7.27.99

    It takes two days to recover from a wedding of college friends. Sunday is a blurry, headachy haze. Monday, the haze begins to lift but I still must move slowly. Tuesday, I wonder where the week has already gone.

    Yes, I did make it to Los Angeles although sans T. It was a whirlwind of activity but I ended up flying in to Burbank on Saturday morning and flying out Sunday at noon. I am so glad that I was able to do it because I had just an amazing time.

    It was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena, a sprawling, landscaped, dipped-in-gold, quaint, country cottage. Yes, some of those things do not go together. We got lost everytime we had to find a bathroom.

    Sonia and Rick had an outdoor wedding with a ceremony that mixed their two faiths and backgrounds. All the girls were lovely in lavender and had up-dos to die for.

    After the ceremony, we had cocktail hour and then dinner. The bar was open which was a good thing since my pre-ceremony Ginger Ale from the bar cost $3.25! The sleaziest guy hit on me at the bar before dinner saying, "So...where's your husband tonight?" I didn't quite know how to respond to that so I mumbled something and walked away. Maybe if he were cute I would have been a little more coy. Of course, when I sat down to dinner who should be at my table but slimy-boy. He's there with his girlfriend and they continually make out all through dinner. Yergh.

    Dinner was a blast and the food was incredible. People kept coming around and talking and there were many toasts. Sonia's sister made a toast that included all the girls that she met at the bachelorette party. Over the years, I've been privy to many fights between Sonia and her sister but always on her side of things. I hadn't met her until the bachelorette and expected someone uptight and severe. She wasn't like that at all. In fact, she a lot like Sonia! I think that she was impressed with us, Sonia's friends. I wonder what she expected from us? Anyway, her toast made me tear up, something I barely managed not to do during the ceremony.

    I felt like a million bucks in my new dress, shoes and gems. See, even if Sonia was someone I hated and even if the ceremony was being held in Mongolia during a Monsoon, I would have had to go because I bought a dress, shoes and accessories just for the occasion. I'll have to develop my pics and see if I have any of me in the dress but it was a pretty snazzy find. It's a light, cobalty-blue, sleeveless number with floral beading along the bottom. That sounds weird but it really looks neat. I bought the girliest shoes I have ever worn in my entire life (slate-blue, strappy heels) and they were pretty comfortable. Too bad I didn't have a boy on my arm. *sigh* I really missed T. not being there.

    On the other hand, if he had come we would have had an entirely different weekend where we would have stayed with our L.A. friends and played golf and also made time to get together with Shelley and M. which would also have been wonderful. As it was, I got to spend time with a contingent of our crowd that I didn't know very well and met lots of charming guys and their very friend wives and girlfriends. I am continually impressed by the people I know. I think there has come a point in my life where I can choose the majority of my friends. I can ease people out of my life without them being the wiser and I can choose to get to know other people better. The friends of my friends seem to be a good lot and I think I'm very lucky to have the friends that I have... that have such good friends. (Why don't we just end this paragraph right here, hmmm?)

    So, as I said, Monday was just breaking through the haze. I started a Flash class at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. It's just so cool that my work allows for educational costs. They're picking up the bill and every Monday for the next five weeks I'll be heading towards the Pearl district and being all geeky with graphics software — I'm in heaven.

    The trick is, of course, getting there. The car has been in the shop or not running since the day we got up here. It wasn't a problem until we both got jobs. Now it's a big problem and we're having to deal with it in ways that are very annoying and disruptive. Last Friday, I finally got it back with a new fuel pump and an electrical problem fixed that was preventing the low-beam on my left headlamp to work and then went out of town. It sat, of course, until I got back. Monday morning, I got into the car, turned the key and it started with little trouble. At noon I jumped in my car to head out to my class and *click*click*click* - shit! — it's not starting. I tried again: *click*click*click* - shit! The engine wouldn't even turn over. It wouldn't do anything but pathetically click as the starter tried to find power.

    I ran back up to the office and called the school to let them know I'd be late. Then I looked to borrow money since I only had a dollar but borrowed a MAX ticket instead. I hopped on the MAX and got downtown around 1 p.m. Then I had to run around figuring out bus schedules and buying a book of ten tickets on my Visa so that I could get to the college. I missed the first bus by a nose, it pulled off just as I got to the door and I'm sure the driver saw me — bastard. I got to the class 45 minutes late, hot, sweaty and hungry. Of course, if the MAX didn't run right by my office I would have missed the class entirely.

    Which brings me to the part of my story where T. hates me and the car I rode in on entirely. I had to call him to pick me up from work and he showed up surly which didn't help my food-deprived mood one little bit. Finally, as the evening wears on and we're just not talking to each other it comes out that this is the last straw for him. He wants me to sell it and he wants us to buy another car.

    Frankly, that's just not going to happen. At first, I told him I'd think about it but the fact of the matter is that this is a thing that I really love. I adore that car and now that I have a substantially-paying job I want to start putting money into it to fix it up. It's been highly abused in the last four years because I haven't had the cash flow to put into it. I bet that if you look at T's main hobby (golf, golfing, golf paraphernalia, associated golf outings and golf books) that they'll even out in terms of cost. His point is that we don't depend on his hobby to get us somewhere. I'll grant him that. On the other hand, I had this car before I married him and I intend on keeping it.

    The bottom line is that this isn't a good thing to be fighting about and I'll just have to accept that when anything goes wrong with my car to brace myself and prepare for a beating. Wheee.