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| emily and i took off from the norfolk airport (she thought she'd sqeeze in just one last exam before taking off for this exhausting weekend). becca picked us up at ohare, and we HIT THE ROAD, heading for emily's dad's house in vicksburg. on friday morning, emily and i visited her gradparents...we drove right through a construction site to get to them! never mind the detour mr superintendant, YOU move YOUR equipment! emily's grandma was rendered speachless about the sleeves on our dresses....we laughed. she shared some crazy-cool dish-washers/pot-holders with us, and even let becca choose one when she arrived to take me to the high school. on our way to the high school, bec and i stopped at continental bakery for a sweet breakfast. :D yum. i had a napolean. when we signed in at the high school, the evil front desk lady told us we could not visit our favorite teachers. figures. she was always that way....so we took the long way out of the building and visited mrs kernish anyway. of course she had time to say hi and she was thrilled to see us, despite what the evil lady tried to convey. mr o'conner was not available that day. becca dropped me off at big boy's...em & i talked with her grandparents for a while, took their picture, and hugged as she teared up on the way to the car. her grandpa tried to keep us from leaving by hiding the keys, but we had to leave anyway. :( we arrived at the graves's to help out with last minute stuffs and were eventually put on ice duty (having already been on duct tape, safetypin, and ciggarette duty)... october michigan weather, being what it is, decided it was the perfect moment to start raining. after looking around for appropriately priced ice, we ended up at a gas station, loading up our 250 lbs of ice into the back of the pickup emily's dad let us borrow for the weekend, in the pouring rain. on the drive back, the rain developed into a consistant downpour and the weathermen concluded we should all be on the lookout for tornados. then came the hail. emily and i were soaked, and belted out aretha franklin songs, old 80's dance tunes, and whatever else we could find on our 45 minute jaunt out to the middle of nowhere...that is, burlington. on our last turn before arriving at the graves's house, we encountered a road block. the strong winds had emptied a tree of its dead branches, depositing them on the roadway for easy identification. emily, driving and still wet, paused, considering the power of the dinky (her dad agrees) truck... could it make the leap? i didn't want to find out and sprang from the truck to haul the debris away myself. what else was there for her to do but turn it into a photo opportunity?! just then, we acquired an audience--another innocent vehicle, blocked from its course of travel! realizing the immediacy of the situation, em put the camera away and we did double time to clear the obstruction. the passengers in the second vehicle waved to us in clear gratitude as they passed safely through. hooray for the superheros, emily & colleen, saving burlington from certain isolation through their strong arms and take-action attitudes! hooray! but wait(e)...that's not all! then came the emptying of our cargo into the garage...the truck didn't make it up the driveway all the way, so...we unloaded in what had become sheets of cold rain! we tossed bag after bag of ice from the truck bed onto the floor of the garage...and called for help. mr graves! where does this go??! in the freezer, of course. it is not warm in the october rain of michigan, i noticed, and we stacked our 250 lbs of ice in the freezer, laughing heartily while mr graves remembered that all we do is take pictures...even when we're already LATE for dress rehersal, which was to begin in about an hour!! the leap into the truck! the 45 minute drive to vicksburg! the drying of clothes which had been resting peacefully in THE BED OF THE TRUCK the entire time. we were out the door in 20 minutes, showered, cleaned, and ready to reherse the big day... emily only knew the 45 minute route to the creek, but, just then...mr blinn arrived home from work! he related the 25 minute way and we were only 15 minutes late to the rehersal and its corresponding dinner. the latter at which we were rewarded for our brave efforts with wooden boxes painstakenly painted by mrs graves, herself. we almost cried, but we laughed. (afterwards we went out for drinks and kareoke, then went home to our beds!) |
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| PRE-WEDDING FRU-FRU |
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