Wedding Bells

I can't believe it's already getting cold and I have yet to post pictures of this summer's wedding camp extravaganza upstate. This is the event my high school friends and I have been waiting for for years - and it was everything we had hoped for (including Theo officiating bu excluding sharing bathrooms).

The weekend upstate was the first time since high school that I have had that much continuous hanging out time with that many HS peeps, and will probably be the last. Not strangely, it was as if nothing had changed. Conversation was still easy, people were still much like they had been, and we still liked each other. Since HS I've almost exclusively met people who either hated their high school or at least easily forgot about it - and I've always been sad for them.

Looking at these photos again is making me even more excited to go home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. I miss everyone so much out here.

Playing catch up

I'm about to embark on a tour of the South - or at least a tour of "notable" cities within driving distance. This weekend I hop off to Tulsa for Satnight and Sunday, next weekend I break for Thanksgiving at home, the next weekend I go to St Louis - and so on. But before I do that I felt I had to update my blog with some of the bizarreness I have seen right here in NW Arkansas since I last updated regularly (many, many moons ago).

There was Bikes Blues & BBQ in Fayetteville, which - if I hadn't been so painfully hungover - would have been the best Saturday of my time here so far. Unfortunately, the night before I spent patronizing an open bar with free cigars; the following was the last thing I remember.


But since B,B&BBQ is a once-a-year event, I dragged myself out of bed the next day at noon and got in my friend's car (and by friend I mean someone I met the night before - but we are actually friends now). Like I said, it was amazing. Dickson Street was lined with people dressed in leather chaps and leather...
...whatever that is. And the craziest array of bikes passed - there were so many bikes in this procession we finally stopped watching and went inside for Bloody Mary lunch - and when we came out 3 hours later they were still coming.

(That last picture was taken outside a church.) The Bloody Marys gave me the energy I needed to get through the rest of the afternoon, evening and night, which is a good thing because otherwise I would have missed eating fair food for dinner and catching this amazing sign:
Just a few weeks later Teresa came to visit from the big city and as if by magic the most redneck event ever happened to be taking place just 20 minutes away - mule jumping. This activity consists of mules taking standing leaps over limbo sticks until only one can clear the height. Since they are half donkey they can jump from a standstill, as opposed to horses who need a running start. I believe the winner cleared over 5.5 feet, which was apparently a big disappointment to those who had attended the previous year.

We brought a cooler of orange juice, champagne and Chambord and sipped cocktails from red plastic cups. As close to tailgating as I ever hope to come.

Southern Peculiarities

Today I drove 3.5hrs each way to Kansas City to comp shop for work. Unfortunately I didn't see much of the city, but the Nordstrom in the mall was the size of a boutique, which didn't give me much hope. I hear the Plaza is the hot spot, so maybe when Valerie's Tour of the South returns to KC I'll be more impressed.

On my drive back to AR I did pass a town that pretty much summed up how I feel. Its sign said:
Peculiar City Limits.

Just past Peculiar I stopped at a rest stop where I
1) found the perfect Secret Santa gift - my victim is obsessed with cow figurines and they had cow hand puppets that say "moo" in a deadpan male human's voice when you move its mouth
2) saw a coin-operated perfume machine in the restroom dispensing Giorgio Armani and Obsession.

Just another day in the south.