A Wedding in Cambria

I’m burnt to a crisp. The new blanket that we bought to keep warm (because I didn’t pack a sweater, a sweatshirt or a lick of sense) smells like a barbecue chip. I’m tired and I have a sore throat (could be from all the fire pit smoke I inhaled). But I think we just had the best three day wedding extravaganza weekend ever invented.

Cambria is beautiful. I’d never been before. Toby told me the beach community has kind of a snooty snobby pretentious reputation but I didn’t really notice. Sure, there were a lot of weird new age stores selling wind chimes and crystals and hand blown glass humming bird feeders but there was also a big warehouse type restaurant that sold barbecue tri-tip and chicken strips. We didn’t spend that much time on the main drag anyway. It was all about my friend’s beautiful beach wedding and her large entourage of fairy winged flower girls running along the surf squealing with delight.

It was sleeping in clean sheets in a hotel that cost half as much as we’re used to paying. It was orange juice and fruit and coffee and little itty bitty pastries for breakfast. It was an illegal bonfire and strawberry flavored marshmallows in s’mores and flickering candles and sparklers and lounging against a drift wood log with new friends and old while somebody plays old Beatles tunes on their guitar. It was getting up for a “fun run” but then deciding not to run and hanging out under the pine trees listening to the surf and birds you haven’t heard since you were a kid.

We loved Cambria. We didn’t want to leave.

Two Parties in One Weekend

Phew! I’m tired. I woke up at the crack of dawn today, left seven sleeping girls in a pitch black, air conditioned hotel room and drove all the way home from Palm Springs to do flowers and pull a present out of thin air for Thing One’s Princess birthday party. I knew it was going to be tight. I knew I was going to be tired after staying up all night. I even knew my house would be a wreck because I usually spend a good part of the weekend cleaning. But you know what? It was totally worth it.

First up was Felix’s bachelorette party. She’s getting married next month in Hawaii. I met the girls at the outlet mall and we shopped a bit. I didn’t know anyone except Felix but after a trip through Rampage trying on floppy j-lo hats and ribbon tie-up espadrils, I fit right in. Then we headed to a hotel for sun basking and pina colada making.

These girls brought everything you could ever possibly need to throw a hotel room party. I got lost three times while trying to follow their packed minivan back to the hotel. Mostly because the driver couldn’t see me because the back window was completely covered with coolers and luggage and shopping bags! They even packed a Mickey Mouse blender (for pina coladas of course) and a Hello Kitty toaster (for toasting bread for sandwiches)! I didn’t bring anything except myself. I didn’t even bring an extra going-out outfit! What kind of girly girl am I?

The best part of going out with a bunch of girls is getting ready. I was rooming with the Hottie McHottie twins (Twins! One of them is five months prego and no, she’s not drinking anything in her tribal cup. She was the designated driver.) The girls gave me professional “hooker eyes”. Since I never wear make up it was fun getting all “done up”. I even borrowed Felix’s high heels (not pictured, those are Felix’s feet in Felix’s other high heels) because I had only brought flats and they were kind of scroungy looking next to everybody else. I love being a girly girl sometimes.

We did the typical Palm Springs Bachelorette things. You know, dancing, toasting the bride, walking up and down the main drag engaging random men in conversations with the drunk bride who’s getting a lot of attention with a fluffy white veil pinned to the back of her head. Thankfully, there were no greasy strippers. I think guy strippers are gross. Maybe it’s just me. I’m not too keen on the penis straws either but I guess it’s tradition.

We had a great time. I’m not even remembering half of the things we did and I’m certainly not posting half of the pictures. These girls were so cool they gave me complete permission to blog about them AND they even posed. It’s funny how these days a camera has become it’s own form of entertainment on a night out.

Tomorrow I’ll post about the princess party. It was really fun too in a whole other kind of girly foo foo kind of way. Right now I think I’m going to go take a nap.