Friday: All weddings, all the time

My sister works near QIR's house, and I called her when we got in, so she came over and ate lunch with us, discussing her indecision about wedding location (they did make a decision and set a date while we were out, incidentally) - two different locations, same price, with different positives and negatives. Then she went back to work, and QIR came back from the city with her parents, and we walked over to a shopping area near where she lives and I got to go to H&M, even scoring a few new pieces for my wardrobe. Then we walked to the part of town where there is a Trader Joe's, and everyone (QIR, her parents, Hulk) went in while I ran across the street to Shoe Pavilion with a single-minded goal: to find a pair of brown strappy shoes that could be dressed up or down to wear with the graduation outfit I'd brought. And though it was really hard for me, I managed to only look at shoes that could fit that description, and I found a pair and bought them in like 5 minutes. I believe it was my shortest foray into a Shoe Pavilion ever. I'm so proud of myself.


Friday morning we got up early (again), walked around a very long corner to a bakery and ate pastries on the way back to the house, then piled back in the car and drove up to Sonoma County to meet my mom at the place where we're getting all marrified next year. Hulk took tons of pictures, we asked the event coordinator lady a lot of questions, my mom got all teary when she realized that we're Really Doing This, and I marveled at how beautiful it was, even more so than I'd remembered. They've even renovated quite a bit, so the bathrooms are now superfantastic, and the kitchen is incredible, and the whole thing is all spiffy and shiny. We even talked some about where we'll have the ceremony, facing which direction, how we might set up the chairs. And speaking of chairs, one of the questions I had was about whether the chairs and tables and such were extra, and it turns out they are not. So we are getting tables, chairs, picnic tables, dishes, glassware, coffeemakers, and silverware all included in the rental price, plus 3 hours set-up, 5 hours party time, and 2 hours cleanup for a price that you would not believe even if I told you. I didn't believe it. Email me if you really want to know, and be prepared to change your pants because you might pee in them. Here's a photo I took inside of the patio outside.


After that, we stopped in at a hotel in town to get some literature, had lunch, and stopped in the next town over to ask about flowers at a local farm that does pick-your-own. Unfortunately, they won't have anything but greenery available then because they don't have a greenhouse, but it's better to know that now. And then we went to Santa Rosa and sent Hulk off to play in the super exciting Coddingtown Mall while my mom and I went dress shopping, which will be another post entirely. After all that was done, we had dinner and went out dancing at a place that does a ballroom lesson and then an open dance afterward, and we started to learn the tango, which in my opinion is the most difficult ballroom dance. My mom's been taking a lot of ballroom classes lately and SHE had a hard time with it, and I had 15 years of ballet and took some ballroom about 10 years ago and I had a hard time with it, so you can only imagine how hard it was for the Hulk. Poor guy, but at least he soldiered through. On our way to dinner, we were stopped at a light behind this enormous overcompensation vehicle, complete with skull and eye sockets that glowed red when the brake lights were on.


We stayed the night at my mom's, petting the wiggly dog and the purry kitties, and the next morning we got up early (again!), made some breakfast, and drove down to the city.