jimsjournal
A Pleasant Weekend -- 09/29/02


Had a busy but pleasant weekend. As noted in my previous entry, our schedule called for attending a friend's wedding on Saturday and to see By the Skin of Our Teeth on Sunday and, indeed, we accomplished those activities.

It had been raining on Friday -- fairly heavily at times -- but Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day -- one of those rating ten on a scale of one to ten (fortunately we get a lot of days like that around here) -- blue skies, warm sunshine (but not hot, mid-seventies), refreshing breezes. The wedding was in St. Clement's in Warwick, a modern building, light and airy and welcoming (something I don't usually say about many modern buildings). There was a two hour gap between the conclusion of the wedding service and the beginning of the reception (at the O Club in Quansett -- a facility that had originated as the officer's club at Quansett) so Nancy and I did a little shopping to fill in that time.

We shopped but did not buy anything. Nancy was looking for a new pair of tennis shoes and Sports Authority -- one of those hulking big warehouse-sized stores -- was supposedly having a sale (buy one pair, get a second pair for half price). It took a bit of looking about because they didn't have any Asics tennis shoes (which was what she was looking for, having previously bought them there). She eventually found two pairs of shoes that she liked and that fit, took them to the register -- but one pair was by Nike and, as the cashier pointed out, in the fine print in the ad, Nike was one of six or eight brands that were excluded from the sale -- not just couldn't you get the Nikes for half price, they could not be used as the full price pair to qualify for receiving half price on a different brand -- in fact, so many brands were excluded, I don't know how you could manage to take advantage of the sale. The ads and signs in the store all said "Every Shoe in the Store on Sale" and then in much smaller print below that listed the vast number of exceptions. Well, I suppose it brought people into the store, but we left without making a purchase. Then we stopped at a Wal-Mart (where, no doubt, we were the best dressed couple in the store) because I wanted to show Nancy a wire shelving thing I thought might do nicely at holding towels in our bathroom, Naturally, I couldn't find it. Oh, they had wire shelving units, but not the one I'd seen there a few months ago. Very annoying. (I'd already gone to Home Depot a couple of weeks ago and didn't see anything there that matched what I wanted.)

So off to the reception. The directions said take Exit 7 from Route 4... as we passed Exit 6 I burst out laughing because I remembered a sign that had always amused me driving north on Route 4: "No Exit 7" -- the directions had been based on driving south from the wedding -- I have no idea why there would only be an exit southbound -- this is Rhode Island, the state of idiosyncratic highway design -- (yeah, idiosyncratic and idiotic) -- no big problem, just go a couple more miles to Exit 8, get off and get back on heading south. (Speaking of strange highway design... another mile or so past Exit 8 heading north, Route 4 merges into Interstate 95 going northbound. There is no way to go from Route 4 to I-95 southbound; you have to go north, get off at an exit, loop around and get back on I-95 south. Yes, and if you are going south on I-95, you can exit onto Route 4; but if you are going north on I-95 there is no exit to Route 4.)

At any rate, we got to the reception in a timely fashion. Judite, another co-worker (and matron of honor) had organized the creation of a special quilt for Julie and John; she had dozens of people create fabric squares which she then sewed into a wedding quilt. (Nancy and I made a square using a photograph of their house printed on a square of fabric, some people embroidered, some sewed on things -- one square had a miniature copy of Julie's wedding gown made from the same fabric -- and a number of people also made use of photography on fabric, using childhood pictures and pictures of Julie and John's dogs, etc.) The reception began at six, dinner around seven, and dancing and more dancing... I thought maybe it would end at ten but the party went on and I figured maybe eleven... but the party went on... Nancy and I left around 11:20 (getting home around midnight) because Nancy had to be at church by eight a.m. (she was running an adult ed session)... and I assume the dancing went on until midnight.

I felt horrible Sunday morning -- a really painful sinus headache -- no, really, sinuses, not hangover, I'd only had three drinks all night long -- and aspirin and decongestant didn't help so I ended up taking a powerful pain relief pill my periodontist had prescribed after doing a very difficult extraction (but which I saved for really bad sinus headaches)... which then meant I slept for awhile, but it did take the pain away. In the afternoon we went up to Providence to Trinity Rep for the play and I must say that Trinity Rep did a great job. The entire cast was good, but the actress who played Sabina (the maid) gave an outstanding performance.

A very pleasant weekend (except for a few hours of sinus headache), topped off by a new episode of The Sopranos on HBO.




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