What Now

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA EDITION

JUNE 20, 2009 - Savannah is hot. I only say it that simply because there are few words to describe the drowning-on-dry-land feeling that I encountered today. Steve and I were woken by a shaft of light so bright that for a moment I thought that the sun had gone supernova. Apparently, we haven't quite figured out how to close the curtains all the way! Something to work on later! Our first adventure this morning was a trip to Forsyth Park. I have seen tons of pictures of the park, but none of them did it justice. The place is beautiful! I'm really falling in love with the live oaks and Spanish moss. We saw a farmer's market, which was kind of interesting. There were also lots of dogs out today, but I only got to pet one of them. :( We walked the perimeter of the park and looked at the beautiful houses all around. I would love to live in one of them! I love old houses, and a lot of these were just so interesting! We also located the famous fountain, which was just a nice in person as it is in the pictures. By the time we had gone all the way around and then some, we were both dripping sweat and kind of feeling gross, so we stopped at an antique store to get out of the heat for a few minutes, and we ended up in a place where we could afford nothing and it was housed in a crumbling, old mansion. I'm not exaggerating about that, it was really crumbling. We walked through four of it's five floors, and I think the house would be beautiful if it were restored, but it was kind of scary. We were beginning to be afraid that we might fall through the floors, so we left and went to have lunch at Clary's. It was small, and reminded me of Aunt Eunice's, and the food was great! We had some trouble getting the car out of the tiny lot, but we finally managed it and did a couple of errands before returning to the hotel.

I made sure to get back to the hotel in abundant time to get ready for Kenny and Lauren's wedding! After holding up the dinner the night before because I was late, I didn't want to take that chance again. I almost made myself late again, but I managed to get ready and use the GPS (for the first time) to successfully locate the Mansion on Forsyth Park. It was so beautiful! Since I don't understand valet parking and didn't want to embarrass myself, I found a place to park on the street (that is an important tid-bit for later, so pay attention) and went into the hotel. I immediately found a very handsome Kenny who didn't look at all nervous. :) I spoke to him and had someone take our picture, and then I got out of the way of the bustle. As the guests arrived I found that another guest, Elizabeth, and I had on the exact same dress! We have never met in person, we live in different towns and we bought them from two different places, but they were exact down to the bow on the sash! We just have very good taste! Heeheehee! The wedding was outside (gulp) but under a nice tent in the courtyard. It had a chandelier and everything! The actual ceremony went over without a hitch, and Kenny and Lauren are now married! I think my heart grew three sizes that day. :) I had a tickle in my throat at the absolute worst moment, the "does anyone have any reason to object" moment, but I managed to keep in on the DL. I didn't feel like getting beat down by the bride! The music was beautiful and everything was so lovely. While the bride and groom were off taking pictures, I got a chance to talk to more of the people whom I've only ever heard of in stories, and I found them all to be lovely people.

We moved to the restaurant next door to begin the reception, and had drinks and nibbly foods while waiting on the dining room to be prepared. I got to know a guy I've heard about for years, Stephen, an old friend of Kenny's. He's a lawyer, and in spite of that, a lot of fun to talk to! :) I also got to meet the lovely Elisabeth, Kenny's unofficial sister, who I liked a whole lot! I finally got to meet Rick, Bonita's husband and Kenny's Step dad, Lauren's parents, her god sisters, and there were so many others! They were all seriously great people. It took a little while, but as soon as the newlyweds returned, the reception dinner finally began. The dining room was very beautiful and I was afraid I was going to break something or knock something over, so I found a seat at the very end of the table and parked myself. I sat across from Wendy Brown...ahem, I mean WENNYBROWN! (exclamation point is a part of the name, not punctuation.) I'm fairly sure she is a kindred spirit of mine. She was a hoot! We were also sitting next to Lauren's God parents and one of her family's neighbors. We had so much fun with them, because they were bonafide, dyed in the wool, Connecticut Yankees! We spent the whole dinner discussing the differences between being from the north versus being from the south. It led to very, very entertaining conversation, and I'm seriously afraid that I laughed entirely too loud. Seriously, I actually laughed like my Atnip relatives, and that involves throwing the head back and pretty much shrieking. I'd like to apologize to everyone at 700 Drayton, Lauren, Kenny, their collected friends and family and the state of Georgia for my behavior. The lady who was sitting beside me kept saying "She's like this and she isn't even drinking!!" At least I kept them laughing along with me. I had way too much fun! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and everything was fancy and lovely. I didn't spill anything or knock anything over, so score a point for me! Unfortunately, I was going to have to leave before the festivities were over because Steve had gotten into the "spirit" *ahem* of things and made reservations for us to go on a ghost tour through the city! I figured out that if I left by 8:30, I'd have plenty of time to make it back to the hotel and change before we had to meet the group, so at the appointed time I stood and said goodbye and hugged a series of very wonderful people who I had spent the evening with! I even managed to hug Emo Waiter Andrew, because he looked like he needed one. Miss Bonita caught me at the door and we talked for a few minutes and she asked me if I could wait until the cake was cut, and I hated to miss that, so I agreed! I'm so glad that they didn't smush cake on each other, because I really hate when people do that! :) I stepped into the foyer, and Bryan caught me to hug me good bye and talk for a second, and at this point I completely lost track of time. I kept hearing a weird noise, but I didn't think anything about it. When he walked back into the reception, I realized that this annoying noise I kept hearing was my new phone ringing! Oh, Crap!

I looked at the time and nearly fainted! I saw that it was Steve trying to call (he didn't know how long I was going to be gone and had gotten worried about me) but by the time I figured out how to answer the damned thing he had hung up. I tried calling him back, but I couldn't figure out how to send a call! I kept looking at my phone and yelling "CALL DAMNIT!" which I'm sure the host at the desk behind me found amusing. I ran out of the building yelling at my phone and trying to find my keys. It was a disorganized mess. I had my hands full, things were falling, I was shrieking and running and trying to get the stupid phone to make a call. Oh, and I also had to pee really bad. I didn't have time to run back in, so I figured I'd just do it when I ran into the hotel to change clothes. I finally got to my car, and two cars...oh, friends and neighbors...two cars had me trapped in the space I was parked in. You wouldn't think that could happen on a curb, but these numbnuts idiots had parked within about 7 inches of each end of my car. I don't know what they were thinking when they parked where they did, but they were way too close for me to just pull out. So there I was, still yelling at my phone, trying to get things organized enough to actually drive, freaking out because I thought I was going to be late for the tour that I was looking forward to, needing to pee, and add to that I was trying to start the GPS and hook it into the holder! Of course, in about 30 seconds of trying to affix the GPS to the holder, I managed to snap the hinge off of the holder. I screamed an explicative at it as it fell apart in my hands. Then my phone rang again, and it was Steve, asking where I was. I was having a small scale come-apart, but I managed to answer the phone this time. I had to throw the GPS aside and try to pull out of my parking space without plowing into one of the cars, all while trying to give Steve directions on the clothes he needed to get out for me so that I could change when I got back to the hotel. I went in reverse, and immediately bumped into the car behind me. My only saving grace is that I was going less than 1 MPH since I had pretty much only let my foot off the brake when I rolled back. I figure that anyone who parks THAT close to another vehicle doesn't care much what happens to their car, so I didn't even get out of the car to look. I pulled forward about 6 inches, then reversed, back, forth, back, forth...ect. I was finally able to get out of the spot without hitting anyone else and began my ride back. Luckily I had at least set the GPS before I broke the holder, so it helped me get on my way. Steve was worried that we weren't going to make it, so I just told him to meet me outside with my flip-flops (I NEEDED to ditch the shoes I was wearing, because it was a walking tour) and that I would run in and go to the bathroom while he jumped into the drivers seat. I would just wear the dress I wore to the wedding.

We made it, just barely. We did end up waiting a few minutes before our group set off, but it wasn't long. I was severely overdressed, but at least my feet were comfy! I really, really enjoyed the tour! We had an awesome tour guide and she told a lot of great stories of ghoolies, ghosties and long leggedy beasties. We walked two miles, and my ankles and legs were a buffet for mosquitoes the size of seagulls. We also took a lot of pictures, as the tour guide suggested, to get "Spirit Orbs" and ghost photos. We got a lot of orbs in our pictures, but I generally follow the TAPS rule that orbs usually mean dust. Of course, I did a have a couple of orbs in my pictures that looked different than others, so maybe I got a spook after all!

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost midnight and my feet felt like they had been beaten with switches. They were even bleeding in places! However, I wasn't worried because I'd had a wonderful day. I was also exhausted and I will soon be passed out asleep.