Back in Canada....in time for celebrations, friend-, and hardships (PART THREE)

Thursday

1:22 am

Well, it's official. July 02, 2010, my sister became mrs. Garcia, and I, a brother-in-law to her husband, my friend.


What a hectic day. I was told to keep my sister company in her hotel room as she would be sleeping alone. About 12 or 1 in the morning, as she was taking a shower, I decided to come up with my speech as I was notified that I would be making one. Seeing myself as her only family showing up to the wedding, it was my duty to make a speech. Sat down at the desk, found the hotel pen and block of paper, and went at it. It was kind of hard to think of something touching to say in front of 150 people. I wanted to say something that would melt people's hearts, or even make some cry. I probably made three or four paperballs until I wrote something good.


Woke up. It was about 7.50 am and I wanted to stay asleep. But my subconscious told me to remind my sister of what she told me; "the hairdresser will be here at 8". Got picked up later by my brother-in-law and his cousin (yeah I know, the groom isn't supposed to see his bride yet but whatever), and went to "Cora's Breakfast". Love that place. Ordered the special as I had previously done a year ago, before we took off for Denmark. Being with the whole Garcia clan, we took pretty much atleast a third of all the seats in the restaurant because there seemed to be a HUGE line-up, waiting to get seated. It was pretty nice, my meal consisted of two sunnyside up eggs, a few strips of bacon, a couple of sausages, pancakes, a slice of ham, a slice of honeymelon, sliced strawberry, and toasted white bread. Don't remember if there were more. Well, later on that morning, it turned out that a friend of ours and I became the garbage disposal units for everyone asking if we could eat this and that for them.


Arrived at the event to set-up my drums and preparing for the sound check. We had a few technical problems such as feedback (of course), sound coming in from only one channel, my kick in the sub sounding weird, wires not working properly, shortage of wires, wires being too short, changing microphones, etc etc. I couldn't wait to start playing.


And here comes the hectic part. We had to get 44 bottles of non-alcoholic sparkling wine. The bad part of it was that I had already put on my shirt before we took off. So I felt like I crumpled my shirt but I know I definitely was sweating. Well, we eventually found them, 22 white wine, and 22 red. Then there were huge line-ups. For a place that had 15 cash registers, I wonder why only like 4 or 5 of them were open. It was just great that one was just opening and the lady chose us to be first because we had so many bottles to purchase.
Finally had the wines delivered to the kitchen, and now it was time for us to really get ready. We found a change room in which we all got ready in no time. Unfortunately, the photographer who was hired, wanted to take pictures of us getting ready....not when we already are ready. So, we had to kind of improvise like making small fixes to our neck ties, all looking in the mirror, check our hair, our phones, chatting, and whatnot fake stuff. My hair was awesome. A guy whom we play with, had his can of strong hairspray and sprayed it all over my hair, despite me already having strong hair gel on. My hair looked awesome though still, with a short faux hawk going all the way to the back. My shirt and jacket were fitting, so it was even better.
Waiting for the procession to start was kind of nerve-wracking. I was taking pictures of people whilst waiting to get called to pass the time. Finally, it was time. My partner, my brother-in-law's cousin, looked stunning. He told me one time that I should try to get with her. I don't know, it just doesn't seem right if it's his cousin.....even if we're only related by marriage. It still feels weird. Then, it was our turn to walk.

Don't I just look so stunningly handsome? It was funny because after I escorted her to her place, I sneaked out the back door and had to walk my sister as well.

Back in Canada....in time for celebrations, friend-, and hardships (PART TWO)

Wednesday

12:56 am

It was a weird feeling. Seeing my sister and friends again. Forgot how warm the weather could get. Made it even worse for me, wearing double jackets. The first thing we all did together, was watch my brother-in-law's basketball game with some other familiar faces who later greeted me after the game. I was very tired as I've been awake for almost 24 hours straight. I needed some shut-eye. Then my brother-in-law's other brother, my former worship leader and now youth pastor, comes rolling in a brand new Hyundai Genesis Coupe'. He sees me for the first time with a big smile on his face and sheer surprise at how big I've gotten. Not big as in fat.....just, bigger in muscle size. I had been working out for a few months to get in shape for the army, and more recently, for Canada. I have noticed that I've been getting more attention lately by the ladies since arriving. After the wedding, I had met up with a former classmate who sure got surprised at how big I've gotten. She grabbed my arm and made me flex it to show it. "You weren't like that before" she said. True enough, I had been the skinny guy that everyone used to know me by.

Seeing me was great for everyone, but my sister had other things in her agenda to take care of. First and foremost was the wedding. So many small, yet important, details had to be made ready, then there were the shirts for the groomsmen, the food, the time schedule, and last, but certainly not least, our mother. It wasn't much going to be like facing her face-to-face. Just sending the invitation was hard on my sis and she wanted to give a phone call. But because it would take about three business days to deliver the letter, she was under pressure to do it, and do it soon. Finally, she sent it on a monday, in the same week as the wedding, which was on a friday. She tried to call but no one answered so she left an email. We didn't expect our mother to show up and sure enough, she didn't. My mother had sent an email stating that we deliberately sent the invitation too late for them to attend. She made it clear that they received it in their afternoon mail the same day as the wedding. But she had it all wrong. We expected it to arrive three days after monday, on a thursday. But then we remembered something. Thursday, the day before the wedding, was July 1st.....Canada Day! That meant no work on that day. My pastor (and now my sister's mother-in-law) says it was a divine intervention that it was delayed such as that, or else my mom would have come in time and objected to the wedding.

I'll end this part, in the enjoyment of reading my mother's email to me, to read aloud to all of the guests of the event.

Back in Canada....in time for celebrations, friend-, and hardships (PART ONE)

Tuesday

1:14 am

It's been another long 5 months and back in Canada. It was awesome seeing old faces and even new ones. But the main purpose of my visit was my sister's wedding. Despite my mom voicing her protests about my support for the wedding and her repeating commands not to. Thing is, I've already made up my mind to come and join my sister as I do support it.

I stayed up all night to pack the remainder of my stuff, and still decided what I should bring to look good as well. I admit, I might have brought a few useless items like my leather jacket that I only wore on my flight and my favorite coat. Well, I guess I had thought that it would be used for the wedding but I had completely forgotten that my sister already got me a suit. I sigh everytime I look at it now. Other stuff like my working boots, gloves, balaclava (ski mask), army-style pants, and turtle-necks, were gonna be for paintballing (which is going to happen this coming saturday). In the somewhat endless confusion about what to bring and weighing my bag, I had finally finished packing and gathered all my important documents such as my itinerary, passport, laptop and whatnot, and just when I was about to leave, I drank what was left of my milk in the fridge and headed out the door. It was still kind of dark with that light blue sky coming out of the east. I put on my training gloves, my father's leather jacket with my hoody underneath it, and went my way. I always seemed to look intense whenever I had my gloves on. People would stare and I could feel it....even more so with my cool leather jacket on. Luckily, there weren't alot of people but it seemed that I certainly caught the attention of a paper guy biking around the neigborhood. I'm not exactly sure whether it was my appearance, the time in which I was travelling with my bag at, or the noise it was making, but it just bothered me.

Waited for about half an hour at the nearest train station for the next train towards the airport. It was totally deserted. And as my mind pondered on how my journey back was going to be, and the cold and tiredness was slowly coming to me, I had to go. You know, GO! So I checked for the cameras, went to the nearest bush that wasn't pointed in the direction where I was about to handle my...."business".....and went. I hate having to feel paranoid about if anyone's going to walk in on you. I know it's a common sight in Copenhagen and many parts of the world, but it gets to me sometimes. The train finally came, and in almost no time, I was at the airport....well before my departure time. Then as I was heading to my check-in counter, I figured I'd grab smirnoff's vodka-apple mix from the 7-11 since I had plenty of time. Tasted great.

The flight to Paris was alright. I actually felt really tired. So tired, I was half asleep when breakfast was served. It was kind of funny because when I was fully awake, it was the time that they were cleaning up all the trays and cups from the passengers. So one of them was surprised that I wasn't served. I guess it was my fault for kinda sleeping. After touchdown in Paris, we had such a long taxi to the terminal gate. Probably the longest that I've ever been in, but it was worth it because we passed by the Airbus A380 and gave me the opportunity to see it in person. It seemed bigger on TV though. The terminal buildings looked nice in Paris, but I'd complain more on the interior designs. There weren't enough seats, terminals were jam-packed, and it was hot inside.

Waited for about 5 hours before being loaded into a shuttle bus that drove us passengers to our plane sitting on the tarmac. Overall, I'd say Air France was alright in terms of entertainment choices and food, but their interior seemed cheap. First off, the plastic cover for one of my armrests was cracked, but it wasn't a biggie to bother me much. Secondly, whenever the passenger in front of me wanted to turn her light on, my light would go on instead. I tried mine to see if it would affect hers, but it just turned mine off. I guess someone screwed up on the wiring. Thirdly, the little touch screen was a little hard to operate because it sometimes needed a second or harder tap to respond. But hey, at least I finally got to see "Avatar". But something else would make this trip the worst one I've ever had. BABIES! Oh my gosh, I used to ignore them but this was different. There were three babies, two further down in front of me to both sides, and the third a few rows back on the right.....ALL CRYING SIMULTANEOUSLY! It was almost surround sound of babies!

Finally got off the plane 7 or 8 hours later, and I was ready to face Immigration Canada about my stay. My sister was worried whether I'd be tied up with them because of my visa and such. It was kind of tense because there were long line-ups to pass through customs. The key to getting through is simple; Act cool! He asked the nature of my stay and I was being honest to the officer (he was Asian and seemed really young, like fresh out of college. Skinny too, for a customs officer). But everything was in order and I got a specific mark that would allow me passage and claim my bag. As I got out, I almost felt as if I was a superstar because many people had been piling up at the exit, looking for their friends or loved ones coming back. I stood in the middle of the doors to just try and find a familiar face. No one seemed recognizable, so I sat down, took off my jackets as I was starting to sweat. After about sitting there for, oh I don't know, 5, 10 minutes, I got up and decided to look for them further down the terminal but I felt like doing a quick sweep across that pile that I mentioned and sure enough, I saw two familiar people. My sister and a friend. I surprised them from behind saying; "Well you guys suck at finding people". They both saw me with big eyes and hugged me.....and I hugged my sister.