Austin, MN, August 18-21
My last big outing for the summer was a jaunt up to good ol' Minnesota for my cousin's wedding (on Dad's side). This was actually my second cousin to get married this season, the first being on my mom's side (got hitched to a former panel organizer for Otakon w007!) Instead of leaving together, my dad left a week beforehand to hang out with his brothers. I originally thought my mother, brother, and myself would leave on the day before the wedding, but we were gonna shotgunnit up North the morning of the wedding day. Since the ceremony was around five or so, we had to leave at about 6am... granted no contest to the 4am wakeup run to LAX, but that's not something I like to do very often. The flight was relatively uneventful, and we arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul terminal on schedule. The fun part came next--driving the rental car from the airport to my grandma's house in Austin. Thank God I brought my good ol' TomTom GPS (available in a BestBuy near you! *pander*pander*) so the trip was pretty smooth despite the heavy rain. On an eerie note, this was about two weeks after the I-35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Apparently, my cousin that was getting married usually commuted across the bridge every day. That day, August 1, she, for whatever miraculous reason, decided to avoid traffic and dodge the bridge entirely--inadvertently averting the entire catastrophe.
Aaaaaaaaanyway, I managed to get Mom and Bro back to Grandma's house safely and on time, and sure enough Dad was waiting there ready to throw us into our monkey suits. Funny thing, since the cathedral was literally a block away (small town, Austin.) The service was marvelous--Dad and his brothers sang the hymnals and various arrangements with live piano and trumpet accompaniment with a harmonious sound that filled the cathedral. It was great seeing the family together again, especially since we're all partiers--couldn't wait until the reception ;3 After the service, Brian, the father of the bride, got Shane to ride shotgun with him in his old convertible. The weather was far from perfect for having the top down, but that didn't stop him. I rode with Mom and Dad, and I got some great video of the guys passing us, hair and suits whipping in the wind. They beat us to the country club, of course. The reception was the usual -- bunch of family, scattered around the room in different groups, intermingling, drinking, and a DJ that would play "Celebrate!" without fail. Though, I will admit, it was good times. This was the first chance I had to drink with my relatives, so I tried capitalizing on that. I didn't have too many drinks (one can only drink so much when your parents are there too), but I enjoyed every single one I could with my cousins. After a bit of encouragement, my brother and I finally jumped onto the dance floor and made asses of ourselves, like everyone else. Good times, good times.
The rest of our stay in Minnesota was pretty much "meh." The rain that saw our arrival didn't want to quit, so there really wasn't much else to do. Come to think of it, if there isn't a big family thing going on, then nothing else really is either. Small towns kinda have that affect, and my cousins would agree. Luckily, our cousin Kevin helped Shane and me keep our sanity. We finally got a chance to see The Simpsons Movie at the local mall, which was nice. The high point (after the wedding) was the following Monday, when we ventured over to his house. I failed to mention earlier that our grandmother's house doesn't have the internet at all. Shane and I basically slept constantly and went to bed early because there wasn't any good excuse to stay up late. Kevin's place had a high-speed connection, so what did we all do? Download and install StarCraft, duke it out over the LAN, and watch ATHF:MFFT and 23. We didn't get back to Grandma's place until around 9pm or so, but we had our fill. Homeword bound, we got to bed early in preparation for leaving the next morning. I couldn't sleep--little surprise. I ventured over to the satellite TV and had myself a good perusing around for anything interesting. Much to my amusement, I stumbled across a QVC erotic novelties channel. Yeah, that's right: over-the-phone sex toy shopping from the convenience of your own home! They had everything: the phone numbers, the prices, various phallic objects of every color, shape, and size all waiting for you, and it was only a phone call away. They even had two cute young women holding them up and commenting on how squishy or soft the vibrators were, and how they would make a "great gift." My God, this world still manages to surprise me.
My last big outing for the summer was a jaunt up to good ol' Minnesota for my cousin's wedding (on Dad's side). This was actually my second cousin to get married this season, the first being on my mom's side (got hitched to a former panel organizer for Otakon w007!) Instead of leaving together, my dad left a week beforehand to hang out with his brothers. I originally thought my mother, brother, and myself would leave on the day before the wedding, but we were gonna shotgunnit up North the morning of the wedding day. Since the ceremony was around five or so, we had to leave at about 6am... granted no contest to the 4am wakeup run to LAX, but that's not something I like to do very often. The flight was relatively uneventful, and we arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul terminal on schedule. The fun part came next--driving the rental car from the airport to my grandma's house in Austin. Thank God I brought my good ol' TomTom GPS (available in a BestBuy near you! *pander*pander*) so the trip was pretty smooth despite the heavy rain. On an eerie note, this was about two weeks after the I-35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Apparently, my cousin that was getting married usually commuted across the bridge every day. That day, August 1, she, for whatever miraculous reason, decided to avoid traffic and dodge the bridge entirely--inadvertently averting the entire catastrophe.
Aaaaaaaaanyway, I managed to get Mom and Bro back to Grandma's house safely and on time, and sure enough Dad was waiting there ready to throw us into our monkey suits. Funny thing, since the cathedral was literally a block away (small town, Austin.) The service was marvelous--Dad and his brothers sang the hymnals and various arrangements with live piano and trumpet accompaniment with a harmonious sound that filled the cathedral. It was great seeing the family together again, especially since we're all partiers--couldn't wait until the reception ;3 After the service, Brian, the father of the bride, got Shane to ride shotgun with him in his old convertible. The weather was far from perfect for having the top down, but that didn't stop him. I rode with Mom and Dad, and I got some great video of the guys passing us, hair and suits whipping in the wind. They beat us to the country club, of course. The reception was the usual -- bunch of family, scattered around the room in different groups, intermingling, drinking, and a DJ that would play "Celebrate!" without fail. Though, I will admit, it was good times. This was the first chance I had to drink with my relatives, so I tried capitalizing on that. I didn't have too many drinks (one can only drink so much when your parents are there too), but I enjoyed every single one I could with my cousins. After a bit of encouragement, my brother and I finally jumped onto the dance floor and made asses of ourselves, like everyone else. Good times, good times.
The rest of our stay in Minnesota was pretty much "meh." The rain that saw our arrival didn't want to quit, so there really wasn't much else to do. Come to think of it, if there isn't a big family thing going on, then nothing else really is either. Small towns kinda have that affect, and my cousins would agree. Luckily, our cousin Kevin helped Shane and me keep our sanity. We finally got a chance to see The Simpsons Movie at the local mall, which was nice. The high point (after the wedding) was the following Monday, when we ventured over to his house. I failed to mention earlier that our grandmother's house doesn't have the internet at all. Shane and I basically slept constantly and went to bed early because there wasn't any good excuse to stay up late. Kevin's place had a high-speed connection, so what did we all do? Download and install StarCraft, duke it out over the LAN, and watch ATHF:MFFT and 23. We didn't get back to Grandma's place until around 9pm or so, but we had our fill. Homeword bound, we got to bed early in preparation for leaving the next morning. I couldn't sleep--little surprise. I ventured over to the satellite TV and had myself a good perusing around for anything interesting. Much to my amusement, I stumbled across a QVC erotic novelties channel. Yeah, that's right: over-the-phone sex toy shopping from the convenience of your own home! They had everything: the phone numbers, the prices, various phallic objects of every color, shape, and size all waiting for you, and it was only a phone call away. They even had two cute young women holding them up and commenting on how squishy or soft the vibrators were, and how they would make a "great gift." My God, this world still manages to surprise me.
1 comment:
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the OLED, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://oled-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.
Post a Comment