Saturday

Garden Flowers

According to my daughter, yesterday's bachelorette events didn't go quite according to plan!  As maid of honor, she had done most of the planning, working with several constraints.  First of all, two of the bridesmaids live out of state and for various reasons, they were able to be here only during the wedding weekend, with one of them flying in on Friday morning and leaving on Sunday morning!  Since the bride-to-be didn't want to have a bachelorette event without two of her bridesmaids, daughter had to arrange it for Friday afternoon, between the time the one bridesmaid's flight was scheduled to arrive (and estimating how long it would take for her to get to the bride's place from the airport) and the wedding rehearsal scheduled for later that evening.  Another constraint was how much people were willing to spend for activities.  

The schedule daughter put together after much checking of plans, preferences, availability of venues, etc. was to meet at the bride's apartment building  parking area at 12:00 noon, carpool to a ceramics painting venue which had been booked from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (2 hour slots were the minimum, but daughter was thinking they would be done with their painting by 2:00 p.m.), drive to Little Tokyo (a section of downtown) where she had reserved a private booth at a karaoke place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., picking up some dinner on the way to have while there.  Then, they would leave downtown around 5:00 p.m. to go to the wedding rehearsal which was scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m.  She also looked up some games they could play such as guessing the title of a series of love songs from the emojis provided, etc., printing them out to hand out to the other girls.  

That was the plan.  We all know what happens when we make plans, don't we?  My daughter arrived at the bride's apartment building a little bit before noon, and the girl who was going to drive them to the various venues arrived exactly at noon.  The other two bridesmaids were a bit late, but, that didn't matter too much because the bride-to-be was unable to join them until 12:45 p.m.!  So, when they left to go to the ceramics painting venue, they were already behind schedule!  Then, two of the girls wanted coffee, so they got coffee for them from a drive-through place and it was already past 1:00 p.m. when they got to the ceramics place.  So, obviously, they couldn't finish painting their pieces by 2:00 p.m. as daughter had hoped they would!

However, according to daughter, the bride-to-be really enjoyed painting the ceramics pieces and wanted to come back, another time, to do more of it. In fact, she had wanted to pay for them all, but, they had assured her that it was their treat!  What the other girls had agreed that they would do was gift their pieces to the bride.  So, they each chose a piece of a place setting - plates, cups, bowls, etc., to paint, personalizing them as they wished to, but, A will receive the finished products as a memento of her bachelorette event, which I thought was a nice thing to do.  

However, apparently, they didn't leave the ceramics place until almost 3:00 p.m. and that meant, they got caught to the evening commute and it took them almost an hour to get to downtown.  Then, by the time they picked up something to eat, it was already 4:30 p.m. and there wasn't much time left for karaoke, so they decided to skip that.  Instead, they sat outside on benches and the other girls ate, while daughter (who wasn't planning to remove her mask), kept her food to bring home!  They played a couple of the games that daughter had printed out and then, the friend who was driving checked the traffic report to see how long the drive to the wedding rehearsal would take.  Every other time, when daughter had checked the drive time, during various times of the day, she had been informed that it would take between 35 minutes to 1 hour at the most.  Well, apparently, yesterday, there were three separate accidents on the freeway they needed to take and the drive time estimate was 1.5 hours!  They should have left by then, already!  

She said that was a rather stressed drive to the rehearsal, but, they still played another game in the car and did some YouTube karaoke.  They arrived at the rehearsal 15 minutes late, but, at least they arrived safely and the rehearsal, itself, went well. Daughter was disappointed that the plans she had made so carefully hadn't quite worked out as scheduled, but, these things to happen and I was thankful that they were all safe.

Later in the evening, we put together a small emergency kit including a small sewing kit (needle, thread in colors to match the bridesmaids dresses, a pair of scissors, some safety pins, etc.) for daughter to take with her to the wedding.  The emergency kit included a tube of super glue because at her other friend's wedding, the bride's shoe heel broke off and her wedding planner had a tube of super glue and glued the shoe heel back on!  Other items included some clear nail polish  (for small tears in tights/pantyhose) and extra pairs of tights if needed.  Daughter asked me if I had a stain remover laundry detergent stick, but, I didn't and she asked one of the other girls if she could pick one up.  Then, because the weather forecast predicted rain, tonight, she packed a small folding umbrella, as well, in her backpack that she was taking with her!  Oh, and she printed out the speech for another friend who was officiating as his printer wasn't working! 

 

This morning was a bit hectic, too, as she kept getting calls and texts while she was getting dressed, asking her to bring this and that, including paperclips, a pair of tweezers (daughter included a mirror, too, just in case) and, the bride, already at the venue, had forgotten her earrings, did daughter have a silvery, dangly pair to bring for her? Daughter and I went through my jewelry box, picked out a couple of items and sent pictures to the bride who selected the pair that daughter was going to wear, so, daughter selected a different pair for herself.  LOL.  

Her friend who was giving her and another friend a ride to the wedding and back picked her up a little after 11:00 a.m. - they all had to be at the venue by noon for the photographs.  The wedding is being held outdoors, but, daughter was planning to wear her mask throughout - not quite sure how that worked out.  I packed some crackers into a container and gave her to take with her, because she didn't have time to eat anything in the morning.  I am hoping that she had time to eat at least a couple of them in between posing for the photos.  I am also hoping that she managed to eat something at the wedding dinner, but, if not, I have some rice and chicken curry for her.  

I had a rather relaxed day after the morning's excitement!  Picked some flowers from the garden, called to check on neighbor T, tried to call to schedule a donations pick up, but, being the weekend, there was no one available to speak with, so, will have to do that on Monday, did a bit of this and a bit of that and, since I was feeling a little tired, decided not to do any cleaning!

I had a scrambled egg on toast for brunch and decided to try something different when I cooked rice in the evening.  I added some dried green split peas to the rice (after soaking the split peas for about 20 minutes), along with a grated carrot, and I cooked it in some of the chicken stock I had made yesterday (after I defatted it).  It turned out quite well.  But, if one makes this with vegetable stock (or, even just water), then, it would be a vegetarian dish.  It is a relatively low-cost meal, too, since split peas are currently selling for $1.00 for a 1 lb. bag at the grocery stores, here.  I used half a cup of dried split peas (measured before soaking) to about half a cup of uncooked rice.  Also, since I used homemade stock with chicken bones after I removed and used the meat, the cost of the stock was minimal, too (just the gas used to simmer the stock).  It can be a main meal or a side dish.  One could also add more vegetables, such as celery and onions to the rice and split pea mixture, too.  I took a photo of the bowl of rice/split pea mixture after I cooked it, but, my photo didn't turn out well (very blurry).  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Daughter had a safe day out with her friends, yesterday, even if plans went a bit awry
- She was able to get a ride to and from today's events
- A relaxed day for me
- Flowers from the garden
- Working appliances

Today's joyful activity was picking flowers from the garden.  

Nothing specific planned for tomorrow.  If I feel up to it, I will do a bit more cleaning in the garage.  

How was your day?  What are your plans for Sunday?