Another one bites the dust

Well, another one of my cousins is hitched.

This was the one I've been looking forward to since the last one in April. And I wasn't disappointed, other than in my family - but what's new?

Hubby and I skipped town at 10am on Saturday to make the hour and a half drive early enough that we could grab a bite to eat before the ceremony at 2pm. Dinner wasn't until 6:30, and there was no way either one of us would be able to make it that long. So, Saturday around Noon was our first of two visits to Cracker Barrel, my favorite place to eat in all the world. I had all my favorite things - chicken & dumplings, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn. Yeah, major carb overload but I was trying to do some preventative eating. I figured if I filled up with all that I'd have a pretty good base to throw all the booze on top of and not get sick.

A couple weeks before the wedding my cousin asked if I would be in charge of coordinating some family pictures she wanted to make sure were taken. Just before the ceremony she gave me the list, about 15 group pictures - no big deal. After the wedding we were all kind of milling around the parking lot and I tried, I really tried, to get everyone wrangled up and back into the church for the pictures she wanted. But, evidently I was the only one who understood the language I was speaking because everyone just kind of left as I was telling them she wanted us back inside for some quick pictures.

We didn't worry too much about it knowing we could take them at the reception site. So, after dinner I started to round everybody up and discovered that one of my aunts and her family had already left without telling anyone they were leaving. Another one was in a totally pissy mood and my cousin that got married in April who is pregnant wasn't feeling well so that vehicle with 7 of them was leaving. WTF?!? It was 7:30!

I feel horrible. I let her down. But what could I do when I was working with a group of people who would have no part in cooperating? I realize this was (hopefully) her only wedding day and that those pictures can't be recreated. I tried. I really really tried. But the disfunction in our family runs so deep, and I think there was a little jealously involved with this too.

Anyway, Jenn was a beautiful bride and we had a wonderful time. The food was really good, the cake was incredible, the booze was free. If anybody went any sour from this event it was their own fault.

We got back to our hotel at midnight and stayed up for a little while b.s.-ing with one of my aunts and those cousins. I slept really poorly, if at all, I was having a really hard time breathing, and I was cold all night long. What hotel have you ever known to take the flimsy comforters off in the summer?

Sunday morning the hubby was up early, like 6am early. WTF?!? At 8 he was going nuts that we didn't know what was going on for breakfast - that no one had called. I tried to remind him that we had all been drinking rather freely, that none of us got to bed before midnight and that it was highly unlikely that much of anybody was awake yet. But, he kept on the subject enough that I had to start making phone calls to find out what was up. As suspected, we ended up being the first ones to check out, and we ate breakfast (at Cracker Barrel) alone. We were back home at 10:30 Sunday morning. I would imagine we were home before anybody else even had left their hotel rooms. Agh!

Then Sunday we had another party to go to - 4th of July celebration. Before lunch I made the 2 dishes I was taking and laid down a little after noon to take a short snooze. I ended up waking up at 3:30 to my husband yelling that he had planned to be AT the party by now, not just getting READY TO BE at the party. Whatever, the fireworks weren't until 9:30 and I really didn't think we needed to sit there and drink for 8 hours before hand. So, we got there a little after 5 and were far from being the last to show.

So, fireworks Sunday night and we didn't get home until 11pm. I was wiped out yesterday. So much so that I didn't even bother with my contacts and just threw my glasses on. Everybody knows how much I hate my glasses so when I wear them all day it's not usually a good sign.

I did get to bed a little early last night - 9:30, but I'm planning to hit it a little earlier tonight. I'm still so exhausted, and my allergies have turned into a full blown summer cold. Yuck.