How are things in Cincinnati?

Things are great here in Cincinnati. What have I done so far?

Thursday:
I went to bed around 1am on Wednesday night. Why? I don't really have a good answer to that. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. Just to be on the safe side I set the alarm clock and two different alarms on my phone. I got up with no problem and had some of Kelly's awesome sticky buns for breakfast.

Bonnie gave me a ride to the airport. When I got there, the tram was down which meant I had to walk about half a mile (no, seriously) to my gate. Thank goodness I can walk that far. The flight itself was uneventful.

Mom and I went out to lunch and then shopping. We got Jenny's shower/wedding gifts and an hilarious card. Hee hee. I think Doug will like it too. We also went to Target and got Dad his fathers day gift (which Mom helped me pick out). It was approved because they were items my mom was willing to pack when they move.

When we got back into the car from Target it was about 9000* inside so I flipped the switch to turn on the A/C. And the compressor turned on right away. The fan only worked on high though. I felt so bad. Luckily Mom was there and could see that the thing just chose to break when I touched it. Still, I felt really bad.

Rehearsal was fun. I knew almost everyone there. That's the first time that's happened in any wedding I've been a participant. It was also the longest rehearsal I've ever known. We went through the whole ceremony twice. Guess who's going down the aisle first. We know how I feel about that. It's ok. A guy comes to take my arm earlier in this process and I'm in flats so I'll be fine.

Dinner was at a place called "Porkopolis" where the only things that don't have pork are the beef and chicken. It's actually the old Rookwood Pottery kiln and factory so it's a fun restaurant. I did not have the bacon. It's just not the same without Amanda.

There was also ride in a very full minivan. I was happy when that ended. It was a really fun night. I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, including my first bosses ever.

Friday: I stuck my head in the lion's mouth with (hopefully) a much better result. Mom decided she just couldn't face the attic so I told her I'd clean it. She actually did an awesome job of throwing things away. Of all the things I went through, she only wanted to keep her wedding dress, wedding hat (it's a sun hat, it looks nice), the outfits her mom wore to her wedding and my uncle's wedding, and her year books.

Through the process, I also learned that Dad is cheap. He's really a bigger part of the problem than I'd originally anticipated. He doesn't want to throw away anything that cost money. Ever. Christmas Ribbon? We can use that. Books? We can read 'em. In a blessing/curse thing he's also work-avoidant and only spen about 15 minutes trying to help me sort through things. Ultimately I decided his time would be better spent taking things up and down the stairs. Good decision on my part. Our "attic" is really a third floor servants quarters. It's from when the house was made, we didn't have servants. And the stuff had to get taken out the basement so it's really four floors that he was running up and down. I did it for a while too but I got worn out.

Mom and I took a trip to the recycling program near by, which is really a dumpster by my old school. Mom wears rubber gloves at almost all times and I was wearing a bandanna as a mask because it was so dusty upstairs so we were really quite the pair.

Finally, I got to clean up and take a shower. Did I mention there's no air conditioning? Anywhere. I was so excited for that cold shower.

Then we went to see my parent's new digs. They put in an offer that was accepted. Except the inspection just came back and there's a few things that need to be fixed I guess. It sounded like some of them were pretty big and some were not. The dryer doesn't work, but I think the biggest thing is the garage floor is cracked and it sounds hollow under one part. It's a nice looking place. It is all covered in wall-paper. As soon as I walked in I thought, "well, I know who's gonna be taking that down". They're going to re-do the kitchen before they move in. I think they may re-do the floors and paint the walls. Really they'll have to paint if they take out the wallpaper.

I had Christmas Spaghetti for dinner which was yummy as always. And my cousin's son was there. He's 8 months old and really cute. I had a great time.

Now, after having spent the day as Cinderella, I'm worn out. I have pictures but I'll post them when I get home.