The Wedding

Just returned from my sister's wedding, and it was the most unique wedding I've ever gone to. I can't begin to describe all the emotions and feelings that went into the wedding.

My sister, for those who don't know her, is about as outside-the-box and non-conformist as there is. The groomsmen and bridesmaids all wore all black, and she and her now husband wore all white. And you know what, it worked. And for those who want the answer, yes, I did end up tearing up at the wedding to the point where someone handed me a tissue.

But the day was full of wonderful surprises...

1. We dodged a bunch of scattered downpours and got the ceremony in (scattered downpours beats a hurricane, which was west of us, and tropical storm, which was north of us, anyday).
2. Per my sister's request, I played the Canon in D for her when she walked down the aisle with my dad.
3. They wrote and read their own vows to each other.
4. My cousin, who flew in from Taiwan, borrowed a guitar and sang a song he wrote for my sister and Brady
5. My aunt from Taiwan, who is a pastor, did another ceremony including stamping their Chinese names in an official book... so their marriage would be official according to Chinese custom as well.
6. We watched a 20 minute professionally done video of pictures from Linda and Brady's childhood... starring Steve "The Homer" True (local sports talk show host and former colleague of Linda's) as "cupid."
7. Linda made an absolutely wonderful speech, heartfelt and completely unrehearsed, that made us all tear up again.

I'm about emotionally drained... and I'm going to bed.

On my way again

Free wireless at the Cincinnati airport is awesome! We've got a service, or a movement, or something out here called "Lily Pad" which is trying to get the entire city to wi-fi'ed. Right now I think downtown and I guess the airport is covered. Someday it'll be like TV where it's just available everywhere.

So I'm off to St. Thomas! I had to deal with paper tickets this time, which is annoying because it's a big card with all this printed, unreadable characters on it. It looks like it came out of a dot matrix printer. The US Air person said it was because they didn't have an e-ticket agreement with Cape Air, which I am taking to St. Thomas. I'm not sure why e-ticketing is so hard to do? You'd think it'd be easier for them too!

Atlanta blogging

Well after a red eye flight where I got about 2 hours of sleep, I'm here in the Atlanta airport for a 5 hour layover. There are two earlier flights to Cinci, but I learned the hard way that if you check bags, you can't change your flight midstream. I was concerned that they might charge me a fee to change it, so I figured I'd wait until I got close.

It'll be interesting to see how long I can hold out today... and back to work tomorrow! Maybe I'll wake up really early tomorrow bc I'm going to go to sleep at like 8 PM tonight.

Beach blogging... one last time

Alas, the time to leave this beach blogging world has come. Tomorrow we check out and head to the airport for a late afternoon flight. The weather is beautiful tonight, probably about 75 degrees with a nice ocean breeze. A band is playing "Sweet Caroline" by Neal Diamond in the background. It really saddens me to think that tomorrow I will need to be heading home, but the one thing that keeps my spirits up is I head for St. Thomas in 2.5 weeks... hopefully I can enjoy the same beach life there!

This would be a wonderful place to spend a vacation with a significant other or a honeymoon. There's a whole top 10 list of why Hawaii is a great place to visit. One reason is it's a US state, so no passport is required. The driving laws are similar. You can rent cars for ~$50 a day. Your cell phones work (if you have Verizon). Good seafood. Good Asian food (white people are a minority here). No worries about drinking the water. The weather is very predictably good.

So the time has come... we'll see you back in the continental US. I sure hope you're all around to cheer me up.

Hawaii-blog

What a way to start a morning! I woke up this morning, turned to look out the window at our beautiful view, and saw this:

That rainbow looked like to was right in front of me! In fact, you can see the "end" of the rainbow in that little peninsula out there. Now I see why Hawaii is proud of their rainbows... it's all over their license plates and everything! It was an amazing thing to wake up to.

We spent today driving around the island of Oahu... we started going west, and kept driving until we got all the way around the island and came back to Waikiki from the east. It was quite a fun day as we saw all different kinds of beaches, turtles, and the Dole pineapple plantation! It was almost surreal to see a pineapple growing on a plant.



We meant to do half the island yesterday, but we ended up at Pearl Harbor and never got past it... it was neat to see a bit of American history up close and personal.

I still get a daily swim in the ocean... it really beats jogging. I also try to get to the beach to get on line, but I end up going every other day since by the time we get back I'm usually already tired. This trip has really allowed me to feel what my dream life would be. Going back will be very difficult, but at least the vision will be there!

Beach bloggin' at night

I really could get used to this... it's 10 PM and I'm blogging on the beach and just downloaded "Blue Hawaii" by Elvis and it's playing right now.

I think the tide is starting to catch up to where I'm sitting... that might be an indicator that it's time to go to bed!

Beach blogging - Literally!

Wireless + beach = utopia.

LAX Badinage

I'm entering hour 3 of my 4 hour layover here at the venerable LAX... I think they should make a drama TV series about this place. NOT. What a stupid premise.

I paid $10 for an internet connection, which I would say is well worth it bc of the 4 hour layover. I'm pretty much doing what I'd be doing at home right now... wasting time on in the internet and snacking on stuff. I found a cushy private corner at a McDonalds here with an outlet. Places like these are hard to find at an airport!

I spent the first leg of my trip (CVG to LAX) studying up on my fantasy football stuff. I've got my strategy all figured out... look out everyone!

Got to watch the Brewers win on Gamecast... in other words, got to read line by line what was happening. CC is now 5-0! And when the Brewers get close to first place again, just to prove there's no such thing as curses, I will post Brewer updates regularly!

I just got a text message from Orbitz that my gate had changed from 52A to 57. Not a bad way to differentiate yourself from Expedia and stuff... nice touch!

On the way to the airport I realized I didn't have any sunscreen. I actually barely use sunscreen, which is one nice thing about being Asian. I figure if I'm spending a lot of time on the beach I better get some. I got the highest SPF one, mainly so I don't get too dark.