Universal Truth #1

Everyone is busy (always).

Sorry, Picasa has been having some technical difficulties…

This weekend was quite a trip, literally. I journeyed to Washington D.C. to attend Justin’s wedding. I hopped a plane trip Friday and landed in D.C. I’ll just briefly mention that D.C. drivers, normally good, are quite dumb about airport parking. Drivers at most airports sensibly pull through a monumental roundabout, slowing to a crawl to look for passengers. Not at D.C.; at Dulles they park. Of the 6 lanes of the roundabout at the widest point, up to 4 were occupied by parked cars. Local officers did nothing to relieve this silliness, while car drivers sat in idling cars. Here’s a better idea for new airports: have a cell phone waiting area. I’ve seen airports with this, and it prevents lazy people from clogging the Dulles lanes.

Fortunately, Mariana managed to pick me up through this mess and take me to her place. I saw the wonders of modern living (an apartment!), complete with windows (hooray!) and nearby shops (gasp!). It gave me a twinge of jealousy. After all, my view is of the other studio (hooray?) and the only nearby shop is an overpriced gourmet grocery store that closes at 7PM (gasp!). Anyhow, I’ll say that Mariana has a very nice place.

Justin’s wedding the following day was fairly low-key, which I liked (nothing against the Byzantines, cough). There were two photographers and someone who I gaged to be their manager attending, meaning that a substantial proportion of the people there wielded cameras ranging from crappy telephones to full-blown dSLR units. The actual ceremony went fairly smoothly, although why it was held in the early evening puzzles me a bit. Not recognizing anyone there except Justin and Amiri was also a bit awkward; they were both at the front (one was the best man, the other… well… haven’t you been paying attention?) as I sat in the back, the rest of the attendees eyeing the sketchy Asian dude in the back.

Afterwards, we clambered uphill to the reception area. Hats off go to the Mario & Peach cake, although I was disappointed that the cake contained raspberries and not turnips. I also met Amiri and Cat for the first time, which is always fun. Sadly, the table I sat at lacked people. Haley (sp?) and Alana were the only other occupants, and all three of us had for various reasons been unable to ring up our and-ones. I did ring up Justin though, texting him the titles of the previous two posts (his response is the title for this post). I made a Quotables on the spot, but sadly, its contents belong solely to the bride and groom.

The most awkward part? Introducing myself to people not of the Internet generation. Example:

“Hi.”
“Oh hi. I’m Michael, I’m a friend of Justin’s.”
“Oh from school? Work? Um–”
“Uhhh…”

A) Yes. (huh? lies.)
B) Actually, we met on the internet. (true, but creepy)
C) Well, we met about 10 years ago on the internet when we both played a game called Subspace in which tiny spaceships piloted by tampons fly about and shoot each other inside some legs, followed by me joining Justin in a joint art & writing website that is an abbreviated form of bitch with short hair containing, among other things, a movie about a land-borne killer shark, a superhero based on caution tape made by a Polish DJ, and a lot of pelvic thrusting. (sadly, true)
D) Uhhhhh… mostly from the D.C. area. (we have a winner!)

I usually went with option D. Overall it was a fun time, and good food, and I’m glad to see Justin happy. I was probably more nervous than he–I’m still a wedding attendee novice. Meanwhile, Mariana was in a Starbucks chatting with a random Vietnam vet. Some people get all the fun.

We jetted back to her place (it was a long ride back from Clarksburg, where the wedding was) and got back semi-late. We ended up staying up late into the night talking. That night, as I fell asleep on Mariana’s couch, I had a dream about fire. In this dream, I was in a wood with my father, and we were, quite frankly, on fire. Not complete consumed yet, we wandered out where The Haitian (from Heroes) of all people was driving a small green eco-car and wearing a park ranger uniform. He rescued us, but as we drove away toward what he called “the border,” I noticed that I was still on fire. There were no lashes of flame or orange plumes, only a white, concentrated flare.

I woke up on Saturday with a brilliant beam of light draped across my body. Through the uncurtained glass of Mariana’s living room, the winter noon evenly roasted me until I tossed and turned myself into a 90 degree crouch on her couch. On-fire indeed. I had to get up eventually, as I feared that my dream would somehow come true. Mariana slept in– a long… long… very long time… until I woke her up for fear of her sleeping until dark (may have happened, frankly). After eating, putzing, and playing wii (which is quite fun, if tiring), I did some work and went to bed early. I woke up a few hours later at 4AM to get a ride to the airport from Dr. Meyer, and spent the rest of the day Sunday traveling and reading An Army At Dawn.

Monday I arrived in the morning and waited for Christina to pick me up. Instead of going home, I somewhat stupidly wandered into lab at 1ish, driven by insatiable workaholism. After a late night in lab, I went to go see BSG Razor with Christina at Shoreline. For those who haven’t seen it, I’ll withhold full review, only to say that I need to get that DVD quickly to fill in some interesting scenes they didn’t show. Also, the whole thing was sponsored by Microsoft, and I definitely heard several hypnotized nerds wandering off muttering “Mass Effect” under their breaths (I blame Bob). I must say that Bob had the better of it though; Jamie Bamber was apparently at his Seattle screening.

And now, I’m finally at home, catching up on Heroes and trying desperately not to dream of cake.