• Mood: the face of a woman that arrives much too late
• Music: Sponge - Neenah Menasha

OPERATION: IMPENDING BARBECUE

Where was I? Oh, yes: Friday. The first order of business was picking up the tuxes, so then I guess the zeroth order was getting breakfast. We went to the Blue Dolphin, which was a brief 15 second drive (would've been a thirty second walk, but Joe was concerned about his Uncle's legs/back) from their apartment. I had something called a 2+2+2, which appealed to the math nerd deep within me, and was priced at only $2.95 (would cost three times that here). It was two pancakes of decent size, with two eggs (scrambled) and two slices of bacon. Never one to underdo things, I ordered two sausage patties and two biscuits slathered in gravy, making mine a 2×5. The biscuits and gravy were lacking; poor sausage gravy would plague my trip until the very last day. But everything else was fantastic, and economical (even though Joe's dad picked up the check, I would have felt guilty if I had eaten expensively).

Then we were off to get our tuxes, and to make sure they fit. I'm sure someone has already observed thusly, but tuxedoes were designed & made to force us to appreciate the normal geek outfit of t-shirt and jeans. Clasps and such are best left to women folk; I assure you. We were able to enrobe and disrobe with ample time left to enable Joe and I to jet off to the airport in Panama City (quaint and charming, it could fit in a single departure gate at Newark) and to shoot the breeze a while whilst awaiting the arrival of my beloved. Once we had her, we met up again with Joe's family at his apartment, then disbanded to find our hotel with Joe as our guide. When he saw the view from our room, his jaw dropped. We had quite a nice view over the bay. I do recommend the Days Inn Bayside to anyone visiting Joe & Katy (I also recommend visiting Joe and Katy); they wrote us notes each day, wishing us some novel form of happiness. And it worked! Sometimes it's the little things.

Next was the rehearsal, which was fun, because the Maid of Honor was in absentia and so Becca had to act en loco bridesmaidus, which meant I got to steal smootches from the (acting) Maid of Honor when no-one was looking. Katy's family showed up (at least, in part) midway through, so we got to meet them (Becca and myself; Joe and Katy had already met Katy's family, I assure you). We did the rehearsal with the bravest of faces, even though the weather for the following day forecast IMPENDING DOOM. After the rehearsal, we went for fricking amazing barbecue and Becca almost wet herself at her first taste of actual barbequed food. She was asking everyone in Katy's family for recipes, which I hope means some IMPENDING BBQ for you-know-who, wink wink.

Then we went outside to take pictures, but since we were on a bayou at sunset, the mosquitoes were rife (they followed me from the swamps of New Jersey to the swamps of the Florida panhandle). So we went back to the hotel where we and Joe's family were staying. We took some candid pictures out by the beach, where the breeze was ample enough to keep the mosquitoes away (it was rather like Aruba in that regard). Katy's two brothers hoisted her in the air, which was a really great shot. Too bad I am lousy at sharing my pictures. I do plan to get them to the bride and groom, sooner than later.

Later, we piled into Denzel (Joe's car) to pick up Katie (tarnishedfaith) at the airport, so that she could be the Maid of Honor and stuff. I don't really remember what we did that night, if anything. If anyone remembers Friday night's activities, feel free to remind me. This is what happens when I don't make entries in a timely manner because I am worried about finals and free comic books and stupid stuff like that. Oh, well.