InsaneJournal

[hello x4!]
Heh. So it would figure that the day I choose to try cross-posting for the first time is the day that LJ decides to clarify its policies and reinstate elaboration. Regardless of that, I think LJ still has a long way to go before they manage to regain trust, if they ever do, but I'm certainly listening, and I'm glad they did make a move like this. At least this time, they were somewhat clear about the policy, they were professional, the answers to the comments were marked "from an LJ staffer" (at least the ones I looked at were), and they were...as graceful as they could be when removing their heads from their asses. So. Still no plans to go anywhere, and no plans to change what I post or how I post it, and I'm hoping LJ plans to release more clarifications over the next few days and weeks, because at least now they've shown themselves capable of it.

So yes. Hello. I'm back from my weekend of insanity.
So I was flying out Friday late afternoon, because I had to sing at graduation on Friday morning (which was beautiful, btw - there was something really magical about an outdoors in-the-middle-of-the-mountains ceremony where the processional/recessional music was Native American flute rather than brassy Elgar), and I knew there was a danger to that since, well, I was catching the last flight from Dallas to Atlanta, and that's never a good idea. And as I'd expected, I got to the airport and found out my flight was delayed enough that I'd prolly miss the connection in Dallas. What they didn't tell me was that I'd miss that connection not because the flight didn't land on time, but because air traffic control LOSES and we'd be sitting on the runway for half an hour, watching said plane pull away from the gate. AA really fucked up this weekend in a lot of ways, and apparently they finally managed to fix things, but too late for me.

Anyway, my family lives in Plano, so they were kind enough to come pick me up and bring me home, and I got to see my sister, which I wouldn't have otherwise, so that was good. Then I flew out eeeeeearly Saturday morning, got to Atlanta, saw two of the three of my best friends (Jess & Anand, plus Jess's boyfriend Dom) who would be there that weekend (we were the inseparable four in high school, though we haven't all been together since we graduated, sadly enough), went back to the hotel to drop off my stuff (we were staying at the Hilton! *__*), then headed downtown (after a side trip to Waffle House XD) to go to the Aquarium. Which was crazy overcrowded. So we went to the World of Coke instead, which was super-nifty, and then gorged ourselves sick on a tonne of soda (you can sample sodas from all around the world, which ruled), before heading back to the hotel to shower and change for the wedding.

It was an outdoor wedding, Hawaiian-themed (and appropriately so, since it was crazy hot&humid), and absolutely gorgeous. nongenius, who was the BEAUTIFUL bride, is a very casual sort of person, very chill and probably the most laid back girl I have ever met, but she's also got a real eye for detail (she's a neurobiologist, after all) and is extremely resourceful, so while it was a casual wedding, it still managed to be the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. The bridal party was all in matching black and gold Hawaiian shirts/dresses, and the flowers were white and violet orchids imported from Hawaii, and Lisa and Steve were in gauzy white with matching leis that they traded before the more traditional part of the ceremony (Steve's dad was officiating, which was kinda nifty), and even the music was done with string versions of the Wedding March etc. rather than the traditional organ, which gave it a much more intimate feel. And then the food was Hawaiian-themed, and there was a slide show, and cute little speeches from all the family members (Lisa has two sisters, Steve has two brothers, so that worked out well), and then...PARTYING. And Lisa has GREAT taste in music, so it was all this "OMG BLAST FROM THE PAST" music, most notably the Backstreet Boys stuff, since she was a total fanatic in high school. XD So so so much fun. Granted, it's the first wedding I've been to since I was very young, and the first one of my friends I've seen get married, but it was definitely the best wedding I've ever been to.

So good, in fact, that I er...sort of overdid it with the dancing. But more on that later.

The next day, we got up at the ass-crack of dawn so we could have breakfast with Lisa and Steve before they left for Hawaii, but of course since it was a Sunday, the restaurant wasn't open, so we just hung out and chatted until they had to scram for the airport, and then the four of us went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast instead before coming back and zonking out for a few hours. Then we checked out, and headed back to the Aquarium to spend the day there before our flights. And I'm SO GLAD we did. That aquarium is the most amazing one I have EVER seen, and that includes the Shedd in Chicago, and the aquarium in Monaco that I'm convinced takes up half the acreage of the whole country. It's very obviously got a heavy research and breeding component, which is awesome, and then it's very geared toward those curious individuals who enjoy hands-on learning - they have touch pools all around the aquarium that allow you to touch the animals. And the first one we came to of course had rays in it. I LOVE rays. I'm literally like...a squeeful little girl whenever I see rays. So Jess and Anand and Dom were very indulgent and were like 'aw, so cute, here, go touch the rays', so I did and was all *____* at them. And then we moved on, and went around some more areas, and my hand started to swell. And I was like 'damn, guess it must be really hot in here'.

Note to self: if you are allergic to sea creatures, TOUCHING THEM IS NOT A GOOD IDEA.

*sigh*

It was worth it anyway.

But. Between that, the amount of dancing I'd done the night before, and the mistake-breakfast at Cracker Barrel, I started to feel pretty sick pretty fast. I pulled a stomach muscle somehow, which meant just holding myself upright was making me nauseous (and we were walking around the aquarium for four and a half hours), and I had this refusing-to-digest food in my stomach, and cramps, and just...yeah. Not pretty. So by the time we left, I was more than ready to get on the plane, get the hell home, go to bed, and catch up on the many many hours of sleep I hadn't gotten over the past three days.

No such luck. Showed up at the airport, and found out my flight was delayed an hour and a half. Fortunately, I was planning to just come back to Dallas and spend the week with my parents, so I didn't have to worry about missing a connection, but I wasn't looking forward to trying to sit around in the airport for that much longer when just sitting was such an ordeal. But in the course of the time I was there, the flight got pushed steadily further and further back until finally it was due to take off at 10:30. From the original time of 7:00. So after sitting around the airport (or in my case, tossing and turning on the floor trying to find a position to lie in that didn't make me want to puke) for four and a half hours, it was finally time to board, and fortunately for me, enough people had given up on the flight to where I could lie down across two seats. Slept through most of the flight, got in, parents picked me up and drove me home, and I fell into bed. And tossed. And turned. And whimpered. And tried to find a place to lie that wasn't going to kill me. And then promptly jumped up and threw up everything I had eaten all day. Not a pleasant experience, I must say. But my mum was wonderful, and rubbed my back and brought me cool water and stuff, and after I finally managed to get to sleep, I slept for ten hours, and woke up feeling much better. I don't know what actually caused the blechiness - combination of excitement, travel, too much soda, bad food, too much dancing, tiredness, cramps, whatever - but at least I'm doing somewhat better now. Still sore, and not in any hurry to eat things I don't trust, but better.

Regardless of all that, the weekend was amazing, and I'm so glad I managed to get to go. I hadnt' thought it'd be a big deal, the wedding I mean, but I was all teary the whole way through. Lisa however very thoughtfully provided us with big woven fans to use during the wedding - I think they were supposed to keep us cool, but they're really good for drying tears before you end up with smeared mascara. ;) So thanks for that, Lisa. ♥

Anyway, so I spent yesterday recovering, mostly - did some random shopping, caught up on my flist as much as possible, ate some really good Chinese food, watched a couple episodes of Planet Earth, convinced my da not to kill a gecko that was chilling on his study wall...you know, the usual. And now for the rest of the week, I have a paper to write for my Jung preceptorial, plus a bunch of reading and writing to do. I'm currently on a yaoi manga kick (go figure XD) - I'm in love with Yellow and Hero Heel (apparently Tateno Makoto makes my dream manga XD), as well as Lovers in the Night, which is just gorgeous, and so Snaco-ish it's kind of scary. I'm still trying to find more stuff to read though, which is especially difficult since most bookstores don't keep much yaoi manga in stock. *sad* But aside from that, I'm still working on these six bajillion PoT fics, and I think I may be starting a H/D fic in the very near future.

Also, I just want to flail for a moment, because OMGGOINGTODRAGON*CON!!!!! EEEEEE. XDXDXD So.psyched. I prolly shouldn't be, since, gah, expensive, but. DRAGON*CON.

Ahem. Right. Well now I'm going to go watch the ep of sytycd that I missed last night, and then see if I can't get started on this paper. ♥ to you all though, and hopefully this cross-posty thing works. *snerk*