Holy Crap! Two Days in a Row!

I know...shocking. But, I promised Christie that I would blog her wedding, so here it is. Well, part one at least.

Christie and Adrian's wedding. What can I say? It was one of the most fun weddings I have been to in a long time... that wasn't a family member's.

From the beginning though...

Friday, August 31, I flew on Southwest from Sacramento to Ontario. As Jami dropped me off at the airport, she not only told me to have fun, but also warned me to "not look like a terrorist." Ummm, OK. I zipped through (I think I'm stuck on the word zip, and it's suffixes) the check-in line and headed on up to wait for my flight. I was hungry, so I bought a pretzel that was way overpriced and not that good. Sat down at the gate and people watched for about an hour while detailing the people I was watching to Emily... along with complaining about life in general. Got on the plane, it was a really full flight and since I was in group A, I got a good aisle seat near the front of the plane. Everyone boarded and there was only one other person in my aisle of three and he was sitting at the window. "WOOHOO!" No person next to me. Of course, some slacker who clearly couldn't make the boarding on time jumps on the plane (she was the last person to board) and sits right next to me. DAMN!

Flight was OK. Nothing exciting, no panic attacks during take-off or landing or in-flight. Tried to play the "What's the stupidest thing in the Sky Mall catalog" game by myself, but it's no fun alone. Also tried to play the "pick out the air marshall" game, but I suck at that in general, so that was just as lame.

When we landed in Ontario, I got off the plane and went to the baggage claim. Right away, my cosmetics bag comes out on the carousel. I thought "Yay, I'll be outta here in a few minutes." Oh how wrong I was. Of course, the carousel breaks down, so Southwest off-loads all the bags at the cargo door. When all was said and done, my bag wasn't there. Neither were a few other peoples' bags. I was a little worried because of course, that was all my clothes, and I didn't think Christie would be happy with me if I showed up at the wedding in capris, a tank and flip flops. Although, that might have been kind of funny (you know you can laugh now Christie, the wedding is over).

Finally, the rest of the bags were found. They got stuck on the broken carousel. Whew! I grabbed my bag and after inspecting it to make sure there was no damage, headed outside to catch the shuttle bus to the car rental facility. The moment I stepped outside, I thought I was going to die. It had to have been 600 degrees. OK, maybe it was only 115, but it was miserable. Humid, hot and horrible. I called Summer and told her I was going home!

I get to Enterprise, where, thanks to Erika, I got a great deal on a rental car. I checked my map quested directions with the girl at the counter and headed out on the 80-mile or so drive to Palm Desert. Drove through Riverside, past a couple of Indian casinos (one of which, I *think* is part of the state referendum to overturn a new law... but that's a different story) and what do I see off to the right of me? A mile sign that says "Phoenix - 250 miles." HOLY CRAP! I was 250 miles from Phoenix, AZ. That's the closest I'd ever been. Of course, for normal people, that's nothing to write home about. Though I can see it now:

"Dear Mom,

Today, I drove past a road sign informing me that Phoenix, AZ was 250 miles away. It was very exciting.

Love,
Allie"

If I'd have thought of it, I would have stopped and taken a picture of it and attempted to take MY picture in front of the sign. I'm just that lame.

After no further diversions or stupid excitements (except for finding a drive-thru Starbucks) I made it to the hotel and checked in, where Alana had already checked into the room. I just have one question. In an area that is total desert, why is a hotel an OUTSIDE hotel? You'd think that the rooms would not open to Satan's lair and be enclosed and air conditioned. But fine. I got in the room and once I cooled off, unpacked and waited for Christie, Alana and Carrie to return from the rehearsal.

Since I didn't attend the rehearsal or the rehearsal dinner, I don't really have anything to say about that, so I'm going to leave that to someone who had been there.

After everyone returned from the rehearsal and dinner, we all met down at the pool where we hung out, until the security guards kicked us out because it was 11pm and apparently we were too loud. What do they expect? You gather 50 people around a pool drinking and swimming and of course it's going to be loud. We were probably half the residents of the hotel anyway.

Since recapping the whole weekend in one post would take forever and be the longest.post.ever., I'll leave you with to be continued...