Sleeplessly leaving Seattle

All right, the craziness is slowly coming to an end. A recap:

Abby graduated on the high school football field Thursday night. It was probably the most student-centric graduation I've ever seen. They got to do a bunch of stuff they wanted to, and the administration was great at giving them that freedom. After the ceremony and the obligatory Dairy Queen run, I was off to John's house to get some sleep before my flight Friday morning.

I got to bed around 2 Friday morning and woke up at 6:30 to get to the airport on time. Not much for traffic, small lines at the airport; I was ahead of the game. My first flight was to Las Vegas, which was around 3 hours long and including a showing of "Breach" with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe. It was quite entertaining, worth a rental if there's nothing else you want to see.

Anyway, I had about an hour and a half in Vegas before my next flight, so I took my time deciding what over-priced airport food I was going to purchase (ended up at Pretzelmaker or something like that (quite good)). I also played $2 worth of slots in the terminal, which I swiftly lost. We boarded a little behind schedule, and had to sit in our seats for an hour with no explanation as to why we weren't moving. I took advantage of this time to continue in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I began Friday morning and am currently beyond the 400 page mark. Once in the air, the flight was a bit over 2 hours, and I arrived safely in Seattle at 3:04 (Pacific).

Ben picked me up and we went straight to the church, where the rehearsal was finishing up and people were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner, which was pizza and Jay Berry's. Dinner was great, I got to know Autumn's friends Amelia (actually named Emily) and Jena, whose house me, Ben, and Jess would sleep in that evening. Jena even knew how to play hand and foot, so we took advantage of that before adding Amelia for a few rounds of Pit. Bed time arrived between 10:30 and 11, and we all were up and out the door by 8:30 AM.

I spent the next several hours setting up for the reception with the wedding party and Autumn and Andy's families. I figured out at this point that this was a fairly small wedding, judging by the size of the hall and the number of places set. It's what they wanted, and the main reason they had it in Seattle in the first place, so I was cool with it.

The wedding itself took place at 3, followed by pictures and the reception. I was seated at the band table for the reception, since that's where Ben was and Jess was at the head table. We had some interesting conversations regarding foaming hand soap and platypuses, among other things, over a buffet dinner including salmon, chicken, potatoes, and lighter snacky foods.

Next up came the live music and dancing, which sounded great but didn't have as many people dancing as they had hoped, although I don't know how many of the 50 people they were expecting to dance... I did get a few spins in with Jess, and then it was time for the bride and groom to jet off to Seattle, where they awaited their Alaskan cruise.

The rest of us stayed behind and cleaned up the hall, which took about an hour, and then it came time for me to go to the airport; not because I wanted to, mind you, but because it was a half hour away and few people with cars were heading that way. So, I was dropped off at the airport (I'll switch to Central time for perspective's sake) at 11 PM for my flight that departed at 2:50 AM. Again, more Harry Potter was read, and by the time we boarded I was exhausted. I fell asleep before take-off, and woke up 2 hours later, somewhere over the Dakotas. We landed at just after 6 AM, at which point I got in my car and drove home, pulling in just before 9 (I almost fell asleep a couple of times, and my mom called me at the perfect time to make sure I was staying awake, otherwise it could have been disastrous). Sleep came again, this time in a bed, and I was out for around 3 and a half hours.

When I awoke, family and friends had already started arriving to help set up Abby's grad party. I made small talk in my pajamas with my grandpa for a bit, then finished up the slide show I had promised Abby I would do. More getting ready, more food prep, and before I knew it, 3 o'clock rolled around and people started coming.

Though the party officially ended at 6, they didn't really stop coming until 7:30 or 8. My parents made the comment that it was nice to have four grown children to share the hosting burden with, but I was unfortunately stuck with the proposition that any guest who talked to anyone else in my family undoubtedly asked how I was doing, and, when they found out I had graduated, wondered what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I can't count the number of times I had to explain how I kind of had a job, but not really, and that I loved Nashville and yes, the weather is quite lovely down there, blah blah blah. I was also given the joy of trying to explain the concept of a music video to my great-aunt Dolores, whose only point of reference are the Gaither Homecoming videos, which she says are getting a bit too modern for her tastes. I am now supposed to send her some of these odd four minutes videos so she can see if she likes them, and she told me I may even have a customer in her, or even a salesperson. She really has no idea what Just Kidding does (she thought the name was quite ridiculous in and off itself), I might just send her the newest Gaither video and she won't know the difference.

Anyway, that's that. My family is moving out on Saturday now instead of tomorrow, which gives my mom and sisters some much-needed time to finish up the packing while my dad and I have another banner week in the flooring world.

I'm gonna try and read some more Potter now, peace out.