Small Steps for Big Fetes; it's What I Live By.

I'm going to get to all the stuff about the NYS trip, Dan and Jennifer's wedding, honestly I am. It was a lot of fun. As with all things, not everything went precisely smoothly, but Jennifer(above, the bride-to-be), no matter what was thrown at her, had it allll under control. Not sure if her confidence came from the spiked orange juice the morning of the wedding, or the gun on the table. (It's fake, I'm sure...it was there before I got there that day.) This is a picture of my daughter, Jennifer "Sookie", below, blonde, having just had her hair done. The hair-dresser is one of Jennifer's (the bride-to-be...not Sookie) sisters, and the bride-to-be's daughter Melinda.


This is another of the bride-to-be's sisters, Laura. Actually, one of the reasons I hadn't written much about the wedding, was that my darned camera ran out of batteries during the wedding ceremony, so I've been waiting for pictures to come from NYS. Actually, as I'm writing, I'm getting ready for Cappy to come home tomorrow, then the next day Dan, Jennifer, and Destiny "Desi" are coming back down for another visit. I'm hoping pictures will be riding with them on the plane.
And yep! When I flew to Rochester last month, I actually did fit everything into the carry-on bag. I amazed myself. It was still a little heavy for me to lift, so whenever I had to lift it to the overhead...I had to ride four different airplanes(two going North and two coming back South)...I'd kinda look at some strong man near me and ask if he'd put my carry-on bag up in the bin, or take it down. As they were lifting it, I'd say, as if in awe..."Wow! You made that look like it was only a stick of butter!" (TERRIBLE, I know...but it was the truth.) And they always seemed pleased. Now. While I was in NYS, I accumulated a few things; shoes, hat, souvenirs,etc, so now I had too much stuff to fit into my carry-on. Cappy suggested I mail them home, rather than take a chance on losing it by letting handlers mess with my package in the plane. (I've seen way too many stories, and heard way too many stories.) So...hmmm, baggage handlers or Brown "Oops" mail delivery guys...if you've read us for long, you know our history with those "Oops" people. Nontheless, I mailed the package and prayed that Fed-X or the yellow truck would bring it to our door. (Actually, it ended up arriving at our post office...even better!)
But still my carry-on bag had taken on new dimensions and gained a li'l weight while I was there in Rochester. Coming home,I couldn't even lift it onto the converyer belt thingy. Again, I summoned a strong-looking fella to help me out. He swaggered up to the 'plate', smiling, took ahold of it, lifting it, but suddenly his legs kinda wobbled and his smile turned into a grimace as he let it plop onto the counter. As before, I breezed, "Oh...you made that look like it was only a stick of butter". He only looked at me as if to say, "Whadda ya tryna pull, lady?!" I took so long taking off my shoes and socks, as intructed at that airport checkpoint, that the guy and his family quickly got away before I could ask him again to take it down off the counter for me. I I got one of the big security guys to do it for me. He didn't say anything, but raised one eyebrow as he lifted it to the ground. I didn't offer my 'butter' comment. As I was getting on the plane, some big tall guy was arguing with one of the flight attendants, as they were hauling his huge duffle bag off the plane. They wouldn't let it go on the plane. I got on, found an empty compartment, but couldn't lift it for sure, I turned around and asked somebody if they'd lift it on for me. The guy tall guy growled, "Oh surrrrre", deftly picked it up and forced it hard into the overhead bin. I started to say, "Wow! You made that look like it was only a stick of...", but only then did I realize that it was the guy who's duffle bag was tossed off. He would not have been amused. And he still wasn't at the end of the trip when he got it back down for me. On the next(last) leg of the trip I had one more plane to get on, but I don't think I buttered up anybody else. The guy at the security check said it was too heavy and I might want to check it. Maybe I should have, but I had been trying to avoid that at all costs. I managed to get somebody strong to get it in the bin, and at the end of the trip,I dragged it out of the bin, but it really whalloped the backrest of the seat under it. The attendants were looking at me suspiciously, so I profusely apologized for 'dropping' my luggage like that. Gosh, it really WAS heavy! I won't let that kind of thing happen again, in the future. When I got to the airport long-term parking lot, the lady who drove the shuttlebus delivered me to my SUV, and carried my carry-on suitcase off the bus and stood there the whole time holding it in her right hand, while I fumbled with keys, trying to get it quickly opened. I dropped the keys, of course, and fumbled some more trying to get the darned tailgate opened. After all that I expected her to have set it down, but she hadn't. She just patiently stood there, then finally lifted it lightly into the back of my vehicle. I was amazed. "How could you hold that thing for so long?? It's heavy", I said as I handed her a good tip. She said, "Awww, it's not bad...it's what I do for a living". As we walked away, I told her, "Well, WOW! You made that look like it was only a stick of butter!"