincts reporting, Prop 8 is ahead. Daughter had just gone through a school-wide mock election of their own (letting high school students vote on the same issues on our ballot) and she had been in support of Proposition 8, but seemed to understand my perspective on it when I explained the “banana ban” analogy to her. And then later, she cheerily hugged us goodnight and went upstairs to bed.

So some candid thoughts on this stuff, since I threw PC out the window in my last post anyway. I want to nakedly record my memories about this election that lead to this point. Don’t read on if you’re so political that you’re gonna get offended.

I’ve been disappointed and ashamed of the immaturity of a number of McCain supporters.
* A few weeks ago, there was a woman on the news, all beat-up looking with a black eye, who reported to the police that she was at a gas station pumping gas in her car when she was robbed by a stranger. After taking her stuff, he looked at the McCain/Palin sticker on her car and then because of that, alleged beat her up and damaged her car. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin personally called her to check up on her and to give her their sympathies. The implication is that Obama supporters are barbaric and criminal. And then, a week later, investigations find that SHE WAS LYING. She had apparently fallen unconscious at some point and had no idea WHAT happened to give her the bruises, and made up the whole beat-up-at-the-gas-station-by-an-Obama-supporter story. What does this say about McCain people and what they’d stoop to, to create negative publicity for Obama supporters?!
* I heard an interview on the news around the same time period about an older black man who, because he has an Obama/Biden sticker on his car, took extra care to be courteous and polite to people he meets, BECAUSE he doesn’t want to give haters an opportunity to judge him and hence judge Obama’s campaign and character based on his supporters’ behaviors. It’s a sad commentary on what social environment this man felt he lived in, and what he has enough discipline and resolve to overcome starting with one man’s — his own — actions. What does that say about Obama supporters?
* I was DISGUSTED when McCain gave his concession speech last night and as soon as he mentioned Barack Obama’s name, his camp actually BOO-ED. McCain, who’d done his share of mudslinging in his campaigning style, had to put his hands up repeatedly to silence the crowd’s hostility. This is still our next president, people, whether you wanted the other guy to win or not. Oh, and I was really proud of Americans when the polls showed that whenever McCain dealt low-blows during his campaign against Obama, that his popularity actually went DOWN. He’d hurt himself by trying to mudsling the opponent.

I’m nervous about the really high expectations various people have in our next president, and how they may judge him if he doesn’t walk on water adequately enough to people’s demands.
* I work around a lot of black coworkers and the whole way through, they were saying that if Barack Obama doesn’t get elected, it would be because of this country’s racism. I have heard smatterings of promises of riots among malcontent black Americans if the “white guy” wins again. There was a recent exit poll taken under the subtitle of “Who’s REALLY racist?” and it shows that 50% of white men voted for Obama, over 60% of women, over 80% of Hispanic voters, and 96% of black voters voted for Obama. It seems from my own experience also, that many black Americans are the ones who REALLY see color lines today and are supersensitive to perceived prejudice. So I’m thinking that our black votes for Obama did so largely NOT because they truly stand behind his platform and beliefs, but simply because he’s black. They forget he’s also half white. They didn’t see that, as Colin Powell pointed out, Barack Obama ran not as a black man, but as an American. Nothing in Obama’s campaign and nothing in his victory speech last night lauded black power; instead, he mentioned a variety of groups as a unified American whole — “black, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight, disabled, not disabled,” “not red states and blue states.” He talked about the progress reflected in this country’s history, mentioned not only black history but also Lincoln, women’s suffrage, our original founding fathers. So what I’m getting at in a long-winded way, is that I’m afraid the people who voted for him ONLY because he’s African American will expect him to do impossible things for the African American community, and if he doesn’t, or if he looks out for the better interest of the country as a whole (in which black America is still a minority), they will call him a sell-out or Uncle
Tom.
* He harped on “change” as his platform. I hope people aren’t unrealistic about what they expect to happen overnight. The war is not going to go away tomorrow. International differences are not going to settle next week in a magical civil conference. He is still one man who is subject to a government controlled by checks and balances.

Proposition 8’s passing.
* I don’t know what to think about a state that is so progressive it votes a black man into presidencial office by such a large margin, but at the same time is bigoted enough to pass Prop 8 and go backwards in progress.
* College roommie texted me earlier today: “What’s with all the so cal people voting for pro 8? Only bay area and nor cal coast voted against it.” I wish I could’ve voted against it. I hear a large part of its passing is due to the Mormon votes. You know, the people who think it’s okay to have multiple wives. Around me, I see the Christians and Catholics supporting it. How could people think depriving a small group of Americans their basic civil right to marry their loved one is Constitutional? Is that what Jesus would do?! In talking to the adamant supporters of Prop 8, it appears they’re all delusional enough to think that passing Prop 8 is a demonstration of OPEN-MINDEDNESS and ACCEPTANCE. They say the homosexual community is trying to force their agenda down everyone else’s throats and this stops them. WHAAAAAT???

My thoughts and feelings on this presidential win so far.
* I like him. Not because of I’m a Democrat or because he’s a minority figure. I like that he’s calm, educated, hard-working, open-minded, respectable and honorable. I like that he was able to stand against an opposing campaign full of low blows and mudslinging and not stoop to that level. I like that despite the “inconsistencies” the other campaign accused him of having, when you look at the facts, he’s been consistent. He’s always had this Palestinian friend from Harvard. He’s always had his differences with this professor, despite his friendship and respect for him. He’s always voted for Israel despite his friendship with this Palestinian friend. When a big to-do was made about the supposedly scandalous video tape showing his “support for terrorists” at the party of that Palestinian friend, in that tape even THEN he’s shown as saying that he’s sat at the dinner table with this friend and friend’s wife, and that those dinner conversation disagreements have made him aware of his own biases and presumptions, and that he hopes to continue these disagreement conversations for years to come, and that all around the world, people should be having these conversations. I like that he stood by that again in his speech last night, giving us the hope that he will sit down and have these conversations with international disputes, too. It shows a humility and maturity that says, “If we disagree, I could be wrong, and I would like to hear your reasons so that I may see if I should change my position.”
* I don’t expect him to walk on water and create miracles to heal our country. But I am comfortable under his leadership. I’m not scared under his lead. I think I would have been uncomfortable and scared under anyone else. But I trust him and have faith in his future decisions based on what I’ve seen him do thus far. (Plus, if he’s your cookie-cutter politician who cheats on his wife and sells his soul, that surely would’ve surfaced with the McCain campaign run the way it had.)
* It takes a strong man to want to take over our drowning panicking country at this time, when everything seems to be failing us. Countries hate us, we’re self-destructing from the inside-out, we’re in war. This is not a prestigious time when he could just step into a gravy situation and reap its riches. He has to really want to take the reins and make the hard decisions, to be scrutinized and criticized and condemned by our country, to guide us back on course for the greater good at even greater personal sacrifice. Kinda reminds me of our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
* Nevertheless, I am nervous about various Democratic principles that I can’t get behind in my present state. I don’t like giving those who take advantage of the system continuous access to this country’s teats at the hard-working people’s expense. I don’t like having laws about immigration and then not enforcing them. I don’t like paying for people to keep committing illegal acts.

I guess we’ll all see how it goes.

I am SO bitter.

Since we moved recently, Mr. W called the county registrar-recorder last week to see where we’re supposed to vote. Would I be voting in my hometown, where I was previously registered? Or had my changing my address with the Department of Motor Vehicles effectively changed my voting place to our new city? Turned out, I was to vote at neither location. I’m not allowed to participate in this election AT ALL.

Mr. W gave his date of birth and name, and was told he is still registered to vote in his old city, but when they looked me up, they said that because I had not voted the last few years, I was “purged out of the system.” What?! What does that mean?! It means I’ve been involuntarily, automatically un-registered. Well, how do we reverse that so that I could vote?, Mr. W asked them. It’s too late. “She won’t be voting in this election,” they told him.

When he called me at work last week to tell me this, I was dumbfounded. “You didn’t vote the last few years?” he asked me.
“Why would I vote the last few years? There was no presidential election!”

I can not believe that I am alive during this amazing ground-breaking pivotal election, which will be recorded in the history books forever as the first presidential race in which a black man AND a woman were the front runners for the Democratic party, and a black man is the Democratic candidate, and a woman is the Republican vice presidency candidate, Barack Obama is taking the country by storm (especially in my home state of California) not because he’s black, but because (and I truly believe this) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream has finally solidified into reality and this educated innovative respectable man, who just happens to be black, is being judged and taken seriously by this country based on the content of his character, and not by the color of his skin. I am economically conservative, but I cheer the progress of this country on in its ability and eagerness to accept and WANT Barack Obama as its leader.

Sure, there are bigots. Sure, there are racists spewing blood and chanting bloody murder right now, but they are the minority. I think in LARGE part, this country has become pretty colorblind. But speaking of small-minded idiots, I also REALLY wanted to participate in this election to vote NO on Proposition 8, which bans gay marriages. Our town, it turns out, is tightly conservative. For weeks on end, people have stood on street corners during rush hours holding “Vote YES on Prop 8” signs. “Prop 8 for Religious Freedom.” “Proposition 8 Supports Families.” They have TICKED ME OFF beyond reason. All the cars honking their support driving by these sign holders, lots of whom have pulled their young CHILDREN out of school to wave these signs with their prejudiced parents on corners, have caused me to rave at least 3 minutes straight every time we drive by them on the way to and from work. Most of these people, come to find out, were volunteers from a very large local church. Mr. W one day offered, “Do you want me to print out some signs for you that you can post up?”
“YEAH, how about BIGOTRY IS UNGODLY?”
Cuz here’s my view on it. Who the hell are YOU to judge what other people do with their lives? Who are YOU to say you get to dictate what’s right for everyone else? That’s like saying, “I don’t like bananas. I don’t eat bananas. And because of that, I’m going to pass a law that NOBODY gets to eat bananas anymore, either. A ban on bananas!” What the hell. Maybe some people only HAVE bananas to eat. Maybe some people LIKE bananas. Maybe some people are allergic to apples. If you don’t like bananas, DON’T EAT THEM. That’s it. There was a floater who came by my courtroom the other week and decided to sit down, make herself at home, and spew all sorts of one-sided uninformed garbage at my courtroom assistant, and one of the things she raved about was supporting Proposition 8. “If that’s what you choose to do [be in a same-sex relationship], that’s what you choose to do, but don’t try to change the Constitution to say it’s correct. It isn’t.” That’s an exact quote cuz I wrote it down immediately. She also insists that Prop 8 doesn’t ban gay marriage, it just doesn’t allow the Constitution to change the definition of “marriage” as “being between a man and a woman.” “They can still get married or whatever they do,” she said. She’s WRONG. Even Prop 8’s own radio ads say that it “eliminates right of same-sex couples to marry.” And to same-sex couples, a “commitment ceremony” not legally recognized by the state is NOT the same thing as getting married. And what are they gonna micromanage next? Are they gonna say that they don’t want different races to intermarry? That only people within 5 years of each others’ ages will be allowed to marry? What the hell does someone else’s same-sex marriage have to do with Prop 8 people? As for the supposed child impact about how same-sex marriage destroys family units, what proof is there that same-sex couples are unable to provide the same nourishing, loving home environment for children? What makes parents flawless just because they’re dual-gender? Do they think that if a lesbian couple raises a boy that he will have zero access to other men in the world and hence will miss out on influence of adult men? PLEASE. And mandatory school teaching about same-sex marriages? WHOT the FOCK? I’ve asked everybody and nobody was taught marriage in school that I’ve talked to. And if a child in a classroom asks a teacher about same-sex marriages, that teacher SHOULD be able to explain, without being lynched by religious paranoid parents, that some people emotionally lean toward and fall in love with people of their own gender. It’s a REALITY. It HAPPENS. It has ALWAYS happened throughout history. It happens in BONOBOS MONKEYS, our closest primates. Sticking your heads in the sand and trying to force your own kids’ heads in the sand does not change the fact that the world is made up of DIFFERENT PEOPLE.

Because this post has gone on for way longer than I thought, I’m gonna not touch on any other issues. That, and I feel a little better now. But I am still EXCEEDINGLY SALTY that in the future when some kid, maybe even my own kid, asks me how I voted in that one historical election where [the first black man became president] or [the first woman became president cuz she was the first female vice president when the man who did win presidency died of old age] and they tried to do away with fundamental civil rights to marry, I’d have to say, “I didn’t vote.”

I sat here after work watching Mr. W vote.

My Canadian cousin Mark text messaged me right then, “Did you vote?” (The world’s watching us.) I had to tell him the same thing I told the two volunteers giving out “I voted!” stickers when they offered me a sticker asking the same question. “I didn’t vote.” The volunteers actually physically drew away from me and their “Ohh” involuntarily carried a scornful/disgusted tone as they looked at me being unAmerican.

Now I know how my 10-year-old godson Evan feels every year his mother, Gym Trainee, takes him with her to vote. He’s been ranting for years about how age-discriminatory it is that children are not allowed to vote. Each year as he stands in the waiting area watching grownups vote, waiting for his mother and grandmother, he sulks. One year he tried to follow his mom into the voting booth. She told him to stay in the designated waiting area, he was not allowed to follow her in. “But you can’t HEAR my opinions from THERE!” he’d complained.

We’ll both be sulking this year, Evan.

My dad frequently chats with his Canadian brothers via Skype, and received news about a month ago that my cousin Norman in Canada is engaged and would be married some time next year. This created quite a buzz of excitement among me and my Californian cousins, and we talked casually about a triple-date trip to Canada to attend the wedding. If this wedding occurs late enough in the year, my cousin Jennifer would be a newlywed also, so it’d be me and Mr. W, my newlywed cousin Diana and her husband Doug, and her sister Jennifer and her then-husband Brad. We could make a stopover at a bed-and-breakfast at the Niagara Peninsula, too. The “grownups” (our parental generation) in California are all abuzz with the news, too. My aunt (Diana and Jennifer’s mom) even received some recent photos of my cousin via email and pointed out the girl to us, saying “This is the fiancé!” We talked about how cute she is and what cute babies they’d have.

So last week Mr. W was looking over his department’s vacation schedule and asked when I thought he should take time off for next year. I figured it’s only prudent to check when the Canadian wedding is. So I text messaged my cousin Norman:
hey cuz, did u set a day yet? =)
He texted back: Date for what?
EH? Men! I texted: oh, I heard a rumor in family circles that u popped the question? (if u say “question 4 what?” im never gonna listen 2 the grownups again.)
He texted back: What question?

Now I was thoroughly confused. What’s he doing? Is he being silly? Or is he playing dumb because WE AREN’T INVITED?! I thought about how all our Canadian relatives declined to attend my wedding and didn’t come to my cousin Diana’s wedding this past Saturday. Maybe they figured since they didn’t attend ours, we wouldn’t attend theirs and they’d save money having to accommodate us at their reception. And now that I’ve asked, they didn’t know how to respond so they’re just stalling. I went from confused to miffed. Multiple theories were offered by my friends. Maybe “popped the question” is an American colloquialism and Canadians don’t know what it means. Maybe it was Norman’s dad’s (my uncle’s) wishful thinking that his son was gonna get married. Maybe there was a miscommunication between my dad and his brother when they were talking about all the weddings lately.

So I emailed Norman’s younger brother, my cousin Mark, with whom I have more frequent (altho sporadic) contact. I wrote:
Hey Mark. So I’m, like, confused. I thought my dad talked to your dad and got news that Norman’s now engaged, but I had the following text message exchange with him the other day… [relaying text message conversation]
My cousin Mark wrote back:
Yeah… that’s weird. I don’t think they’re engaged yet… lol. They’ve been dating for a while but as far as I know, no engagement yet. They probably will get married though. That’s so funny… never
listen to the grownups. LOL

Oh.my.gawd.

I called my cousin Jennifer and told her about this. She was aghast about it, too, but got a good laugh. “I gotta call my mom! Cuz she’s been telling everybody!” And we were all speculating about cute BABIES and trying to plan trips to see some nonexistent wedding.

Yesterday I received this text message exchange with my cousin Mark:
Yeah I just asked my parents. They said nope. They laughed at the story. My dad says that he did tell your dad that Norm is getting married some time next year though. Funny.

Geez! Teaches me to listen to parents without consulting my cousins directly first. =P I wonder why my uncle would tell people about some imminent wedding next year before my cousin’s even proposed.

If you were observant in reading the last post, you would’ve noticed a wedding invitation on the tabletop in the photo. That’s my cousin Diana’s wedding, which took place yesterday at the Marbella Country Club at San Juan Capistrano, which is truly a beautiful setting. And of course Mr. W forgot his camera, so I was the weenie taking photos with her cameraphone. Again. You can bring out captions by resting your mouse pointer on the photos.

I was on reception table duty, so I got there a bit early, and ran into the happy couple taking their pre-wedding photographs. That was what we did to reduce the time that guests would have to wait between the wedding and reception, which is the traditional photo-taking time. So I guess all four of us are more practical than superstitious about the groom seeing the bride in her dress before the wedding.

Ever the it’s-all-about-everyone-else gal, my cousin said as I walked up, “Wow, you look beautiful!” And I was like, “ME?! Have you LOOKED in a mirror today?!”

They talk about radiant brides, but wow, she had some glow going on! It was like she swallowed some stars and was now walking around illuminating everything around her. That included her almost-husband, whose eyes softened every time he looked at her and it seemed he could not stop touching and kissing her. Of course it could be stage directions being called by the photographers, but I’d like to think it was cuz he truly appreciated the moment.

~ THE SCENE ~
A shot down the aisle:

Overview of the ceremony set-up:

The altar (and yes, that IS a water trap with a waterfall at the golf course):

They don’t appear to have one theme color, but instead embraced all the rich jewel tones of the autumn: golds, burgundy, browns, oranges. Their decor was beautiful.

~ THE PLAYERS ~
Their aisle walk pairings were unique. Here is the groom with the bride’s paternal grandmother.

The groom’s father and mother. Wow, these two LOVE their new daughter-in-law. I’d never seen anything quite like it.

Bride’s sister (and maid of honor)’s fiance, Brad, walking bride’s mother. If he looks familiar, it’s because Brad welcomed guests along with my cousin, his fiance Jennifer, at my wedding’s reception table.

My aunt was so cute, she was all smiles and waved at everybody at the bride’s side on her entire walk down.
The best man, Russ (groom’s brother) and the maid of honor, Jennifer (bride’s sister).

And then, the flower girls, the daughters of my cousin Olivia.

The parents of the flower girls, my cousin Olivia and her hubby Eric.

Whoa, wait, who’s that? Who’s behind there?

All stand for the bride (with her father)!

Awwwwwwww! She’s beautiful! *sniffle*

Walking her to her almost-husband…

“Thank you, daddy.”

I swear, I was not this teary at my own wedding.

~ THE CEREMONY ~
So my uncle hands off his elder daughter…

…to be entrusted into the care of this waiting man.

On top of the world. Listening to their officiant tell everyone the story of how Doug proposed.

My cousin Jennifer was so happy for them.

My mom and dad. Awww.

They exchanged vows. He spoke touchingly of how much she meant to him.

She did the same, vowing to honor him forever in a quivering, emotion-filled voice. Both of them had to wipe at their faces up there. But they recited their vows without a hitch.

They also did a rose ceremony, honoring their parents by presenting each with a rose and a hug.

And then, for his parents.

Seriously, look at the way her new father-in-law is looking at her. To Doug’s parents, she’s already their daughter. (During the reception, Doug’s father gave a speech talking about the first time he met Diana, and how he knew within 5 minutes that she was someone very special and she was the one for his son. “I don’t know how long it took DOUG to figure it out,” he joked. And then he talked about calling Diana on her cell phone shortly after their engagement to get a hold of his son, since he knew that Doug never picked up his phone [the audience laughed knowingly], and recognizing the phone number, Diana had answered the call with, “Hi, Dad.” He said he was surprised and it threw him off for a moment, and after a pause, he realized and said, “I really like the sound of that.” Tears, man! All over their wedding.)

The ring exchange.

And the epic moment, the you-may-now-kiss-the-bride seal on the wedding vows:

Presenting, the new Mr. and Mrs.!!!

Walking away into the sunset. Or pretty blue cloud-laced sky, in their case.

See what I mean about the sky? It was the PERFECT day, and it RAINED that morning, too!

~ THE COCKTAIL HOUR AND RECEPTION ~
Upstairs in the cocktail area…

…a handsome man awaited me, too.

My dad chatted inside with his eldest sister while behind them, Mr. W…uh…I was gonna write that he was waiting for me, but now that I look closer at the photo…*looking closer*…I think I need to finish off this sentence with, “while behind them, Mr. W checked out some blonde chick’s back and legs.”

That girl was everywhere in my photos. It seemed that every time I changed direction to get a shot, she’d move in front of it.
This is a Chinese girl, so this is Dress #2, a pewter sparkly ballgown:

The flower girls playing with their mom, my cousin Olivia, and their cousin, as their dad looks on:

And then all of a sudden they all ran away from each other. What a strange game. =)

Everyone had a great time at the cocktail hour.

You know it’s a good wedding when I’m buzzing before dinner’s even begun. I had champagne, chardonnay, AND a lemon drop on an empty stomach. So I ate a couple of hors d’oeuvres. Their food was amazing.

At the reception, we were at Table 3 with the maid of honor and her fiance, and the bride’s parents.

The sweetheart table was right next to us…

…which made for great photo ops. Too bad I didn’t have a camera (aside from the cameraphone which took all the photos you see here).

I’d like to point out the loving looks my cousin Jennifer’s fiance is giving my cousin here. They’re getting married late next year. 🙂
The couple listening to a speech before dinner:

This happened a lot:

They had one of those storybook classic weddings where everything was beautiful and touching and loving and there were happy tears everywhere. You feel your heart swell to be a part of it, like you’re truly, to borrow a quote from Friends, “in the presence of love.” Made me almost feel bad for demanding that our wedding be all happy-happy-joy-joy and tearjerker-free. At the time it seemed like a great idea to have a unique non-traditional wedding style and I just told people that if I’m spending that much money on makeup, they’d better not make me mess it up with crying. I actually just am not that comfortable with being emotional with witnesses… Oh well.

During the cake-cutting, my mom, the bride’s mom (my aunt), and Mr. W thought it was BRILLIANT to take the photos from outside to get a truly unique angle.

Until we realize how crappy lighting was.

That was dress #3, the red Chinese dress. It was too darkly lit by this time to get a good shot of it, but she looked beautiful in it. This is Dress #3 during the dancing part of the evening, when the bride took photos of people dancing at her own wedding. Silly girl.

I don’t know HOW this picture happened, but it’s to my advantage. Now we can see the bride’s dress!

It was rumored that there was a Dress #4, but when I asked her about it, it was while we were already dancing the night away and Mr. W’s gold dress shirt had turned into a brown washcloth, and my cousin said that she couldn’t imagine how she could possibly peel the Chinese dress off her at this point and was thus bypassing the fourth dress.

And THERE’s my photojournalistic wedding story of my cousin Diana’s wedding to her new husband, Doug. Congratulations to the happy couple! 😀

Some months ago, I was pushing the shopping with Mr. W at Costco, admiring the early Halloween decorations that were already on display, smiling at the thought of a cool-weathered fall season in our new home, when I suddenly froze and gasped. “What?” Mr. W asked.
“I just realized, we’re gonna have to buy SO MUCH candy this year!”
Mr. W and my mom had been laughing at me since we moved in about how karma has come around to bite me in the butt, since it’s no secret I don’t do little bratty kids, and we happened to move onto a block where in our culdesac alone, there are like 20 kids. Two or three of our neighbors have twins. “Don’t drink the water,” they’d joked with us, as it seems all the neighbors got pregnant around the same time.
So at Costco, Mr. W realized I was right, and we steeled ourselves and prepared to buy lots of candy for little ghosts and goblins who’d come threatening to trick us if we don’t treat them. Mr. W bought a giant Costco bag of fun-sized Kit Kats, Snickers, Almond Joys, peanut and regular M&Ms, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Crunch, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth bars. Halloween Friday at work, he got paranoid at the giant bag not supplying enough candy, and bought another giant sack of variety candy from his coworker, this time of Super Bubble gum, SweetTarts, Smarties, Jawbreakers, Tootsie Rolls, Now And Laters, and lollipops.

I didn’t dress up. I sat in the living room, watched Two and a Half Men and only got the door twice. Mr. W is the little-people-person between the two of us so he had candy duty, and some of the kids sounded really cute. All the moms who walked with the kids made sure to tell them, “Say the magic words!” The magic words were, to my delight, “Thank you!” Mr. W was giving out candy by the handfuls.

And Saturday morning, the day after Halloween, this is what we had left:

What the hell happened? Who’s gonna eat all this crap?! *scared*