Current location:	Anoka
Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Secret Heart--Feist

Life in Technicolor // Step Back in Time

The weekend I had both slightly worried about and anticipated this month is over.  But first, let’s back up a bit.  We’ve got a lot of ground to cover

I’ve known we were replacing the ancient, older-than-I-am, nasty early-80s semi-shag carpeting in our basement since we moved in 4 years ago.  I even knew there was a timetable for the replacement over spring break, when we moved my sister’s room there and the carpet was promised to be in before I went back to school in the fall.  Said carpet had yet to disappear when I arrived home late May.  Clearly, whether I wanted to or not, I was to assist in its installation, a prospect that didn’t thrill me, but I accepted that my help was necessary and that it would be part of the summer’s activities.  I waited for the day to come, but nothing happened within the first two weeks.  Finally, after Katie’s confirmation that she would be joining me for the crazy weekend, my dad was told that the carpet WOULD be in before she came.

Cut to Monday morning, my mom and I working on moving the furniture into the back part of the basement, clearing the rooms to the best of our abilities while we waited for the carpet to arrive.  Once my dad was back, the new carpet was housed temporarily in the garage while the brown semi-shag, one of the last fragments of the former look of the basement was finally gone (The wood paneling and much of the original cabinetry remains there, but those are a bit harder to remove).  Everything was gone Monday night, and the new carpet was hauled down there so that it could be laid first thing in the morning.  Sometime during the day my iPod Shuffle fizzed out, breathing its last.  No clue why it died, but now I get to upgrade to an 80 gig.  I crashed on the sofa bed down there while my sister took my room, as I do not mind sleeping down there (it’s cooler in the summer), and my sister is easily convinced that she would find my bed more comfortable.

Installation went fairly smooth Tuesday, with the two major pieces of carpet going in, and only the area near the stairs remaining.  95% of the furniture was returned, electronics were re-set up (my specialty), and any loose fibers from the carpet were vacuumed up.  Throughout all this, the dogs were kept away to prevent any extra dander/hair/whatever from the area where Katie was staying, so as to keep her visit a pleasant one.

Along with all that going on downstairs, I still had my usual amount of eBay stuff coming in.  A few new games for the Wii came in, so now I’m the proud owner of Super Marios Paper and Galaxy.  The vendor I bought them from specializes in damaged case games, and generally ships in blank DVD cases, but the games I received were brand new—if there was any damage, I didn’t see it.  I’ll definitely use them in the future—Thumbmonkey all the way.

Before I get into the weekend (and what I assume will be the bulk of this post), I’ll quickly cover what’s going on this week with my job as a mental_floss intern.  For those paying close attention, you may have noticed a lack of content with my name attached last week.  Because of the whole wedding/carpet install stuff going on, my editor told me to not put so much pressure on having something on the site, but I still had an article ready to go if they needed it.  This isn’t such a big deal—the other interns are at 2 articles each, and I’ve got 3.5 on the site.  You’ll see more from me in the coming weeks, though.  Here’s what’s on the drawing board, whether complete or not:

·         Ready to Go (may appear sometime this week—digg fingers poised):

o   Five Bizarre Choices for Brand Extension

o   Five Reasons 1980 Wasn’t the Best Year for Movie Musicals (now updated, and also off SAS)

·         Almost Done:

o   Name all the actors who’ve played The Doctor in y minutes (y still being determined)

·         Conceptual Stage (but approved)

o   Interesting Things People have done with Wii controllers

o   Differences between CS, SE, and CPE (close to my heart)

o   Scientific Processes behind cooking

o   Movie-to-TV show adaptations that failed

o   Interactive Map (flash or google maps) that features interesting roadside attractions

A few quick tens in the future may be written by me, but it remains to be seen when I’ll be called upon.  Also, I’m asked to provide 10 facts for the amazing fact generator every week—let me know if you’ve got any to share that you don’t mind me using.

And now the stuff you’ve read the other stuff in anticipation for: the wedding weekend.

5 AM, Friday morning—the earliest I’ve woken up this summer.  Got out of bed, got ready to go, and watched the morning news until 5:45, when we left to pick Katie up at the Megabus drop-off point.  I had never even heard of Megabus until Katie mentioned another bus line when discussing travel, speaking of a company with “large blue buses” that I couldn’t have missed.  I live 30-45 minutes outside of the Twin Cities, and Minneapolis is the only Megabus stop in MN.  Anyways, as soon as I found out about them and sent Katie pricing info, we both knew it was the way to go.  They’re cheap—if their Ohio and Pennsylvania stops connected, I’d seriously consider using them to visit NYC to check out Mental Floss HQ (something I’m trying to do this summer) or for spring break.  I’m getting sidetracked, anyways, back to the bus stop.

Both my dad and I were expecting some sort of Megabus signage, or even a waiting area when we pulled up to the transit building underneath the C Ramp, being unfamiliar with Megabus as previously stated.  Not seeing anything, we made a loop to be sure.  Finally, my dad pulled over, got out of the car, and talked to a police officer that happened to be parked across the street from the transit building.  Apparently, outside of the transit building was the stop.  We waited in the car until a big blue bus turned the corner.  Much like their British counterparts, Megabus’ American buses are, for the most part, double-decker and easy to spot.  I headed across the street, my dad following after locking the car, and waited for people to start exiting the bus.

Spotted Katie, no problem, and waited for her to grab her bags from the baggage part of the bus.  Big hug once we found each other, and back to the car the three of us went.  Talked all the way home, on what she’s doing, what I’m doing, Minnesota/weird signs in general, how her trip was, etc.  Arrived home to the rest of the family already awake, and the surprise breakfast of waffles with strawberries.  Showed Katie around the house while waiting for waffles, and settled in the basement while she waited for her allergy meds to kick in.  Katie also presented me with a late birthday gift, an assortment of Ferrera-Pan goodies, including a pound of cherryheads (my favorite).  Continued to talk all through breakfast, and past it, until exhaustion from the trip finally kicked in for her (and me, somewhat), and we both headed to our respective sleeping quarters to get some extra Zs.  I only laid down for about half an hour, afterwards using eBay to score a birthday gift for my sister, but Katie was out until lunch time.  Lunch was a quick McDonalds run (McD’s and DQ are both within a 5 minute car ride/10 minute walk from my house), and the afternoon was spent doing some more talking and hanging out in the basement away from the dogs.  After supper (spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken with Grilled Pineapple amongst other items), we dressed up and headed down to the Como Conservatory for the first wedding.

The Conservatory is one of my favorite places at the Como Zoo, and I had no idea that weddings could be done there (although it really didn’t surprise me that they could).  The spaces they have there are for much smaller weddings (< 100 people), but they’re all beautiful.  The only downside is that, except for a few rows of chairs reserved for older wedding guests, the space is standing room only, with one side reserved for the wedding party to walk down.   I’ll post the photos I took later.  Along with a cramped standing space, the conservatory is also very warm, even with all the windows open.  Katie and I both dressed lighter for this wedding than we did for the second one.

This was the shortest wedding ceremony I’ve ever been to, no joking.  I think it probably took the wedding party the same amount of time to get down the aisle as it did for the minister to ordain the ceremony.  We were done by 7:20; the ceremony started a little after 7.  After doing the whole “blowing bubbles at the couple while they go to the car” thing (whatever happened to pelting people with rice?), we hung around the Conservatory a little bit and took some more pictures before heading home.  The reception for this one wasn’t until Saturday afternoon, so we drove back to Anoka, caught the late showing of Doctor Who for the week (I had yet to re-do the timer on the downstairs VCR) and afterwards I showed Katie The Apple .  Congratulations, everyone in my circle of friends, you’ve all seen that atrocity now.  We went to bed, a big day ahead of us.

Saturday, the plan was to go to breakfast at IHOP.  After everyone had woken up by 11:30, we went to lunch instead.  I can’t remember if it was there or some other time in the week, we figured out what David’s wedding will probably be (the talk on Saturday mostly concentrated around weddings—my family’s, her family’s, a pact to not get married in the White Chapel, etc.).  David is going to graduate from Rose, head back to Minnesota, and get married to a nice girl from church (who may or may not be already picked out for him), where they’ll settle down close to where his parents live and stay there, continuing the cycle.  I think this is accurate.  The only part that kind of scares me is the fact that I am probably going to be in the wedding party for that one.  I would much rather be a guest at that one rather than a groomsman, so now the goal is to remain friends with david, but be number 4 on the list (so that I’m at least still considered, but just barely get passed over in the event he needs to pick 3 groomsmen).

Late Saturday afternoon, we headed over to the first reception.  Since I didn’t really know anyone at said reception, Katie and I talked about Rose, specifically what she’d learn from Dr. Merkle on how to look social at symposiums and poster presentations.  We applied the skills she’d learned, holding our drinks, making hand gestures, and looking like we were talking about important stuff while talking about what was going on around us.  Got some free food, congratulated the bride and groom, and got out of there so we could change into our formalwear and head to the second, more proper, wedding.

Dressed in our suits and our ties and our dresses and our skirts, we headed to the location of the second wedding, the chapel on the college campus that the bride attends (bride and groom at this one are close friends from elementary/middle/start of high school, as I’ve previously noted).  Absolutely amazing setting.  While sitting waiting for things to begin, played the game of “do I know that person?” as other guests arrived; spotted plenty I knew, including some I didn’t expect to see, like my third grade teacher.  The ceremony this time around was much longer, an actual church wedding with a message before vows, candles, and pronouncement of man and wife.  Afterwards, bride and groom stopped to greet everyone as they left their row, something I hadn’t seen before at a wedding.  I was happy to find out that I was recognized and appreciated.  Did the whole blowing bubbles thing (again, what happened to assaulting the new couple with rice?) and waved to greet a few people before heading out to the reception.

The reception for this wedding was held at a multipurpose building in a regional park closer to my house; I suspect they would have had their reception on-campus as well if not for campus regulations on dancing (which may or may not exist, as I haven’t checked—this is a private Christian college, however).  Katie and I went to get lemonade from a fountain-like dispenser while the rest of our party found seats.  A fellow student who switched from MCCS to AHS at the same time I did asked if she and her date could join my family, and I had no problems with that.  Third grade teacher came over to say hello, and I introduced her to Katie, as I did with all the other people who approached me that night.  Apparently she had already asked my mom if Katie and I were dating; I think about 5 people did the entire weekend.  We’re not—we’re just good friends who set up a “I’ll go to yours, you go to mine” thing with the upcoming weddings we have.

So my hesitation last week about the old faces?  All for naught.  While I recognized a bunch of them, I didn’t get much chance to talk to many who didn’t approach me, a combination of no time and my tendency to clam up in situations like this.  The friend from high school and Katie happened to be a great match, with their involvement in theater tech providing good conversation material.  And, much like many of the others of our age there, we danced.  The bride and groom danced to Ingrid Somethingorother’s “The Way I Am”, which was appropriate.  I think I might have to go to some of the ballroom dance club’s meetings this fall—while I’m decent at more modern dancing, I need practice to keep up with Katie.  I think she was the right person to ask to these, though; she kept me grounded, but also helped me to open up a little bit.

Also: more (unfortunately blurry) proof for Japan that Aramark is everywhere (from a doormat at the multipurpose center):

 

As for Sunday, breakfast was McDonald’s again, and shortly after it was time to take Katie back to the bus stop.  Parked in about the same spot, and waited for the double decker to show itself.  It never did, but a coach bus bearing the MB insignia did.  Waited for Katie to get on the bus before departing, and headed back home.  The rest of the weekend was for the most part uneventful, but the time Katie and I got to spend with each other was fun, and a break from the usual for both of us.

So, throughout the whole weekend, Katie and I ended up developing a list of general guidelines for weddings.  This may not be all of them (I’m still waiting to hear back from her to see if I’ve missed any), but it is close:

1.       You don’t wear reggae-colored shoes to a wedding, even if you are rocking the "dad made me dress up for this wedding so I put on a polo shirt" look

2.       The ring bearer does not double as a beer retriever at the reception, no matter how excited he is to do it

3.       A wedding that is only 20 minutes is a ceremony, not a wedding

4.       When you get a tattoo on your back, you lose spaghetti strap privileges

5.       It is a good idea to stop crying by the time the photographer wants to take pictures

6.       Chugging a lite beer in your wedding dress looks really classy

7.       A camera should be carried at all times to capture moments like #6

So, as of yesterday, I’ve gone from “mental_floss intern” to “paid mental_floss intern”.  I got my first paycheck of three for the summer, and I made a photocopy for posterity before I deposited it.  Part of it is going towards that new iPod, but the rest is staying in my account to ease the pain that is fall books a little bit.  And, since I mentioned it in yesterday’s teaser post, I’ve acquired a few more pairs of chucks with some of my library money—another burgundy pair (my old ones are getting a little worn) and a pair in royal blue which look very sharp.

Jumped at the chance to see Wall-E yesterday.  The movie was great, the short before it reminding me of old Bugs Bunny cartoons in its setup.  The only thing that was painful about the experience was one of the previews beforehand.  I kind of want to see the person who greenlit Beverly Hills Chihuahua (or at least the person who developed the pre-movie ad) set on fire.  The trailer, which I can’t verify because I never want to see the accursed thing again, but am fairly certain is somewhere on the internet (probably the apple trailers site at least) consisted of various uncanny-valleyish CG Chihuahuas singing a contemporary song about dominance as Chihuahuas on a vaguely Mexican/Aztec-ish set for about a minute and a half.  I think that’s all anyone really needs to see of that movie, and I pray for its failure.  The other movie previewed after it, Bolt, looked funny and well thought out; BHC was an atrocity I hope I never am forced to see.

All for now.  See you next time I’ve got something to write about.

also, here's the new header image for the site re-design, coming in a few weeks.  I think it's kind of awesome: