Happy times: lots and lots o' stuffs!
The past week or so has gone quite well, I do have to say. :)
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were spent at Ben's house. We spent the time enjoying the brief snow, playing Cosmic Encounter, watching things like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Network, and canoodling and snuggling like mad. :-D Monday night Ben's parents drove me up to Portland, since they were going to the U2 concert that they got tickets for a year ago, and they dropped me off then with promises to come up to Portland later and do something with me. :)
Tuesday night we went to my cousin Kaylee's 13th birthday party. That was certainly interesting -- with Kaylee being 13 and her cousin Amanda and Richie being 15, conversations with them get a lot more interesting. It's weird to look back to my old diaries now and be like, "Damn, this is what I was like at the age they are now... and looking at my old thoughts, if I compare them... well, these kids aren't really kids anymore." So Richie ended up telling Amanda and Kaylee about his expulsion and his prescription for Prozac (he also has therapy once a week), and Kaylee, who has always been a very smart kid, admitted that she got an F in a class for the first time, and I made evil sarcastic jokes that were quite on the mean side, that I wouldn't have been able to make back when they were little. (Although it was odd to have 6-year-old Julie hovering around, having most of the conversation fly over her little head, lol....) At her birthday party we also discovered that one of my mom's cousins, who was missing for 25 years and presumed to be dead, randomly called up his brother and said, "Hey, it's Arthur, your brother." Brother: "You're ALIVE?" So we'll have to find out where exactly this guy's been for 25 years....
Wednesday afternoon Kaylee and Julie came over to spend the night. We played pool (and I was slightly less crappy at it than I thought I was, yay) and did loads of crafty things -- I drew/painted and played with modeling clay, and the girls went at the drawing and painting stuff with gusto. Julie enjoyed trumpeting her skills of an artist, which was amusing. After dinner I set Kaylee up with a LiveJournal, since she's 13 now -- this should be interesting. Hopefully I won't leave anything too incriminating up here where my dear cousin can find it. ;) Then we played the Series of Unfortunate Events board game, which is awesome: you can play as Count Olaf or one of the three children, and the children have to try and keep their guardian alive until Mr. Poe goes to the bank and back, while Count Olaf tries to capture the children and kill the guardian. They move around a nifty little board and there's ways the children can thwart Count Olaf or help their guardian or speed Mr. Poe along, and it's a really neat game that you have to use strategy for. I was Count Olaf and reveled in being evil and vaguely sort of British, roflmao, and apparently I did such a good job that Julie started getting scared by my evil laugh, and asked me to please stop. Whoops? :-P We went to bed after watching Nightmare Before Christmas, and I regaled the girls with "college stories," which consisted mostly of relating gossip about enormously annoying people, with the appropriate edits when needed. For some reason they seemed highly enamored, lol, insisting I told good stories (even though I was just bitching about highly annoying people). Good times. :-D
Thursday we spent the day at OMSI. I returned my cockroaches to Life Science (well... except for one, which I was attached to... hey, shut up!) and showed Mom and the girls around. The exhibit on animation was fun, especially the parts involving bullet time and stop-motion filming, with little studios. The girls had a great time, especially since they'd never really been to OMSI before. That was definitely fun, although by the end of it I was pretty tired. We came back home, played some more of the game, and had lunch. And that was when Ben showed up. :-D
We'd made arrangements for him to stay from Thursday to Christmas Eve, so that he could a) go to Stephanie's wedding with me and b) be here for Christmas Eve dinner. Dad had us camp out on the air mattress with sleeping bags down in the basement so that we could have the TV and computer around. I would've been happy sleeping out in the backyard with him though, honestly, because come on, it's Ben! :-D
So Ben met my cousins (Kaylee seemed oddly shy, and also squawked loudly in protest whenever Ben and I gave each other the merest of kisses; Julie started to join in after that, which was highly amusing) and my uncle, and the girls went home. Ben and I hauled his things in and then got ready for the wedding, putting on our nice clothes and such. We left for church soon after, with me brilliantly forgetting the cookbook I'd gotten for Stephanie and AJ. >_<
Went to the church, where Ben and I took over guestbook duty as Stephanie had asked me to do. I had to introduce poor Ben to practically every single person who's ever been to Linwood and ever spoken to me, but he took it in stride. I think a lot of them were a combination of pleased and surprised to see me with a boy, lol. Let alone such a tall, handsome boy. :-D We sat behind Jennifer Loop and Faitha, and tried to keep the canoodling to a minimum.
The wedding -- the wedding was interesting. Stephanie certainly looked happy, and radiant in her dress. But Ben said that the groom's father looked, well, less than jubilant during the ceremony. And it was so hard for me to get it through my head that this was for real, for keeps, that Stephanie wasn't just wearing a beautiful dress for the hell of it, that this wasn't practice or a play. I've known Stephanie since she was about 10 years old, and for several years we were thick as thieves, best friends at church and school. But then I went to college, and though we wrote letters at first we got lazy and forgetful... and these past three and a half years we've really drifted. We still have fun whenever we get together, but there's not the instant closeness we used to share, and there are ways in which our paths have diverged wildly (and some where they haven't diverged at all, but they are fewer). So I don't know her nearly as well as I used to. I was afraid for her to get married so young (20), and to a young man who's in the Air Force and will be stationed in Alaska for the next 4-6 years. But she didn't want to wait, and neither did he. So I wish them both luck, but it was still a weird feeling to hear them pronounced husband and wife.
The reception was fun. Ben and I hung out with Chris and Mary for much of it. Grandma and Grandpa stopped by the say hello to us and to make sure that Ben would be staying for Christmas Eve dinner. ("Ben, you've got a date with my grandpa," I said when they left.) I helped Faitha serve cake, and had Danna Garski, a large woman who brings more drama with her than a traveling theater troup, tell me that all the old members were gossiping about whether or not I would be the next one to get married. Then she had the bizarre gall to say that she'd thought I'd be swept off my feet by some braindead jock or something. I don't know, it didn't make any sense. I just looked at her with incredularity and said, "No way! I would never do that!!!" Crazy lady. And marriage isn't in the cards for me for ages -- it'd have to be at LEAST a year from now that Ben and I could even think about engagement, but even that would be majorly pushing it. And if for some reason Ben and I don't work out, then obviously I wouldn't be getting married any time soon. Ah, well. The church people can keep dreaming.... :-P
After the bouquet toss (damn you, Faitha, for stealing that bouquet from me!), Ben and I went over to Chris and Mary's new place. They showed us around the apartment and then we headed out to Starbucks, where I got a chai latte and Chris spilled a third of his venti drink all over the floor. Oopsy. We went back to the apartment, played Uno, watched South Park, and made terrible jokes about September 11th (although that was mostly me, rofl). We had a great time hanging out with them, and as we got in the car to head home Ben mused, "I like those two." Chris and Mary, if you guys are ever in the Salem area, Ben has extended the invitation to come visit. You could even stay in his guest room, he says. :-D Road trip, you guys? :-P
We got home and after Ben rediscovering the joys of Counter Strike, went to bed. Aaaaaand... I'm really exhausted. I'll try and update tomorrow about zombie movies, Peacock Lane, cuddling, and a lovely dinner with family and Ben, but if not, know that I love that boy utterly and that my family can really rock. Huzzah.
Merry Christmas, everyone. :)
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were spent at Ben's house. We spent the time enjoying the brief snow, playing Cosmic Encounter, watching things like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Network, and canoodling and snuggling like mad. :-D Monday night Ben's parents drove me up to Portland, since they were going to the U2 concert that they got tickets for a year ago, and they dropped me off then with promises to come up to Portland later and do something with me. :)
Tuesday night we went to my cousin Kaylee's 13th birthday party. That was certainly interesting -- with Kaylee being 13 and her cousin Amanda and Richie being 15, conversations with them get a lot more interesting. It's weird to look back to my old diaries now and be like, "Damn, this is what I was like at the age they are now... and looking at my old thoughts, if I compare them... well, these kids aren't really kids anymore." So Richie ended up telling Amanda and Kaylee about his expulsion and his prescription for Prozac (he also has therapy once a week), and Kaylee, who has always been a very smart kid, admitted that she got an F in a class for the first time, and I made evil sarcastic jokes that were quite on the mean side, that I wouldn't have been able to make back when they were little. (Although it was odd to have 6-year-old Julie hovering around, having most of the conversation fly over her little head, lol....) At her birthday party we also discovered that one of my mom's cousins, who was missing for 25 years and presumed to be dead, randomly called up his brother and said, "Hey, it's Arthur, your brother." Brother: "You're ALIVE?" So we'll have to find out where exactly this guy's been for 25 years....
Wednesday afternoon Kaylee and Julie came over to spend the night. We played pool (and I was slightly less crappy at it than I thought I was, yay) and did loads of crafty things -- I drew/painted and played with modeling clay, and the girls went at the drawing and painting stuff with gusto. Julie enjoyed trumpeting her skills of an artist, which was amusing. After dinner I set Kaylee up with a LiveJournal, since she's 13 now -- this should be interesting. Hopefully I won't leave anything too incriminating up here where my dear cousin can find it. ;) Then we played the Series of Unfortunate Events board game, which is awesome: you can play as Count Olaf or one of the three children, and the children have to try and keep their guardian alive until Mr. Poe goes to the bank and back, while Count Olaf tries to capture the children and kill the guardian. They move around a nifty little board and there's ways the children can thwart Count Olaf or help their guardian or speed Mr. Poe along, and it's a really neat game that you have to use strategy for. I was Count Olaf and reveled in being evil and vaguely sort of British, roflmao, and apparently I did such a good job that Julie started getting scared by my evil laugh, and asked me to please stop. Whoops? :-P We went to bed after watching Nightmare Before Christmas, and I regaled the girls with "college stories," which consisted mostly of relating gossip about enormously annoying people, with the appropriate edits when needed. For some reason they seemed highly enamored, lol, insisting I told good stories (even though I was just bitching about highly annoying people). Good times. :-D
Thursday we spent the day at OMSI. I returned my cockroaches to Life Science (well... except for one, which I was attached to... hey, shut up!) and showed Mom and the girls around. The exhibit on animation was fun, especially the parts involving bullet time and stop-motion filming, with little studios. The girls had a great time, especially since they'd never really been to OMSI before. That was definitely fun, although by the end of it I was pretty tired. We came back home, played some more of the game, and had lunch. And that was when Ben showed up. :-D
We'd made arrangements for him to stay from Thursday to Christmas Eve, so that he could a) go to Stephanie's wedding with me and b) be here for Christmas Eve dinner. Dad had us camp out on the air mattress with sleeping bags down in the basement so that we could have the TV and computer around. I would've been happy sleeping out in the backyard with him though, honestly, because come on, it's Ben! :-D
So Ben met my cousins (Kaylee seemed oddly shy, and also squawked loudly in protest whenever Ben and I gave each other the merest of kisses; Julie started to join in after that, which was highly amusing) and my uncle, and the girls went home. Ben and I hauled his things in and then got ready for the wedding, putting on our nice clothes and such. We left for church soon after, with me brilliantly forgetting the cookbook I'd gotten for Stephanie and AJ. >_<
Went to the church, where Ben and I took over guestbook duty as Stephanie had asked me to do. I had to introduce poor Ben to practically every single person who's ever been to Linwood and ever spoken to me, but he took it in stride. I think a lot of them were a combination of pleased and surprised to see me with a boy, lol. Let alone such a tall, handsome boy. :-D We sat behind Jennifer Loop and Faitha, and tried to keep the canoodling to a minimum.
The wedding -- the wedding was interesting. Stephanie certainly looked happy, and radiant in her dress. But Ben said that the groom's father looked, well, less than jubilant during the ceremony. And it was so hard for me to get it through my head that this was for real, for keeps, that Stephanie wasn't just wearing a beautiful dress for the hell of it, that this wasn't practice or a play. I've known Stephanie since she was about 10 years old, and for several years we were thick as thieves, best friends at church and school. But then I went to college, and though we wrote letters at first we got lazy and forgetful... and these past three and a half years we've really drifted. We still have fun whenever we get together, but there's not the instant closeness we used to share, and there are ways in which our paths have diverged wildly (and some where they haven't diverged at all, but they are fewer). So I don't know her nearly as well as I used to. I was afraid for her to get married so young (20), and to a young man who's in the Air Force and will be stationed in Alaska for the next 4-6 years. But she didn't want to wait, and neither did he. So I wish them both luck, but it was still a weird feeling to hear them pronounced husband and wife.
The reception was fun. Ben and I hung out with Chris and Mary for much of it. Grandma and Grandpa stopped by the say hello to us and to make sure that Ben would be staying for Christmas Eve dinner. ("Ben, you've got a date with my grandpa," I said when they left.) I helped Faitha serve cake, and had Danna Garski, a large woman who brings more drama with her than a traveling theater troup, tell me that all the old members were gossiping about whether or not I would be the next one to get married. Then she had the bizarre gall to say that she'd thought I'd be swept off my feet by some braindead jock or something. I don't know, it didn't make any sense. I just looked at her with incredularity and said, "No way! I would never do that!!!" Crazy lady. And marriage isn't in the cards for me for ages -- it'd have to be at LEAST a year from now that Ben and I could even think about engagement, but even that would be majorly pushing it. And if for some reason Ben and I don't work out, then obviously I wouldn't be getting married any time soon. Ah, well. The church people can keep dreaming.... :-P
After the bouquet toss (damn you, Faitha, for stealing that bouquet from me!), Ben and I went over to Chris and Mary's new place. They showed us around the apartment and then we headed out to Starbucks, where I got a chai latte and Chris spilled a third of his venti drink all over the floor. Oopsy. We went back to the apartment, played Uno, watched South Park, and made terrible jokes about September 11th (although that was mostly me, rofl). We had a great time hanging out with them, and as we got in the car to head home Ben mused, "I like those two." Chris and Mary, if you guys are ever in the Salem area, Ben has extended the invitation to come visit. You could even stay in his guest room, he says. :-D Road trip, you guys? :-P
We got home and after Ben rediscovering the joys of Counter Strike, went to bed. Aaaaaand... I'm really exhausted. I'll try and update tomorrow about zombie movies, Peacock Lane, cuddling, and a lovely dinner with family and Ben, but if not, know that I love that boy utterly and that my family can really rock. Huzzah.
Merry Christmas, everyone. :)