BUT the first day is fuckin awesome so far. As i'm being introduced to everybody here i suddenly am shaking hands with Heather. We both look at each other for a second, and then finally heather says, you have no fucking idea who i am. I say, no i know exactly who you are. We laugh about it for a second, and talk about the last time we must have seen each other 4 years ago. Fuckin small world. anyway, the day isnt't over.
Red is the old drive. About 30 miles.
Blue is the change in my drive. Total now is 11 miles. BUT since i'm not driving through downtown, i actually can get there in 15 minutes.
And you may ask why i don't drive straight there. Simply, there's a mountain in the way.
Somewhere on the streets in Venice near the old Hollywood Online.
at 9, they say they'll know more at 9:30. At 10 they say they don't know anything, but they'll know more at 11. At 12 they say they still don't know, but they're going to get another airplane to switch out with the fucked up one. At 1 they say they'll be departing at 2. At 2:30 we finally get in the air.
If i'd done nothing but say to the gate attendant originally... Look just put me on the standby list for the next Denver flight. Fuckin dipshit me for not doing it.
I get to Denver and i've already missed 2 connection flights. During the time sitting with my thumb up my ass in LAX i actually got a boarding pass for the flight that i knew i most likely would be on.... the 7:14 from Denver to Des Moines. So i'm safe, i'll be in Des Moines at around 9:30 or 10 and i'll still make Doug's bachelor party. YEAH RIGHT!
The plane again arrives and everybody gets off. This time we start boarding the plane, and i'm actually walking through the door to walk down the jetway. Above my head is the red LED sign that says the flight is departing at 7:14. AS i approach it changes to 8... you've gotta be kidding me. I get on the plane. 2 minutes later they stop boarding people. They announce that a door seal where the baggage goes has come off and they need to replace it. They'll be taking off at 8. I sit and read some more. Then they continue to board people about 20 minutes later. They pull away from the gate at 8 and start to taxi. Then we stop again. The pilot comes on and announces that the entire airport is now closed down due to violent wind shears. We have to wait it out.
We sit on the runway for an hour being blown around by the wind. And its not fuckin joke, the 737 is getting moved around A LOT. So now i'm really not too happy about taking off anyway, but finally after sitting ANOTHER hour on the runway, we finally start moving again. We sit waiting in line for another half hour, and then finally take off in VERY HIGH WINDS.
I fuckin HATE flying, and now i hate it even more. This is by far the worst flight i've ever been on. The plane just gets tossed around like a rag doll. So now i'm holding on for my life, i'm already nine hours late, and I've still gotta drive Iowa roads once i get to Des Moines. We touch down right around 12:15 and i find myself in a airport smaller than burbank. The car rental lady is the nicest person i've talked to all day, and she takes all off 2 minutes to completely set me up with everything in need. I'm ready to go before the first bag comes off the plane. And then the last bag comes off, and mine is nowhere to be seen. Figures. I stand there just pissed off and start walking over to the attendant, and finally notice my bag sitting on a cart in a corner on the other side of baggage claim. I laugh because i know its been sitting here since 3PM. They probably put it on the first flight out of LAX, and I was the dipshit waiting for a broken plane.
I get outside and GAWD DAMN its humid. Its still close to 90 outside and i can tell its just going to be a HOT weekend. I call Doug, and his cell phone rings.
and rings and rings and rings.
hmmmmmm. I call Jen. I tell her i'm finally off the plane. I call Doug again. nothing.
I call the other number i've got for Jeremy's cell phone (Kristi's brother). Still nothing.
I pull out the GPS and track in, and get ready to drive to Pella. No use in my trying to find them in Des Moines. They could be at ANY strip club in the entire city, and I'm too tired to look. I head out and drive another hour on country highways to finally get to Pella. I check into the royal Amsterdam Hotel (yes Pella is a little Dutch community, but no red light district) and I call Jen again to say good night. Its now 2:30AM.
ok, that was a rant... i'll finish the better part of the story later.
I got on the phone and finally talked to Doug. He was running around and had to take care of all kinds of little things in preparation for the wedding. So i got the information on where the Tux was waiting for me, and i headed out.
Now a bit about driving in Iowa... People drive EXACTLY at the speed limit. No faster, and no slower. Its a relief from LA driving where half of the people drive FAR slower than the speed limit, and half the people drive FAR faster. You can actually predict what people are going to do in Iowa when they are driving. WHY you ask... well, they all seem to use their blinkers. FUCKIN AMAZING!
So i drove from Pella to Knoxville in about 30 minutes taking time to just relax. I got into the town square in Knoxville and parked the car directly in front of City Hall. Well you can't miss the spot cause City hall is the tallest building around and can be seen for at least 5 miles in every direction.
I call doug from the sidewalk and he asks me where i am. As soon as i tell him he laughs and tells me to hold on a second. He hangs up the phone and 30 seconds later he turns the corner in front of me. Hah small town. So i actually parked in front of the place that had my tux, so i go in a try it on to be sure. After everything is taken care of there i let Doug get back to his running around. He's got a lot of stuff to do before the weekend is over.
At this point i drive around aimlessly just checking out the town. I eventually drive back to Pella and grab something to eat. Then after relaxing for a couple hours i head back to Knoxville for the rehearsal.
Everybody has a great time joking around at the church, and we all run the introduction gauntlet.
After the rehearsal we head over to Kristi's parents house just down the road. I attempt to park in front of the house, but as Kristi's dad is pulling his truck in, he laughs at me to park in the parking lot in back. I failed to notice that FAR up the driveway there was a car with a sign on it... "PARKING" and a big arrow. Yup, that's the benefit of 4 acres.
Dinner was catered from a BBQ place in town and was unbelievable. And Doug and Bryan both had to show off their skills by providing homebrew beer and wine. At this point in the night i've talked to Jen a few times and i know that they too have been delayed. They have arrived at the Hotel in Pella, and will be on their way shortly.
Jen, Bob, Valerie and David all show up after dinner, but the party is by no means over. We all hang out for a couple more hours and then Doug and Kristi call it a night. They have to get some sleep for the big day.
The next morning Jen demands that i walk her around Pella. I need some black socks, so i get to the shoe store in town. We then grab a couple Danish Letters and coffee. I head off to the church in Knoxville and get there about 11. Everybody was told to be ready for pictures by 11:30... I had a feeling that this time had been "padded" on purpose, but i didn't want to be the asshole that shows up late. When i walk in Doug is already dressed and sitting around waiting. He's got a lot on him mind and you can tell he got up early. I get ready and start the picture procedures. We wait while Doug and Kristi have the church to themselves for pictures for about an hour. We then follow, and the real fun of pictures starts. Just imagine full wedding party and then 4 kids that won't necessarily look at the camera. So the photographer takes it upon himself to get their attention. With a balloon in one hand and the camera in the other he waves and makes noises and bonks people on the head and himself on the head and does EVERYTHING he can to get the kids to look. It works for awhile, but eventually the 2-year-old doesn't want to do anything but play with grandpa. Enough pictures for her. So there is a little kicking and screaming and a couple more pictures in the church. Then back downstairs for MORE pictures in the "green room". So for the better part of 4 hours i do nothing but snap photos of my own and pose in pictures myself.
Finally the ceremony begins, and for a moment i get to relax because i know nobody is looking at me anymore. All eyes are focused on Doug and Kristi. Everybody else is just along for the ride. The service goes off without a problem at all. Even as hot as it was there was no fainting spells or sick faces. Doug's sister sang during the service and Doug's brother finished off the service playing bagpipes.
We blew bubbles outside as they got into their convertible and were driven off. We then headed to the reception (only 4 blocks away) When we arrived we waited for everyone else so that the wedding party could be announced. Well the only problem... Bryan had headed off to trash Doug and Kristi's house. We waited around and then headed into the reception.
At this point everybody seemed to be completely relaxed and having a great time. Bryan started off with his toast and I admit its the first time i've witnessed Blogs being quoted in a wedding toast. Jen and I danced a few dances and then sat around talking to the normal people we see at every wedding. We need to start planning to see these people other times during our lives, not JUST at weddings. The bouquet toss went over without any full contact knock downs, and then Doug shot the garter. We expected it to go directly into the crowd of guys, but instead his aim was a little off. Well it actually was about 20 feet off. BUT it did land directly in the hands of an 8-year-old who was sitting at his table WAY off the dance floor. The cheers erupted. He was shocked. Classic wedding moment, and Doug rushed right in to get his picture with him.
The rest of the night was a blur. Doug and Kristi headed off to a hotel for the night, and everybody else parted company. Jen and I headed back to Pella to crash.
Father's day we woke up Bob at about 9AM and handed him his father's day card and my Tux (so he could pass it to Roger). Jen and I then walked into the ghost town that is Pella on a Sunday. As soon as we realized that everything was closed, we headed out to the airport and sat there reading. I finished my book before we got on the plane. Jen and I had gotten our tickets at different times, so we were not sitting next to each other. But once on the plane we negotiated a 3 way trade so we could be together, and a mom and her son could be together. Honestly this is the smallest plane i've been on, but it was the nicest ride to Denver.
Denver we had a 4 hour delay, so we tried for standby on an earlier flight. We got some food and ended up on a flight that only was 45 minutes earlier than the flight we were scheduled for. We got back to LA and our bags were actually with us!!!! No traffic at all. We headed for Arcadia, but my brain went on auto pilot and we ended up in S. Pas. Suddenly Tony's pizza sounded REALLY good, so we swung by and picked up a medium pizza and drove to arcadia to pick up Jen's car. We ended up at home at about 7:30 and sat the rest of the night just doing nothing. I slept so well that night.
I started looking at the problem from the point of expressions. Each layer in AE can be scripted so that its motion is controlled by code and not by keyframes. Heather gave me a book that discussed a little of this. In the middle of the chapter about expressions there was a one paragraph mention of scripting, and when it should be used instead of expressions. Suddenly i realized that building a huge project and scripting all the layers was not something i wanted to do. Instead I could script the entire thing and have AE build the project for me, import the images, mask them into slices, and then move them the way i wanted. So in less than a day i've fallen in love with After Effects. I've perfected about 60 lines of code, and in about 20 seconds it builds a project and its ready to render. Its too damn easy. AND ALL MATH!!
Then comes the new Tony Hawk Project 8 site. NOT designed at IM.
i hate it when somebody else goes right ahead and does exactly what i'm screaming about.
So that leads to the rest of the weekend assembling the said BBQ. It was not really that hard, but you gotta remember that it was about 102 this weekend. I did NOT want to be outside. So the BBQ went together in 15 to 20 minute stages followed by an hour of TV here and an Hour of WOW there. I finished it Sunday, and we were all ready to go... well every propane place in the area closes at 4 on Sunday. No BBQ on Sunday. So Jen got the tank filled yesterday, and we finally fired the thing up last night. Standard hamburgers were the way we started off. We didn't want to ruin a couple of expensive steaks. The first couple came off all wrong, so they were pitched, and the second batch went on. They came out perfectly thanks to a couple pointers from my father on the phone. All in all its a great grill and we should have a lot of fun with it.
Tonight we try to do something else on it. I don't know if its BBQ chicken or steaks or fish... we'll figure it out.
i wish i was at Finn's with Brian
