makin' noise for the boys in the vatican

To anonymous commenter #3 on my previous post, who suggested that I should 'get over [my]self already', I appreciate the advice. I doubt that I will ever get over myself entirely, because I'm waaaaay too analytical, and I subject myself to the same intense scrutiny that I apply to all problems, whether they are spreadsheets, relationships, or things on my always-endless to-do lists. However, I think that I have gotten over myself to some extent, or at least demonstrated some small measure of 'personal growth'. I no longer obsess over whether men can fall in love with women who are as witty as they are, or whether I will ever be 'normal', or who my friends are, or why I don't trust most people, or many of the myriad issues that I've obsessed over in the past. Frankly, I've stopped caring what most people think of me. I'm still obsessing over other things, like what to do with my life, whether my phobia towards commitment is healthy or concerning, and why I have these occasional (usually contained) impulses to chop off my hair or wreak havoc with my stable friendships or run away to other countries. Anyway, these issues aren't going to go away anytime soon, but I will attempt to get over them--and until that happens, you're just going to have to put up with me.

Anyway, I was in Seattle this weekend for Jasmine and Michael B's wedding. Question: does that mean I should start calling Jasmine 'Jasmine B.'? Answer: I don't think so, since she's not taking his name, but that would still amuse me. The trip was fantastic, although I'm exhausted and still sick. I think the illness might have actually been allergies, since the island was covered in weeds and my cold got excruciatingly worse over the weekend, to the point that I lost my voice from coughing so much. I feel much, much better today, but that could also be from the 10 hours of sleep I got last night.

But enough about my health. I got into Seattle Thursday night and promptly went to Jasmine and Michael's apartment, where I hung out with some of our mutual friends until ~one a.m. I left for Orcas Island early the next morning with two of the other bridesmaids, whom I didn't know before but whom I now like quite a bit. The trip to the island was something of an ordeal--an hour and a half drive from Seattle to the ferry, an hour and a half wait for the ferry (you have to show up early to get a spot), an hour-ish ferry ride, and then another twenty-minute drive to the hotel. We got there in time to grab a late lunch and try on the bridesmaids dresses (mine fit perfectly except for a slight adjustment to the shoulder straps), and then we rehearsed the wedding. The rehearsal dinner involved a quick and mostly-futile attempt to teach the wedding party how to dance so that we could dance at the reception; I was too rusty on the swing steps I learned at TASP to do very well, and it was clear that my rock-step could use some work [the rock-step is the third part of the standard swing pattern]. Despite my lack of coordination, Shedletsky and I pioneered the rock-paper-scissors-step; this graceful move involves doing a couple of rounds of standard rock-stepping, then breaking apart in what would normally lead to the woman being spun--but instead of spinning, each person throws rock, paper, or scissors with their free hand. You go back together and swing out three times to achieve the classic best-of-three game; the winner gets to spin the loser on the next set of steps. Great, huh?

There was a bonfire that night, which didn't help my lung issues at all, and I went to bed at midnight and slept until eleven. I spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon with Jasmine and the bridesmaids, getting our hair done and helping each other into our dresses. The wedding was around four p.m. in this grassy area overlooking the ocean; the setting was gorgeous, the ceremony was the perfect combination of casual and classy, and everything went very well. The reception and dinner were lovely and delicious respectively, the dancing went surprisingly smoothly given how few of us actually knew how to dance, and the whole day was great. After the reception ended, I went back to the house that some of my friends rented and played mafia until two a.m. I hadn't played mafia in ages, but it was fun. Of course, what wasn't fun was that I only got three hours of sleep as a result, since I had to wake up at 6:30 to go back to the house, pick up Doug, Can, Sean, and Henry, and go to the ferry for the trip home. This lack of sleep caused several disasters: 1) I left my wallet in the restroom of a truck stop (thanks to the miracle of Google Maps and the fact that I remembered that the truck stop was off the same exit as a casino, I was able to use the satellite feature to recognize the right truck stop; I called and they had the wallet, so Jasmine picked it up for me on the way back later that day, and I discovered that everything was intact!); 2) I forgot to fill up the rental car with gas before returning it, thus having to pay their extortionate $7-per-gallon refill fee, resulting in an $89 charge; and 3) I just realized that I didn't grab a skirt out of the closet of my hotel room, and it's probably gone forever. Sigh. I usually am not that scatterbrained, so yesterday was rather frustrating.

Despite the frustration, yesterday was still nice; we got back to Seattle in time to have lunch with Dan Y. and John W., who lived in Loro with us my senior year. Dan regaled us with stories of escaping terrorists in Peru, and it was great to see both of them. Then, Doug navigated us to a hill overlooking downtown Seattle with a great view of the space needle, and we whiled away some time there before I left for the airport. I liked what I saw of Seattle, so hopefully I'll get to go back someday. And, Orcas Island was gorgeous--perfect for a wedding, and I could have easily spent a couple more days there.

Now I'm back in California, and I'll be here for almost a month--yay for stability!