claire bear billy bean

I'm already back from utah and claire is married, both of which are a bit hard to believe. claire is cruising through the caribbean at the moment with jesse, so I guess it's real. the utah weather dished up an inopportune 3 days of cold and wind and rain showers for the outdoor wedding reception, but it turned out alright in the end. we got almost all the pictures without rain and the reception went off without any pouring, though I had to follow claire around to keep her dress out of the muddy grass. she was absolutely gorgeous. my family with all 8 siblings hasn't been all together in 10 years, so it was wonderful to be with everybody and take family pictures again. my skin was looking so good, which was very exciting, and needless to say, I've changed a lot in the last 10 years, so I was a little anxious to get something new on the wall. we had a family dinner the night before the wedding at a japanese restaurant, complete with sushi (grilled shrimp was by far the best), soup, salad, potstickers, chicken, shrimp and veggies tempura, and a delicious beef teriyaki. mmmm. and I didn't even feel incredibly full after I ate, even though I ate a ridiculously huge amount. seriously, one good reason to go to france: they know how to stop eating, something I'm hoping to pick up on. carolyn brought john, john brought mary kennon of course, and charles brought elizabeth and they all stayed up at snowbird, where they unfortunately had a couple of bad experiences and kept badmouthing the place, sad considering mom and dad put them up there. they got so much snow up there in the canyon, even at the end of may. ridiculous. it's weird to think of it, but all of my older siblings are part of a couple now. another divider to align me with the young ones. a bit annoying, but I also don't want to be a couple right now either, so I guess it's a tradeoff. I was so busy during the wedding that I didn't take hardly any pictures with my camera, so it'll have to wait until claire gets ahold of the photographer's loot, which I have high hopes for. he seemed to really know what he was doing. anyway, I'm back now after a wonderful time minus the highly stressful flights to and from.

I got a job working at skechers in the mall, ironic considering my universal disgust for those shoes, but it'll pay me and I'll take what I can get. I hope my first real job turns out okay. I also blew sue off in a spasm of mind lapses and forgetfulness. it was incredibly depressing because she'd already been blown off multiple times today and then I went and did it. sometimes I think I'm the worst friend ever. ever. but I guess not, cause I really really feel terrible about it and I plan on bringing her fresh flowers tomorrow (which she loves) which is probably more than all the other stand uppers of the day. I don't know. sometimes just doing what a friend is supposed to do is hard for me and I don't know why. my kids better not inherit this stupid social problem gene that I got from mine. mais tant pis, and it can't be worse than the graff gene.

I've been researching hybrid car prices and comparing them to regular equivalent options, all in pursuit of proving my father wrong, hybrids can be more than green people trophies, they can actually save you money, and I have discovered: buy a Prius. avoid regular cars in hybrid versions like the camry and the civic. it'll take ten years to pay off the price difference, the mileage isn't that much better, and they're just gouging you. GOUGING for going green. the thought is despicable. seriously, buy a Prius. I swear though, every time I talk to my dad these days I feel like I'm defending myself. vegetarians, hybrid cars, my banking accounts and practices, it goes on and on. I'm not sure what we should talk about anymore if we can't talk about real issues. I've never had to patently avoid subjects with my dad. this is kind of upsetting.