I just got back a few hours ago from 4 days in Wisconsin! It was a blast, even if I do say so myself. I ended up bringing the accent back with me, too. At any rate, let’s get started on recapping this trip.
THURSDAY/FRIDAY
We (Teresa, her daughter and I) left Thursday night around 11:30pm. I was the driver for the trip, so that was a hilarious 10 hours. I figured that Teresa or at least her daughter would sleep sometime during the trip, but of course not. Made the trip up there go by quite quickly, seeing as how of 10 hours driving, I only spent about 30 minutes of it not laughing. We arrived in Alma Center, Wisconsin at around 10 am Friday morning. I know that’s more than 10 hours, but you have to consider that we stopped once at a rest area and twice at gas stations to fill up.
At that point I had met Becky and Melissa. Melissa is Teresa’s sister, and the reason we went up there in the first place. Shortly thereafter, Chuck (or Chucky, or Sucky) came in, and thus another new face was made known to me. Chuck was the other half of the reason for being there, as he was to be the groom to the bride that Melissa was to be. After the meetings took place, we hung around for a while, just chatting and what not. Becky showed up shortly, and the three ladies went out to find shoes to wear for the wedding, leaving Zabrina and I to our own devices for finding things to do.
We ended up going over to her cousin Quinn’s house for a bit. Quinn was cool. Apparently he’s a geek too, although I didn’t have much of a chance to actually talk to him as I didn’t have anything to really say. After staying there for about an hour, we left and went back to Melissa’s house and finally got some rest around 7pm…
That is, until around 10pm as far as I’m concerned, because it was at that point that Teresa called wondering if I was going to sleep all night or if I wanted to come out for a while. Of course I chose to go out for a while, although I was going to be driving by myself and she was drunk while trying to give me directions. As much as that may sound like a disaster waiting to happen, I really didn’t get too lost for driving in an unfamiliar place in the dark. I ended up in Humbird at first, but quickly figured out what I’d done wrong and found myself in Merrillan shortly thereafter, at the bar that I was looking for.
Once inside, I found Teresa and her friends Donna and Kim at the other end of the bar, and walked over to greet them. Introductions were had and then I had a few drinks. Nothing really strong, but they were really tasty. At that point was where I was first introduced to Dane. Dane is this large piece of man standing about 6′6″ and with a good amount of meat to back it up. That is to say, he’s a rather good looking man. Full beard and all that…just Woof! Anyway, from there we left and went back to Black River Falls to Donna and Kim’s hotel room for chatting and whatnot, as well as some sleep for the next day. That was run in itself, and gave us time to get to know each other better. Fell asleep around 2:30am, and now we can continue to the next day…
SATURDAY
So, we woke up around 7am Friday morning and got about our day, and a big one it was to be. Teresa, being the maid of honor, had to go with Melissa and Becky to have her hair done, leaving me with Donna and Kim for whatever we were going to do for the first portion of the day. Our first move was to get some breakfast, so we went to the lobby of the hotel and partook of the complimentary breakfast they had there. Nothing fancy, but it was filling enough.
From there we had shopping to do. So the first destination was Wal-Mart. One of the main things we were looking for was a cheese hat. Wal-Mart had no cheese hats. It was disappointing on a grand scale. But, we did manage to pick up a few simple things that we needed. From there, we left for the Dollar Store. Didn’t buy anything there, but at least the clerk in that one was actually nice instead of crabby like most of the are around here. Left there for a hardware store downtown. Now, usually you wouldn’t think of a hardware store as somewhere to find a can opener for your kitchen, but it turned out that you can get just about anything at this hardware store. Not to mention the clerk there was easy on the eyes, so it was a trip worth the time. Left the hardware store for the Dollar Tree, where Donna mistakenly bought a roll of wrapping paper thinking it was just shiny but found out that it was actually transparent. No worries though, we resolved to improvise to make it work. After there, we tried one last place before heading to the hotel again to get ready for the wedding. Flying J. As strange as it might seem, that place had all the other things we had been looking for, such as cups and glasses, and the Cheese Hat! Satisfied, we went back to the hotel for prepare for the wedding at 2pm.
After the three of us were properly primped and preened for the ceremony, we left for the park where it was being held. There we met back up with Teresa, and I was introduced to yet more people, including Teresa’s brothers Greg, John and Dave, as well as her other friend Donna and her husband Carmell. SO MANY PEOPLE TO MEET! AAH! *Ahem* Anyway, we were seated after about half an hour of being there and the wedding commenced. The reverend officiating the wedding was a sight to see. Regardless of age, the man looked (and as I later found out was indeed true) as though he was a cross between the reverend he was being at the moment, a mountain man and a biker. It was amusing to no end.
However… the most amusing part of the entire wedding hinged on two things: the swarms of ladybugs that were landing in droves on the people within the gazebo (and hence, the bride, groom, best man and bridesmaids) and the point at which the reverend announced, “Pause for Bug-Off!” At any rate, the wedding was beautiful and the weather was perfect for it (and the bugs!) so it was a success. After the wedding, the reception was three hours later, so Zabrina, her cousin KC and I took the car to Black River Falls for a little driving. Highway F has some of the most beautiful scenery I saw the entire time I was there, and downtown Black River is just cute as can be. After driving around for a while, it was time for us to makeour appearance at the reception, and thus to Circle Hill we went.
The reception was a lot of fun. A lot of people were there, and of course I didn’t get the chance to meet all of them, but the ones I did meet included Carl, who is Chuck’s brother and best man (not to mention good looking, too~) and Michele, another friend of Teresa, Donna and Kim. The food was tasty, even if I didn’t eat most of what was there, and I swear I’ll never eat another piece of wedding cake if it’s that rich next time around. I had to drink some soda just to cut the sweetness of the cake!
After the food and stuff was over, it was time to dance. And dance we did. For the first time ever, I actually danced to something other than slow songs. It was a lot of fun, and my calves are still sore from it. Becky announced that she loved me after they played “I Will Survive” and I danced and sang it without missing a single word. I enjoyed hearing that. Later on, near the end of it all, I knew I was to take KC home, and then Dane came up and asked me if I could give him a ride home, because his ride had to leave early and if he didn’t find a ride it was going to be a 4 mile walk home in the cold, dark night. I agreed, and arranged with Teresa for her to get a ride with Donna. After leaving, we dropped off KC and then I proceeded to take Dane home. He found it necessary (although I don’t mind of course, no matter who does it) to tell me about the things going on in his life at the time and all that. After arriving at his home, he shook my hand and said thank you, as I figured he would, but then he put his hand out again for a moment. Not really knowing what for, I just kind of looked at him for a second, and was shocked when he asked, “I can’t kiss you or anything?” He almost seemed disappointed that I didn’t give him an answer on that, as much as I wanted to say yes. I mean, I would have, but I was so shocked from hearing him ask that that I just couldn’t summon words for an answer. That having been the case though, He turned to get out of the car and I told him to take care, and from there I went to Black River to meet up with Teresa, Donna and Michele.
We spent the rest of the night talking and carrying on in the hotel room before finally getting to bed around 4am, and that brings us to the next day…
SUNDAY
Sunday was the slow day or the weekend. We woke up around 10 to check out of the room. Donna, Kim and Michele had to go back home, while Teresa and I went back to Melissa’s for the day. We spent the day just sitting around talking for a while, until the rest of the family showed up to start going through a bunch of old photographs that had been left when their mother died. They actually didn’t sit around going through them for too long before John started falling asleep in the chair and Melissa began to get frustrated, so Greg, Becky, Teresa and I packed the stuff up and went over to Greg and Becky’s to finish going through them and to have dinner. I was rather amazed at how Teresa and Greg alone managed to get through all the pictures there were to go through, and Greg made some of the best barbecued pork chops I’ve ever had. After eating, Greg had to take two of his daughters to their mothers’ houses and in the meantime Becky, Teresa and I sat and chatted. It was a lot of fun, too, because we just talked about anything.
So, after all that fun, we left there and went back to Melissa’s house, where we watched “The Devil Wears Prada” with Zabrina and Sam. A good movie it was, and afterwards we all went to sleep for monday…
MONDAY
Last day of the trip, and also the day we were returning. We woke up around 8am that morning for the purposes of getting ready to leave, making sure everything was repacked and put away in the car. After we were sure it was, we said our good-byes and all that jazz, and set out for the long trip home. I was driving this time as well, as agreed, and said my mental good-byes to the state and its scenery and people as I journeyed further away from it. Teresa had managed to lose her voice at the reception, and as such wasn’t nearly as talkative as on the way up, and Zabrina actually slept for a good portion of it. It was still relatively amusing, though. It was pretty rainy for most of the way back, but everything still went smoothly. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how I managed to get back an hour faster and with only one stop for gas as opposed to two stops for gas on the way there, but oh well. I guess all that matters is that we made it back.
Everything that happened this weekend was awesome. As much as it might seem weird to go with a coworker 650 miles away to their sister’s wedding, knowing absolutely no one there, I’d do it again. Getting to see the things I saw, and meet the people I did made it all worth it. All amazing.
To sum everything up, I figure I should go ahead and include the quote of the evening, which I’ve just indirectly analyzed, and therefore won’t reanalyze.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
–Helen Keller
Toodles ’til tomorrow!
Recent Comments