A Three Four Hour Tour...A Three Four Hour Tour... Alright, so first of all I have posted some pictures of the wedding site and other miscellaneous things. Check out the sidebar labeled Photo Albums. It contains some new pictures and whatnottery. If you are superficial reader you need go no farther. If not, get something to drink and possibly take a bathroom break because this is going to be a long one.

So last weekend was probably one of the most productive weekends I have had in some time. But it got of to a rough start.

I left Murray Friday right after class. The objective was to arrive in Mayfield about the time that Rachel got out of class and then make a B-line for Jackson from there. All seemed to go well for about 2.5 minutes of the actual trek to Jackson. I have never in my life, NEVER, been to Jackson through Mayfield. Rachel has been once and it was in the daylight. Foolishly I did not look at a map or even bring one with us for this journey. Now would be a great time to cue the Gilligan's Island theme song.

"A three four hour tour...". We successfully leave the wretched town of Mayfield and pass through Fulton which was on course. I actually made a stopoff at the infamous train station I visited earlier this summer. I wanted Rachel to experience the creepiness of the place. As we pulled up we are made aware that they have recently added security lights about every twenty-five feed for about five hundred feed in each direction fromt eh station itself. It really killed the effect of the whole experience. The only saving grace was the fact that there was a giant blood puddle on one of the toilet lids. It could be there for one of many reasons, but we'll not get into that speculation because it only ends with someone throwing up and everyone calling me a psycho.

Rachel was really worried that this little detour would put us offtrack and get us lost. I successfully made our way back to the original road and headed back in the direction I was supposed to be going. We were toodling along at a good rate and Rachel was on the phone with Emily. As we neared an exit I awaited instruction. None came so I figured that if I needed to take it I would have been given warning. As we came even with it she pointed for me to take the exit and seeing as how that was literally impossible now I decided to drive until I could turn around and come back at it. You would think that there would be another exit/turnaround spot pretty close to that exit right? Well apparently logic did not prevail when this road was made. We traveled for about half an hour out of the way until I was able to get back on track.

A minor detour, nothing to get bent out of shape over. So we speed along towards Martin at a fair rate. Not exceeding the speed limit mind you. I'm pretty aware of my surroundings and consider myself to be a fairly good driver. Well as I was driving in the left lane passing someone, a largish dog(we later decided it must have been a coyote or a wolf) meandered into my path at the last minute. Here is the scenario:

Car A is traveling at 65-70 mph in the left hand land on an interstate. It is dark outside. The dim headlights are on because there is oncoming traffic on the other side of the median. A dog comes out of the darkness into the path of Car A. Car B is directly behind Car A in the right hand lane. There is no time to stop right? Swerving into the median isn't an option because the car would likely flip over right? Swerving to the right isn't an option because Car A and Car B would likely collide right? So what do you do?

You plow headlong into a wild animal. When said event occurs the recently purchased ADPi plate on teh front bumper shatters and shoots pieces of blue plastic over the car and into the car behind us. I slow the car as quickly as is safe and allow Car B to pass us and head for the shoulder. Car B stopped to see if we were ok because they thought the things that had hit their car was actually pieces of a tire. Well the front bumper was messed up and we were both pretty shook up. I headed for the nearest gas station in Martin to check out the levels of damage. We pulled into a gas station and upon further inspection I find that the damage isn't as bad as I initially thought. Some creative engineering allows us to doglegg it back to Jackson. Well apparently in my search of the gas station I had neglected to notice the exit we needed to take. We were well past it and I did not know we were past it. We traveled in what I thought was the right direction until I noticed that we were headed north. We definatly did not want to go to Union City. So we turned around after traveling in the wrong direction once again for over half an hour.

By now I know my blood pressure is sky high and I am more than irritated. After a nasty little snap at Rachel I decided it best to start a breathing exercise that I know gets my blood pressure lower. After about thirty minutes of awkward silence I apologized for being a jerk because I was a jerk and thats just what you do. We arrived at her parents house well after our original ETA. It took us over four hours to drive what normally would take an hour and forty-five minutes. Never has Bolivar, TN been more inviting to me. I was more excited to be there than probably any event of that whole day.

Well the next day I woke up around 8 and took notes for about two hours until someone else woke up. I also played with Rusty and Bailey. Those to cats are pretty cool. People started to rouse around 9:30 and we prepared to visit the Carnegie. Our hopeful place of wedding and reception for December 29th. The pictures I took don't do the thing justice. The place was magnificantly perfect for both of our tastes. It reminds me alot of Pogue Library without all the books. The marble hardwood flooring, the massive bookshelfs, the balcony, and the external appearance of the place were perfect. Well we pretty much got the place locked down. Its going to be the site of the infamous Taylor/Hughes Wedding. Afterwards we had lunch at Subway with Rachel's mom and Ricky. Then we went to look at chairs at a local rental store, but they were closed.

On a whim we decided to go look at cakes by a local baker she knew of. Well the cakes looked perfect and the price was probably the best of any price we had seen yet. So we put a deposit down on it and booked her for the day. We are paying approximately the same amount for both our wedding cake and grooms cake that we had expected to pay for just the grooms cake elsewhere.

We had a 2 o'clock appointment at Belk to do a bridal registry. Yowza, Yowza, Yowza is all I can say about this appointment. As soon as we got there the lady told us that we weren't supposed to be there until 4, but her appointment probably wouldn't show up. We spent about twenty minutes sharing information with her so she could set up a profile online for us. She was having some computer problems so we decided to peruse the fine china while she sorted it out. While perusing we overheard what sounded like the beginning of a great cat fight. Our bridal consultant was having it out with a co-worker. Then we returned to her desk and she still hadn't sorted out her problems. I asked for the phone book so I could look up other things we could accomplish that day and finally got fed up. I walked over to a kiosk and did the online profile myself. The GUI(pronounced Gooey, stands for Graphical User Interface...been waiting to use that knowledge) wasn't to user friendly so I could easily see how she had problems. Well we registered for a few things and left there with a massive headache and a slight hunger pain. We decided that we would go to Bed Bath and Beyond to do another registry just to get more stuff done.

First and foremost let me say that I think the bridal registry department at BBB is top notch. The consultant was super nice, well mannered, and very knowledgable. It was all in all a great experience. They gave us a barcode scanner and set us loose on the store. We could zap to our hearts content and thats exactly what we did. Every time we entered a new section, one of the employees would ask us if we needed any help, but when we told them no, they wouldn't hover for an uncomfortable amount of time. They really have this whole thing down pat. Cool thing is we can edit this profile online, add things and go back and add more later on. I highly suggest that everyone do their bridal registry there. If you do, tell them that I referred you.

Saturday night I feasted upon Cajun chicken the likes of which my tastebuds have never experienced. The sheer magnitude of the chicken breasts was amazing. And the tenderness and juiciness was exempliary. Grean pea salad, and a baked potato, what more could I ask for. I ate until I felt my stomach would burst instantly killing me, but it was of no concern because I had had a meal fitting any mans last meal. I was ready. We went to Rachel's grandaddy's and plotted wedding stuff some more and then headed back to the house to watch TV and veg a bit. Remember we had had a full two days of excitement and stress.

Sunday we switched everything from Rachel's car to Ricky's truck because that was the vehicle we would be driving back. That truck is beautifully hugified. 4X4, what more can a man ask for. Rachel had class that afternoon, and we had a Superbowl party to attend at Shea's parents house. Everything went off without a hitch on Sunday. Two great days in a row...the end is nigh.

Well I decided that I would start working out again. I gotta get trim and buff for the wedding. Beefcake...BEEFCAKE! MWF will be the schedule for the torture treatments. I went monday and was surprised at my stamina and strength. I'm not as bad off as I thought. Boy was that a wrong thought. I woke up both Tuesday and Wednesday with the most wretched muscle pains ever. After about three hours of stretching them out, I crawled out of bed. I went back last night and lifted some more and didn't feel nearly as bad this morning. Things seem to be going well. After the workout last night I rewarded myself with a pint. It was a Nut Brown Ale.
Every now and then I enjoy a rich dark lager, pronounced RICH DARKHH LOGGER, with the most pretentiously pompous accent I could muster. I was proud.

I guess that about catches us up to today. Oh yeah, I had a test in my difficult class today and felt really good about it. My test on Friday wasn't great, but I scored average for the class. I guess you could say that I'm an average guy trying to pretend to be not-so-average.  ¶ Thursday, February 09, 2006