Worked today until about 2:00. Amanda got off at noon and said something about going to the beach before heading to Durham, but I just had way too much to do. While I finished things up Amanda went to Pier One to get a gift card for her friend Sara Barbeewhose wedding we were about to head to. She also picked up some Chick-Fil-A for us then swung back by the house where we loaded everything up and headed out.
Just after pulling out of the driveway, I rolled down the window and let Dave Narron, our neighbor, know that we were heading out and he could park the Olds in the driveway. He had started working on it earlier this morning.
We had Bruce with us in the car. We had planned on leaving him at home for this trip, but it turned out that Michael, who had his first day of work at one of the downtown Port City Javas today, was going back home to Richlands for a bit. Since we couldn’t leave Bruce and didn’t want to ask Bonnie (Dave’s wife) to watch him out of the blue (she wasn’t home anyway) we took him with us. But we couldn’t take him to the wedding either, so we had to go by my parents’ house in Rougemont first.
We ran into a bit of traffic right outside of Clayton, so I called my boss, Scott Hendrix, who had moved there a few months ago, if he knew of any bypass we could take to avoid the traffic. I handed the phone over to Amanda and he gave her the directions. It worked really well. It was probably less than a ten minute trip and it saved us from about ten miles of one-lane highway, not to mention the time we saved from not having to merge.
We got to Durham and it started to rain. The problem with this is that Sara’s wedding was supposed to be outside at Duke Gardens. We called the Hilton, where people were staying and the reception was being held, and they said the plans were still on to have the ceremony at Duke Gardens. The rain let up, but by the time we were passing Black Horse Run it was raining so hard you could barely see in front of you.
We got to my parents’ house and said a quick hello to them then changed and ran back out the door, as we were starting to get pressed for time. We called again to make sure the wedding was still on for Duke Gardens, and they said it was so we headed that way. We made a pit stop at a CVS to pick up an over-priced umbrella then made our way there. When we got there we found some people who said the decision had just been made to move the wedding to the Hilton, so we hopped back in the car and went there.
Amanda saw a couple people she knew before we sat down, but then she saw Renee Tripp and we moved to go sit with her and her mom. I like Renee- she’s cool people. We spent most of the night hanging out with her.
So we sat around and talked. Sara and Mike (Michael?) made their rounds and talked to all of us. It was a small wedding, which was nice because they were able to devote some time to everybody, unlike how it was at our wedding. Anyway, they seemed like really nice, cool people. Michael reminded me of small bits of people I knew in college pieced together.
We talked some more, we ate. We stuck around for a while then took off. Actually, as Amanda and I were saying goodbye to Sara, Renee came back in and said their car battery had died and asked for a jump. We went out there, but their SUV was parked facing a lawn and it was in between two cars. Amanda and I tried pushing it ourselves, but that didn’t do much good. Renee switched places with Amanda and another man from the wedding came over to help out and we were able to easily back it out into the parking lot. With the jumper cables the car started easily and everyone was on their merry way home.
Amanda and I drove home talking about music, which was kind of cool. We got to my parents’ house (they were asleep already) and Amanda got ready for bed. In my old room I found the passport from when I went on a European tour with Aunt Robbie back in 1994 and a Duncan Butterfly Yo-Yo I had bought in college. When I went downstairs to get us some towels I glanced into a bin with a bunch of board games and saw an old journal I used to keep. How odd to see so many old things practically at once.
That journal. I suppose since it was just lying about people probably read it; people being my parents and anyone else who might have passed by it. I doubt anyone would have read the whole thing, but still. I remember getting it. It’s a small, thick book that Mum Mum gave me (actually I think each of us kids got one) for Christmas one year. The first entry was talking about a plane trip to Texas (I think it was to Texas- I didn’t read much of it yet) that I was on with Adam. If I recall correctly Erin and Andra were going also, but on a different plane. I guess Mom and Dad didn’t want to put all of us eggs in one flying aluminum basket. I’m not sure exactly when it ended except that it was about three years and one week later. I’ve been meaning to find that thing for a long time and possibly add the contents to this site.
The problem with transcribing that whole thing into an online site (aside from the magnitude of it) is that it was written without the intent of other people reading it, much unlike this site. There is, of course, a lot I don’t write about here. I think I’ve only directly mentioned sex once, whereas I’m sure those writings are at least full of my thoughts about making out with Jennifer Wynne, Autumn Belk and Julie Powell, not to mention all my adolescent emotional highs and lows concerning Kelia Hester. I don’t know, maybe I’ll put up a safe version. Or maybe I’ll transcribe it then add a PG version of it all. That’s what I used to do with this, afterall, and maybe I should go back to doing that again.