8/10/2002:

A Sil strip! I wrote this starting in quite a different place. But then I missed talking to Sil, so I consulted the little piece of my brain I've trained to talk like she does and we had a dialogue that went something like the above. Yes, this is how I write. I do have stages of colors I wear.

Hey, like the shirts? They turned out much better in the first panel than the second. Eh. It should be noted that I'm not actually trying on the pants in the last panel, just holding them in front of me. I hate dressing rooms. I just hold to the standard waist and inseam sizes (I wear a 28/28 or 28/30, although I think my actual waist is a 26 or 27). I'm not sure what shirt size I wear. Small, medium, depending on the store. I'm sure you're all thrilled by this knowledge about my size (I'm really just dropping hints for my birthday in 2.5 weeks).

I am typing this on 8/9 on the way to San Francisco for my cousin's wedding. I'd planned to be watching Trigun or playing TextTwist offline, but the pull of the inflight movie (Spiderman!) and the guilt over having 5 months absent from the archive convinced me to change my flight activities.

This morning, I was reading Plane Insanity, which is by a former flight attendant. After 10 vignettes, I was not looking forward to getting on the plane. This flight has gone well (how could it not? I mean, they're playing Spiderman...) and knocking on the plactic armrest will continue to do so. Now I just have to worry about finding a place to upload this bad boy.

8/12/2002:

So, that didn't work (finding a place to upload). I just rolled back into town and I went to the old office (still have my key!) to exploit the wireless access and catch up on email. And send this thing.

So, here goes Kip's thoughts on weddings, having just been to one.

I used to think that weddings were more for the family than for the couple. I mean, having been part of the planning process for my sister and brother made me think that there's way too much stress and commotion for anyone to really want to go through. Seeing all the behind the scene stuff for those two weddings kinda jaded me during the actual ceremony (as my mind was more full of details for the upcoming reception and stuff). But I had little to do with this wedding besides be a guest and that freed up the observant part of my brain to note the groom welling up when he saw my cousin entered the chapel in her dress.

The ceremony was at Stanford chapel and afterward I walked to my date's car saying, "Gosh, I wish I'd gotten to come here," and she nodded.

The tea ceremony was incredibly rushed. I was the master of ceremonies, but I wasn't so good at a) keeping the crowd entertained and b) knowing what was going on. People were absent when I called their names. People couldn't hear me because they were talking to themselves (hm, felt like camp, except I couldn't yell or threaten raffle tickets). "The tea ceremony, for those of you not familiar with the tradition, is when the new couple presents tea to the old married relatives. These relatives take the tea, signifying that they approve of the union. Then they give the new couple lucky red packets. These are really expensive cups of tea." etc etc. Like I said, no one could hear me, so I was really just performing for the people giving / getting tea, who were too stressed to enjoy it.

The reception was in the top floor of the hotel and we saw the fog engulf the city of San Francisco as the day turned into evening. The food was exquisitely prepared, and I did my best to do justice to the open bar.

Weddings. I could give you every detail, but in the end, it's just important to know that the amount of goodwill in the air could power a city for days.

kip