(*Note: Blog written 8/10/09)
It would be an injustice to not blog about this past weekend…mainly because there were so many crazy, unexpected things that happened I can hardly believe some of it myself.
To allow things to make some sort of sense, it would be best to explain the ORIGINAL plan. MONTHS ago, my good friend Kevin (who lives in
By a weird coincidence, Shawn apparently has met Leah…when he was a freshman at Rice and she came on a recruiting visit. What was this, like nearly 10 years ago? Weirder – is that Leah remembered the meeting. However, they hadn’t seen or spoken to each other since. SO Leah invited both Shawn and I to the wedding and after checking multiple times at work regarding the day off, Shawn jumped on board.
This time of year is quite stressful for Shawn at work as the end of the fiscal year is almost here and as a senior accountant he plays a large role in justifying/aligning things numbers wise to balance out the year. He knew that there was a large change he’d have to miss a meeting on Friday but had been told it should be okay.
So…Plan #2 was for Shawn and I to fly into San Diego Thursday evening, drive to Temecula and stay until Saturday morning (wedding was Friday), head to San Diego to check out the Del Mar – “Where the turf meets the surf” – Horse Racing track during the day, enjoy the evening in San Diego, and then fly home Sunday morning. We bought our flights, booked our hotels, reserved a rental car and waited for the date to arrive.
Also invited to the wedding were Sarah and my friend Joe so they would also be worked into the plan. Joe and Sarah were going to fly into San Diego Thursday night as well – attend the wedding – head to San Diego during the day Saturday and then Saturday night we would all maybe meet up for dinner/drinks. However, Joe wound up getting a late invitation to ANOTHER wedding back home (San Francisco area for him) so to make both work he needed to fly back Saturday during the day from San Diego. At this point Sarah also decided it would be cheaper for her to drive than fly…and she really wanted to get back to Arizona Saturday afternoon for Arizona State’s football media day (she works for ASU in a similar position to mine)…so driving gave her the most flexibility. In fact, now she would just plan on arriving Friday during the day instead of Thursday evening and save on
hotel costs as well.
Last week, thinking that our now Plan #3 was ready to go…Shawn discovered his boss was also going to be absent for the big Friday meeting and after discussion with a few head people, determined it could potentially be a disaster for him to miss this meeting (and things go wrong) so Wednesday morning he cancelled his flight and backed out of the trip.
I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was incredibly disappointed. I had been looking forward to this trip with Shawn for a long time…and it isn’t often that he has the opportunity to meet my REALLY good friends so having the opportunity to spend extended time with them (and me!) just seemed so fun to me. However, I didn’t have much time to be immediately disappointed because this changed my plans tremendously. I guess it didn’t really have to…but I didn’t want to spend Saturday alone in
So, Sarah departed Thursday for Temecula with Christina and Alex and arrived in Temecula early afternoon. The night before I had forgotten to check-in online for my Southwest flight, so in the middle of the night, woke up and frantically checked in on my phone. B-57 was my number. Sigh. Terrible. Thursday evening I boarded my non-stop, 5.5 hour flight to
We headed to Thrifty Car Rental where I had reserved the “Wild Card” package. This meant that I was guaranteed a mid-size or above…but the location would select which vehicle. The guy working scared us by telling us that is typically is a mini-van because that is what they have a surplus of…however that day it was Dodge Charger and I was excited. Plugging my GPS in to place, we headed off for our hour drive to Temecula.
About 10 minutes into our drive I received a phone call from Christina. The rehearsal dinner had concluded but her car wouldn’t start. She was stuck at the restaurant and was trying to jump her car with Leah’s dad. However, if this didn’t work out, wanted to know if I could pick her up from the restaurant and take her to her hotel (about 15 minutes away from mine). According to our GPS, we were set to arrive around 11:00pm (mind you, this is 2am East Coast Time). Picking up Christina would add another 30 minutes to our trip, and I was exhausted. However, obviously the decision was a no-brainer. Friend needed help – so it was Carrie to the rescue if she needed it (love you Beana!).
The jumping of the battery didn’t work, in fact I was told flames even came out…so Joe and I scooped up Christina from the rehearsal dinner and brought her to her hotel. We weren’t sure what would happen the next day as she would need to get her car repaired but agreed to reconvene in the morning. Joe and I FINALLY made it to our hotel…where an eager (and very bored) Sarah awaited.
It was pretty funny - Sarah had forgotten shorts, so Joe brought her a pair to borrow. When we all slipped into comfy, sleepwear we all looked at each other and died laughing. Sarah was wearing an ASU Basketball T-Shirt (James Harden’s number) and baggy ASU Basketball shorts (Joe’s), Joe was wearing a Cal T-Shirt and Cal Basketball shorts and I was wearing a Maryland Soccer T-Shirt and Baggy Basketball Warmup Sweatpants. We looked like we were straight out of a collegiate apparel catalog. LOL! We stayed up talking extremely late and then headed to bed.
The next morning I was wide awake at 6am. (9am EST). I cannot sleep in much later when I’m on the West Coast and Sarah is always ready to kill me because I eventually get fidgety. I tried to doze off or lay still for awhile…but I lost the battle pretty soon and pulled out my phone to play on and a bag of animal crackers to eat (I was starving!). This of course all made noise and Sarah (with an infected wisdom tooth who already had trouble sleeping) was ready to strangle me. LOL. Around 8:30am, Joe and I headed to breakfast and left Sarah to her beauty sleep.
For the hour before we headed to breakfast, the people in the room next door were annoying the crap out of us. They keep leaving the room and slamming the door behind them. It was extremely loud and the last time it happened, I lept out of bed and attempted to chase the person down in the hallway. However, by the time I opened our door, all I saw was a flash of a navy shirt turn the hallway. Boo :(
At breakfast, there was a large group of people eating and chatting in a larger circle. I became convinced it was the group of people who were slamming the door next to us. I narrowed my eyes and then ate my continental breakfast (which Joe and I were a bit disappointed with). Around this point we noticed two 20-something guys dressed in unorthodox workout attire (think of the movie Dodgeball), talking to the group of people. I heard the name “Leah” and then realized – OMG – I wonder if these people are here for the wedding! I knew the groomsmen and a few relatives were supposed to play basketball that morning and began to possibly see the connection. So, I leaned over and asked the group if they were here for the wedding…Leah’s wedding. They said yes. I said “who do you know…like who are you hear for?” At this point, one of the guys, wearing a blue cutoff shirt, shorts, a funny sweatband on his forehead and a gym bag slung over his shoulder pointed to himself and said me…I’m the groom. I almost died.
“OMG!” I exclaimed, “It is so nice to finally meet you! I’m Carrie.” And I went over and gave him a hug. How awkward. I swear at that moment he did not look the same to me as the Brandon Roop I had seen in Leah’s pictures. Oh well. Sarah showed up 5 minutes later and Joe and I shared with her our funny story. I am still laughing about the unorthodox meeting.
Around 10:30 we took off to go pick up Christina and Alex and take them to Christina’s car. She had found an auto shop only a few blocks from where her car was parked downtown so the plan was to start her car (hopefully) and take it there for repairs. She and Alex both brought their wedding clothes with them, in case they didn’t have time to go back to the hotel and change.
After a few failed attempts at starting her vehicle, we decided to try to jump her car with the Charger. We pulled up next to her, popped the hood…and the search for the battery began. A few minutes after we were having trouble locating it, I threw out the idea that perhaps it was in the rear of the car. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy…but I had remembered once that Greg had told me that his battery had been in the back of his BMW – and it has stuck with me since. After a few more minutes of searching…and also after discovering there was no car manual in the vehicle…I googled it (Yes…I am the google queen) and found out that low and behold, the battery is INDEED in the back of the 2007 Dodge Charger. Point Carrie.
Realigning the vehicles…we popped the trunk and under the mat found not only the battery, but the drivers manual as well (Seriously, what good does it do there). Now the fun part. Jumping the car. I became a little concerned that we weren’t going to jump the car right, so I got a hold of my Dad via cell phone and had him walk me through the steps. We would have been correct without asking, but I didn’t want to chance anything – especially on a rental car that isn’t mine that I also didn’t purchase insurance for. Meanwhile, Christina called the auto shop and they agreed to come jump the car for free. So, even though we thought we knew how to jump the vehicle, we figured we’d just wait for an expert to do it.
Darryl (not sure on the spelling and maybe it is Darren – but we’ll just go with Darryl for the sake of the story) from the
Joe, Sarah and I left Christina and Alex at the body shop and headed off to find a park where we wanted to do some jogging/walking. That was a bit more difficult than we imagined and we wound up ditching the idea and went to Soup Plantation (same as Sweet Tomatoes) for lunch. We headed back to the hotel after and lounged around briefly before heading to the hotel “gym” (treadmill, bike and an elliptical machine) to burn a few more calories. We all felt much better afterward and then began getting ready for the wedding.
We arrived at the wedding location - Wilson Creek Winery - around 4:30pm. I had some preparation to do regarding my reading…including figuring out where the microphone was, when I was supposed to be reading, and also after I discovered there was no “podium” by the microphone…I went on a scavenger hunt. The last thing I wanted to do was step up to the mic with a sheet of paper flapping in the breeze as I attempted to read it. After finding a piece of cardboard to tape the paper to, I was good to go. Something cool to note here too is that an artist was hired to paint the scene and give his portrait to Leah and Brandon as a gift. What a neat idea - and it turned out fabulous!
Next stop was the florist – as she needed to pin my corsage on. A few minutes later I glanced down and noticed that she had only stuck the pin through 2 leaves – not the stem of the main flower. I was slightly concerned as I wasn’t sure this was correct, but I didn’t want to chance messing with it right before the ceremony and something going wrong. So…I left it.
I took my place right after Leah walked down the aisle (she looked absolutely gorgeous…and the groom was in tears – I always love watching the groom’s reaction). I imagine it was about one minute prior to the time I would read when my corsage suddenly dropped to the ground. All that was left pinned to my dress were the two leaves. ARGH! I hastily ripped the two leaves off and threw them on the ground, grabbed the main corsage, figured out which side was “up”, and jammed the pin through the stem and my dress. Whew. Just in time. I walked up to the microphone and did the reading.
At the end of the ceremony, Leah elected to have a fun, dancing-type exit with funky glasses to the song from the movie “Grease”. It was super fun – but the best part was that even the grandparents had the brightly colored plastic glasses on too when they walked down the aisle…it was so cute!
Following dinner was the cocktail hour, hosted in the Barrel Room. Available (all evening) from the bar were 6 of the winery’s wine selections and 2 kinds of beer. It was pretty cool. All the tables in the Barrel Room had a photo as a centerpiece of either Leah, or Brandon, growing up. It was super cute.
We all seated ourselves in the Champagne Ballroom next, which would be the location of the remaining part of the evening. The tables had magnificent flower centerpieces, which were elevated high enough that you could still see the people sitting across from you. The table number was represented in a photo that Leah and Brandon had taken with them in a silly pose holding up a piece of paper with the number on it. The Bride and Groom had their first dance right away, which was graceful and touching. The speeches followed (father of the bride, maid of honor and best man, who was actually the groom’s father and wich was enough to make you want to cry right there.) and were awesome. Leah’s dad did a great job – but the best part was a while into his speech he apologized to the guests about the length of his speech, but pointed out he had in fact paid for the wedding so perhaps it was all right! Ha.
The reception was so fun – probably an hour and a half remained after dinner, dessert and formalities – Joe, Sarah and I really never left the dance floor, making up silly dance moves and especially enjoying the time with Leah and her brother Tyler (who I FINALLY got to meet – we had only knew each other through Leah, long distance). Christina and Alex left a little earlier than we did and as we left, Sarah discovered she had a text from Christina. The plan had been for them to leave early the next morning for
The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. Joe and I were planning on leaving no later than 10:00am so we could head into
The restaurant Joe wanted to stop at had too long of a wait for 3 people with a plane to catch, but we did park at eat at the Boardwalk Café and then walked on
So…the question lingered well into the evening – did Christina make it home? After a little bit of inquiry, come to find out, the bad luck continued for her. The day prior, she had paid for a new battery and a new alternator – close to $300. Now, AutoZone was telling her the battery was dead again and believed she probably just had received a bad battery – so replaced it again ($90). She and Alex were about halfway into their drive when her car died again and they were thus forced to pull over on the side of the highway. An hour later, a tow truck arrived to drive them to a town 40 miles away where they then waited for her husband and his mechanic friend to drive a truck from
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