What a difference a year makes, huh guys?
This time last year, I was exactly twelve days from finding out that I was pregnant. I was reading The Hunger Games, which I finished on January 6, and I couldn’t get enough sleep. I thought I might have mono… Little did I know.
Saturday night my beautiful baby sister became Mrs. Hailey Hopper. The wedding was nothing short of resplendent. The ceremony was held at the Oklahoma State Capitol, with about 300 guests, a string quartet and a bride who looked absolutely perfect. Hailey was seriously gorgeous, which presented a problem because she’s not so great at being the center of attention or accepting compliments. She managed.
A few weeks ago I wrote about my four day road trip. I think I insinuated that I would write from the road… But for a variety of reasons that wasn’t possible. The trip was meant to be our whole family, but B’s rocking his way through rehearsals for the Taper remount of Clybourne Park right now, so it was just me, the dog, the babe, and all the stuff I could fit in the car for two months out West… No biggie. We drove from Brooklyn to Champion, PA the first night so Liam could see his paternal grandparents, and stayed with B’s Aunt & Uncle that live up in Seven Springs. It was gorgeous up in the mountains, and Tucker was thrilled to run and play in the snow. Despite my Mother In Law feeding the baby TIRAMISU (!@#$%^*!#@), we had a lovely time visiting and sitting by the fire with family.
Then we hit the road again, bound for Indianapolis. There was rain, and wind, and although things could probably have been worse… They were pretty bad. Baby was not happy the last few hours in the car, and we ended up stopping at a rest stop (where I was sure we would all be killed) in the dark, in the rain, thirty minutes from our destination because he was screaming bloody, furious murder. Once we got to the downtown Days Inn Indianapolois, I wish I could say things immediately improved, however, that’s not how it happened. Unloading the car was a nightmare. The hotel – should you ever need to stop there – has an uncovered parking lot. So that was fun for the baby and me with the rain. I had finally removed the bags we needed and placed everything on a luggage cart, had the dog on a leash and the baby in the Bjorn, when we started to roll inside and the entire cart tipped over, spilling our belongings all over the wet cement. This was when I really wished Days Inns had bellmen. Ah, budget living! Once we were all safe in the room, I ordered in dinner and went to bed early.
Day three started at 6AM, with Tucker needing to go to the bathroom. Fun. For all. We got out of there pretty quickly, and I was able to find a Starbucks with a drive-through for morning sustenance. We headed for Rolla, MO, and actually made awesome time with no meltdowns. I managed to stop at Whole Foods in St. Louis, which was great as I was very much over road food by that point. Stocked up on pre-made healthy yumyums and too many sweets, we skated into Rolla’s Baymont Inn & Suites at sunset. This was the smoothest day of our trip, by far.
On our FOURTH day of driving, everyone was well-behaving (yes, even me) but anxious to be out of the car. I ran out of cash before the last toll booth outside of OKC, and had the uncommon pleasure of parking on the shoulder at the toll station, waking up the baby, and carrying him into the office to use my credit card, then I had to feed him because he was awake and pissed. This begs an important question: Why don’t the install credit card machines at those toll booths!?! What is this, 1999? Get with the times, Highway people. Yeesh.
Anyway, we made it home by five o’clock, and enjoyed a restful evening with Grandi & Big.
The next night was the Bachelorette Party!!! This was my sole purpose for getting to Oklahoma before Christmas sans husband, and I really wanted my sister to feel importante and celebrated. We met at the gorgeous Skirvin in downtown OKC for a lingerie shower, wine, amazing cheese from Forward Foods, bra & undies cookies, and truffles that I made.
As luck would have it, the hotel had a limo that we were able to ride in to dinner at Pachinko Parlor. Now, I had never been to this new OKC sushi restaurant, but it was a great choice. We had the downstairs room to ourselves (I so love that we were able to reserve a private room for a party of fifteen FOR FREE, and at the end of the meal, we each got separate checks! They didn’t even add an automatic gratuity for our large party! Oh, Oklahoma… I heart thee.) and I think everyone had a good time & a good meal. This is a party platter that they serve called “The Great Wall” — absolutely delectable.
After dinner, we rode over to Nancy’s Lighthouse for karaoke… With everyone else on the planet, apparently. It was so packed that only the bride was able to sing, but that was the most important part!
I’ll have to tackle Christmas and the week leading up to the wedding tomorrow. I tweaked a muscle in my neck, and just realized that a hot shower would not only help, but that I haven’t bathed since Thursday… BUT IT’S BECAUSE OF MY SPRAY TAN, I SWEAR!!!!
More writing, less stinking tomorrow! I’m inspired by my end-of-year blog report, which says that in 2011 over 5,400 people visited my blog. It’s a little bizarre that people from Africa, South America, Germany & Russia visited… But…. No judgement!
I love your new digs. And I am super glad that you guys made it halfway across the country without any major mishaps.
Happy honeymoon Hailey!! Your sister is seriously gorgeous.