Sunday, August 22, 2010

2nd part of vacation

So I've failed to blog about the Cincinnati portion of my vacation yet, both because I've been busy, and I'm not sure how to split the difference between making a long story short, and talking about the whole thing in details that nobody cares about. However, to make a long story short: I went to Cincinnati, went with my relatives to Chicago for a wedding, stayed up there for the weekend, got back to Cincinnati and sat around with my cousins who were sick, caught their cold, flew home, and have been coughing ever since. Not that I'm bitter or anything. No, really I'm not. ;) But, I am in my third week of coughing...

To expand on that story a little, I got back from the beach, worked that Tuesday, then flew to Cincinnati on Wednesday. To be more exact, I flew from Greensboro to Philadelphia, where they informed me that my flight had been canceled and sent me back to Charlotte. Um, really?? After sitting around in Charlotte for a while I flew directly to Cincinnati, while my luggage stayed in Philly and US Air poured water on it. I knew United breaks guitars, but apparently US Air does your laundry for you...minus the dryer. Sooo helpful. At any rate, they delivered it to my cousins' house that evening and I had time to dry things before the next day. (With some muttering and complaining.)

Then the next day we drove to Chicago for the wedding. My (half-cousin? Step-cousin? something like that, I'm not sure what he is technically) was getting married. Thursday we did miscellaneous things, Friday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (my cousin John was a groomsman, so he was involved in all that), and then Saturday was the wedding.

I took some photos while I was there, and they're on Facebook: Cincinnati/Chicago Trip













By Saturday night, after having been in the same hotel room and very busy and stressed my cousins and I were all about to snap though. We all made it home without killing each other though. :P

When we got back to Cincinnati they were all out of it because they had colds, so we mostly sat around watching movies. We watched The Princess Diaries (there was nothing else in the house to watch), Waking Ned Devine, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, The Terminal, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Sherlock Holmes.

I'd watched Waking Ned Devine years ago, and when we started watching it I was worried at first that I wasn't going to be able to understand a word they were saying. It's a bunch of Irish people and they were mumbling in thick accents (and I didn't remember that from last time!), but they finally started talking more clearly. :D Anyway, funny movie.  

Mr. Blandings Build His Dream House I'd also seen a long time ago, and it didn't seem as funny as I remember. Perhaps because I've read the book it's based on and it just wasn't quite the same. It does star Cary Grant, so you can't go too far wrong there, but the actress playing his wife was very annoying.

The Terminal was very cute and funny at the same time. Tom Hanks, playing a foreigner with a vaguely Russian accent, stuck in an airport, was surprisingly hilarious. :) I'd definitely recommend it. I think my dad (who can't stand Tom Hanks) would even like it.

The Importance of Being Earnest: If you've ever read the Oscar Wilde play, or an adaptation of it, you know it's very amusing and satirical. The movie, while a little hard to follow simply because of the story, was very good as well and the characters seemed well-portrayed. Colin Firth is in it...and who knew Colin Firth could smile?? Not I. But he smiles quite a bit in this movie.

Sherlock Holmes: well, that required some mental distancing from the books to just enjoy it as a movie. I'm not exactly sure the characters were accurate to the books, but it was fascinating and set in a sort of steampunk England (which may have been accurate for the time? I'm not clear on the origins of that). I'd say it was probably best for the (setting? scenery? costumes? sets?)...all the stuff of a movie apart from the storyline, whatever that's called. The storyline didn't strike me as being terribly great, but I was too busy looking at the movie to notice a whole lot. Visually splendid, just don't pick it apart too much.

Okay, now that I've digressed into brief movie reviews... That's what we did in Cincinnati. My cousins also pulled out an old home video of us at our grandparents house when I was about...six, and my cousin James and I were bossing each other around. :D That then led to finding a box of old pictures and going through them. I found a couple pictures of myself as a baby, and a really cute photo of my parents when they were dating. :) Then the day before I left we went and played baseball and volleyball in the heat, and my uncle took Rebecca, Andrea, and I bowling in the evening. I can't bowl worth a darn either; I lost all three games. I blame it on not having much shoulder strength...or bowling skill. :) Despite that it was a good end to the vacation, especially since we were all tired and hyper at the end of the night, so the ride back to the house was hilarious.

Then Thursday morning I woke up feeling utterly crappy because I caught the cold, and flew home (uneventfully this time, thankfully) and collapsed on the couch. Odd vacation that I ended up having to rest from it, but it was a fun adventure. And I was extremely thankful for all the Starbucks in the Charlotte airport because I needed hot tea to make it home!

That was about a month ago, and I don't feel like I've slowed down since then, what with one thing or another. Ah well. I can put up with that. :)

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