Holy matrimony!

It was a weekend of weddings. I went to both the wettest wedding I've been to and the shortest wedding I've been to (mutually exclusive). Both weddings were outside and with all of the rain we've been getting around here, I was curious to see whether they would actually occur outside.

We were convinced that Saturday's wedding would be at the church instead of outside since it had rained, but when we got to the church, there were no cars in the lot. Out at the farm, I was somewhat worried that my car would get stuck in the mud. I got a kick out of the pastor thanking God in a prayer for the break in the rain providing a window of opportunity for the wedding and then probably five minutes later, it was totally raining. Umbrellas went up throughout the crowd, which of course resulted in blocking some people's views. My dress was pretty wet and my program was pretty soggy before the pastor said he was going to ask us to do something pretty unusual -- to pick up our chairs and take them to the large tent set up about 50 yards away where the wedding would resume. The meal afterward was crazy delicious, and the "cake" was really cool; it was tiered tables of cupcakes.

Sunday's wedding fared better in terms of weather. It was late evening and very beautiful. And it was very down-to-business, lasting less than 15 minutes, I believe. One guest was a bit late and missed the whole thing! I loved the atmosphere in the reception tent because by that time it was pretty dark outside, and the tent was lit with paper lanterns. The dinner was really, really good (as were the beverages). I had so much fun at the reception with a group of friends from high school, including of course the conversation that could be titled, "Remember Mark Smith's girlfriends?" during which I (perhaps a little bit tipsy) blurted out, "Remember the one that looked just like him?"

Oh, plus, bonus! I got to get a [share of a] water buffalo in their name through Heifer International as a wedding gift! And I have had a years-long wish to gift someone with a water buffalo!

Is this something that only happens to women?

Have you ever tried to get the DMV to change the figure in the "Weight" category of your driver's license when you get it renewed? It's been four years since I last renewed mine and it's still good for a few years, but the times I have tried, the conversation has gone something like this:

Me: Can you change the weight?
DMV Lady: Oh, we don't really need to do that.
Me: Well, it's quite a bit different from what's on there.
DMV: How much different?
Me: 1** (which of course, is still not quite at what it should be, but it's getting closer)
DMV: Oh, well, that's not that much different (even though even my fake figure was a good 20-25 lbs more than what's listed). I'll just increase it to 1** (about 10 lbs more than what was listed).
Me: Ok...

I'm surprised I haven't been accused of having a fake I.D. based on weight alone since it's still listed as a number from sometime when I was in high school! Goal: Next time I get my license renewed, not even need to ask that the weight be changed. Halfway there already!

Up in smoke

I was just thinking it will be cool to watch my ticker at the right end up at zero. Except I'll probably miss it like the times I wanted to watch my odometer roll over to 100,000 or 30,000. What will happen when it hits zero? Will the ticker thing blow up into a little puff of smoke like when you remove an application from your Dock on a Mac? I love that little animation and sound. Sometimes I add an application just so I can remove it into a tiny explosion of smoke. Poof.

Change

Today I have new housemates. And while I'm so incredibly socially awkward around people I don't know, I'm excited about the change. Also, we will no longer be an all female household, which is a difference I think will be good.

Ha!

I just had a good chuckle with my co-workers. So I was checking out the NHS website and was thoroughly pleased to find they still offer Hobby Club as a club that meets during some specified period of the school day. Here's the description from the website:

Hobby Club is for those who wish to share their hobbies and promote them to other students. It is a time to share activities and interact with students who have similar hobby interests. Activities may include guest speakers, student presentations, and other gaming and hobby activities.

One year I and my three best friends joined Hobby Club. At least at that time, the way Hobby Club operated is that everyone in the club met in the same room, but you'd break into groups based on your respective "hobbies." My friends and I realized this would be an excellent way to get to spend time together at school basically doing nothing. We told the sponsors we collected stamps and named our sect of Hobby Club "Stamps 4 Life." The ruse was aided by the fact that I had in my younger years been a stamp saver (I wouldn't call myself a legitimate stamp collector since I didn't know anything about collecting stamps), so I would bring in my stamp books, and we'd have them open around us during club time, but we'd just talk the whole time. If a sponsor would come by, we'd tell them we had a good lead on a possible guest speaker. I had totally forgotten about S4L (as we called ourselves for short), and I am so glad I was reminded of it today.