November 4, 1999

I look like I'm meditating or something in that picture. In reality, I was trying to see if I could take a picture using candle light or if I would have to turn the room light on instead. And when I picked up the candle, I was smelling it because it smells like pine needles. And that's the REST...of the story.

Jim and I went to the mall so that he could get new glasses. The lenses kept popping out of his old ones and he kept trying to superglue it back in and it just wasn't working out, so he decided to get new ones. They are pretty sexy, if I do say so myself. I'll have to try to get a picture of them in here. The rims are tortoiseshell and they match his hair color, which looks cool. Anyway, while killing time waiting for the glasses to be done, we bought a ton of candles at the Yankee Candle Company. They had a deal where you mix and match 18 votives, so we did that. So far we've burned "Christmas Cookie" which ROCKED and right now I'm doing "Balsam Fir" which is also pretty nice.

So the wedding...all of the bridesmaids went over to Gretchen's mom's house in the morning to get our hair done and get ready together. As much as I bitched about having to get up at 8 a.m. and then sit around for 4 hours, it was nice to have some girl-bonding before the wedding. I think it probably helped Gretchen be less nervous too. Her husband, Bob, sent her flowers that morning that said, "I am the luckiest man on earth" and we were all crying. Guys, if you get married, that's a classy move. Anyway, we all got ready and then went out front to take pictures. It was a beautiful day - sunny and in the 70's. You'd never know it was October 30th in Upstate NY. We took every possible combination of pictures and then the photographer showed up and took some more, and we were off to the church. We had some time to kill, so we had the limo driver take the long way around. We couldn't get the CD player to work, so we decided to sing. We ended up serenading Gretchen with "Chapel of Love" (you know "Going to the chapel and we're gonna get ma-a-a-rried"). It was really pretty and kind of touching. But I'm a big softy.

Once we got to the church, we had to wait in the church basement, which is nerve-wracking. There was a flurry of last-minute lipstick applications and dress adjustments and then we entered the church. As I was walking down the aisle, I remember thinking Bob looked like he was about to throw up. I kind of missed Gretchen walking down the aisle because everyone was standing and blocked my view, but I'm sure I'll see the video at some point. The ceremony was just beautiful - it went off without a hitch. Molly and I did get laughing because one of the altar girls was wearing the traditional red and white robe with black stockings and black high-heeled sandals and it looked ridiculous. I bumped Molly and said, "What's up with the sexy altar girl?" and we giggled. They really shouldn't let us sit together. I didn't cry much, but I teared up during the vows, and during the General Intercessions when they remembered the mother of one of the bridesmaids who died a few weeks ago. Finally the priest introduced the newlyweds and we all trooped out, and then hung out for a while out front, and then took some more pictures, and finally headed off to the reception.

It was fun in the limo - we listened to the Beastie Boys some more. I liked that we had a limo bus so that the whole wedding party was in one place. In other weddings I have been in, they had to get two limos and split us up, and that kind of took away the community feeling you get from the bridal party.

We entered the reception and sat at our head table. The food was pretty good, but Molly had her reception there too so I kind of knew what to expect. The best man gave his speech, and he told a story, and had two of the ushers get up and act it out, which was funny. I think best men's speeches should be short and sweet though, and this was a little long. But I'm sure Gretchen and Bob enjoyed it. Then Brenda had to say a few words as the maid of honor, and she did a great job. I know she was really nervous but you couldn't tell. She recounted how Gretchen and Bob have had a lot of tough times, moving to Florida away from friends and family, Gretchen finishing up her degree, Bob finishing up law school, and how a lot of people never thought they would make it and now here they are. Their first dance song was "Still the One" by Shania Twain and it was really appropriate - "Looks like we made it."

After dinner the dancing started and it was great. I didn't dance that much because frankly, I was still recovering from the rest of the weekend and I was exhausted. But I did get out there with the rest of the bridesmaids for a few songs. People left really early, which I didn't get. We had a room at the hotel so we stayed until about 11 pm or so, and then went to bed. The next morning we said goodbye to everyone - it was nice to be able to see them all the next morning too. I really like the idea of having the bridal party and guests all stay at the same hotel. My brother did that at his wedding too and it was fun.

So, pictures hopefully next week! See you tomorrow.

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There's an article about The Real World in the Washington Post. Wait, you mean the producers manipulate the show? It's not just straight film of the castmates' lives? I am shocked! Shocked and appalled!

Speaking of The Real World, the new recap is up at Mighty Big TV. Only one more week and it's all over!

So I went and checked out Boo.com and it looks pretty but it breaks like every user interface guideline ever. It takes a really long time to load, it uses a lot of plugins, they tell you what platform and window size to use...I have to wonder who they think their audience is. The mainstream user, when told to "resize your browser to 800x600 and change your color depth to 16 bit" is probably scared. It kind of scares me and I know what it means. So yeah, it looks pretty but how will their sales be, and isn't that the point?

Remember when AltaVista used to be the best search engine? Then they had to go and mess with it. And now they're spending tons of money to tout their revamped site. Bleh.

I downloaded a 30-day demo of Flash yesterday so maybe soon I will have a little movie for you!

Ice Cube is putting together a sequel to the movie Friday, which was actually a really good movie. You should rent it sometime. It's all funny and then suddenly it's all serious.

I am so glad that the ridiculous "gay panic" defense got thrown out and now Matthew Shepard's killers are serving life sentences.

Just what the world's been waiting for: The Dana Plato museum/resturant and accompanying CD-ROM.