THE BIG COLORADO POST.
I think I'm going to break this up into subjects, cause if I do a timeline I'm going to forget a million things.
1. My mom.
My mom drove EVERYBODY REALLY FUCKING NUTS.
2. Housing.
So me, my mom, Allison and Joe were all staying at Jess and Brett's house at first. My mom had the guest bedroom, and Allison and Joe and I were all staying in the basement. It was much less awkward than I would have thought. Except Jess and Brett were having plumbing problems that were at a peak on Wednesday, I think. The first few days we had to be careful about flushing, and I started the Great Flood of '08 when I took a shower. We had a plumber come out three days in a row and not really do anything until the last guy fixed it, but before that could happen we had a disaster on our hands. The toilet didn't stop flowing for a while, and we went to the basement to find water pouring out of half the ceiling. Poor, stressed out Jessica just broke down and started crying. Thankfully nothing was too jacked up. Just wet. With clean water, thankfully.
On Wednesday or Thursday my mom picked my grandma up at the airport and then they went to stay at a hotel together. So Allison and Joe got the guest bedroom, and I was still stuck in the basement. I didn't mind at all, except they had no A/C down there and it was really hot. And then was the morning where I woke up with a spider bite on my arm, and a funny feeling in my throat. I coughed into my hand and out came half a large spider. YUMMY.
3. Sight-seeing.
On Tuesday we went out to the mountains Jess took us to the last time I visited her. We climbed some shit. My mom insisted on riding on the highway with the convertible top down, so poor Jess, Allie and Joe were blown out of their fucking seats. Uhhh, on Sunday my mom and grandma had all these plans to see like the entire fucking state of Colorado. Now, Jess and Brett were married on Saturday, and of course we partied all night. My mom and grandma decided we'd all go driving around at 10am. GOOD IDEA, GUYS. And of course they made fun of all of us for being hung over. Like what did you expect?
Poor Joe was sick to his stomach and had to stay home, and thank god cause it was a full day of bumpy roads and curves. So we went out into these deserty mountains, and my mom wanted to stop every five feet to take pictures. We were on this like 30 mile road for nearly five hours. Then we stopped in this small, artsy fartsy town (Manitou Springs, for those of you familiar), and had a lot of fun looking in all the shops. I had it in my head to find a new ring while I was in Colorado, and had no luck until the very last shop, which had beautiful jewelry all made by Native Americans. I bought a sterling silver ring with an opal in it for only $18. It's really pretty. I'll post pictures of that when I finish editing my photos. Anyway, if I had had more time and money I'd have a whole new collection of jewelry from that shop. They had great stuff. The only thing that sucked was that we spent so much time on that fucking dirt road that we didn't really have enough time in the town. There's always next time, though. Jess and Brett aren't going anywhere.
4. Colorado.
Still full of weird people. You all know how much I don't like Orlando, but I was shocked at how happy I was to be home.
5. Family. Whee.
Uhhhhh, so that was awkward. First let me say how proud I am of everyone. Everyone was really freaked out about seeing each other, but when it came down to brass tacks, everyone got along really well and behaved themselves. Seeing my dad was weird, and seeing him talk to my mom was the weirdest thing pretty much ever. Uh, he did make an effort to talk to me, BUT OH GOD WAS I EVER UNCOMFORTABLE. Everyone said I did well and seemed like I was enjoying myself, but I kind of felt like..... you know how if you go to a bar or something and a guy comes and talks to you, and you try to keep up conversation just to be polite but you're really hoping he'll just go away? That's how I felt. Complete with the chugging of booze to alleviate tension.
When we hugged each other good-bye he was like, "I miss you! I miss how things used to be!" and I was just thinking.... you know, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CHANGED THINGS. He really, really wants me to move to Chicago cause he thinks then I'll come visit him (FAT CHANCE), and his wife even invited me to come visit them some time. She is still creepy, by the way. She's nice, but just quiet and bland and creepy. Anyway, I think he thinks things are ok with us now, and things will go back to normal. But no, he doesn't get another chance. If he wants to write to me or something I will be polite and write back, but I'm not letting him into my life again.
6. The Wedding, DUN DUN DA DUNNNNN.
Oh god. So we were all late, and the person who was supposed to perform the ceremony never showed up. In fact, half of the people never showed up. We were expecting maybe 40-50 people, and maybe 20 came. Only a few of their "friends" came, which was the worst part. But I don't know what you expect when you run around with a bunch of stoners. NO OFFENSE TO MY STONER FRIENDS, but really, trying to get shit done while everyone is high is a fucking nightmare. Anyway, Brett's aunt is a minister, so she performed the ceremony. It was actually really, really nice, and everyone cried their eyes out. Jessica gave me a pretty handkerchief as a bridesmaid gift, and I was crying into it, and then after the ceremony we were all still crying, AND MY DAD TOOK IT FROM ME AND WIPED HIS EYES WITH IT. HIS DIRTY MAN TEARS ON MY PRECIOUS GIFT FROM MY SISTER. Gross.
Uhhhh, Jessica looked absolutely amazing. The dress was PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT, and she looked really beautiful in it. I have a million pictures of that.
7. Allison and Joe. And Jess and Brett.
First, let me say that hanging out with two couples when you are woefully alone gets a little old after a day or two. HELLO TOTAL FIFTH WHEEL. Especially with all the wedding stuff, everyone was all lovey-dovey, and I was torn between feeling left out an wanting to vomit. But it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been (cause none of them are like PDA people or anything), and I learned a few things about myself. Mainly that hearing my friend and sister talk about ass play makes me want to kill myself.
The really funny thing is we were all a little worried if Brett and Joe would get along. They're very similar people, which could be good or bad. Luckily it turned out fo be almost frighteningly good. IMMEDIATE BFFS. I got to know Joe during this trip, which was really, really good. I had a vaguely good impression of him from when I met him last year, but I didn't know anything about him. He's a really, really good guy, though. He and Allison both worked really, really hard to make Jess and Brett's wedding as good as possible, and I can't say enough how much I appreciated that. And EVERYONE loved Allison. My mom and grandma are usually really critical of my friends, but they just went on and on about how much they loved her. Maybe we can trade families or something.
8. Coming home.
The Sunday night before I left, we all drank, and I got pretty far gone. I ended up sitting on the porch until 4am talking to Joe, and then packed my shit before going to bed at around 5. And then I got up at 8am, lol. So the entire trip home I was really tired and hung over. Even the guy who drove us from the car rental place to the airport was like, "Did you party too much last night or something?" OH, COULD YOU TELL?
Leaving was hard.... I cried and hugged everyone and made an assof myself. But Jessica cried a bunch too, SO WHATEVER. And Allison chased the car like a dork. XD
Our plane was delayed an hour, but we were already on it, so we sat at the gate for an hour, which was really exciting. We were lucky that was the worst of it, though, cause Allison and Joe's flight was cancelled and they had to spend the night at the airport. EW. And Denver's airport sucks major donkey balls, so I feel really bad for them.
By the time we got to Orlando my mom and I were sick of each other, and she tried to attack me with her suitcase. AHH.
9. Random bits.
I didn't realize, my dad's mom is 87. You won't believe it when you see the pictures.
My mom called my grandma out on her favoritism, which meant a lot to me. I might be getting my A.A. at the end of next summer, and my stupid little cousin who lives in Vermont is graduating high school at the beginning of the summer. My grandparents live here, but aren't coming to my graduation, but they're driving all the way up to Vermont to go to my cousin's graduation. I'll be the first grandkid to get any kind of degree (even if it is just an A.A. and I can't do anything with it yet), but my graduation is unimportant.
Actually seeing my grandma is very frustrating because she talks about all these people I knew as a kid being spoiled and having college paid for and all that shit. I have to work for everything I have, but I can bet you they don't tell anyone about that.
Uhhh, I missed my bike a lot.
Jessica gave me a relly pretty necklace for a bridesmaid gift. It's silver with a sparkley pink star. Cute cute. I love it.
....I think that's it.
I'm editing photos, so those will be up soon, but there's 600 of them, so I have a lot to sort through.