A creative piece based on the sight description 03/2013

 

The car was jerking and bumping down Main Street in little old Winchester, Kentucky. I was sure nothing could make the knotting in my stomach worse until we came down this brick street. My mother must have sensed my discomfort because she subtly gave my hand a little squeeze without saying a word. I picked at my scuffed and tattered boots until the car pulled into the church parking lot and came to a quick stop. This day was going to be an interesting one.
As we walked up to the church, my mother jokingly criticized I could have worn something a little nicer than jeans to a church. I willed myself to smile at her but she saw right through it and told me I was making a good decision. A piece of my bangs that was previously been held back by sticky hairspray and pins fell into my face. I blew it up with a breath of air only to have it fall back again. I slouched and my mother grabbed my shoulder softly and held it. She promised good things were about to happen.
 
I pulled the silk slip over my legs and let it settle easily over my stomach. The material felt so soft on my skin making me warm and happy. The smallest things were adding another layer to the excitement of the day. I slipped the small, lacy garter intertwined with white ribbon up to my thigh and quickly recovered it with my slip. Next, I took much care unbuttoning my flannel shirt, which was more difficult than usual because of the acrylic nails I had put on for this special day. The shirt was carefully pulled off my arms by my mother to not mess with the swirling up do that sat at the base of my neck.
            I took off the small pearls I usually wore and switched them out for the sapphire earrings my mother gave me on my twenty-first birthday. They perfectly matched the sapphire and diamond ring I wore on my right hand, middle finger that my mother gave me many years before. My father gave it to her when I was born to tell her how special she and I both were to him.                        
            My mother, in a beautiful lavender dress with a crème shawl, and friends, in their matching coral colored cocktail dresses, held the beautiful flowing brocade, charmeuse, and chiffon mixture in front of me. I held the bare, tanned shoulders of my two friends as I stepped into the dress knowing that this was finally the day, the day I had been waiting for now for over a year. The dress I had tried on countless times to have fit and refit and customized.
            The soft touch of my mother’s fingers against my skin as she fastened the line of buttons running down my back calmed and reassured the decision I was making. She rubbed the open upper part of my back when she finished her job, a small gesture meaning more to me than she could possibly have known. The dress hugged my body comfortably and the material felt cool and smooth against my skin. It looked perfect. I slipped my semi-high blue Jimmy Choo’s onto my feet so I wouldn’t be too tall. I still wanted to be shorter than that 5’11 man of my dreams as well as be comfortable while standing in front of the adoring church.
My maiden and maid of honor brought over the lengthy veil and fastened it to the hairpiece above the styled bun. My mother wore this veil in her wedding and my grandmother in hers. It was a slightly off colored white from its years of existence though it had only been worn three times.  When all was said and done, I turned to my mother who already had tears welling in her eyes.
My mother and I walked out arm in arm to find my father in the foyer. He greeted us with smiling eyes and encouraging words. He hugged me and told me I was his beautiful baby girl and always would be. Dad then took my hand and spun me letting my dress fly from beneath me. In this moment, I had never felt prettier or more confident.

 

 

A section of my blog post from my trip to Ireland 06/2013

 

After falling asleep I woke up to see nothing but ocean blue and it was decently close to my window. I had a minor heart attack and then realized we were landing. We made it to Ireland! We got off the plane and went through customs where even those guys were nice. We waited in line for a taxi and a man came up and asked if we needed a ride. We hopped in his taxi and we were off. His name was Bernie and I have never met a stranger who was that talkative. As soon as he found out we were from America he was asking us if we had any questions, telling us what bars to go to, and telling the best stories. His words of advice to us about drinking:

“Now, here’s the way things work in Ireland. They make so much beer and everyone has a share. Even you visitors have a share in the beer. Because you have a share, that means you have to drink your quota. If you don’t drink your quota then people like me have to and that’s just not good for your liver so drink your beer!“

            We thanked Bernie for his kind words of wisdom and great stories and we got out at our hostel. It was nice enough! Nothing special. We had bigger plans though. We were off to find food! The kind lady told us about this great breakfast place so we headed down the streets of Dublin to a little café. We walked past these beautiful old buildings and everyone was smiling and carrying on with their Saturday. The streets weren’t too crowded yet because it was only 9:30.

            We made it to our breakfast stop and I ordered a white coffee and sweet cakes. Pancakes have never tasted so good. We went from there and ventured down the street and we realized we were on the main shopping drag. It was so cool! There were street performers everywhere performing magic acts, playing music, and selling tricks. They even had the guy spray painted doing a little dance for coins. I was floored. I thought this was just about the best thing ever.

            We walked to the end of the street where we say two guys dressed in a full kilt playing the bagpipes. They were collecting money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation! I was so excited because that is my philanthropy for Chi Omega so I donated and we went on to the park! It was glorious. A man was feeding pigeons and people were sitting as happy as they could be just taking it all in. We found two swans with their babies!

            We made it to the other side of the park where we just stood for a while with one of the girls looking at a map. We didn’t have an agenda, we were just looking around figuring out where we were. This lady was walking by and she asked, “You seem to be a little lost, do you need help finding somewhere?” Let me go ahead and say this too, I was told that statement and asked that question many, many times in the period of two days. We just asked her where we were and she told us and told us where we should go. So we walked around aimlessly for a while and made it back to the main strip.

            We went for lunch at the Captain America Bar then we went to the Dublin Castle. I can't even begin to describe how funny I thought it was (partially because I was exhausted) that there was a castle just sitting in the middle of the city. We didn’t get to go in but I got some great pictures of it and the gardens. From there it was off to the Guinness factory! We made our way down the streets and finally got there. We took the official tour and collected our free samples at the end!

            The next thing we did was pretty cool and I will be putting it on my resume because I’m sure someone will either think it is a worthy trait or they will find it funny. We became certified, signed paper and all, Guinness pint pourers. Yeapppp. There is a very specific way of doing it that they take very seriously. It takes exactly 119.5 seconds to pour a Guinness pint correctly. Good to know. I will tell my boss when I get back to bartending in the fall. We got our self-poured beers and went to the sky tower where we were surrounded by windows and an overlooking view of Dublin. It was breath taking. We sat up there for a long while and enjoyed our beers.

            We finished our night at the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head. I had the best dinner I have had since I went abroad. We then retreated to our hostel at 8:30 and we all turned in for the night. It had been one long day and we were finished! It was a very odd concept sleeping in a room with 5 other strangers who you don’t know from Adam. I tried to say hi to the girl in the bunk next to me and she looked at me like I had 5 heads. That was fine! I probably scared her away from touching my stuff. I finally did go to sleep though because the next day we were off to Galway!