As is custom, here is my travel log of this past weekend. I know it's a bit long, but I kept a journal while I was gone. To make it easier for myself, I simply retyped the journal when I got home. As an amusing touch, I included the part where I fell asleep as I was writing. (If you read far enough, you'll find it.) The only paper I had with me was a reporter's notebook (they're long and skinny), so you'll notice that I made new paragraphs frequently. I guess the notebook subconsciously put me in reporter mode.

My friend Becky asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and I accepted. We've been friends for years, although for the past several years we've mostly communicated over the Internet. In fact, until the wedding, I had never met her fiancé in person. We "shook hands" online (an amusing story in itself), but Friday was the first time I actually met him. The last time I saw Becky was over a year ago.

Anyway, my last final was on Friday morning, so I hit the road shortly thereafter. Mt. Shasta is just over three hours North of Sacramento, if you don't stop along the way. Weed, where I actually grew up, is about 15 minutes North of Mt. Shasta. When I got home from my weekend, I had put about 525 miles on my car. Without further ado, here's the log. (I've made some changes to try to keep people from getting too confused.)

-12:37 a.m. Saturday, December 16, 2000-

I am so glad I said "yes" when Becky asked me to be a bridesmaid. It's as if I'm on the inside for once. I am a part of the mad chaos that results in a wedding.

I got into Weed around 1:45 and headed for the Moes' house. (My friends and I hung out at their house a lot during high school.) I talked to Melody Moe for a while and then Mike (Akira in RinkChat, although he has only come into the chatroom once or twice) came to say hi. We talked, and headed in opposite directions. I went off to Mt. Shasta to...The Rehersal.

I arrived at 4:35 and it started at 5 p.m. The "wedding coordinator" took the role of "wedding Nazi," (think "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld) but even she had to laugh at some of the groomsmen's silly comments and jokes. We ran through the motions and then discovered that the order was slightly wrong. Hopefully we figure it out before the ceremony tomorrow.

The food, which consisted of steak, potatoes, salad and bread, was ready promptly at 6. When dinner was wrapping up, Frank (the groom) gave his gifts to the groomsmen. We all got a good laugh as each one unwrapped a pair of fake-leather black pants and a shirt with a name embroidered on it. What made it more amusing was that all the shirts said, "Bob." Of course, they had to try them on, and we got to see the most unique picture of Frank and his five groomsmen in the outfits. Ray (the best man and brother-in-law of Becky) soon discovered that if you sit on a folding metal chair, the vinyl material of the pants will completely prevent you from sliding on the chair.

We did various things for a while, and then the groomsmen burst into the room, pulled a ski hat over Frank's face, and hog-tied him. They dumped him in a car and drove off, not to be seen again. This is a pre-wedding-day tradition of theirs, and Frank is one of the last of his friends to get married. They've been waiting for his turn to come.

From what I gather, they make him put on women's clothes and then go eat dessert. I don't know if anything else happens between that point and when they wind up back at someone's house to play board games. (It's relatively low-key, considering that no alcohol or drugs are involved.) However, there does appear to be some sort of "special" undergarment that they make the groom wear on his wedding day. He wears it over his own underwear, and it has been passed from groom to groom among this group of friends. I don't know what it looks like, but I did hear something about a clown that laughs when you squeeze a button.

Meanwhile, us girls headed to the Black Bear Diner for dessert and an "intimate" bridal shower, meaning that we got Becky presents such as lingerie, candles and lotions. There were 11 of us there, and it was fun. We talked and laughed as Becky opened her presents, some of them silly, some practical, and most of them red.

We are now at a hotel for the night. We're down to just five girls now: Becky, three bridesmaids (Kim, Kiwa and myself) and the candle lighter (Janel). We checked in around 10:30, and the East Indian couple at the front desk charged us an additional $20 because we had five people, rather than four. Becky and I got to our room, only to discover that we had a couch that doubles as a hide-a-bed. Oh well.

We all sat in the other room and talked while I massaged Becky's scalp. (We talked of such non-wedding things as Vietnam and dental horror stories, for some reason.) And now Becky is out of the shower and bathroom, so I think I will continue this story later.

-11:45 a.m.-

Becky and I talked until 4:30 a.m. this morning, and the alarm went off at 7:30. It was torturous, but I managed to drag myself into the shower by 8. Becky remembered that when we spent a weekend at Simpson College a few years ago, we did the same thing.

We left at 8:45 (after scraping the ice off our cars) for the hair salon. The people who run the hotel were very strange: They seemed to be waiting for us to get up, and then the guy stopped me as I was pulling out. He just wanted to know about the wedding, but it was rather odd.

We got to the salon in Dunsmuir (about 10 minutes South of Mt. Shasta, where Becky grew up), and have been here ever since. Our hair is done (mine was a bit of a trial), except for Becky's. Her veil is at the church, so someone went to get it.

Becky's mom just returned with material to quickly make a garter. Another small catastrophe: Becky had decided she didn't want to wear a garter, but she hadn't thought about having one for the groom to throw.

To add to the mayhem, Mary (Becky's mother-in-law-to-be) is driving Becky wild. She's been difficult throughout the wedding planning process, and everyone is tired of her. She called Becky this morning with yet another idea. The favors for the guests are clear glass ornaments with Frank and Becky's names and the date on them. Well, yesterday Mary went to Redding (an hour South of Mt. Shasta) and got some "pretty blue stuff," as she described it. She had the bright idea of taking the top off each ornament and filling it with the blue stuff. We're not sure how or when she planned to do this to several hundred ornaments. Becky came close to losing it, even though she released some feelings by yelling at Mary yesterday. (She later apologized, of course.)

-12:30 p.m.-

Becky's hair is nearing completion, although she's being a bit picky about it. She just said, "I approve of the bun area," (her hair is going up in a bun) so I think that's good.

-12:45 p.m.-

The veil has arrived. We're supposed to be getting makeup done at 1, but I think we'll be a little late. Apparently, Mary's husband said he would make sure the ornaments were not changed. From what I've heard of Mary, I'm wondering if anybody, even her husband, can stop her when she takes a notion into her head.

Santa just put in an appearance at the salon. That was odd.

-10:45 p.m.-

The wedding is over, the church is cleaned up, and six rubber bands, 10 bobby pins and gallons of hairspray are no longer protecting my hair from any and all objects and/or events it may come across. And that is a long sentence. Apparently, that's what happens when you have three hours of sleep for two nights in a row.

Picking up from where I left off earlier, we got to the church a little after 1 p.m. We were pleasantly surprised by our changing room. Two ladies who sell HerbaLife cosmetics were there to pamper us. The room smelled nice, it was decorated and gentle music was playing in the background.

They were very nice ladies, but I did not care for the hot wax treatment they gave our hands. We dipped our hands in hot, liquid wax, covered them with plastic bags and then let it cool. One of the ladies then pulled the bag off. It was okay, but now my hands are feeling rather dry.

Meanwhile, a catastrophe was developing in another room. Becky was wearing her sister's dress from two years ago, and she knew it fit her. It was wrinkled, but they had a steamer for it. After about 15 minutes of steaming one area, the dress was still wrinkled. At the same time, Patti (Becky's sister and maid of honor) discovered underarm stains on the dress, even though she'd spent $150 to get the dress cleaned after her wedding.

We were waiting for an ironing board when the photographer arrived. (Diana, who helped a lot with the wedding details, almost got carpet marks on the dress when she tried ironing it on the floor. I once ruined a work shirt that way, so I caught it in time.) This was another Mary thing. She told the photographer to come at 2. Frank and Becky talked to him, and told him to come at 3, check out the lighting and we'd be ready after that. Something went wrong, because by 2:30, he was asking that Becky be ready for pictures.

The rest of us finished having makeup put on, got dressed and went to take some pictures. Fortunately, Becky soon joined us. Diana discovered that holding the steamer against the inside part of the dress works, so that disaster was avoided.

Shortly after 5, we went into hiding and the guests started arriving. Before I knew it, 6 p.m. rolled around, and we lined up in order. The music began, and the wedding was underway.

I'll continue this when I can keep my cars only...Umm...I seem to be falling asleep and writing about things...[sic]

-9:45 a.m. Sunday, December 16, 2000-

Note: My lack of sleep caught up to me last night. I woke up at 8 this morning and felt much better.

The ceremony was wonderful. Everything went well, and even Myranda, the tired, three-year-old flower girl (there were two--the other one was older) behaved. Partway through the ceremony, she started picking up the flower petals she had sprinkled earlier, but it was okay. The cutest thing was when Becky and her father were walking down the aisle. Myranda started waving at them, and it was adorable.

Patti almost fell over when she went to fix Becky's train after she got to the front of the church. Patti bent down, stepped on her own dress in the process and then tried to stand up. She stayed on her feet, but was wondering how many people saw it happen.

Following the ceremony, we went into the adjacent room for the dessert reception. Frank and Becky cut the cake, Ray and Patti toasted them and before we knew it, people were leaving. By 7:30, many of them had already left, even though the bride and groom were still there. This was a disappointment for Patti, who made an effort to get a nice car for Frank and Becky to run away in. By 8, when they did run away, about 15 of us actually saw them off. However, Frank and Becky soon came back to get more things and to take their own car. It was planned, but it was still a bit odd. It worked well, though, because a fire truck showed up with Santa in it. They came to congratulate the new couple, since Frank is a fire fighter.

The clean-up process went very quickly because everybody pitched in and helped. In no time at all, the church was back in order. I said goodbye to everyone and got to the Sorias' (the grandparents of a friend of mine--they don't mind it if I stay there) house around 9:45. It probably took a good 15 minutes to take my hair down. I had never felt so good after a shower.

I think I'm caught up now. Oh, Frank and Becky changed into matching khaki pants and blue sweaters before they left. It was a cute, couply touch.

I'm off to church now, and I'll probably head for home in the early afternoon. Where has the weekend gone?

That is where my journal ends. I could go on, but I think I covered the main parts of the weekend. For Sam's sake, I will say that I met up with a rude Canadian driver on my drive home. The car had British Columbia plates and cut me off when it was entirely unnecessary, as the car in front of me was going the same speed I was. In fact, we were in a line of cars that were all driving slowly. Cutting me off accomplished absolutely nothing.

I got to Sean's house around 8:30 p.m., in time to watch X-Files. I was tempted to stay in Weed and watch it at 6 because I know someone who gets East Coast channels, but I figured it would disappoint Sean. (There were other complications as well, so I figured I should just get going on my way.) I then went home and crashed. And there you have it: My weekend adventures. All in all, it was a very busy weekend, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.