Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

I spent this past weekend at the beach at the wedding of two friends of mine. I rode with my friend E in her 'eep and two other friends (J & M) went in J's civic. We all shared a hotel room on the waterfront in downtown Wilmington. Hotel had these 'swedish memory foam beds' and an entire channel dedicated to the infomercial about the 'miraculous foam beds'. The first room we were in (and basically trashed after 20 mins) had a bum bed. Meaning that when E & M both sat on the bed, the bed broke. Literally. And no they weren't doing anything. The four of us are all female and friends only. Nothing more. Anyway, M calls down to the front desk to say that the bed broke and is now leaning.

M: "Hi yeah, this is room ### and we were getting ready for bed when one of the beds broke. The bed is now leaning."
Front desk: "What would you like us to do about this?"
M: "Well, we'd like a flat sleeping surface so either a new bed or a new room. You can upgrade us to a suite if you want." M laughs at her joke, Front Desk does not.
Front Desk: "We'll move you to the room next door. Bellman will be up with the new keys."
M: "Okay. Thank you!"

After the move to the new room we all settled in and tried to sleep. Okay so E and M had no issues sleeping. J and I got maybe three hours sleep. E has been sick the last couple weeks, stuffed up, congested, etc. Translation: She snored consistently and loudly throughout the night. She also talks and moans in her sleep. Which after several hours of this, can be amusing. Especially when E got the hiccups. I have never heard anyone get the hiccups whilst sleeping and continue to sleep and snore and moan and talk. Basically J and I tossed and turned all night. Around 1.30 we blesedly found a tv station that had white noise. Which helped us get some sleep until M got up at 4.30 to turn off the white noise to which J and I both went "HEY!!!!" and M said "Oh thought the sleep timer thingie didn't work." At which point J and I explained that we put on the white noise so that we could drown out the sounds coming from her bed. Needless to say, in the morning J & I were in dire need of copious amounts of coffee. Granted that's par for the course.

J's cousin had graduated fron UNCW that weekend and J was to meet her grandparents and other assored family members for lunch to celebrate. So the four of us piled into the 'eep and headed off for Wrightsville Beach to drop J off. E, M and I tooled around in the 'eep a bit and then went for lunch at Olympia, a little mediterranean restaurant in Wrightsville Beach. Their hommous was Amazing!!! And the spices on their pita bread. Wow! Seriously, if you're ever in WB go to Olympia for the hommous! The gyros aren't bad either *grin* E, M and I head back to pick J up plus the 2 mai tai's J had injested at lunch with her family. Then we hit the beach for a bit before zooming on back to the hotel for a nap and to prep for the wedding. Let me just say this about our wedding preparation. Four women, one bathroom, definitely need to start getting reading for a 7 pm wedding before 6.15.

We all hope into the 'eep and start zooming back to the beach for the wedding. Did I mention that the top was down and the windows were out? When we he hear sirens behind us. A fire truck. We were in the right hand lane at a red light with a pickup truck in the left lane. We turn the corner so that the fire truck can get by and do a U turn to get to the other side of the street so that we can turn right, back onto the street that we had been on originally. However, due to cars we have to zip into a parking lot and drive over the cement parking block thingies. Thankfully we were in the 'eep so driving over the cement parking dividers wasn't an issue. Then another fire truck buzzes on by, followed by the traffic from the light. So because we were good citizens and obeyed the law, we were three or four cars further back and had lost about five minutes. Which is a big deal when we only had 20 mins left to make a 20 min drive (not including traffic). Needless to say we make up for being good citzens by taking the speed limit under advisement only. So it's looking good for us, like we'll get to the wedding a little early and then we get stopped because the bridge is UP! I take this time to snap some photos of us in the 'eep (M had a black bandana with skulls and crossbones on it on to prvent her hair from flying about and J had a baseball cap on hers). E busts out some leis from her center console and I snap more photos. I also snap one of the bridge being up - to backup our story. Bridge goes down and we're on our way again. We get to the wedding spot at 7.05 and the wedding hasn't started yet. Hooray! E drops us off and goes in search of a parking spot. She ends up parking illegally. No ticket either! Wooo!!
The wedding itself was gorgeous! Weather was Fantastic! Mid-70's, light breeze, bright sunny skies and crashing ocean waves. And the sunset! I hope the photographer got some good shots of it! It was amazing! Bridesmaids were dressed in coral dresses with matching coral flip flops, groomsmen were in tuxes with light sage green accoutrements. Bride was glowing in a white sparkly gown. And that's about all the fashion info I can give yall cause the majority of my wardrobe is jeans and t-shirts.

I took a variety of photos with my digital on the way to the wedding and at the reception. I got maybe three at the wedding site before my batteries died. None of the actual ceremony :( E & M drop J and I off at the reception area (Bellamy Hall) and drive back to our hotel to get different shoes, batteries for my camera and to drop off the 'eep. They walk back to the Hall. This way none of us will have to monitor our drinking because we have no car to drive. Reception was great. The Hall is a pretty darn cool place! When I'm not freezing from the AC and in a hurry to leave and thaw out, I'll find the link and add it here. J & I hung out at the reception til 11.30 and then we hitched a ride back to our hotel. She was drunk and tired and my back was killing me. E & M went to a bar with some other friends and got back to the hotel around 2.

Checkout was 11 which was fine as we were meeting friends at IHOP at 11. J & M zipped on home after brunch while E & I took the scenic route, putting us back home about an hour later than J & M.

Overall it was a great weekend. I'm sure I'll think of more to add later but that's it for now. I need to get outside and thaw out. Am at a Panera Bread WiFi and they apparently don't believe in conserving energy and having a pleasant environment. Or maybe this is there way of limiting the time folks spend using their WiFi...