Six More Weeks...

I would give my left foot for it to be May 27th already.  And if I had a job offer to go with it, I'd be even more thrilled.  I've contacted several public schools in Alabama and Louisiana, as well as a few private Catholic schools in the New Orleans area.  I'm really hopeful that something works out.

My weekend in Atlanta was a lot of fun, but nowhere near long enough.  My plane arrived in Atlanta about 20 minutes early, and since I didn't have to wait for the baggage claim, I had to wait a while outside for Tyler to come pick me up.  It took us about an hour to get to the hotel because we hit some pretty heavy traffic in downtown Atlanta.  Once I got to the hotel and checked in, I had about 25 minutes to wash my hair, do my makeup, and get changed for the rehearsal.  We headed over to the church, which was beautiful, and I started crying a little when I saw Caitie.  It'd been almost two years since I had last seen her.  One of mine and Caitie's sorority sisters from Auburn was in the wedding, as was one of sisters from the West Georgia chapter.  The rehearsal was really nice, and the rehearsal dinner was wonderful.  It was really nice to sit down and get to know family members of both the bride and groom.  After the rehearsal dinner, Caitie came back to the hotel room with me so that we had time to catch up.

On the wedding day, I had to be downstairs in the hotel restaurant at 9:45 for breakfast with the bride, the bride's aunt, three of the bridesmaids, and the boyfriend of one of the bridesmaids.  I set my alarm on my iPod to go off at 8:00 in the morning, but what I didn't do was change the CLOCK on my iPod.  So when I got up at 9:30, the clock on my iPod said 5:30 and the alarm hadn't gone off yet.  Lesson learned.  Luckily, Caitie was getting her hair done at a salon before the wedding and I had made an appointment as well, so I didn't have to do my hair.  And Caitie was having our makeup done for us at the church, so I didn't have to worry about that either.  All I had to do was shower, get changed, and dry my hair.  Breakfast was really good, and the company was amazing.  The restaurant had a buffet for breakfast, and a guy that was waiting in line got angry because they ran out of scrambled eggs or grits or something.  He walked back over to his table, which was behind ours, and slammed his plate down, breaking it in half.  I mean... Let's just act like children, why don't we?  He sat there and pouted until they brought out a new dish of whatever he was waiting for.  I felt bad for his wife, but she didn't look like she cared that her grown man of a husband just slammed a plate down in a public restaurant and broke it.

Hair appointments came and went without problems.  My hairdresser told the salon owner that I was the "coolest person" she'd ever met because I was from Alaska.  She also told me that my curls "weren't goin' nowhere."  Oh, but they did.  Just like I told her they would.  Caitie's hair looked gorgeous!  We went to the church and had our makeup done... It looked pretty good.  A bit dramatic for my taste, but that's the point for weddings... It makes the pictures look better, from what I've heard.  We all got dressed into our bridesmaids dresses and got Caitie into her dress (she was beautiful!!), and then went outside to do pictures.  I can't wait to see how those turned out.  Before we knew it, it was 5:00 and people were starting to show up, so we had to hurry and get Caitie inside before anyone saw her.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful.  My feet were absolutely killing me.  There were moments where I thought I'd trip and stumble because my feet were in so much pain.  And after walking out with my groomsman after the ceremony and I was out of sight from the congregation, I took those suckers off and refused to put them back on.  Luckily, my dress was long enough that no one could really tell that I didn't have shoes on.  When we got to the reception, I didn't even take my shoes into the building with me.  Speaking of the reception... what a blast!  Mary Katherine (Alpha Xi from West GA) kept trying to get me to drink wine, and I kept refusing because I am not a wine person, at all.  But I finally tried a glass of white zinfandel and after about half a glass, I was hooked.  Three glasses later, I was out on the dance floor with Caitie, Tara, Aaron, MK and Bennett.

After seeing Caitie and Tyler off around 11:00, MK, Bennett and I headed back to the hotel.  We stopped at the bar in the lobby before heading up to our rooms.  While we were there, I met a couple guys from the UK.  I heard them talking to the bartender and recognized their accents, so I asked where they were from.  They said they were from the UK, and I said, "I know! Where in the UK?"  Haha.  Their names were Robert (I think?) and Jason.  One was from Wales and the other was from North Hampton, but I can't remember which one was from where.  One of them (or both... I can't remember) was moving to Atlanta because they were taking over a company that manufactures tires in Chattanooga.  Why he wasn't moving to, say, Chattanooga... I don't know.

The next day, Caitie's sister, Carrie, and I left the hotel just before 11 to head back to their mom's house.  I was able to check my email and check Facebook and then we left to head to the airport.  Heather met me at the airport around 1:15 and we had lunch at the Atlanta Bread Company.  She brought me my camera and an Easter goody bag, complete with Easter eggs filled with chocolate, some coffee cake muffins, and a piece of homemade carrot cake. :)  She's such a sweet friend!

The flight to Seattle wasn't too bad, other than being uncomfortably warm.  The plane was equipped with Wi-Fi, and I tried it out... $8 and 2 hours later, my iPod died and I was internet-less.  The flight to Fairbanks was much better than I thought it would be.  I was bummed because I had the middle seat and I HATE the middle seat.  Who doesn't?  But, the moment I walked on the plane, I noticed it was significantly cooler.  The two guys sitting on either side of me showed up very late... I almost thought I had the whole row to myself.  And after texting Ron to tell him how nice it would be to have the whole row to myself, they both showed up.  The guy sitting next to the aisle had one of those personal DVD player things, and let me plug my headphones into it and watch a movie with him.  We watched Old Dogs, and it was hysterical!  I must buy that movie!  We started to watch The Hangover, but the battery died.  By that time, we'd started our descent into Fairbanks, so it was perfect timing, really.  We talked for the rest of the flight.  He's been living in Fairbanks for about 4 years and will be moving in September, due to a relocation with the Air Force.  He was coming back from a long weekend in California, where he was meeting his now-girlfriend for the first time.  They met on eHarmony a couple months ago, and this was the first time they met face to face. 

While I was waiting in the airport in Seattle on Sunday, I called my parents to say hi.  Mom told me that, before I headed back to Northway, I wasn't supposed to leave until she got to see me.  She doesn't usually make requests like that, so I asked her if everything was ok.  "Yeah, everything is fine.  I just haven't seen you in a while!  And I missed you!"  Again... odd for her to say that, since she'd see me three days earlier.  Finally, I got it out of her that, while I was gone, Harley had quit eating and she'd taken him to the vet in Fairbanks that day.  His last four teeth have to be pulled out next week.  :(  Poor little guy.  His steroid medicine has been increased to 2.5 cc's every day instead of 2.5 cc's every other day.  And he's been given this painkiller medicine that is a derivative of morphine and is 25-40 times as potent as morphine... according to Wikipedia.  I was wondering what was in it... Considering he acts like he's strung up on cat nip after he takes it.  Now I know... He's doped up on a stronger version of morphine.  Awesome.  Dad is driving him into Fairbanks next Monday, since I'll be at school, and will drop him off at the vet.  He'll stay the night, and have surgery first thing in the morning, and then around 1:00 in the afternoon, Dad will pick him up and bring him back to Tok.  I'll have to drive in on Tuesday evening and pick him up so that I can be the one to take care of him while he's recovering.  It won't be too bad, seeing as how we've done this twice already.  My little one is going to be toothless!  Haha.  The vet made a comment last time I was up there with him about how one of the purposes for his teeth is to keep his tongue in his mouth.... If he has no teeth, his tongue will stick out all over the place.  That is going to rock my socks off!  His tongue sticks out the front of his mouth a lot right now because those little front teeth are gone, and it cracks me up!


29 more days of school!