Sweet Sixteen

Some of the lyrics to Sweet Sixteen are even though I'm not 16 anymore I think that some of my adventures this past weekend fit it,

"Today I'm gonna ride away
And feel the sun throughout my hair
Finally free to be who I wanna be
Who that is I don't really care
'Cuz I've got friends who love me
Blue skies are above me
My blonde hair is everywhere

Sweet sixteen
Gonna spread my wings
Sweet sixteen
It's my chance to shine
Sweet sixteen
Discovering
Sweet sixteen
So much more to life
Sweet sixteen"

As most of you know, I drove down to West Virginia with some friends for another friend's wedding in which two of my friends were standing up as maid of honor and a bridesmaid. We left on Thursday morning from Aubree's house at about 8:40, picked up Kimmy from her house and hit the open road at about 9:15 or so. Within the first half hour we had a your mom joke, a that's what she said and Kimmy told me college has corrupted me. That bit continued on throughout the day.

We stopped off in this small town called Russell's point, where we had some lunch at McDonald's and it became my turn to drive. They tell me the town smelled funny, I couldn't really smell anything, so I'll have to take their word for it. People stared at us a lot, especially guys. It was kind of creepy, and Aubree accidentally referred to it as "Richard's Point" which made all of us laugh. The McDonald's had an outdoor sitting area with table and things which were right near small marina. It was cool. We had to get back on the road as soon as possible though. We were supposed to be in West Virginia and meeting Lex at a Marathon station at 4.

Somehow I had memorized the directions after only looking at them twice. We had decided to not drive through Columbus, and bypass it by going around on 270. While on 270 we were following this van and on the back windshield "in tow" was written. We couldn't for the life of us figure it out! When we finally passed the van we saw it was being towed and a unanimous "oooooohhhh" was sounded in the van. We were no longer confused. We crossed into West Virginia and met Lex, Bo and Ryan at about 4:30. Only a half hour behind schedule.

We followed them to the rehersal, and then to the rehersal dinner that was at this amazing Chinese food place. Then I followed Lex's grandparents to their house which is amazing. We stayed the night there with much cuddling and talking going on between Aubree and I. I said something about it going to be really easy to do that with a guy when eventually I get to that point and I was told, with slight laughter, that it is completely different when it comes to cuddling with guys. I'm not sure if I agree with them. Lex came to the house at about midnight I think and we talked with her for a while. Then we slept. In the morning was more cuddling, including some with Lex, then we all took showers, no not together although it was spoken about with laughter, and got ready.

Lex, the bride, drove to her own wedding as there was one part of the drive I really didn't want to drive. She ate McDonald's on the way for lunch. The wedding was awesome, as was the reception, where I caught the bouquet. Really, there was no issue with catching it. There was a whole ten of us and everyone just spanned out into a line and not a group. I took one step forward and caught it with no issues. I then had my picture taken with Lex, and had to keep telling the people who asked when I was going to get married that I wasn't even in a relationship and so it would most likely be a few years. One of the ladies at the tables I sat at told me I had a double whammy since I had caught the bouquet at my sister's wedding 4 years ago. She then proceeded to give me dating advice and part of her life story, it was pretty cool and sweet of her.

The reception ended at about 9pm and we started out drive back after getting direction from Lex's dad. We decided to drive through Columbus since it shouldn't be bad late at night. It wasn't. Our worse traffic was within the first hour and a half of leaving. After that there weren't very many cars even on the road, let alone driving by us. At one point it was miles before we saw anyone, including driving on 75! We were almost at Kimmy's house when we almost hit a giant groundhog, at least that is what we suspect it is. It was freaky. After we dropped Kimmy at her house at about 4:15 we almost hit a huge racoon. We swerved, but Aubree got the van under control quickly. I then took over driving and almost hit another giant unidentifiable animal. We were fine after that until I pulled up into my driveway and saw a big racoon running across my driveway. Aubree and I both screamed. I also ended up saying something .and not it wasn't a swear, I just don't don't want to say what it was on here.

I got into my house at about 5am, after freaking out for a little bit thinking the racoon was going to come back to the driveway and attack me. Why yes, I do get very paranoid about stupid things. I got online and talking to Eric, then finally fell asleep at about 6am. At about 1pm I awoke to my nephew and my mom upstairs coming to wake me up. We ended up going to Gleis', the bank, out to eat, April's, and Walmart. My nephew fell asleep about ten minutes before we got to Glei's and he didn't wake up when I got him out of the car, so I just held him all through the place so he would get a decent nap. Then when I went to put him back in the car he woke up! At lunch he spilled all of his ice cold water on me. He thought it was funny. It was, but I'm glad it dried quickly, as it had run all the way down my leg.

On another note, my brother should be back stateside soon. We might get to see him at my cousins wedding in Louisiana next month. It'll be awesome. I also might be stopping by Holland on my way to Grand Rapids for another wedding next month. It depends on when I come back from the one in Louisiana. If I can, I'll get to stay the night in Holland before the wedding in Grand Rapids. I still have no news on the job front by the way. Now this concludes this blog post.