Las Vegas and The Wedding

I'm not sleeping, so I might as well put my time to good use. If you are hoping for pictures of anything but the wedding, you will be disappointed this round. I didn't even get pictures of all the people I should have, but did well considering my state of exhaustion.

So, we started out Thursday morning. I slept later than I'd intended, so there was some amount of chicken without its head time getting set to go. I gave Glenn a break because we didn't have to get to the airport till around 9 in the morning. It took a little time getting our boarding passes and waiting for the wheelchair, but soon we were at our gate, which unlike most flights I've ever taken was the closest rather than the one in the next county. Naturally, our plane was late, but that didn't much matter. It's a short flight and we weren't really doing anything till Friday evening. We got settled on the plane then waited some more. I was sitting next to Elaine, naturally, but there was a very nice young man in the window seat who had bone cancer 7 years ago when he was in high school. Cancer is not that exclusive a club, but it is a bond. He napped most of the way, but we talked some before we landed.

It was good to see my wheelchair and chauffeur waiting for me. The people at McCarran Airport couldn't have been nicer. It takes a bit of navigation to get around, complete with what would have been an "E" ticket in the Disneyland of way old. My driver (just can't bring myself to call that nice gentleman a pusher) got us to baggage pick-up and to the rental car shuttle easy as pie. The Rental Car Center is a lovely facility (as such things go). Had I really given it enough thought, though, I wouldn't have bothered renting a car and just taken a cab to and from the hotel. Lesson learned.

We stayed at the Luxor, which we could see from the airport. I probably wouldn't choose it again. They are doing remodeling in the hotel and it was noisy and our air conditioner was suffering from extreme old age. There was a monsoon going on that afternoon, so we spent some time just watching the storm, checking for lightning--there was lots. The Bride and Groom rented a house in Las Vegas and were giving a pre-wedding barbecue--Elaine and I opted out, due to my exhaustion and the weather. It was late afternoon and we went in search of lunch/dinner. It wasn't anything special, but it was food. We wandered, studying the lay of the land. We located the Spa and made appointments for Friday--massage and facial for Elaine, citrus scrub and facial for me. We played some penny machines and even were big spenders and played some Wizard of Oz nickel machines--in memory of my mother who loved all things Oz. We went to Mandalay Bay, found The Chocolate Swan, had dessert, and went on up to bed. A word about how you get to your room in the Pyramid. They don't have elevators, they have inclinators, which go up at a slant. It takes a while to get your sea legs under you.

I had breakfast Friday morning (I know from experience that it is not Elaine's meal), was a cranky old lady because a young man (early twenties, I'd say--sitting with I presume his mother and younger brother) was talking loud enough for the whole coffee shop to know everything there was to know about him. On my way out, I suggested he might like to use his "inside voice," explaining that I'd heard every word of his conversation. He suggested that I shouldn't have been listening and I countered with "I had no choice," and left in a huff. I played some on my way back to the room. Elaine and I went down around noon to get her something to eat and get to the Spa by 1:30 for a little pampering. It wasn't the Sonoma Mission Inn, but it was very nice. My scrub was with a vichy shower and I had the lead therapist as my provider. I smelled wonderful--if a little like a creamcicle.

Back to the room to make ourselves presentable for the wedding. Getting ready took a little longer than I'd planned. I called to see if valet parking could have our car ready for us--no, that isn't the way it worked. We had to go to Valet Parking, present out ticket, then they would get the car. So we went to Valet Parking--just not the one where we'd left the car. I'm already exhausted, so back we troop, through the casino, to the other side of the hotel. We are not at the right valet but it will take at least 10 minutes for them to get the car, then we have to figure out where we're going. The hell with it, Come on, Elaine, we're grabbing a cab--which was there in a flash. I told the driver where we were going--he didn't know where it was and asked me if I did--I told him I could d0 better--I had a map. It wasn't cheap, but we got there. The wedding was at someplace called "The Secret Garden." It was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, but it was very pretty. Here beginnith the pictures:

Jennifer and her father, making their entrance. I

got another picture of Jennifer giving her father a kiss, but managed to get only the whites of her eye and for such a beautiful bride, it's a little spooky. You don't get to see that one.















The Minister did something that I thought was very sweet. He first asked Jennifer to give her bouquet to Steve. Then he asked Steve to give it back to Jennifer. This was to symbolize their first exchange of gifts as man and wife. He admonished them to repeat this action each year on their anniversary--not necessarily that bouquet, but just a flower to remember the day and what they mean to each other. Sitting in front of me is Jennifer's father (I got more than a few pictures of the back of his head). Jennifer's sister Melody was the Matron of Honor and the other bridesmaid is Jenn's best friend Tracy. The extra arm over Mr. Neal's head I think belongs to one of the professional photographers.

I really did get nice pictures of Mr. Neal's head. Good thing they weren't counting on me for the official pictures.

This one is just sweet.

Now for a little history. We have known Melody and Jennifer since they were 11 and 12 years old when they were initiated into Job's Daughters. They lived with their Mother, Penny and their Step-Father, Tommy Vinson. Melody is a few months younger than Elaine. All three girls were in the "Line" together, Melody was Honored Queen from May 1984 till December, when Elaine was installed. Jennifer followed the following year. The girls had a good time together and I adored their mother. Penny got me in all sorts of trouble. Her come hither line was always "Oh, come on, it'll be fun." That included chaperoning dances, parents club, working at the park booth, and whatever else Penny wanted to get me to do. OK the parents club and working at the park booth were fun, but I never liked chaperoning much--except that I got to spend time talking to Penny. Early in 1984, Penny got sick. Penny was a lot sicker than they let on. Just after Melody's installation, Penny had surgery for lung cancer. It was not good. Penny died November 20, 1984--or thereabouts. It was the third Tuesday in November 1984.

They had a discreet memorial to Penny and to Steve's father, who also passed away. It was a lovely tribute to loved ones who were in the hearts and minds of several guests. I know Penny was in my heart and I know she would have been very proud of Jennifer and pleased with her Steve.

And now for the cake shots:

The joy of attending the wedding of a couple who know what they are doing is that they handle the sharing of the first piece of cake with dignity, as they should, since it symbolized the care they will take of each other throughout their married life.


This last one is blurry, but it is the only picture of Jennifer and Steve toasting each other. I was getting a little blurry by then.

We wished them well, toasted them with excellent champagne--when you don't drink very often, you can forget how good really good champagne can be. I'm sure it doesn't get along with anything I take, but I allowed myself a glass all the same. I did not embarrass myself and lick it out.
We had the staff call us a cab and got back to the hotel by 11. Elaine was out like a light. It took me a little longer.

Saturday morning, I went down for breakfast again, played a little more on the Wizard of OZ machine, then went back to the room to pack and check out. Check out was at 11. I think the car was due back around noon. Our plane didn't leave till almost four. I figured we could kill time at the airport as wall as the casino. Once again, the staff at the airport couldn't have been pleasanter or more accommodating. The shuttle driver asked me if I would need a wheelchair and had it waiting for us when we got to the airport. That nice young man had us in and out of ticketing and security in a flash. He took us to our gate and left us with the chair since we had time to kill. Elaine pushed me and we wandered. We had lunch at Ruby's Diner--a really good airport lunch at that, even if I did have vacuumed for crumbs when I finished my sandwich. We poked out noses in a few of the shops and played at the "Air Strip" I thought the sighs reminding you to cashout before you got on your flight were superfluous, but they must have been there for a reason. I think I did my best at the airport machines.
The gate staff were as nice as everyone else had been. They let Elaine wheel me down the ramp right up to the plane--I could have walked, but since we were sitting in row 23 (almost the bathroom), I appreciated the extra ride. The flight was a little bumpy getting out of Vegas air space--there were still thunder storms in the area, but after that, no problem. It was good to get home. The exhaustion level was pretty constant. I'm looking forward to that letting up in the next week or so. I have my blood work tomorrow and I see Dr. Chee on Tuesday. I'm having discussions with my bone marrow about possibly making me some extra red so that I can have more oxygen. So far it is ignoring me.
That's it for now. I might even be getting sleepy. Somehow sleep and exhaustion do not always go hand in hand.

xxooxx