The email invitation arrived without any sort of notice in late April. Ashley and Sai were getting married. That was great---but the wedding was in June. Could I get it off? As luck would have it, even though we were already scheduling through mid-June, the self-scheduling window had not closed yet, and I was able to manipulate things to get the date off. (I'd just have to work a lot of days before and afterwards).
Ashley is a wonderful woman. We've known her since... I don't know when. It's been more than 10 years, though. She worked with our friend Ricki for a while, and Ricki introduced her to us. We took to her instantly and she has been a part of our "extended family" ever since. Sai I had only met once, about a year or so ago. He seemed like a nice enough guy, sensible, and with great taste (He digs our Ashley---what more do you need to say?). He's been working on the East Coast for the last six months or so---so the wedding announcement had been kind of a pleasant shocker.
Before I knew it, June was upon us and it was time to go. I had arranged to take the train up to the Bay Area the day before the wedding. I packed the night before and got an early start the next day, using Lyft to get to the station. I actually got out across the street, at a small 7/11, to pick up some snacks for the trip that would double as breakfast. Of course I found something oddly wonderful that someone needs for Christmas...A pop-up poo pen! Ha!
Hopefully you can see the video (it's just a few seconds long) below:
It was hot and crowded at the train station. I knew I would not be getting a seat to myself this trip.
The train arrived and...yep! It was crowded. This guy was sitting at a table (space for four people) alone, so i asked if I could sit with him. He wasn't too thrilled, but he let me sit.
I had brought some DVDs to watch. All threew turned out to be tremendous DUDS! "It Happened In Athens" supposedly starred Jayne Mansfield. She was hardly in it at all. "The Pack" was an Australian movie about killer dogs attacking a family at an isolated farm...and was surprisingly dull. "The Slave: The Son of Spartacus" was only 1 hour and 45 minutes long....but seemed twice the length. UGH!
Eventually my original seat mate and the older lady left. I was joined by the world's oldest Mexican cowboy with the world's worst facial hair dye job.
Finally, for only a short while, I had this woman and her wild son as table mates. O' the train ride couldn't end soon enough.
It always feels so nice getting to Erich's house. My bed was made, towels were ready for me. This time he left a vase of fresh cut flowers from his yard. So nice.
He had just gotten back from a trip to Oregon and gave me a few, fun gifts.
I liked the mug a lot (very clever), but my favorite was this silly fish refrigerator magnet. The fins, tail and feeler thing are on tiny springs and they wiggle.
Later that evening, the bride-to-be, Ashley, sent Erich, Ricki and I a text about the next evening. I sent her a brief response (My responses are in green).
The next morning, Erich fixed blueberry pancakes, with fresh blueberries and he made fresh blueberry syrup. YUM-O-RAMA!
This is a flash forward to later that night. Here are Ricki and Sai meeting for the first time. Clearly I was right. Eek, Sai is obviously thinking. What am I getting myself into? Is it too late to back out? Now I know why Ashley held her back from meeting me for so long. Maybe we can move and not send her a forwarding address...? Poor Sai.
Erich and Ricki (and me to an extent--but mostly Erich and Ricki) have this witty banter between them. It seems very insulting---but it's just fun and games. We love Ricki dearly, but Ricki is always an easy target. This time Erich decided to zap me, too...or at least try to...and I was standing right there next to him. Ha! I get him back...so he resorts to going back to Ricki.
Ashley's note the night before about the weather being cold and that we should bring jackets, made me realize I didn't have the proper clothes with me for this wedding. (Of course!) I'd have to go shopping before the wedding. It had been 104 degrees in Fresno the day before I left. I wasn't thinking about the Bay Area being cooler. The only shirts I had brought were short sleeved. Oops! And then there was my obvious weight gain. I hadn't seen Ashley since January or so. I'm sure she'd be stunned...so I beat her to the punch and sent her a note. Of course EVERYONE had to chime in:
Erich had some yard work to do as he was planning on coming to my house to visit for a while after taking me back home. So i had to go myself.
The San Leandro BART is within walking distance of his house. The next stop south is BAYFAIR, which is where the Bayfair Mall is. And that is where I headed.
From the BART platform, you could see the recently installed statue of a nude woman that had caused quite the controversy with local residents when it first went up. Oh my! The statue apparently lights up from within at night and I really hoped to see that at some point on my trip.
BART arrived and before long I found myself....
...at Kohl's. Kohl's is connected to the Bayfair Mall. The Bayfair Mall is a dying dinosaur with many vacant shops. There is so much vacant space, a community college of some sort now occupies the 2nd floor. That is really too bad as Bayfair was, I believe, the first strip mall to be converted to being a fully enclosed, air conditioned shopping mall ever. (I can't find anything on line about it, but it seems like i saw a plaque or something to that effect at the mall once.)
Now that we've had our fabulous moment in shopping history, let's get back to the trip to Kohl's. Of course they had nothing resembling a coat or a jacket for sale. Drat. Finding a long-sleeved shirt in my size was also difficult. Everything was short-sleeved. Yes, I realize it is summer...but summer in the Bay Area can be C-O-L-D. I found a long-sleeved shirt I thought would do...but it wouldn't work with the pants I had, so I had to find another pair of pants. Because of the pants, I'd need shoes (and socks). Ugh! I ended up having to buy a whole new outfit. GRRR! I also picked up a few new short sleeved shirts for home though.
The escalator was broken. I'm sure there was an elevator somewhere, but I was not about to go in search of it.
After waiting in line forever, I got up to a cashier. I told him i did not have my Kohl's card. (I never carry it because I rarely go shopping.) That was fine. Then he asked if I had any coupons or Kohl's cash. No. He pulled out these pieces of paper with silver spots on them. He told me to pick one and scratch it. I uncovered a 15% coupon. He looked at me and said "We can do better than that for you." He scratched a few others and then uncovered a 30% coupon, which he gave me. THANK YOU, Mr. Kohl's guy.
I then trudged back to the Bayfair BART Station.
I got back to glamorous downtown San Leandro.
With my new black pants (left) and long-sleeved striped shirt (center), I thought I'd be okay...even without a coat. I was partially wrong. I LOVED the cool weather (I tried to soak it in before returning to the furnace that is Fresno), but the shirt did nothing to hide the tummy. if anything, it accentuated it because the shirt turned out to be way too big for me. UGH! The pants were too big as well. But I was out of time---and had to make them due.
I was also dreading all of the walking and time spent in the new shoes. Yikes!
We walked back to BART---that's when it became apparent to me that my pants were too big. They seemed to fit in the store, but as we walked along, I kept having to hike them up. I should have buckled my belt tighter, I suppose, but I never had the opportunity to do so until the evening was over.
I was also hauling this big gift with four huge pom pom-like tissue paper things (bows?) on top. It was nestled in the Kohl's bag. It looked like we were on our way to a quinceanera or something. That was part of the wedding present for Ashley & Sai---a fancy vase of some sort. Ricki had the other part of the gift---some artistic-looking cutting board, I think. I had planned on giving the couple cash---but Erich and Ricki decided we (three) should go into gether on one gift---so we did. Although I have NEVER SEEN the gifts yet. Ha!
We arrived in El Cerrito and Ricki picked us up. We got to the house, but I still didn't have control of my clothing. The shirt felt like a tent. It was huge...and even though the sleeves were cuffed at the end, the cuffs kept slipping over my hands and down my fingers. I felt like I was disappearing, being swallowed alive by that shirt. I was afraid the pants would fall off.
I was a fashion disaster---the worst dressed guy there. And it was hard holding my pants up with my hands in my pockets and then trying to constantly re-tuck in my shirt...without getting my crazy long sleeves caught in my pants. All the while putting on a pleasant face and trying not to draw attention to myself. It was not fun.
But the wedding was nice. It was a delight to see Ashley again and to meet her family. It was great to see Sai as well. And we had some nice conversations with friends of Ashley's that we had not met before. You can read more about the wedding HERE.
Attempt No.2 was the winner. Ricki's eyes, the upper part of my face, and Erich making a crazy, Joker-like face. LOVE it!
At one point, Erich said that he thought Ricki would be ready to go about that time. Moments later she appeared, stating she was ready to go. Amazing. They are almost like an old married couple sometimes. Ha! We said our goodbyes to Ashley (she actually did rub my tummy briefly) and Sai and then Ricki drove us back down to BART.
Back in San Leandro, it was just starting to get dusky. The lady statue was all lit up and sparkly, ready for the night.
The next morning, I sent Ashley a note. This is our conversation. (This time, I am the blue text:)
I still have no idea what the gifts look like---but that's okay. If I were newly married, I'd (hopefully) have other things on my mind as well.
I'm back home now. Erich will be here through the 4th.
This wasn't much of a tale, but there you go.
CHEERS!
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