Current mood:

cheerful

Big red buttons and the Rocktoberfest report...
I finally got to make the script I've been joking about since I became a Technical Artist... When you run it, a little pop up window appears. The only thing in the window is a big red button that says "Export". If it was any more efficient, it would do their job for them. I am amused.



 The Jombie shows us what it REALLY means to ROCK... And now the continuation of the wedding saga. Picking up from morning after bachelor party through Rocktoberfest. Click the picture to view Maximillian's photo documentation.

So, after the bachelor party I woke up at 9 AM. I had a sinus headache from being a little dehydrated, but aside from that I was feeling pretty good. Took a shower, took some decongestant for the sinuses, ate an egg, dranks some water... I was thinking "Whew, I lucked out on that!". Kristin went off to do her bachelorette thing ( pedicures and brunch ) about the same time that I started to realize that something was amiss with my non-hangover. At about 10:30 I started to get the sweats and feel a little dizzy. Then I started feeling nauseous.

TRICKED!!! My body had tricked me! So then I spent the next four hours sleeping in various positions in/on various parts of the house. At one point I discovered that when you sleep on the stairs, you get to lie down while still being upright! This was a wonderful, wonderful thing. By 2:30 or 3, I was human again and able to carry out the minimal wedding related tasks Kristin had asked me to do.

The previous day at the wedding rehearsal, both of our fathers had seen how precarious the huppah-support-setup was (the huppah is the quilt we stood under during the ceremony) and had decided to band together to engineer a solution. About the time I was coming out of my stupor, they were putting the finishing touches on a pair of expanding poles to work as braces across the top. So we pulled out the huppah, and the poles, and the cement buckets to hold the poles in. We got the whole thing set up just as Kristin, the mothers, and Susie arrived back from the bachelorette adventure! So there was a gaggle of people in the alleyway, all standing around a little quilted tent thing, talking and gesturing wildly.

Then it was time for the open house. We'd told everyone that we would be having an open house from 4-8PM so everyone could come by at once. Well come they did! My mom's friend (and mine too) Kath had volunteered to be a greeter/hostess for us. She's a wonderful Aussie woman we knew from our days in Indonesia. While we schmoozed and hugged and thanked our way around, she set out crackers and greek leftovers from the night before. Still, it was pretty crazy having that many relatives in our house. My mom's family has something of a reputation for being rowdy. Not "spilling wine and knocking holes in the walls" rowdy. They just tend to fill whatever space they occupy... completely. But it was a great success! My mom and Grandpa were both happy as could be.

Once everyone had left to go get dinner, Kristin also got ready to leave. She was spending the night before the wedding at her bride's maid's house. The plan was to go to sleep at 9 PM and be well rested for the wedding. As for me... Danny came by to pick me up to go to Rocktoberfest.

For those who don't know, Rocktoberfest was born when some friends of mine stole a "ROCKS" sign off the side of the road and scraped the "S" off with a razor. In honor of daylight savings they threw the first Rocktoberfest to celebrate "The Hour That Doesn't Exist". The idea being that whatever you did between midnight and 1 did not actually happen, since daylight savings took away the hour, setting the time back to midnight again. Traditionally, Rocktoberfest has but three requirements:
1. Beer
2. BBQ
3. Rock music videos playing all night from every era

Not required, but recommended practices are things such as, dressing up a punk/hair/metal/glam rocker, getting a picture in front of the "ROCK" sign, joining one of the many loud drunked singalongs to such classics as "Orgams Addict" by The Buzzcocks or "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by The Darkness. The year before this one, fake tattoos were introduced. People fly in from other states just to go to Rocktoberfest. So you can see why it was sort of a big deal that I was having my wedding within the same couple weeks as this annual rockathalon. But since everyone was going to be here for the wedding anyway, I simply suggested that they transplant the party this year to the bay area. Maxamillion and his friend Andy are to be thanked for the organization and venue (apartment) respectively.

So back at the ranch, Danny had already been roped into driving god knows how many people up to the party already. I think it started at 4 PM... He picked up Nora (a friend from high school back East), and we showed up to a party in full... roar would be the best description. I miss my college parties sometimes. There's this sense of urgent, barely restrained energy to them. Like all of the tension that gets bottled up every time you stop yourself from saying something crass in public, or when you feel self conscious about... whatever it is that day... has suddenly been uncorked, and there is the desperate need to have as much fun as possible before collapsing. It's... like watching kids at Disneyland... but with booze. And The Ramones.

I played my "getting married tomorrow" card around 1AM, and got my free ride home. Danny, bless his heart, made two trips that night to get the party goers home safely. I don't think he got to bed until 3AM... for those of you who are counting, that's 6AM East Coast time. (o.0) And he was on round-up duty for groomsmen the next day, too. Ben was driving the north-bay contingent, Danny, the South. All were to converge on my house at 11AM...