My cousin's wedding
Broken into parts; cut for length.
Part I: The ceremony
Here it is, the big Labor Day weekend wedding. Having it on a Sunday worked out perfectly since Monday was the holiday, so in theory nobody had to work the next day.
The ceremony was in Barrington, the same place where the oldest of my cousins, M, got married. It wasn't supposed to be there originally, but my uncle had alluded to an issue that would not be resolved in time for the wedding at the Algonquin location, so the ceremony was moved. That was fine with us since we'd been there before and knew the general directions: Route 59 north to Route 14, hang a left, it'll be on the right. The problem is that, while there's a sign for the Kingdom Hall, it's not right on the road, so by the time you actually see it, you're past the driveway. I was pretty specific about my directions and wrote down that as soon as you go over the little bridge, it's right there; my dad still nearly missed it, but was fine.
I'd allotted an hour, 15 minutes to get there just in case we encountered an accident or construction, plus I didn't want to be *right* on time. However, it only took 45 minutes and none of our family was already there--we watched as M's family, then my aunt and uncle (separately) showed up. My parents decided to stay in the car for a bit, and just as my mom was wondering about grandma, and if she'd find the place okay, a car very much like hers drove past. …I think that was her. She showed up a few minutes later and we would find out that she did, in fact, miss it the first time around, but she made it okay. Phew. We didn't go in right away, in part because mom wanted to transfer some things from dad's car to grandma's, and we were across the lot from each other; grandma also had to finish getting dressed. She'd worn gym shoes for driving and had to put on her heels; alas, they were not the hot pink ones she'd teased us with, but dark blue. She also had gloves, like past her elbows, and had to put those on and have me button them at the wrist for her. Wow, didn't realize we were going so fancy here, though I remember her wearing them at M's wedding. Yeah, they're to hide her arms. She doesn't like them in her old age.
Once grandma was settled, and it took a good 5-10 minutes, we walked in. We encountered the boys right away; I'll call them J1 and J2. J2 was the groom. Mom and I headed into the bathroom while grandma took a seat just inside the front door. While in the washroom, mom started talking to someone and found out why we were in Barrington: A car had crashed into the building in Algonquin. Oh, dear. Yeah, I can see how that would take a while to fix, though I don't know why my uncle couldn't just say that. As it was, the congregation that used the Barrington building had moved up the road to Crystal Lake, and this building was essentially empty; they were putting it up for sale. Dad was talking with the boys and heard that much. At least it was available to use and they were able to have the wedding there.
We left the bathroom and I went over to stand by grandma. She has gone to some of the religious gatherings and has known some of my aunt and uncle's friends for many years, so some people came up and greeted her warmly. It helps that grandma's pretty outgoing. One woman was talking with grandma about how M and J2 were now married, and grandma mentioned something about "the older one," which at first glance sounded like she was talking about J1 (who was also nearby), but I knew she meant me. Yeah, grandma has been trying to get me married for a couple decades now; at this point in my life, I think it's a lost cause. However, the way this all was phrased concerned J1; he went, uh, is she talking about marrying *us* (like, we marry each other)? We're not from Alabama! No, no, she just wants us married, period. That's how grandma rolls. (Besides, he's too young for me. :P But my parents were like, maybe she'll meet a nice JW man at the wedding… Guys, I like celebrating my birthday and holidays. Especially since my birthday has been known to fall on a holiday. It would never work.) (They're probably thinking of the time I danced with a nice boy at my aunt and uncle's wedding…back in 1987, before I knew any better. That was a one-time thing, guys.)
I should mention outfits. One of the colors was lavender. The bridesmaids' dresses were lavender, the flowers were white and lavender, the groomsmen had lavender ties. J2's had a pattern on it. The guys also had matching brown shoes. Mom fit right in, wearing a purple dress with a lighter purple jacket over it. Grandma's dress was dark with colorful splotches all over it, hence why the hot pink shoes would've gone. I had on the yellow dress. My aunt had a similar dress to what she wore to M's wedding, with a beaded top, but she had it altered to add cap sleeves. She did not like her arms in the pictures from M's wedding and this was a way to cover them. Grandma mentioned it when we spoke on the phone the day before; you'd never have known the dress didn't come that way. As for the bride's dress, it had a vintage look to it; the back was very lacy. It was really pretty and had a T-style to the back.
My uncle is a bit of a micromanager, and I know at M's wedding he was very specific about where we were to sit and that sort of thing. Luckily that was the case here too, so that we were able to sit in the second row as members of the family--the seats were even marked as being reserved. We sat in pretty much the same seats as before, even, though we were joined by the bride's maternal grandmother and her husband; they sat on the aisle. We were told the ceremony would be pretty short, only 35 minutes; mom had talked to her brother a few days before. We knew the majority of the pictures would be taken prior to the ceremony, as they don't have the taboo of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding apparently. My uncle would tell us later that the bride's mom cleans the Sanfilippo estate in Barrington and they were able to take their pictures there thanks to her connections. It's actually pretty close by. That's pretty cool, especially since the website states that they expressly prohibit that sort of thing. (If you're wondering who the family is, they're a little nutty. That is, they're the Fisher Nut people.) There would be some pictures taken with other family members, i.e., us, following the ceremony, but we should have plenty of time to get from Barrington to Libertyville for the reception, which started at 6. The bridal party would arrive at 6:45. For reference, the wedding ceremony was to start at 4.
There was a minor bit of drama with M's daughter, the flower girl, who would be the first to walk down the aisle. She was nervous about doing that. M told us the back-up plan would be for her to walk with her daughter, but they weren't sharing that information. Well, when the time came, they both walked down the aisle. M hadn't wanted to do that, but she would later share that it made the day special--she got to participate in her brother's wedding, just as he'd done for hers. See, that's a nice way of looking at it. We'd been asked not to take pictures during the walk down the aisle. There were not one, but two photographers, and they would catch all these moments. Plus, we would find out that at a previous wedding, people were blocking their shots and that caused them to miss certain things. We were all respectful of that, though I did get some shots during other parts of the ceremony.
I remember being disappointed by the music played at M's wedding. It was just very generic and blah. The music here was better but still on the generic side; dad leaned over to me and went, it seems like something out of a Disney movie. I could kind of see that. I'm so used to well-known classical music that anything else throws me off. I will say that everyone was good up until the bride, MK, came in; she saw J2 and started tearing up, and that's all the rest of us needed. The preacher-type person was clearly someone who's known her, as one of the first things he'd said involved her cat. If you've ever visited her house, you know she has a cat named Quetzal (sp?), and Quetzal only likes MK. This cat will hiss or hide if you try to pet it, that sort of thing. Well, one of the first times J2 went to visit MK, the cat went and sat under his chair. That should have been a sign. The preacher had also asked them to list five character traits that they liked about each other. Most of them were pretty typical (nice, kind, etc.), but the final one MK listed for J2 was that he's a little nerdy. NICE! But it's so true. He even generally has the look, too, as he's had glasses since he was little--except he got contacts a few weeks ago. My aunt, I think it was, made sure to point that out to grandma when we first got there. Oh, he looked handsome. Gosh, now this is making me cry, because he's my little baby cousin and he's all grown up. Anyway, the ceremony was nice--and short--and the preacher injected humor into things as well as all the Christian stuff. One thing that amazed me, that we didn't have in 2012 when M got married, was that when the preacher said to turn to whatever chapter and verse, everyone whipped out their phones. M's husband had a tablet. MK's grandma, next to me, made an "oh, darn!" gesture that she didn't have anything with her. Yeah, the JWs have gone digital. I should say that the couple used a regular book bible, and the attendants, three sets, just stood there. That's all they did the whole time, save for when J1, the best man, took the rings out of his pocket. He included bonus lint from what I heard, heh. My uncle would tell us that this was the preacher's first wedding; wow, we had no idea. He did a really nice job.
The JWs are a social group (sort of like my band, but more religious), and they all stood around talking following the ceremony. Someone finally had to make an announcement about moving along to the reception…or at least clearing out of the sanctuary so that the couple could take pictures. Aha. M's family had been sitting in front of us, and her husband was busy keeping their son, who's not quite 2, occupied. He was pretty good during the ceremony overall, but afterward he wandered up on the altar and found a microphone, then grabbed it and was holding it like *he* was going to talk. Somebody finally grabbed it from him and put it where he couldn't reach it. We watched the group pictures being taken and waited our turn, and M's daughter came over and insisted on taking some pictures of me and J1 using my camera. She about wouldn't give me back the camera. Sweetie, not yours. She wanted to take more pictures of me and I said she could out in the hall, but that did not happen and it looks like she forgot about it, oh darn. She also ended up with MK's full-size bouquet at one point. Finally, when our pictures were done, we started to leave, but grandma then had to go to the bathroom, so it was still another 10-15 minutes overall before we left. We did get to see M's mother-in-law, sitting in the very back. Oh, how nice of J2 to invite her to the wedding. No, not quite--she was going to watch M's son so they wouldn't have to worry about him at the reception. Speaking of which, M showed us a picture at the reception--her son was having ice cream at his grandma's. She lives in Dixon, and M said that they would drive out tomorrow to go pick him up and then spend some of the day out there. See, another reason it was nice to have the holiday following the wedding.
Part II: The ride to the hotel
I won't lie, I was nervous about the trip. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Thankfully, being a Sunday, there wasn't a lot of traffic. Remember, my grandma lives in the city, where speed limits rarely top 30 MPH. We were out in the country on two-lane roads where the limit was more like 50 MPH. That in and of itself could cause trouble. For the most part, we had no issues, though I imagine the people behind grandma probably got a bit frustrated. She tends to go about 10 under the limit out here.
We got lucky just in pulling out of the parking lot: No traffic on 14. Phew. We were able to pull out, and grandma was, too. First turn: Kelsey Road. That was fine. Follow it for a few miles, then Kelsey makes a right at a light though the road continues ahead under another name. There are signs, but there's always the possibility mom and/or grandma would miss them; all was well. Then follow Kelsey until it ends at 59 and turn left. Fine. I was quickly realizing that the roads were a lot closer together than I expected--looking up the directions took way longer than actually driving them, given that I was click-click-click-ing down the roads on Google Maps to get ideas of what was going on. The next weird bit: The Route 59/Route 12 intersection. It's like a cloverleaf, and 59 does the turn to join up with 12--but we wanted to continue straight into Wauconda. I'd been very clear in my directions--DON'T make the turn! They didn't. Phew. (Mom would later say that they just followed us; she didn't look at the directions at all.) Next, in downtown-ish Wauconda, the road we were on ended and met up with Route 176. We had a stop sign; 176 did not. And 176 is not a lightly-traveled road. Dad was able to turn onto it; while I do think grandma stopped at the sign, she pulled in behind us…and could've caused an accident as there were cars coming. *facepalm* But she didn't. Phew. Outside of town, the road opened up so that a few of the people behind us could pass us, which was fine, but this big black truck turned off the cross street and got between us for a few miles; dad was still able to see them at times, though. The last hairy part came a little bit past there, where 176 meets up with Hawley Road; stay left if you want to continue on 176. Everyone did. Okay, phew. Then it was just a matter of going through Mundelein and turning onto 45, and a few miles north was the hotel, and we all found it just fine. Grandma did not park super neatly but ended up not moving her car. She was mostly between the white lines.
Mom went in first to get checked in, leaving me, dad, and grandma to get all our stuff. I went over to help grandma out, as she had multiple bags. One was her bathing suit, which she'd packed up and put in her car days earlier so she wouldn't forget it. I think she took one or two things, plus her coat, and I know I got her rolling suitcase. I'd tried to roll it but it was too short for me. Grandma noticed and went, it has a plenty long handle! Well, for you maybe--I'm a half-foot taller than her, plus I was in heels. Believe me, it's easier to carry it. She'd brought her cane along and used it at the ceremony, but left it in her car when she was gathering the stuff to take inside. Uh…do you want this? I'd grabbed it out and she did walk with it inside. Here's the thing about grandma: She is not careful about what she does. We got our hotel keys and went to our room on the second floor, which was most of the way down the hall. We're walking, and all of a sudden grandma stumbles and sort of falls into the wall. Are you okay? What did you trip on? We realized it was the sleeve to her coat, since she'd just sort of grabbed it and wasn't paying attention to how she was holding it. She was fine, but still. We get in the room, and I don't know what mom was expecting, but I don't believe it met her expectations. The room opened up into a little kitchen/wet bar area, then past that opened up to the full room. It was a larger than normal hotel room. She'd gotten two queen beds and a sofa bed, but it wasn't a sofa--it was more like a loveseat. That was on the left. In the middle of the room was a desk jutting out, separating the two halves of the room, and on the right were the two beds. The TV was on the wall adjacent to the desk. Next to the one bed, essentially behind the wet bar, you had the sink and mirror, like a dressing area, in the middle. To the left was the bathroom with toilet and shower/tub, and to the right was the closet, where we had a hard time opening one of the doors. There was very little privacy in there, which was a little awkward, but whatever. At that point we were just dropping our stuff off to get it out of the cars and then we were going to go right to the reception. The nice thing is that we were close to the stairs and an outer door, which opened right to the lot where dad had parked, so we were able to leave pretty easily. Grandma insisted on not bringing her cane as she felt it was more trouble than it was worth. Are you sure? Okay, fine.
Part III: The reception
Our hotel was right at 45 and Peterson, so it was easy to get onto Peterson, which almost immediately merged with IL 137/Buckley Road. Take that over to Milwaukee Avenue/IL 21, go south a bit, and you're there. My uncle had said there were directions to the reception at the ceremony and we made sure to grab some, but all it was was parking directions and I already figured out what was going on and had a plan. The reception was at Mickey Finn's Brewery in Libertyville, and in my mapping research I realized there wasn't access to parking off Milwaukee--there was a small parking lot behind there, and a public parking deck nearby, both accessed off a side street. The directions we were given at the ceremony exactly matched what I already had. Perfect.
I suggested dad drop off mom and grandma first, then we could go into the parking deck so I'd at least know where the car was. At least one of them was confused about what was going on. Guys, just get out here so grandma doesn't have to walk as far and mom can help her inside. Grandma was behind me on the passenger side, but instead of walking straight forward to get to the door, she walked around the back of the car. Sigh. You try to make things easier… Dad, meanwhile, had noticed there was a parking spot right by where he'd pulled up to drop them off, and was like, why don't I just park there? Naturally, someone pulled into that spot while we did the drop off. Oh well. We should probably leave that for the restaurant's regular patrons who likely won't be here for the next 4-5 hours. Into the parking deck, which was not very occupied, but who did we spot in a car near us? M. She was busy dealing with the card. So, she and her husband and daughter got to the reception, and she realized she left the card in the car and went back. Her husband is not known for locking the car, but this was the one time he did so, and she had to go back to the restaurant to get his keys, so she was a little cross at that point. That's when she talked to us about walking down the aisle. I'm glad she got that moment, though. She was also wearing an interesting outfit, this vintage '60s-ish pink dress with flowers on it, where the front of the skirt was puffy but had a second, flatter skirt underneath. She also had her hair in a bit of a bouffant in the front. She was big into fashion in high school so this is likely a remnant of that.
We were in the Amber Room, which is pretty much right when you walk in and head down the stairs. There were even signs outside the doors stating there was a wedding in the room and it lasted from 6-11. I would later realize that the room is kind of open, where the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling, so that everyone in the restaurant surely heard our music; hope it was okay! Even with taking pictures following the ceremony and going to the hotel and all that, I think we were there by 6:15, 6:30 at the latest--we got there before the wedding party, but it was still late enough that most of the appetizers were gone by the time we arrived. Considering a portion of that consisted of Buffalo-style chicken, that was fine. I did manage to snag some soft pita-like triangles that had maybe Parmesan cheese on them.
Someone, likely mom, mentioned that we were at Table 1. My parents had a shared table card, but grandma and I each had our own. Owing to MK's love of sharks, each table had a shark name--ours was Great White, her favorite. Nice. There were also little gift bags at our table settings, with two sharks and a heart at the top; they said "Two less sharks in the sea; MK & J2 9-1-19." We found out that J2 had designed the labels on the bags, which had fun-size candy inside. Mom got plain M&Ms and Haribo gummies; my bag had peanut M&Ms and Twizzlers. Cool. Like at M's wedding, we were seated with my aunt and uncle, plus MK's parents and, oh look, here's her grandma and husband again. So, there's a 17-year age difference between me and J2; MK is a year older than him; and her parents were young when she was born. I'd found out at our family dinner back in June that MK's mom is only four years older than me. This is part of the reason why I kept thinking it was her sister that was joining us at our table, and I was like, why is she sitting with us? And then I realized who she actually was (plus, MK only has a brother). Ah. Yeah, she looks younger than mid-40s and there's a definite resemblance; MK has her nose and probably her eyes.
Most people were milling about, waiting for the bridal party to show up; people were at the bar and talking and what have you. Near our table--we were in a corner--and against the wall was a laptop set up as part of the sound system. They didn't have a DJ but someone had made a playlist on that computer. Mr. A, who was the host of the shower, was the emcee of sorts for part of the night, as needed. Near the computer was a table where the cakes were set up. One had purple ombre frosting and was clearly the official wedding cake; the other two were regular sheet cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. A tablet was set up to show pictures. Right; back after the ceremony, during the family pictures, J1 was sitting by me and saying that J2 & MK had an app where people could upload pictures they were taking, so I figured some of the pictures on the tablet came from that. There was this odd table next to us that was completely empty, Table 15. What, is this the slush table? But it dawned on me--it's the head table of sorts. It had one of the large bouquets from the ceremony on it (the second one was on the cake table), plus a picture of the happy couple. We'd come to find out it was from the photo shoot earlier in the day; one of the photographers had already printed it out and framed it. Cool. The bridal party did not come in until they were introduced; they spent that whole time in the limo, cooped up. I think they were kind of sore by then. Before they came out, there were some rules that Mr. A mentioned, like no clinking of glasses and no toasts. I'd thought that was an M thing at her wedding, like her personal rules, but perhaps it's a JW thing that they mention at all their weddings for the non-JWs to know. (They also don't toss the bouquet. That didn't get mentioned, though.)
At 6:45, the entire bridal party made their entrance, but it wasn't like everybody was introduced; it was more like, here's Mr. & Mrs. J2! And that was it. (They'd been introduced as Brother and Sister Lastname immediately following the ceremony…talk about Alabama…I found that a bit creepy, to be honest.) My uncle had said they were going to do their first dance right away, before dinner, so that happened. And then they sat down and we had dinner and there you go. We had a funny moment with the salad--the dressing was a balsamic vinaigrette, which was served in a large gravy bowl. Mom was the first person to try it and we were all like, is that gravy or dressing?! She poured it on her salad before we found out, so we were all concerned. Luckily all was well. Dinner was family-style, and the first course was the salad and rolls; the main part included three different kinds of sausages, plus a side of mustard (my aunt gave it a thumbs-up); sweet roasted vegetables (I was fond of the carrots, actually), potatoes that I think had a rosemary-dill topping; and something else? Hmm. My uncle was the one to give the prayer before dinner, and part of what he said included something about making sure to dance in a Christian manner. I leaned over and went, yeah, mom, make sure you dance like a Christian.
Part IIIa: Dinner with the grandma (and The Truth)
So, there's a whole subsection regarding dinner. At the table, my uncle and aunt were back in the corner. Going clockwise, next came grandma, dad, mom, me, MK's grandma, the grandma's husband, MK's mom, and MK's dad next to my uncle. MK's grandma and I had said a couple things during the ceremony but nothing of note, but she leans over to me at dinner and says something like, oh, I'm so happy they found The Truth. She had found The Truth later in life, in her 40s, and she was so happy that her daughter and son-in-law found The Truth, and that MK and J2 also knew The Truth, and I finally had to lean over and go, you should know we're Catholic. Oh! And things changed a bit at that moment, because yes, we have infiltrated one of your ceremonies, and she found me very interesting--she was like, you're so open and friendly! Well, yeah, because I don't expect that you'll proselytize in the middle of a wedding dinner, and what am I going to be? Rude? It's my cousin's wedding in my cousin's religion. We're his only close family as, since they don't celebrate birthdays and holidays, they don't come to anything else with the extended family, and all his mom's relatives are in Europe. (Not that I said all this, but it is what it is.) The grandma did feel bad for not knowing, but I imagine it's not something my uncle brings up in conversation. Also, I think she thought I was J2's mom at first, since I am so close to MK's mom's age. Yeah…no.
In no particular order, here's what I learned about the grandma:
--She did not grow up as a JW. As mentioned, she came to it later in life. I did say, if you don't mind me asking, what religion did you grow up with? She said she didn't have one.
--Not everyone in their family is JW, like I think her other kids aren't in the religion, but she loves them just the same. (Oh, good, we're not the only ones here then! Phew.)
--It sounded like at one point she was raising MK for a few years and that's why they're pretty close, the closest of the grandchildren. She was also about 45 when MK was born (same as my grandma with me), so she's probably only a few years older than my parents, I'd say early 70s.
--She's been married three times. She divorced MK's dad after 18 years as he had a roving eye. As in, he both liked the ladies (and was there with his second wife…who has the same first name as his first wife…), but he also could make his eyes move independently of each other, so that if the left one was looking straight ahead, he could turn the right one to look toward the right. Creepy.
--Her second husband, they were only married 18 months before they discovered he had mesothelioma, which is terrible and he passed away a couple years later.
--Her third husband, I think she said she met him within the religion. He's hard of hearing and kind of just sat there and didn't contribute much to the conversation, except when we were talking about Lane Tech HS in the city. My grandfather went there, my uncle went there, I was accepted there…and the third husband had also gone there. All righty then.
--She'd lived in Barrington for many years but moved to Florida. Oh, gosh, is your home being affected by Hurricane Dorian? No; she lives on the Gulf side, so she was okay this time around. She lives near Fort Meyers, in where I thought she said was Engleside, though Google Maps says it's Englewood. She called it "Wrinkleside" since there's mostly retirees there.
--My dad was dressed all in black--black suit with a black shirt, a gift from grandma, underneath. MK's grandma went, he looks like a graphic designer! Well, actually, he did work in graphics before he retired. Turns out, so did she. She went, I can peg 'em! Dad…no longer wants to wear all black.
--She asked me what I thought of the ceremony. Well, I'd been to M's ceremony so it wasn't that far off from what I'd already experienced. I mean…it's a Christian wedding ceremony. It's maybe a bit more heavy-handed with the religious aspect than the more traditional denominations, but they're really not all that different. (Again, not that I said all that. And I didn't say that I was bothered by how the wife is supposed to be subservient to her husband and answers to him, and how they can make decisions together and he's supposed to include her in coming up with answers to things, but everything ultimately falls to him, because yeah, apparently M's dress isn't the only thing that came from the '60s.)
It was just weird to be this alien creature, essentially poked and prodded to see what made me tick. Uh, you weren't always one of them; do you not remember the before-time? The rest of the humans are pretty normal; they just have hobbies that involve things other than religion. Like, religion is not and has never been my life, even back to my Catholic school days. In fact, it was the end part of my Catholic school days where I realized organized religion is not for me. I believe in God, sure, and I'm not going to lie, my faith is part of what's gotten me through the past few years, even when I've temporarily lost it because, seriously, God, quit f-ing with me. Let me have nice things. Nothing brings that out more in me than a wedding, because yeah, I would like to get married someday, but roadblocks keep getting thrown my way and due to everything it seems like it'll never happen. That is super frustrating but it is what it is. Anyway, overall it wasn't a bad chat with the grandma, but at the same time I don't get a lot of time to spend with my aunt and uncle and I kind of wanted to talk with them as well, but that didn't happen all that much, alas.
Part IIIb: Post-dinner
Eventually dinner ended and the grandma wandered away, and now I could spend time with my actual family. Dad had gotten a couple beers and mom tried them; I attempted to get a picture of her but my timing was off, boo. Grandma, the wino, had to settle for something with bourbon in it. Shockingly enough, the brewery did not have wine on tap. It was not an open bar, so outside of dinner, you had to pay for any drinks, including coffee.
There was a point in time where the parents were called up to dance. The way it was phrased, I was thinking it was both sets of parents slow-dancing with their spouses. No, this was the daddy-daughter and mommy-son dancing. MK's dad did NOT want to do it and was like, I might throw up. I don't know if he was nervous or what, but he did fine. After that came the regular dancing; everybody on the floor! Mom wanted to dance a bit but didn't know a lot of the songs. The new Electric Slide came up and I *know* she's been to weddings where it's been played, and literally all you have to do is listen and follow directions, but she quit about a third of the way through and watched me do it. Shortly after that came this moment:
Mom: Is this the Chicken Dance?
Me: Mom, that's Taylor Swift.
We also became a part of a group of girls dancing, and I recognized the one from somewhere; she'd been the one to motion us to join her and the others. I don't see their friends very much to know names very easily. I did compliment her on her skirt, which was sort of a tie-dyed print, and she was talking to us about how she'd bought it online, but there was a tear and the hem was frayed, so the buyer gave it to her for free. She fixed it up and all was well. Mom then went, you're M's best friend, or a really good friend, right? Yes--I'm pretty sure the baby shower for M's son was at her house, and the woman's 19-year-old daughter sat for both M's kids. Aha--yes, that's the girl I saw doting on them at the shower. I knew she had to be a sitter of sorts. Also, wow, she's 19, and this woman is old enough to have a 19-year-old daughter? She's like my age. She's very nice and I like that she included us; she must have recognized us from other parties, too.
I had to laugh at M's daughter, who's 6. She may not have wanted to walk down the aisle by herself, but she's pretty outgoing and was having a bunch of fun dancing. There were other little girls there, including the daughter of "Sister Jungle Girl" as my uncle calls her--that's MK's cousin from Panama. She'd had long dreadlocks the last time we saw her, but they'd been combed out for the wedding. At one point the song "Footloose" came on, with the line "Kick off your Sunday shoes," and M's daughter did just that and was barefoot the rest of the night that I saw. I put them against the cake table and let M know they were there. I asked M if she would ever get out there, and she said maybe one dance with her husband and that's it. I made sure to get a picture of it. She did go out there and dance with J1 as well, at the same time my uncle got grandma on the floor for a slow song, so that was nice. Speaking of pictures, the photographers were around for the first part of the reception, and I know they were taking pictures during the dancing (they were right in front of me at one point, but that wasn't hard because I was on the edge of the dance floor), but toward the end of the night I didn't see them and figured they'd left.
The cakes had been on the cake table for a while, and the couple did cut the bridal cake and they ate some of it (but did not feed each other, like they had no interest in doing that), and then all the cakes disappeared. At one point later on, cake slices started to appear one by one on the table, coming out from the kitchen. Mom spotted them right away and we managed to get some of the bridal cake slices. However, they were leaving faster than they were being brought out, and people were like, where'd you get the cake? Well, there was a second table, where the appetizers had been, up near the door but on the other side of a wall. Right when you entered the room, there was this offshoot room to the right where there was this long sitting table next to the bar, which wrapped around from that odd room to the main part of the room. The appetizer table was near the long table by the bar. Anyway, since it was a lot closer to the kitchen, that's where the rest of the cake went. I know my uncle was looking for it. I ended up having a second slice of cake, this time the vanilla sheet cake. Yeah, I'd better get up and dance some more!
It was close to 10:30 that my parents got up to use the bathroom. I don't know where I was but I hadn't seen them leave. Grandma was by herself at the table and decided to go to the bathroom as well. Since you had to go upstairs for that, I went with her and let M know in case anyone wondered about grandma (M was at the next table). Grandma didn't want to deal with stairs again, so when she finished, she said she'd stay by the doors. I offered to get her a chair but she said she was fine. Okay. I don't even think I made it back downstairs, or at least not inside the room, before finding my parents; they were ready to leave. Okay, well let me say my goodbyes. The couple was by the computer, probably looking for a song, so I gave them hugs; same with M, I think she was at her table; her daughter was on the dance floor; and I found J1 off to the side somewhere. I think my aunt, uncle, and M's husband were up by grandma, talking. Dad had gone out to get the car already.
Part IV: The hotel
The ride to the hotel was uneventful and easy, now that we'd been there already. I'd planned a different route back to make things easier, basically only making right turns, and that worked out nicely. We got in and had to decide, okay, who's sleeping where? Nobody really wanted the sofa bed. Mom asked, who wants to be closest to the bathroom? Nobody said anything, so I plopped down on the bed closer to the bathroom, but on the other side, so that grandma would be closest. Mom ended up on the aisle between the beds, opposite me, and dad was by the window and wall. Okay, fine. Now we all had to get ready for bed. Only the bathroom had a door on it and I certainly didn't want to change in front of everyone, so I went in the closet; I think mom was in the bathroom at that time. Dad changed in the big room and realized, oh crap, he hadn't brought a sleep shirt. He ended up putting on the polo he planned to wear on Monday. Yeah, I nearly had to deal with that--I too almost forgot a sleep shirt plus a change of underwear.
I got ready for bed pretty quickly and as it was about 11:30 by that point (we got back to the hotel before 11), I just got into bed. I'm normally asleep by that time. Of course, I also don't share a room with three other people who are watching TV and talking and have multiple lights on. Oh well. I can at least lie down. Of course, I'm used to my bed and my pillows and blankets, so that was weird. The mattress was fine. The pillows were down or down alternative and really soft (funny, as grandma said hers was pretty firm), and I'm used to something more supportive there. This bed had a top sheet and a duvet, which confused me royally. Just the sheet would've been too cold. The duvet cover was sheet-like, so I kept trying to separate it (with my eyes closed, mind you) from what I thought was the blanket and it never worked. Plus, the duvet was HEAVY. It had a lot of weight to it, and that got kind of uncomfortable. Just that in and of itself contributed to my inability to sleep well. Add to it the other three people, and…yeah.
I would get to a point where I'd nearly be asleep and then something would happen. Dad was watching one of the Law & Orders, with the closed captioning on, and he was sitting in the desk chair. This chair was a problem--it leaned back, and it did so any time dad sat in it, and it made this noisy creak every time. Then there was mom--every time she got into bed, the bed made this sound. I would realize when we left that the beds are on these metal platforms, and it was like there was a bulging spot on her side of the bed, so there was this metallic popping sound every time she got up or down, and since she was restless, she did that a few times. Somewhere around 2 in the morning she changed the channel and turned the volume up. Dad went, what are you doing? People are trying to sleep! She went, my mom can't hear it! I piped up, but I can. Yeah, thanks mom. And now I was awake again. This is why we shouldn't give my mom coffee past, I don't know, 6 PM. It keeps her up and makes her giggly. My poor dad had consumed something that did not agree with him. Between his tight pants and intestinal issues, he did zero dancing, afraid he might do something that would, well, clear the dance floor. Naturally, he went to the bathroom to rid himself of at least some of the issue. (Mom also was sure to bring a travel container of Poo-Pourri to help out and implored all of us to use it every time we went to the bathroom.) As you may know, sometimes your body makes noises upon releasing certain things. Mom could hear them and was laughing. What, are you four? Seriously, mom. Finally things quieted down and I mostly drifted off to sleep…and then grandma started. She'd attempted to go to bed at one point, I don't even know when, but she was only in the bed for a minute or two before she got up and never returned, sitting or lying down on the sofa instead. That's where I found her in the morning, along with one of the bed pillows plus a blanket that had been in the closet. She's notorious for not sleeping even in her own house, so I certainly knew there was a chance she'd be up and watching TV; that's why mom made dad put the closed captioning on the TV as soon as we got to the room. Well, grandma went and sat in the noisy chair to watch TV, and she had some sort of wrapper in her hand, and she proceeded to fiddle with it, so there was this crinkling sound every couple minutes. Grandma hadn't charged her hearing aids, so she already couldn't hear at the reception; she certainly couldn't hear anything by then. It was like 3 in the morning at that point and I was so tired I didn't want to say anything, but at the same time in order to say it loudly enough for her to hear, I likely would've woken my parents, so it wasn't worth it. But oh man. The things grandma doesn't realize.
I don't even know how much sleep I actually got, but it wasn't a lot. Mom was up around 6, 6:30, which isn't surprising as she's normally on the road by that time. I pretended to still be asleep but I got up after a little bit. Mom wanted to go downstairs and check out breakfast, of course. I got up and did a little freshening up but didn't get dressed; I was still considering checking out the pool and didn't want to shower before then. Grandma then woke up from the couch and got up, greeting me loudly as she crossed over to my side of the room. Grandma, dad's still sleeping! She went, oh, I thought he went downstairs with your mom! He answered, no, still here. Here's the thing: The beds were entirely white. My father was dressed entirely in black. How she missed him, I'm not sure. Grandma mentioned she'd slept on the couch because as soon as she had laid down on the bed, her legs started cramping. They'll do that when her legs and/or feet are cold, but she had on sleep pants and socks so that wasn't a problem. She wasn't sure what caused the issue. Well, you did a lot of walking and standing and stairs yesterday, so there's that, plus you were in heels, so I could see where that would cause a problem. Perhaps it's time to stop wearing heels, grandma. Anyway, I said I'd wanted to go down for breakfast. Grandma still needed a few minutes, but dad said he'd stay upstairs. We were only given two keys, as technically only two people were staying in the room, so I left without one. (When mom called and added a second night, and said only two people were staying that second night, they said to only put her and grandma on the list so they'd get a cheaper rate. Hey, it was from the hotel, must be okay.)
I hadn't really looked into what was the breakfast room when we first checked in, and the other two times we went in and out were through the side door. It was directly across from the front desk. I was surprised to see that there was a whole big room with a decent food layout. There was complimentary water on a table outside the room, with orange slices in the container; that was a new one on me. Inside, there was a long bar-like table down the center, plus smaller tables around the outside. I found mom at one of the smaller tables close to the food, naturally. She was basically done eating but had grabbed a smoothie in case one of us wanted it. I primarily drink water anymore, so I passed. I did stock up on food, though, holy cow. We all tried the egg frittatas (mom said they were egg whites), and I got two turkey sausages from that station; there were some baked goods, so I tried a mini sweet roll; and they had a waffle station. Yes, please! I was kind of messy with the batter. They have these cups next to the batter dispensers, so you know how much to fill, but when I poured the batter into the iron I added too much to the first three and it spilled onto the iron, whoops, and then the fourth one was a partial waffle. The iron made four mini waffles total. That was nice because I was able to share one with mom. Good, because I also had some oatmeal with toppings. Oink, oink. There was also fruit, cereal, yogurt, beverages from a dispenser, and I'm sure I'm missing a few things. Grandma came down after a few minutes and got herself some food. She and mom started laughing about stuff, which was amusing; mom was like, they're going to think we're crazy, laughing this early in the morning! Oh well, mom. That's probably not the only reason. Mom and I left grandma to go check out the pool, which was down the hall; I'd seen it through the windows when we first drove in. Being an indoor pool, it wasn't very big, and I opted not to go swimming. We'd made such a big deal about making sure we'd had bathing suits since there was a pool, but I just wasn't feeling it. They also had a hot tub, but it was closed, like it didn't even have water in it, so no sitting and relaxing in there, either.
I went back upstairs and ended up taking a quick shower. Dad had the news on and I watched that for a bit. I ended up not needing to knock to get let into the room as the door did not shut behind you automatically, and grandma had left the door ajar. Uh, please be sure to close the door when you leave! Eventually the ladies came back up, and dad had gone down for coffee (I was by myself when I took my shower), and dad and I decided to leave just before 10. I'd already mentioned that we took the same route back, so we went through Wauconda again. Dad went, Man of the People came here! That was a locally-produced show that got canceled. I was confused for a bit until I remembered, right, when Black Panther came out, Wauconda was kind of the center of the universe for a bit since its name sounds like Wakanda. Wauconda Forever! Heh.
We meandered our way over to Woodman's in Carpentersville, and it's amazing--for as big as our local store is, this one is even bigger. We parked about where we'd park at our store, as the layouts are similar, but because that store and parking lot are physically larger than the North Aurora one, we had to walk a fair amount farther than normal. Dad and I complained about that. :P Well, we were tired. It was kind of surreal to be there since they just plain had more stuff. Man, their bargain section was large. Who knew I would feel like I was being cheated out of bargains?
Part V: After we left
Mom and grandma had stayed at the hotel another night. They did go and get grandma a Jitterbug, and we did some practice texts. I even took my break on Tuesday and discovered a text from her: "I'm practicing" it said. (She hasn't really touched it since.) They also did a little shopping and got her some Sketchers and underwear, and left the bags in the car. Mom also left her sunglasses in the cup holder so they'd be there for the ride home on Tuesday. However, grandma is notorious for never locking her car doors, and mom was adamant about reminding her. The theory is that grandma hit her key fob but perhaps hit the unlock button, not the lock button, when they returned to the hotel. Long story short, when they left on Tuesday, grandma's new purchases were not in the car, and mom's sunglasses were gone. Grandma had gotten into the car first and put a drink in the cup holder, and if the sunglasses were there, grandma said she would've just pitched them into the backseat. (She's so cautious and careful.) So…great. Mom also temporarily lost her purple jacket that she wore to the wedding, but it turned out that had just fallen off a seat and was on the floor; grandma found that later in the week and called mom. Sigh. So that's a bummer. We talked to grandma on our regular Sunday phone call and she was very nonchalant over the whole thing, saying she'd never worn the missing items and therefore didn't miss them. Personally, I'd be pretty upset if somebody stole my stuff that I'd just bought. It almost makes me wonder if something like this has happened before. Just another reason I'm concerned about her.
One random thing--we'd gotten the thank-you note from the shower the week before the wedding. Mom had gotten them this countertop oven, sort of like a toaster oven on steroids. It looks like MK wrote the note, thanking us for the generous gift and saying it would likely get used daily "as J2 has a Pop-Tart obsession." Ha! That's too funny. I love it.
Part I: The ceremony
Here it is, the big Labor Day weekend wedding. Having it on a Sunday worked out perfectly since Monday was the holiday, so in theory nobody had to work the next day.
The ceremony was in Barrington, the same place where the oldest of my cousins, M, got married. It wasn't supposed to be there originally, but my uncle had alluded to an issue that would not be resolved in time for the wedding at the Algonquin location, so the ceremony was moved. That was fine with us since we'd been there before and knew the general directions: Route 59 north to Route 14, hang a left, it'll be on the right. The problem is that, while there's a sign for the Kingdom Hall, it's not right on the road, so by the time you actually see it, you're past the driveway. I was pretty specific about my directions and wrote down that as soon as you go over the little bridge, it's right there; my dad still nearly missed it, but was fine.
I'd allotted an hour, 15 minutes to get there just in case we encountered an accident or construction, plus I didn't want to be *right* on time. However, it only took 45 minutes and none of our family was already there--we watched as M's family, then my aunt and uncle (separately) showed up. My parents decided to stay in the car for a bit, and just as my mom was wondering about grandma, and if she'd find the place okay, a car very much like hers drove past. …I think that was her. She showed up a few minutes later and we would find out that she did, in fact, miss it the first time around, but she made it okay. Phew. We didn't go in right away, in part because mom wanted to transfer some things from dad's car to grandma's, and we were across the lot from each other; grandma also had to finish getting dressed. She'd worn gym shoes for driving and had to put on her heels; alas, they were not the hot pink ones she'd teased us with, but dark blue. She also had gloves, like past her elbows, and had to put those on and have me button them at the wrist for her. Wow, didn't realize we were going so fancy here, though I remember her wearing them at M's wedding. Yeah, they're to hide her arms. She doesn't like them in her old age.
Once grandma was settled, and it took a good 5-10 minutes, we walked in. We encountered the boys right away; I'll call them J1 and J2. J2 was the groom. Mom and I headed into the bathroom while grandma took a seat just inside the front door. While in the washroom, mom started talking to someone and found out why we were in Barrington: A car had crashed into the building in Algonquin. Oh, dear. Yeah, I can see how that would take a while to fix, though I don't know why my uncle couldn't just say that. As it was, the congregation that used the Barrington building had moved up the road to Crystal Lake, and this building was essentially empty; they were putting it up for sale. Dad was talking with the boys and heard that much. At least it was available to use and they were able to have the wedding there.
We left the bathroom and I went over to stand by grandma. She has gone to some of the religious gatherings and has known some of my aunt and uncle's friends for many years, so some people came up and greeted her warmly. It helps that grandma's pretty outgoing. One woman was talking with grandma about how M and J2 were now married, and grandma mentioned something about "the older one," which at first glance sounded like she was talking about J1 (who was also nearby), but I knew she meant me. Yeah, grandma has been trying to get me married for a couple decades now; at this point in my life, I think it's a lost cause. However, the way this all was phrased concerned J1; he went, uh, is she talking about marrying *us* (like, we marry each other)? We're not from Alabama! No, no, she just wants us married, period. That's how grandma rolls. (Besides, he's too young for me. :P But my parents were like, maybe she'll meet a nice JW man at the wedding… Guys, I like celebrating my birthday and holidays. Especially since my birthday has been known to fall on a holiday. It would never work.) (They're probably thinking of the time I danced with a nice boy at my aunt and uncle's wedding…back in 1987, before I knew any better. That was a one-time thing, guys.)
I should mention outfits. One of the colors was lavender. The bridesmaids' dresses were lavender, the flowers were white and lavender, the groomsmen had lavender ties. J2's had a pattern on it. The guys also had matching brown shoes. Mom fit right in, wearing a purple dress with a lighter purple jacket over it. Grandma's dress was dark with colorful splotches all over it, hence why the hot pink shoes would've gone. I had on the yellow dress. My aunt had a similar dress to what she wore to M's wedding, with a beaded top, but she had it altered to add cap sleeves. She did not like her arms in the pictures from M's wedding and this was a way to cover them. Grandma mentioned it when we spoke on the phone the day before; you'd never have known the dress didn't come that way. As for the bride's dress, it had a vintage look to it; the back was very lacy. It was really pretty and had a T-style to the back.
My uncle is a bit of a micromanager, and I know at M's wedding he was very specific about where we were to sit and that sort of thing. Luckily that was the case here too, so that we were able to sit in the second row as members of the family--the seats were even marked as being reserved. We sat in pretty much the same seats as before, even, though we were joined by the bride's maternal grandmother and her husband; they sat on the aisle. We were told the ceremony would be pretty short, only 35 minutes; mom had talked to her brother a few days before. We knew the majority of the pictures would be taken prior to the ceremony, as they don't have the taboo of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding apparently. My uncle would tell us later that the bride's mom cleans the Sanfilippo estate in Barrington and they were able to take their pictures there thanks to her connections. It's actually pretty close by. That's pretty cool, especially since the website states that they expressly prohibit that sort of thing. (If you're wondering who the family is, they're a little nutty. That is, they're the Fisher Nut people.) There would be some pictures taken with other family members, i.e., us, following the ceremony, but we should have plenty of time to get from Barrington to Libertyville for the reception, which started at 6. The bridal party would arrive at 6:45. For reference, the wedding ceremony was to start at 4.
There was a minor bit of drama with M's daughter, the flower girl, who would be the first to walk down the aisle. She was nervous about doing that. M told us the back-up plan would be for her to walk with her daughter, but they weren't sharing that information. Well, when the time came, they both walked down the aisle. M hadn't wanted to do that, but she would later share that it made the day special--she got to participate in her brother's wedding, just as he'd done for hers. See, that's a nice way of looking at it. We'd been asked not to take pictures during the walk down the aisle. There were not one, but two photographers, and they would catch all these moments. Plus, we would find out that at a previous wedding, people were blocking their shots and that caused them to miss certain things. We were all respectful of that, though I did get some shots during other parts of the ceremony.
I remember being disappointed by the music played at M's wedding. It was just very generic and blah. The music here was better but still on the generic side; dad leaned over to me and went, it seems like something out of a Disney movie. I could kind of see that. I'm so used to well-known classical music that anything else throws me off. I will say that everyone was good up until the bride, MK, came in; she saw J2 and started tearing up, and that's all the rest of us needed. The preacher-type person was clearly someone who's known her, as one of the first things he'd said involved her cat. If you've ever visited her house, you know she has a cat named Quetzal (sp?), and Quetzal only likes MK. This cat will hiss or hide if you try to pet it, that sort of thing. Well, one of the first times J2 went to visit MK, the cat went and sat under his chair. That should have been a sign. The preacher had also asked them to list five character traits that they liked about each other. Most of them were pretty typical (nice, kind, etc.), but the final one MK listed for J2 was that he's a little nerdy. NICE! But it's so true. He even generally has the look, too, as he's had glasses since he was little--except he got contacts a few weeks ago. My aunt, I think it was, made sure to point that out to grandma when we first got there. Oh, he looked handsome. Gosh, now this is making me cry, because he's my little baby cousin and he's all grown up. Anyway, the ceremony was nice--and short--and the preacher injected humor into things as well as all the Christian stuff. One thing that amazed me, that we didn't have in 2012 when M got married, was that when the preacher said to turn to whatever chapter and verse, everyone whipped out their phones. M's husband had a tablet. MK's grandma, next to me, made an "oh, darn!" gesture that she didn't have anything with her. Yeah, the JWs have gone digital. I should say that the couple used a regular book bible, and the attendants, three sets, just stood there. That's all they did the whole time, save for when J1, the best man, took the rings out of his pocket. He included bonus lint from what I heard, heh. My uncle would tell us that this was the preacher's first wedding; wow, we had no idea. He did a really nice job.
The JWs are a social group (sort of like my band, but more religious), and they all stood around talking following the ceremony. Someone finally had to make an announcement about moving along to the reception…or at least clearing out of the sanctuary so that the couple could take pictures. Aha. M's family had been sitting in front of us, and her husband was busy keeping their son, who's not quite 2, occupied. He was pretty good during the ceremony overall, but afterward he wandered up on the altar and found a microphone, then grabbed it and was holding it like *he* was going to talk. Somebody finally grabbed it from him and put it where he couldn't reach it. We watched the group pictures being taken and waited our turn, and M's daughter came over and insisted on taking some pictures of me and J1 using my camera. She about wouldn't give me back the camera. Sweetie, not yours. She wanted to take more pictures of me and I said she could out in the hall, but that did not happen and it looks like she forgot about it, oh darn. She also ended up with MK's full-size bouquet at one point. Finally, when our pictures were done, we started to leave, but grandma then had to go to the bathroom, so it was still another 10-15 minutes overall before we left. We did get to see M's mother-in-law, sitting in the very back. Oh, how nice of J2 to invite her to the wedding. No, not quite--she was going to watch M's son so they wouldn't have to worry about him at the reception. Speaking of which, M showed us a picture at the reception--her son was having ice cream at his grandma's. She lives in Dixon, and M said that they would drive out tomorrow to go pick him up and then spend some of the day out there. See, another reason it was nice to have the holiday following the wedding.
Part II: The ride to the hotel
I won't lie, I was nervous about the trip. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Thankfully, being a Sunday, there wasn't a lot of traffic. Remember, my grandma lives in the city, where speed limits rarely top 30 MPH. We were out in the country on two-lane roads where the limit was more like 50 MPH. That in and of itself could cause trouble. For the most part, we had no issues, though I imagine the people behind grandma probably got a bit frustrated. She tends to go about 10 under the limit out here.
We got lucky just in pulling out of the parking lot: No traffic on 14. Phew. We were able to pull out, and grandma was, too. First turn: Kelsey Road. That was fine. Follow it for a few miles, then Kelsey makes a right at a light though the road continues ahead under another name. There are signs, but there's always the possibility mom and/or grandma would miss them; all was well. Then follow Kelsey until it ends at 59 and turn left. Fine. I was quickly realizing that the roads were a lot closer together than I expected--looking up the directions took way longer than actually driving them, given that I was click-click-click-ing down the roads on Google Maps to get ideas of what was going on. The next weird bit: The Route 59/Route 12 intersection. It's like a cloverleaf, and 59 does the turn to join up with 12--but we wanted to continue straight into Wauconda. I'd been very clear in my directions--DON'T make the turn! They didn't. Phew. (Mom would later say that they just followed us; she didn't look at the directions at all.) Next, in downtown-ish Wauconda, the road we were on ended and met up with Route 176. We had a stop sign; 176 did not. And 176 is not a lightly-traveled road. Dad was able to turn onto it; while I do think grandma stopped at the sign, she pulled in behind us…and could've caused an accident as there were cars coming. *facepalm* But she didn't. Phew. Outside of town, the road opened up so that a few of the people behind us could pass us, which was fine, but this big black truck turned off the cross street and got between us for a few miles; dad was still able to see them at times, though. The last hairy part came a little bit past there, where 176 meets up with Hawley Road; stay left if you want to continue on 176. Everyone did. Okay, phew. Then it was just a matter of going through Mundelein and turning onto 45, and a few miles north was the hotel, and we all found it just fine. Grandma did not park super neatly but ended up not moving her car. She was mostly between the white lines.
Mom went in first to get checked in, leaving me, dad, and grandma to get all our stuff. I went over to help grandma out, as she had multiple bags. One was her bathing suit, which she'd packed up and put in her car days earlier so she wouldn't forget it. I think she took one or two things, plus her coat, and I know I got her rolling suitcase. I'd tried to roll it but it was too short for me. Grandma noticed and went, it has a plenty long handle! Well, for you maybe--I'm a half-foot taller than her, plus I was in heels. Believe me, it's easier to carry it. She'd brought her cane along and used it at the ceremony, but left it in her car when she was gathering the stuff to take inside. Uh…do you want this? I'd grabbed it out and she did walk with it inside. Here's the thing about grandma: She is not careful about what she does. We got our hotel keys and went to our room on the second floor, which was most of the way down the hall. We're walking, and all of a sudden grandma stumbles and sort of falls into the wall. Are you okay? What did you trip on? We realized it was the sleeve to her coat, since she'd just sort of grabbed it and wasn't paying attention to how she was holding it. She was fine, but still. We get in the room, and I don't know what mom was expecting, but I don't believe it met her expectations. The room opened up into a little kitchen/wet bar area, then past that opened up to the full room. It was a larger than normal hotel room. She'd gotten two queen beds and a sofa bed, but it wasn't a sofa--it was more like a loveseat. That was on the left. In the middle of the room was a desk jutting out, separating the two halves of the room, and on the right were the two beds. The TV was on the wall adjacent to the desk. Next to the one bed, essentially behind the wet bar, you had the sink and mirror, like a dressing area, in the middle. To the left was the bathroom with toilet and shower/tub, and to the right was the closet, where we had a hard time opening one of the doors. There was very little privacy in there, which was a little awkward, but whatever. At that point we were just dropping our stuff off to get it out of the cars and then we were going to go right to the reception. The nice thing is that we were close to the stairs and an outer door, which opened right to the lot where dad had parked, so we were able to leave pretty easily. Grandma insisted on not bringing her cane as she felt it was more trouble than it was worth. Are you sure? Okay, fine.
Part III: The reception
Our hotel was right at 45 and Peterson, so it was easy to get onto Peterson, which almost immediately merged with IL 137/Buckley Road. Take that over to Milwaukee Avenue/IL 21, go south a bit, and you're there. My uncle had said there were directions to the reception at the ceremony and we made sure to grab some, but all it was was parking directions and I already figured out what was going on and had a plan. The reception was at Mickey Finn's Brewery in Libertyville, and in my mapping research I realized there wasn't access to parking off Milwaukee--there was a small parking lot behind there, and a public parking deck nearby, both accessed off a side street. The directions we were given at the ceremony exactly matched what I already had. Perfect.
I suggested dad drop off mom and grandma first, then we could go into the parking deck so I'd at least know where the car was. At least one of them was confused about what was going on. Guys, just get out here so grandma doesn't have to walk as far and mom can help her inside. Grandma was behind me on the passenger side, but instead of walking straight forward to get to the door, she walked around the back of the car. Sigh. You try to make things easier… Dad, meanwhile, had noticed there was a parking spot right by where he'd pulled up to drop them off, and was like, why don't I just park there? Naturally, someone pulled into that spot while we did the drop off. Oh well. We should probably leave that for the restaurant's regular patrons who likely won't be here for the next 4-5 hours. Into the parking deck, which was not very occupied, but who did we spot in a car near us? M. She was busy dealing with the card. So, she and her husband and daughter got to the reception, and she realized she left the card in the car and went back. Her husband is not known for locking the car, but this was the one time he did so, and she had to go back to the restaurant to get his keys, so she was a little cross at that point. That's when she talked to us about walking down the aisle. I'm glad she got that moment, though. She was also wearing an interesting outfit, this vintage '60s-ish pink dress with flowers on it, where the front of the skirt was puffy but had a second, flatter skirt underneath. She also had her hair in a bit of a bouffant in the front. She was big into fashion in high school so this is likely a remnant of that.
We were in the Amber Room, which is pretty much right when you walk in and head down the stairs. There were even signs outside the doors stating there was a wedding in the room and it lasted from 6-11. I would later realize that the room is kind of open, where the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling, so that everyone in the restaurant surely heard our music; hope it was okay! Even with taking pictures following the ceremony and going to the hotel and all that, I think we were there by 6:15, 6:30 at the latest--we got there before the wedding party, but it was still late enough that most of the appetizers were gone by the time we arrived. Considering a portion of that consisted of Buffalo-style chicken, that was fine. I did manage to snag some soft pita-like triangles that had maybe Parmesan cheese on them.
Someone, likely mom, mentioned that we were at Table 1. My parents had a shared table card, but grandma and I each had our own. Owing to MK's love of sharks, each table had a shark name--ours was Great White, her favorite. Nice. There were also little gift bags at our table settings, with two sharks and a heart at the top; they said "Two less sharks in the sea; MK & J2 9-1-19." We found out that J2 had designed the labels on the bags, which had fun-size candy inside. Mom got plain M&Ms and Haribo gummies; my bag had peanut M&Ms and Twizzlers. Cool. Like at M's wedding, we were seated with my aunt and uncle, plus MK's parents and, oh look, here's her grandma and husband again. So, there's a 17-year age difference between me and J2; MK is a year older than him; and her parents were young when she was born. I'd found out at our family dinner back in June that MK's mom is only four years older than me. This is part of the reason why I kept thinking it was her sister that was joining us at our table, and I was like, why is she sitting with us? And then I realized who she actually was (plus, MK only has a brother). Ah. Yeah, she looks younger than mid-40s and there's a definite resemblance; MK has her nose and probably her eyes.
Most people were milling about, waiting for the bridal party to show up; people were at the bar and talking and what have you. Near our table--we were in a corner--and against the wall was a laptop set up as part of the sound system. They didn't have a DJ but someone had made a playlist on that computer. Mr. A, who was the host of the shower, was the emcee of sorts for part of the night, as needed. Near the computer was a table where the cakes were set up. One had purple ombre frosting and was clearly the official wedding cake; the other two were regular sheet cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. A tablet was set up to show pictures. Right; back after the ceremony, during the family pictures, J1 was sitting by me and saying that J2 & MK had an app where people could upload pictures they were taking, so I figured some of the pictures on the tablet came from that. There was this odd table next to us that was completely empty, Table 15. What, is this the slush table? But it dawned on me--it's the head table of sorts. It had one of the large bouquets from the ceremony on it (the second one was on the cake table), plus a picture of the happy couple. We'd come to find out it was from the photo shoot earlier in the day; one of the photographers had already printed it out and framed it. Cool. The bridal party did not come in until they were introduced; they spent that whole time in the limo, cooped up. I think they were kind of sore by then. Before they came out, there were some rules that Mr. A mentioned, like no clinking of glasses and no toasts. I'd thought that was an M thing at her wedding, like her personal rules, but perhaps it's a JW thing that they mention at all their weddings for the non-JWs to know. (They also don't toss the bouquet. That didn't get mentioned, though.)
At 6:45, the entire bridal party made their entrance, but it wasn't like everybody was introduced; it was more like, here's Mr. & Mrs. J2! And that was it. (They'd been introduced as Brother and Sister Lastname immediately following the ceremony…talk about Alabama…I found that a bit creepy, to be honest.) My uncle had said they were going to do their first dance right away, before dinner, so that happened. And then they sat down and we had dinner and there you go. We had a funny moment with the salad--the dressing was a balsamic vinaigrette, which was served in a large gravy bowl. Mom was the first person to try it and we were all like, is that gravy or dressing?! She poured it on her salad before we found out, so we were all concerned. Luckily all was well. Dinner was family-style, and the first course was the salad and rolls; the main part included three different kinds of sausages, plus a side of mustard (my aunt gave it a thumbs-up); sweet roasted vegetables (I was fond of the carrots, actually), potatoes that I think had a rosemary-dill topping; and something else? Hmm. My uncle was the one to give the prayer before dinner, and part of what he said included something about making sure to dance in a Christian manner. I leaned over and went, yeah, mom, make sure you dance like a Christian.
Part IIIa: Dinner with the grandma (and The Truth)
So, there's a whole subsection regarding dinner. At the table, my uncle and aunt were back in the corner. Going clockwise, next came grandma, dad, mom, me, MK's grandma, the grandma's husband, MK's mom, and MK's dad next to my uncle. MK's grandma and I had said a couple things during the ceremony but nothing of note, but she leans over to me at dinner and says something like, oh, I'm so happy they found The Truth. She had found The Truth later in life, in her 40s, and she was so happy that her daughter and son-in-law found The Truth, and that MK and J2 also knew The Truth, and I finally had to lean over and go, you should know we're Catholic. Oh! And things changed a bit at that moment, because yes, we have infiltrated one of your ceremonies, and she found me very interesting--she was like, you're so open and friendly! Well, yeah, because I don't expect that you'll proselytize in the middle of a wedding dinner, and what am I going to be? Rude? It's my cousin's wedding in my cousin's religion. We're his only close family as, since they don't celebrate birthdays and holidays, they don't come to anything else with the extended family, and all his mom's relatives are in Europe. (Not that I said all this, but it is what it is.) The grandma did feel bad for not knowing, but I imagine it's not something my uncle brings up in conversation. Also, I think she thought I was J2's mom at first, since I am so close to MK's mom's age. Yeah…no.
In no particular order, here's what I learned about the grandma:
--She did not grow up as a JW. As mentioned, she came to it later in life. I did say, if you don't mind me asking, what religion did you grow up with? She said she didn't have one.
--Not everyone in their family is JW, like I think her other kids aren't in the religion, but she loves them just the same. (Oh, good, we're not the only ones here then! Phew.)
--It sounded like at one point she was raising MK for a few years and that's why they're pretty close, the closest of the grandchildren. She was also about 45 when MK was born (same as my grandma with me), so she's probably only a few years older than my parents, I'd say early 70s.
--She's been married three times. She divorced MK's dad after 18 years as he had a roving eye. As in, he both liked the ladies (and was there with his second wife…who has the same first name as his first wife…), but he also could make his eyes move independently of each other, so that if the left one was looking straight ahead, he could turn the right one to look toward the right. Creepy.
--Her second husband, they were only married 18 months before they discovered he had mesothelioma, which is terrible and he passed away a couple years later.
--Her third husband, I think she said she met him within the religion. He's hard of hearing and kind of just sat there and didn't contribute much to the conversation, except when we were talking about Lane Tech HS in the city. My grandfather went there, my uncle went there, I was accepted there…and the third husband had also gone there. All righty then.
--She'd lived in Barrington for many years but moved to Florida. Oh, gosh, is your home being affected by Hurricane Dorian? No; she lives on the Gulf side, so she was okay this time around. She lives near Fort Meyers, in where I thought she said was Engleside, though Google Maps says it's Englewood. She called it "Wrinkleside" since there's mostly retirees there.
--My dad was dressed all in black--black suit with a black shirt, a gift from grandma, underneath. MK's grandma went, he looks like a graphic designer! Well, actually, he did work in graphics before he retired. Turns out, so did she. She went, I can peg 'em! Dad…no longer wants to wear all black.
--She asked me what I thought of the ceremony. Well, I'd been to M's ceremony so it wasn't that far off from what I'd already experienced. I mean…it's a Christian wedding ceremony. It's maybe a bit more heavy-handed with the religious aspect than the more traditional denominations, but they're really not all that different. (Again, not that I said all that. And I didn't say that I was bothered by how the wife is supposed to be subservient to her husband and answers to him, and how they can make decisions together and he's supposed to include her in coming up with answers to things, but everything ultimately falls to him, because yeah, apparently M's dress isn't the only thing that came from the '60s.)
It was just weird to be this alien creature, essentially poked and prodded to see what made me tick. Uh, you weren't always one of them; do you not remember the before-time? The rest of the humans are pretty normal; they just have hobbies that involve things other than religion. Like, religion is not and has never been my life, even back to my Catholic school days. In fact, it was the end part of my Catholic school days where I realized organized religion is not for me. I believe in God, sure, and I'm not going to lie, my faith is part of what's gotten me through the past few years, even when I've temporarily lost it because, seriously, God, quit f-ing with me. Let me have nice things. Nothing brings that out more in me than a wedding, because yeah, I would like to get married someday, but roadblocks keep getting thrown my way and due to everything it seems like it'll never happen. That is super frustrating but it is what it is. Anyway, overall it wasn't a bad chat with the grandma, but at the same time I don't get a lot of time to spend with my aunt and uncle and I kind of wanted to talk with them as well, but that didn't happen all that much, alas.
Part IIIb: Post-dinner
Eventually dinner ended and the grandma wandered away, and now I could spend time with my actual family. Dad had gotten a couple beers and mom tried them; I attempted to get a picture of her but my timing was off, boo. Grandma, the wino, had to settle for something with bourbon in it. Shockingly enough, the brewery did not have wine on tap. It was not an open bar, so outside of dinner, you had to pay for any drinks, including coffee.
There was a point in time where the parents were called up to dance. The way it was phrased, I was thinking it was both sets of parents slow-dancing with their spouses. No, this was the daddy-daughter and mommy-son dancing. MK's dad did NOT want to do it and was like, I might throw up. I don't know if he was nervous or what, but he did fine. After that came the regular dancing; everybody on the floor! Mom wanted to dance a bit but didn't know a lot of the songs. The new Electric Slide came up and I *know* she's been to weddings where it's been played, and literally all you have to do is listen and follow directions, but she quit about a third of the way through and watched me do it. Shortly after that came this moment:
Mom: Is this the Chicken Dance?
Me: Mom, that's Taylor Swift.
We also became a part of a group of girls dancing, and I recognized the one from somewhere; she'd been the one to motion us to join her and the others. I don't see their friends very much to know names very easily. I did compliment her on her skirt, which was sort of a tie-dyed print, and she was talking to us about how she'd bought it online, but there was a tear and the hem was frayed, so the buyer gave it to her for free. She fixed it up and all was well. Mom then went, you're M's best friend, or a really good friend, right? Yes--I'm pretty sure the baby shower for M's son was at her house, and the woman's 19-year-old daughter sat for both M's kids. Aha--yes, that's the girl I saw doting on them at the shower. I knew she had to be a sitter of sorts. Also, wow, she's 19, and this woman is old enough to have a 19-year-old daughter? She's like my age. She's very nice and I like that she included us; she must have recognized us from other parties, too.
I had to laugh at M's daughter, who's 6. She may not have wanted to walk down the aisle by herself, but she's pretty outgoing and was having a bunch of fun dancing. There were other little girls there, including the daughter of "Sister Jungle Girl" as my uncle calls her--that's MK's cousin from Panama. She'd had long dreadlocks the last time we saw her, but they'd been combed out for the wedding. At one point the song "Footloose" came on, with the line "Kick off your Sunday shoes," and M's daughter did just that and was barefoot the rest of the night that I saw. I put them against the cake table and let M know they were there. I asked M if she would ever get out there, and she said maybe one dance with her husband and that's it. I made sure to get a picture of it. She did go out there and dance with J1 as well, at the same time my uncle got grandma on the floor for a slow song, so that was nice. Speaking of pictures, the photographers were around for the first part of the reception, and I know they were taking pictures during the dancing (they were right in front of me at one point, but that wasn't hard because I was on the edge of the dance floor), but toward the end of the night I didn't see them and figured they'd left.
The cakes had been on the cake table for a while, and the couple did cut the bridal cake and they ate some of it (but did not feed each other, like they had no interest in doing that), and then all the cakes disappeared. At one point later on, cake slices started to appear one by one on the table, coming out from the kitchen. Mom spotted them right away and we managed to get some of the bridal cake slices. However, they were leaving faster than they were being brought out, and people were like, where'd you get the cake? Well, there was a second table, where the appetizers had been, up near the door but on the other side of a wall. Right when you entered the room, there was this offshoot room to the right where there was this long sitting table next to the bar, which wrapped around from that odd room to the main part of the room. The appetizer table was near the long table by the bar. Anyway, since it was a lot closer to the kitchen, that's where the rest of the cake went. I know my uncle was looking for it. I ended up having a second slice of cake, this time the vanilla sheet cake. Yeah, I'd better get up and dance some more!
It was close to 10:30 that my parents got up to use the bathroom. I don't know where I was but I hadn't seen them leave. Grandma was by herself at the table and decided to go to the bathroom as well. Since you had to go upstairs for that, I went with her and let M know in case anyone wondered about grandma (M was at the next table). Grandma didn't want to deal with stairs again, so when she finished, she said she'd stay by the doors. I offered to get her a chair but she said she was fine. Okay. I don't even think I made it back downstairs, or at least not inside the room, before finding my parents; they were ready to leave. Okay, well let me say my goodbyes. The couple was by the computer, probably looking for a song, so I gave them hugs; same with M, I think she was at her table; her daughter was on the dance floor; and I found J1 off to the side somewhere. I think my aunt, uncle, and M's husband were up by grandma, talking. Dad had gone out to get the car already.
Part IV: The hotel
The ride to the hotel was uneventful and easy, now that we'd been there already. I'd planned a different route back to make things easier, basically only making right turns, and that worked out nicely. We got in and had to decide, okay, who's sleeping where? Nobody really wanted the sofa bed. Mom asked, who wants to be closest to the bathroom? Nobody said anything, so I plopped down on the bed closer to the bathroom, but on the other side, so that grandma would be closest. Mom ended up on the aisle between the beds, opposite me, and dad was by the window and wall. Okay, fine. Now we all had to get ready for bed. Only the bathroom had a door on it and I certainly didn't want to change in front of everyone, so I went in the closet; I think mom was in the bathroom at that time. Dad changed in the big room and realized, oh crap, he hadn't brought a sleep shirt. He ended up putting on the polo he planned to wear on Monday. Yeah, I nearly had to deal with that--I too almost forgot a sleep shirt plus a change of underwear.
I got ready for bed pretty quickly and as it was about 11:30 by that point (we got back to the hotel before 11), I just got into bed. I'm normally asleep by that time. Of course, I also don't share a room with three other people who are watching TV and talking and have multiple lights on. Oh well. I can at least lie down. Of course, I'm used to my bed and my pillows and blankets, so that was weird. The mattress was fine. The pillows were down or down alternative and really soft (funny, as grandma said hers was pretty firm), and I'm used to something more supportive there. This bed had a top sheet and a duvet, which confused me royally. Just the sheet would've been too cold. The duvet cover was sheet-like, so I kept trying to separate it (with my eyes closed, mind you) from what I thought was the blanket and it never worked. Plus, the duvet was HEAVY. It had a lot of weight to it, and that got kind of uncomfortable. Just that in and of itself contributed to my inability to sleep well. Add to it the other three people, and…yeah.
I would get to a point where I'd nearly be asleep and then something would happen. Dad was watching one of the Law & Orders, with the closed captioning on, and he was sitting in the desk chair. This chair was a problem--it leaned back, and it did so any time dad sat in it, and it made this noisy creak every time. Then there was mom--every time she got into bed, the bed made this sound. I would realize when we left that the beds are on these metal platforms, and it was like there was a bulging spot on her side of the bed, so there was this metallic popping sound every time she got up or down, and since she was restless, she did that a few times. Somewhere around 2 in the morning she changed the channel and turned the volume up. Dad went, what are you doing? People are trying to sleep! She went, my mom can't hear it! I piped up, but I can. Yeah, thanks mom. And now I was awake again. This is why we shouldn't give my mom coffee past, I don't know, 6 PM. It keeps her up and makes her giggly. My poor dad had consumed something that did not agree with him. Between his tight pants and intestinal issues, he did zero dancing, afraid he might do something that would, well, clear the dance floor. Naturally, he went to the bathroom to rid himself of at least some of the issue. (Mom also was sure to bring a travel container of Poo-Pourri to help out and implored all of us to use it every time we went to the bathroom.) As you may know, sometimes your body makes noises upon releasing certain things. Mom could hear them and was laughing. What, are you four? Seriously, mom. Finally things quieted down and I mostly drifted off to sleep…and then grandma started. She'd attempted to go to bed at one point, I don't even know when, but she was only in the bed for a minute or two before she got up and never returned, sitting or lying down on the sofa instead. That's where I found her in the morning, along with one of the bed pillows plus a blanket that had been in the closet. She's notorious for not sleeping even in her own house, so I certainly knew there was a chance she'd be up and watching TV; that's why mom made dad put the closed captioning on the TV as soon as we got to the room. Well, grandma went and sat in the noisy chair to watch TV, and she had some sort of wrapper in her hand, and she proceeded to fiddle with it, so there was this crinkling sound every couple minutes. Grandma hadn't charged her hearing aids, so she already couldn't hear at the reception; she certainly couldn't hear anything by then. It was like 3 in the morning at that point and I was so tired I didn't want to say anything, but at the same time in order to say it loudly enough for her to hear, I likely would've woken my parents, so it wasn't worth it. But oh man. The things grandma doesn't realize.
I don't even know how much sleep I actually got, but it wasn't a lot. Mom was up around 6, 6:30, which isn't surprising as she's normally on the road by that time. I pretended to still be asleep but I got up after a little bit. Mom wanted to go downstairs and check out breakfast, of course. I got up and did a little freshening up but didn't get dressed; I was still considering checking out the pool and didn't want to shower before then. Grandma then woke up from the couch and got up, greeting me loudly as she crossed over to my side of the room. Grandma, dad's still sleeping! She went, oh, I thought he went downstairs with your mom! He answered, no, still here. Here's the thing: The beds were entirely white. My father was dressed entirely in black. How she missed him, I'm not sure. Grandma mentioned she'd slept on the couch because as soon as she had laid down on the bed, her legs started cramping. They'll do that when her legs and/or feet are cold, but she had on sleep pants and socks so that wasn't a problem. She wasn't sure what caused the issue. Well, you did a lot of walking and standing and stairs yesterday, so there's that, plus you were in heels, so I could see where that would cause a problem. Perhaps it's time to stop wearing heels, grandma. Anyway, I said I'd wanted to go down for breakfast. Grandma still needed a few minutes, but dad said he'd stay upstairs. We were only given two keys, as technically only two people were staying in the room, so I left without one. (When mom called and added a second night, and said only two people were staying that second night, they said to only put her and grandma on the list so they'd get a cheaper rate. Hey, it was from the hotel, must be okay.)
I hadn't really looked into what was the breakfast room when we first checked in, and the other two times we went in and out were through the side door. It was directly across from the front desk. I was surprised to see that there was a whole big room with a decent food layout. There was complimentary water on a table outside the room, with orange slices in the container; that was a new one on me. Inside, there was a long bar-like table down the center, plus smaller tables around the outside. I found mom at one of the smaller tables close to the food, naturally. She was basically done eating but had grabbed a smoothie in case one of us wanted it. I primarily drink water anymore, so I passed. I did stock up on food, though, holy cow. We all tried the egg frittatas (mom said they were egg whites), and I got two turkey sausages from that station; there were some baked goods, so I tried a mini sweet roll; and they had a waffle station. Yes, please! I was kind of messy with the batter. They have these cups next to the batter dispensers, so you know how much to fill, but when I poured the batter into the iron I added too much to the first three and it spilled onto the iron, whoops, and then the fourth one was a partial waffle. The iron made four mini waffles total. That was nice because I was able to share one with mom. Good, because I also had some oatmeal with toppings. Oink, oink. There was also fruit, cereal, yogurt, beverages from a dispenser, and I'm sure I'm missing a few things. Grandma came down after a few minutes and got herself some food. She and mom started laughing about stuff, which was amusing; mom was like, they're going to think we're crazy, laughing this early in the morning! Oh well, mom. That's probably not the only reason. Mom and I left grandma to go check out the pool, which was down the hall; I'd seen it through the windows when we first drove in. Being an indoor pool, it wasn't very big, and I opted not to go swimming. We'd made such a big deal about making sure we'd had bathing suits since there was a pool, but I just wasn't feeling it. They also had a hot tub, but it was closed, like it didn't even have water in it, so no sitting and relaxing in there, either.
I went back upstairs and ended up taking a quick shower. Dad had the news on and I watched that for a bit. I ended up not needing to knock to get let into the room as the door did not shut behind you automatically, and grandma had left the door ajar. Uh, please be sure to close the door when you leave! Eventually the ladies came back up, and dad had gone down for coffee (I was by myself when I took my shower), and dad and I decided to leave just before 10. I'd already mentioned that we took the same route back, so we went through Wauconda again. Dad went, Man of the People came here! That was a locally-produced show that got canceled. I was confused for a bit until I remembered, right, when Black Panther came out, Wauconda was kind of the center of the universe for a bit since its name sounds like Wakanda. Wauconda Forever! Heh.
We meandered our way over to Woodman's in Carpentersville, and it's amazing--for as big as our local store is, this one is even bigger. We parked about where we'd park at our store, as the layouts are similar, but because that store and parking lot are physically larger than the North Aurora one, we had to walk a fair amount farther than normal. Dad and I complained about that. :P Well, we were tired. It was kind of surreal to be there since they just plain had more stuff. Man, their bargain section was large. Who knew I would feel like I was being cheated out of bargains?
Part V: After we left
Mom and grandma had stayed at the hotel another night. They did go and get grandma a Jitterbug, and we did some practice texts. I even took my break on Tuesday and discovered a text from her: "I'm practicing" it said. (She hasn't really touched it since.) They also did a little shopping and got her some Sketchers and underwear, and left the bags in the car. Mom also left her sunglasses in the cup holder so they'd be there for the ride home on Tuesday. However, grandma is notorious for never locking her car doors, and mom was adamant about reminding her. The theory is that grandma hit her key fob but perhaps hit the unlock button, not the lock button, when they returned to the hotel. Long story short, when they left on Tuesday, grandma's new purchases were not in the car, and mom's sunglasses were gone. Grandma had gotten into the car first and put a drink in the cup holder, and if the sunglasses were there, grandma said she would've just pitched them into the backseat. (She's so cautious and careful.) So…great. Mom also temporarily lost her purple jacket that she wore to the wedding, but it turned out that had just fallen off a seat and was on the floor; grandma found that later in the week and called mom. Sigh. So that's a bummer. We talked to grandma on our regular Sunday phone call and she was very nonchalant over the whole thing, saying she'd never worn the missing items and therefore didn't miss them. Personally, I'd be pretty upset if somebody stole my stuff that I'd just bought. It almost makes me wonder if something like this has happened before. Just another reason I'm concerned about her.
One random thing--we'd gotten the thank-you note from the shower the week before the wedding. Mom had gotten them this countertop oven, sort of like a toaster oven on steroids. It looks like MK wrote the note, thanking us for the generous gift and saying it would likely get used daily "as J2 has a Pop-Tart obsession." Ha! That's too funny. I love it.