the three ring circus wedding in north carolina was on!
i arrived in raleigh the evening of the 1st and had a bad mexican dinner with friends. we had ben and jerry's ice cream for dessert and we caught up with all the old school peeps.
since travelocity lost my car rental reservation and stupid enterprise didn't have any more cars to lend me, i had to go online and look for another car the next day. we crashed at my friend's sister's place which was very nice of her and after a slow morning and a trip to target, we went to Budget rental and they loaned me a BRIGHT ORANGE chevy cobalt. very incognito. i swear every damn person on the road was staring at me.
after having dinner with train and mir, i drove out to Rocky mount with the full intention of going to the after rehersal dinner dance to meet up with Katherine. i get lost on the way, of course, and it takes me 30 min out of the way. not good. finally, i get to the hotel and they have lost my reservation too. after talking with the staff for 30 MINUTES! they finally locate a room for me ("well . . . . . . we knew we were gonna git a young lady from japayan comin' but hon, i jus don see yer name!"), and i spent, i kid you not, 10 minutes in my room. i threw on a dress, brushed my hair, touched up my make up, and jumped back into my bright orange cobalt. the dance was from 9-12 that night and it was 10 pm so i figured i could make the 40 minute drive to Scotfield Country Club and spend a good hour with katherine. Who gets lost again? me. it was a dark singular road with no streetlight, barely any houses, and it started to rain and a very dense fog rolled in. it was VERY blair with project. i realized i was NOT going to find this country club that night. i drove around until 11:30 pm and i got down to just under half a tank of gas and i decided to drive back to the hotel. got back to the hotel without getting killed by the blair witch, collapsed into bed, and decided i'd go to the wedding brunch tomorrow.
the next day, my alarm went off at about 8 am and i headed out a little after 9 to make it to the brunch which started at 11. overkill on the time? maybe, but being me, i got lost again on the way to the brunch so i ended up being only 20 minutes early. The brunch was at the Greene residence in Scotland Neck, NC. The greenes are a close family friends of Katherine's and they have a beautiful home. i FINALLY met up with katherine and her soon to be hubby Chad and was introduce to everybody. they all had 2 names (mary beth, katy ann, sally jo, john alan, john thomas, james thomas [both of whom go by JT which gets very confusing]) and everyone was absolutely wonderful which was such a relief. the weird thing was, everyone seemed to know who i was (i did stick out like a sore thumb, being the only non-whitey there). "Oh! you must be Yow-kow! Katherine's friend from Japa-yan! ah heard you came all the way from Tokiyo!" i heard this about 500 times at the brunch along with "You git the lawong distance award!" i ended up spending a good deal of time with some of the ladies (i think some of them were kat's cousins or aunts or something) as we washed dishes and cleaned up. everyone was so impressed that i had come all the way from another country. i slipped out after the dishes were done, and went home to sleep off a bit more of my jet lag.
left the hotel at 3:30 in the afternoon to make sure i'd get to the wedding on time (it started at 5) and of course, got lost and then got to the Church of the Advent in Enfield. Katherine had been so nice and gave me a pew card so i was guaranteed a seat which i happily took since several people were stuck standing up the whole time which made me feel a bit bad but i got to kick it with Katherine's step granny who was real nice. there ceremony was simple but beautiful and Katherine looked absolutely gorgeous. i didn't cry, though i got a bit teary, and after the ceremony we filed out and piddled around the church waiting for them to finish taking pictures. i thought we were supposed to wait but apparently we weren't so after a while, i decided i would follow one of the other cars to the reception at Katherine's house i wouldn't get lost . . . again.
Now when Katherine told me that her reception was going to be at her parents house (she's always wanted it there and she's told me several times how beautiful her mom's home is), i imagined a big house but nothing prepared me for the actual place. i figured (during the 30 min drive) that i would probably have to circle the blocks a few times looking for a place on a nearby street and hopefully not get lost on the way back to the house. Oh no. there are no blocks to drive around. Her mom's house sits on a 10+ acre property and they had a massive tent set up on the outside. we all just parked on the front lawn. the tent had a stage set up and a bunch of food pits where people could just stop by and pick up a few things and munch away all night. there was the main feeding table in the middle with stuffed mushrooms, eggrolls, artichoke dip, a pimento cheese block, and crackers and stuff. there was also a roast beef and roast turkey table which was absolute heaven. i made a couple of mini sandwiches there. but the very best thing of all was the seafood bar which had the freshest raw oysters and shrimp in the carolinas. the band was a bit cheesy but fun; people boogied all night. i got to catch up with katherine's old roommate, holly, and some of her other friends from UNCW. i was disappointed that none of the otehr English program people showed up but it was still wonderful and well worth the trip. i just couldn't get over the fact that absolutely EVERYONE was marriged or engaged. "Oh, Yow-kow, donchu have yerself a nah-ice little Jyapaneeeez man back in Tokiyow?" "nope." "well, donchu worry hon, the raite man'll come 'round when ya least expect 'im" "thanks." the decorations were beautiful. apparently Katherine had always wanted to work with this one coordinator (whom she introduced me to but i can't remember his name) who she knew would make everything perfect. eveything looked simple but elegant; and katherine still looked like herself ratehr than some crazy over make up transformed bride, just more radiant than usual. it was truly a great nite. but not wanting to get lost again, or killed by the Blair Witch, or arrested by scary country side popo, i didn't have much to drink and my jet lag kicked in so i went back to the hotel.
the next morning, i slept in a bit but got on the road rather early so i could get down to Wilmington. i was eeting Miranda there for lunch. we'd decided to go to the Taste of Country buffet which was one of my favorite restaurants in wilmington. my my my has wilmington changed! they have this new highway that takes you all the way downtown which is handy but really confusing. i didn't know where i had ended up for a minute! i get downtown, park the car, and realize that there are no people in front of the restaurant. odd, seeing as how the place should be chocked full of post church goers. then i notice, no lights. no people anywhere. and NO YUMMY FOOD SMELLS. i was devasted! my favorite restaurant was gone. i almost cried.
so miranda and i decided to go to the trolley stop (a hot dog place) instead. i love the trolley stop and i was very very good but it just wasn't that down home country goodness that i had been jonesing for for the past 3 years. we caught up, talked, perused the mall, and went out to wrightsville beach to say hello to the ocean. the weather was perfect for it, and we sat in the sun and sand for an all too brief time. we parted ways, sadly, and i went out in seach for my old mentor Heather.
Heather and her husband, Jay, are independantly weathy but not at all snooty people that i have come to love and cherish. Heather is like a modified step mother. she nurtures and cares for you in a parental way but does so without getting too invoved which is nice. they live in the marina in one of the condos and they let me crash at their place for a night. They took my out to dinner to a BBQ joint which was really good. i love BBQ in the south. it just tastes different. a bit richer, a bit more tangy, and really nice. we came home, ate ice cream, and watched the March of the penguins which was really good. i slept well and we had breakfast the next morning, Heatehr took me out for a cup of coffee, and we sadly parted ways as well. i took a pit stop at my other favorite wilmington restaurant, Flaming Amy's Burrito Barn, and had me some lunch before getting back on the road. i only wish i had more time down there to fit in the yummy cheese steak place and the to-die-for biscuits at Jimbo's but i had to get back to raleigh to return the car and what not before my flight that night and i didn't want to get lost again or anything so i left with plenty of time to spare. good thing too.
i start to get a bit low on gas so i stop to fill the tank. in North Carolina, the exits are few and far between once you get on the highways so if you run out of gas you're pretty much fucked. so i stop and get gas and when i get back on the road (must've been about 10 mins back on the I40) i see a sign that says cars must slow because there is construction ahead. i see brake lights in the cars ahead so i start to slow down then i realize that those cars aren't moving. a 4 car crash had JUST happened seconds before i got there. one car was completey turned upside down and there were still people inside! all the cars had stopped. i got out of my bright orange cobalt and me and this other guy tried calling 911. some army guys headed back to jacksonville were pulling people out of the overturned car. pretty soon, we heard sirens and the sherriff arrived. he told us to try to go over the shoulder to pass the accident cuz traffic couldn't afford to get stopped completely so we got back in our cars and drove away but it was a super scary accident. i realized how quickly that CPR training gets blanked out of your mind when you're faced with it.
the construction just past the accident slowed things down more and i was on the road an extra hour at least so i was very happy i left early. i returned (gladly) my bright orange chevy cobalt and went to the airport, my bags heavy with texas pete and jars of mountain jam from marcy. i headed home to LA for a few days.
Being home is great. i got to spend time with my family and friends and although it was just for a few days, it was wonderful. i got to eat some mexican food, go shopping for summer work stuff, and not be at work for a bit. on my last night out there, i we had a massive dinner with all the peeps. my brother-in-laws parents came from vegas and i got to see them which was amazing. it was refreshing to spend some quality time with the whole family for a change since we usually end up with staggered schedules. i bought butt loads of presents for people back in Japan (mostly comfort items like peanut butter, magazines, tapenade, chaocolate, etc) and returned to toyko 2 days before my 28th birthday.
