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We left early to Ottawa as the wedding was apparently being held that afternoon (I had thought it was going to be held on Saturday. Whoops!). The trip itself wasn't very exciting, although as we approached Kingston (I think), there was a sign with message to drivers not to speed and a list of vehicle speeds and the speeding fines next to them. The lowest speed listed was 120 kph with a fine of 100 bucks, then the next was 130, and then 140. My dad looked at the sign, said,
"I guess anything under 120 is no charge!"
and proceeded to travel at twenty kph over the limit. (Which really isn't that fast since a good fraction of the traffic was still passing us.)
We got the the hotel that we were staying at more-or-less on time, and got changed for the ceremony. I had brought along my dress shoes and after getting into my suit, I proceeded to put them on. At least I tried to. My right foot fit. Barely. My (still slightly swollen) left foot refused to fit in the other shoe. (Sorry, no TARDIS effect here.) No pushing and heaving (without pain and agony) would get it to enter, so I was left with what I was wearing already. My sandals. (I'm really setting a precedence at these weddings eh?) This time however, I didn't go bare foot. After being convinced not to wear white socks with my black suit and black sandals, I borrowed my dad's dark socks so that my foot attire wouldn't be too obvious.
Anyway, without much further ado, we headed off to the church. With all of the delays and misdirection (I was navigating and actually gave the wrong directions as we were looking for the hotel. [Jax will have a field day with this.] I tried to cover it up by giving directions that didn't backtrack over our course and made it to the hotel in a roundabout way. Fortunately, I was the only one with the map so nobody noticed. I think.) we finally made it to the church twenty minutes early. *groan* I think I would've preffered to have been ten minutes late, but oh well, being early has it's benifits (at least that's what people tell me).
Being early, the chuch was still mostly empty, so we followed our dad to one of the pews to sit down. As we waited there, more and more people started to file in. I found it rather odd that some of the people around us were talking in French, and even more odd that none of us recognized anyone around us. It didn't take long to realize that we were sitting on the side with all of the groom's family and friends! Doh! The church was already more than halfway full, and people had already filled in the rows in front of us, so we decided not to wander over to the other side and to wait it out.
Let's see, the wedding was well planned and went smoothly. Pictures were taken afterward while everyone mingled around. We were reintroduced to people who we've apparently met before (when we were really young) but I didn't recognize. Met this person, that person, etc.
<- is debating something.
Okay, girl might know who I'm talking about, but I don't think it matters. Anyway, there was this girl I noticed who always seemed to be standing alone. Not just alone, but far away from any groups of people. I found that a little odd because she seemed to be with her family, but still didn't want to mingle with people. She offered to take our picture when my dad wanted one of the family (when doesn't he?) and after that, she went back to standing all by herself. I was thinking about what to do about it, but before I could think of something, she (and the rest of her family) left. Oh well, end of story.
Alright, I must admit that I was checking out all of the girls at the wedding. To be honest, none of them interested me except for that girl. What can I say? She looked cute (and upon closer inspection, she WAS cute! *stares*).
After people started to leave, we headed off to the chalet where the reception was being held. We got there a little early (again) and as there was no hors d'oeuvres being offered, we wandered around the building. While I was passing by one of the (many) windows, I happened to look outside and see, sitting alone at a picnic bench, the same girl I noticed before! What the? I thought *I* was the antisocial one. This time I really had to do something. Plucking up my courage, I headed outside with the rest of the family, and when they started to head back inside, I started wandering down to where the picnic table was.
I came up behind her and asked how she was doing. No response. Err.. (did I say something wrong?) Fortunately, after closer inspection, she was listening to a Discman (or something) and couldn't hear me. *wipes brow* It wasn't long before she noticed that something was up and turned around, so.. we talked.
I'm going to finish this later, I need sleep.
So, where was I? Oh yeah, before I continue, I should mention that there were quite a number of females who attended the wedding. Most of them were in their mid to late twenties (if not older), and although I'm already over a quarter century, I still consider myself as one of the younger "kids" ("I don't wanna grow up..").
So I talked with this girl for a while. We chatted about this and that, and I found out some interesting aspects about her. How she knew the wedding party, where she lived, etc. I also just couldn't.. stop.. looking.. (damn). Maybe I'm attracted to those "really cute loner type" girls or something, but I digress.
Time passed, and I noticed (as I was looking through one of the windows behind her) that my dad was wandering around (probably looking for me). He looked around, saw me outside, and wandered back. I wonder what sort of news he brought back to the family? *wonders*
Anyway, she wanted to see if the wedding party arrived, so we went inside, found out that they hadn't arrived yet, grabbed some drinks, and talked some more. Actually, by then, our respective families had found us and started conversing, so we didn't talk for quite a while, not until the wedding party did arrive, when we headed back in.
I might as well talking about her and start talking about the wedding again (or reception as the case may be). Anyway, we were sitting at two different tables so that gave me a chance to look around and see what was going on. One of the more interesting aspects of this reception was the fact that each of the tables had a multiple choice question written on a piece of paper. This question was about an aspect of the bride or groom or both. If the table answers it correctly, the married couple haas to kiss, if the table answers it incorrectly, the married couple can choose a penalty of their choice to impose on that table. (In lieu of glass clinking or hoarse singing.)
We got a fairly easy question, so there wasn't much to talk about there. However, some tables weren't able to answer their questions, and penalties ranged from dancing the chicken dance to kissing your significant other for as long as the groom's parents kissed. (This of course was on the table of only married couples, and boy were their lips locked for a long, long time.) I think that was a pretty cool idea, and it did keep the glass clinking to a minimum (only once for the whole night!). The food was fairly good, although I would've preferred more, but it was free, so I shouldn't complain. (Now if it was a traditional Chinese wedding on the other hand..)
After the meal was a small break before the traditional first dance, I hooked up with the girl again and we decided to go outside to enjoy the night air. We found a picnic table and started doing some Origami which she started (and I had interuppted the first time I talked to her). I don't know about you, but folding a 3 cm by 3 cm sheet of coloured paper into a crane isn't easy! *looks at big hands* (Hey, you know what they say about guys with big hands.)
We continued making our little masterpieces for over an hour, despite being unable to make anything out of it. (Well, I couldn't at least.) The wedding photographer even came out to snap a few pictures of our foolish fumbling (for some unknown reason). We eventually headed back inside after I went through a pile of kleenex. (The ragweed wasn't as bad out there as I had first worried about.)
Inside, we ate some cake and watched the dancers pack the rather small dance floor (about twenty by twenty feet). We watched until the groom came up the her, took her by the hands and dragged her onto the dance floor. I was sort of chuckling at that until he came right back out, grabbed my hands, and dragged me onto the floor as well! Doh! The song was one of those clogish sort of dancing type songs and being in sandles, with a still swollen foot, I wasn't all to comfortable. In any case, standing still was probably as bad for me as was hopping around, so I decided to get some exercise out of it. After the song was over, we headed off the floor and sat down. I asked her if she was going to go back on again, but she didn't want to dance in those shoes. Then she mentioned that I was in much better shape in my sandals. *blink* What? She noticed my sandals? *looks down* Apparently she noticed them earlier. (Well, I guess other people had noticed by then, but she was the only one to mention it at all that night.) I see..
Well, I talked with her more afterward but after repeated attempts, I couldn't get her back on the floor. She urged me to go on and enjoy myself. *shrug* Oh well. So I went on the dance floor, after convincing a couple other girls to dance (they were waiting for "Bye Bye Bye" more about this later) and didn't see her much afterward since she left some time later.
Oh man, I really want to see her again. *thinks* Well, I might have a chance, but this is probably the last time I'll mention her here, so.. on to other stuff!
The two girls I was talking about before had requested their NSYNC song and used that as an excuse to not to dance. We still dragged them on (albiet kicking and screaming). They were.. lethargic. I asked them about their lack of enthusiasm, and the answer was basically that they would dance better with "Bye Bye Bye". Okay.
Their wishes were answered not long afterward. So I watched them try to perform their moves. Apparently, they were trying to copy the routine that the group had choreographed in the music video (where they hop three times). Oh boy.. uh.. I don't think I'll say anymore about this, but personally, I thought it was.. naw, no comment.
Anyway, eventually the reception ended, and we headed back to the places where we came from (after I grabbed a pair of the complementary chopsticks).
<- still fuming about not getting a teacup.
The drive back was.. disorienting. The way to the chalet was pretty well laid out as each group was given a map to the place and there were many signs that pointed towards the camp. Unfortunately, there were no signs leading out from the camp, and the map wasn't very helpful either. To top it off, it was pitch black outside, and there were no streetlights on these back country roads. Getting lost was a good possibility for us cityfolk.
Needless to say, we didn't (after some lucky guesses), and we made it back to the hotel where we crashed.
Monday, August 28, 2000 at 19:12:12 (UTC)
Woo! Tell us more!
(Or girl can tell us more, if she feels like posting.. ;-)
Oh yeah, and white socks are evil.
++mike
Tuesday, August 29, 2000 at 15:24:18 (UTC)
White socks are for a) school uniforms, b) children and c) sweating in. You can also get away with them wearing blue jeans (or white pants) with light coloured shoes. Under any other circumstance, you'll be shunned by the fashion conscious. Like most fashion issues, there isn't really any reason for why they look tacky... they just do.
You should immerse yourself in Details magazine or something similar if you're serious about learning about fashion faux pas' such as wearing white socks with black shoes.
Actually, if you're into ska music, you can get away with it though you should also be wearing a black suit. It's an eighties look, really.
Here's another link that discusses white socks. And another.
Hwankachu