So… wow. I had a great time in the Southwest and was not pleased to come back to school and work. Stupid school and work. Anyway, let me first say that the wedding was great, Morgan and Ryne seemed to stay relatively stress free from beginning to end and, at the present moment, they’re probably… well… they’re in Hawaii and I’m not going to venture any guesses as to what they’re doing.
Wednesday night I headed up to Birmingham because my 6:15 flight would’ve forced me to leave Tuscaloosa no later than 4:30… and I was NOT about to wake up early enough to do that. I had dinner with Abby, Matthew, Abby’s brother Drew and Drew’s friend. That was entertaining enough, then it was back to Abby’s apartment where Matthew and I watched some TV while Abby studied. Eventually Abby went to bed and I crashed on the couch.
Thursday morning Abby woke me up at 4:30 and I started my day. All flights were on time and not being one to sleep on planes, I got a ton of reading in. Oh, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport? Not a fan. No particular reason, just didn’t care for it. Anyway… plane touched down at Sky Harbor just before 11:30. Mandy’s[#] plane was coming in a little after noon and she was going to cart me over to Morgan & Ryne’s so I hung out and made polite conversation with all sorts of random people. After waiting for Mandy to pick up her borrowed car we grabbed lunch and scooted over to the Ruckii’s apartment. The rehearsal was later that afternoon and when we got there I got to see the other bridesmaids Sarah, Mimo, and Abbie… all of whom I had met before (through Key Club) and also the other Groomsmen who turned out to be fun guys. We rehearsed walking which was just as easy as you’d expect, checked out the presidential suite (wedding party HQ) and eventually made our way to the rehearsal dinner at the Macaroni Grill. We had contemplated taking the wedding party out on the town, but Ryne was feeling under the weather and most of us had been in transit for most of the day so we headed back to the Bride’s suite and hung out for a while. Eventually Ryne and I headed back to El Apartamente del Ruckii where we both got to bed pretty early.
We got up at a pretty reasonable hour on Friday, and with Ryne still under the influence of various flu medications, I drove us around Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale taking care of wedding-day-errands and making sure everything was all set. Shortly after noon everyone got all dolled up and headed out to the courtyard where pictures were taken (I’m sure I’ll get some pics from the weekend soon to share) once the pictures were snapped we headed back to The Wedding Party HQ where we all gabbed it up and waited. It was a good ceremony… I’m always amazed at how short weddings are, especially the non-southern-baptist ones. All of that planning, stress, and what not for such a short little production. Nevertheless, Morgan looked gorgeous in her dress (which did look much better on her than it did on the model on the website), the Bridesmaids looked outstanding, and the guys all looked like the studs that we are. The rain that threatened as we were processing held off until after were were all at the reception and enjoying food, drink, and dancing… a while later after Morgan and Ryne had made their exit, the party broke up — the other groomsmen heading home and I changed and headed back to the hotel bar with Abbie and Sarah where I kept them from being abducted by a shady character who claimed to be a relation of the bride… though I’m not sure anyone should admit to that. When we got back to the bridesmaids’ suite I decided not to drive back to Ryne’s and crashed with them instead. (Yes, gentlemen, you may now be jealous)
At varying times on Saturday morning, the bridesmaids made their way to the airport and I took care of some final things for The Ruckii as they prepared to head off to Hawaii for the honeymoon. After I grabbed lunch with Mandy (who stayed in town because school starts soon enough for those kids at ASU) I returned Ryne and my tuxes and got some more reading done. The day was largely uneventful — I missed a call from Jill which would’ve provided some excitement for the evening, but I ended up watching a movie and turning in relatively early.
My flight was supposed to leave early Sunday afternoon, but not until after I had a late breakfast with Matt, Favorite Julie, Julie’s SigO Matt, and their friends Sophie and Julian. The food at this place (Harlow’s?) was outstanding and filled me up. I wasn’t hungry for at least a few hours. I made it to the airport thinking I had only a short time to spare only to find out that my flight had been delayed almost 90 minutes, scheduled for a departure time of 4:00. This put us tentatively on the ground at 7:15… while my flight to B’ham was supposed to be boarding. Hmmm. I got my stats homework done and kept on reading. We landed at DFW at at probably 6:40ish, but didn’t get to de-plane until a bit after 7:00… those of us with tight connections on account of the delay were NOT pleased to spend 20 minutes on the runway. Behind me on the plane was a girl named Michelle who was catching a flight to Boston that was supposed to be leaving within a few minutes of us starting to deplane. When we found out that both of our flights were on the other side of the airport she wanted to follow me because [I looked like] I knew what I was doing. We had to part ways after a short tram-ride to the A terminal, but I’m hoping she made her flight — we wasted no time in getting her to her gate. I got to MY gate just a few minutes before boarding started, but not early enough to get food… no matter, I burned the last 100 fat cells on my body to stay alive until they brought a mockingly small back of pretzels to munch on as we passed through Texas.
Anyway… that about sums up the trip. The Ruckii are now One Small Happy Family, I got a much-needed vacation and finished a novel and a half, and now it’s over. Bah. Can I go back to Arizona, please?
Knowing your unbelievable charm, I can’t imagine you not being able to get more than one bag of pretzels….. you must be loosing it….
Glad you had a good time.
Harlow’s is was indeed. I spend many Saturday mornings there during my college years and am glad you liked it as well. Glad we were able to cross paths again while in Tempe.