The Eureka non-Wedding

 My nephew got married to a salty beach a couple weekends ago in San Martin (which is just south of San Jose, California).  My son and his husband stood up for my nephew as his groomsmen.  I was honored for that.  The Salty Beach of a bride is a manipulative See-U-Next-Tuesday who is all about HER family and ignores and insults the groom's (my nephew's) family.

Salty Beach wanted the actual "real" wedding at an exclusive home they rented.  HER family was all invited to stay on the premises. There was a limit to the number of guests who could stay on the premises, so HER family stayed there.  My nephew's family had to make alternative arrangements despite his parents paying 75% of the cost.  

Here's the bottom line:  Groom (and his parents) were expected to shell out 75% of the cost despite being allotted 10% of the guest list.  Salty Beach did not even want my nephew's grandparents there.  Wow.  

I'm sure you're thinking, "Well, why did the groom and his parents just say no?"

Here's the reality.  They don't have the energy. 

The mother of the groom recently found out she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.  A hysterectomy was scheduled immediately.  

The sister of the groom is expecting the family's first grandchild.  The sister of the groom and her baby-daddy were NOT invited to the actual wedding NOR the reception that is to be held this weekend up in Eureka.  Why?  Because they are not vaccinated against COVID.  

Bullshit.

The REAL reason is that my niece (sister of the groom) sees right through the bullshit of Salty Beach and calls her out on it; therefore, sister of the groom MUST be punished as she sees through Salty Beach's pettiness.  Unfortunately, my nephew is to blame in this as well as he is p**** whipped.  HE is changing his last name to hers.  He never learned to stand up to this c-u-next-tuesday and saw her for what she is:  a divisive force tearing the family apart. 

Imagine the mother (and father) of the groom.  Here's her dilemma.  Their son (or should I say Salty Beach) wants to have the wedding reception up in Eureka, which is 4 hours north of Sonoma County, at the same time their daughter is due to give birth to the first grandchild.  

Sorry, but it's not exactly a straight drive from Eureka to Sonoma County.   It's a curvy road that is dangerous.  Cell service is sketchy should you need to call 911.  Finding a nearby hospital could prove daunting as the area is so remote.  I'm talking Sasquatch material here, folks.  Giant redwoods in remote areas with nothing for miles and miles.  

Daughter = due to give birth;

Son = married Salty Beach a couple weeks earlier at a private event for pretty much HER family and HAD to have their reception up in Eureka during the SAME time frame sister was due to give birth.  

Salty Beach wants to scrape in as much cash as they can for their wedding as they had their actual private event in San Martin.  Knowing that their limited guest list = limited gifts/cash for their limited guest list for the actual wedding, they scheduled a reception waaaaaaaaaaaaay up in northern California to extract as much as they can from friends/family without having to put forth much effort.  

They really don't want anybody to attend their "brunch extravaganza"  they just want everybody to fork over cash.  

Sorry, but I don't find driving 4 hours each way for eggs and toast for an event I was not worthy of witnessing originally worth it.  We were not worthy of the actual event, but now they want us to drive 4 hours each way for a "reception."  I wish they would have just called it as it is.......forget the reception invite all together and just fork over cash.  

Somehow, that was the plot all along.  They really don't want any of us to attend.  They just wanted to issue the invitation to justify asking for cash.  Imagine their surprise when we all show up sans $ eating their eggs and bacon. 

San Jose

 I spent the weekend in San Jose, California.  I know, San Francisco gets all the tourists' praise and glory.  However, I prefer going south the extra 40 miles or so from San Francisco to hang out in San Jose for a myriad of reasons.  For starters, my son lives there.  Yes, that makes me biased and I will own that 10,000% .  

I love the old architecture.  I love staying at the old Sainte Claire (now the downtown Westin San Jose).  At this point we know the staff at the hotel and they have shared their ghost stories and pics with us.  

I love the Haberdasher Bar.  It's an old speak easy that has a very 1920's vibe.  The drinks are really expensive, but just watching the bartender make them is worth the price.  

I loved that there was a heavy metal band in the middle of the street giving a concert.  Yes, it was all sanctioned as streets were properly blocked off with patrols.  There were random couches in the street as well.  People were bobbing their heads and getting into the music.  One old punker had a concert shirt from 1987.  YUP.... I can relate to that year....1987.  That was yesterday, right?  He had his spiked hair, spiked dog collar, and spiked everything else.  

Where I'm going with this was that the crowd was RIPE to move their head-bobbing to the music to actual dancing and I could feel the crowd's energy ready to bust open.   You know who excels at getting the crowd to dance?  Yup.  Moi.  Yes, it's me the old lady who unabashedly does some stupid dance moves is all that it takes.  Everybody else forgets their egos and joins in.  It's not a contest of skill and talent.  It's all about having fun.

Autumn Equinox

 It's official.  After today the nights will be longer than the days.  I celebrate the passing of the seasons with my coven.  We are a bunch of non-conformists who embrace Pagan ways.  However, we also embrace Christianity.  Yes, we are weird.  We may be weird, but we are harmless.  

I realized I have not been blogging much these days.  Somehow, I don't think that anybody cares.  Hey, I'm real about my non-importance.  If I died tomorrow my kids may or may not find my blog.  If they did and read it, they would say, "Wow.  Mom.  What a f***** b****."

What have I been doing lately?  Honestly, I've been busy canning onions, carrots, and tomatoes.  In between canning sessions I have been secretly saving the world.  LOL.  Seriously, my husband is an avid gardener and this time of year is harvest.  If I don't do something with the abundance of vegetables, they will rot and that would make me sad.  It would be a crime to let the organically grown vegetables go to waste.  Besides, canned organic tomatoes and canned onions make great Christmas gifts.  It's something that comes from the heart and home.  It's so much fun to see the face of the recipient as home-grown, canned tomato sauce fetches a pretty penny these days at the grocery store.  It's like we are giving them gold.  

Now that I'm all caught up on canning, this weekend we are taking a trek to San Jose to see my son and his husband as they invited us down for a BBQ.  We are staying at a hotel in downtown San Jose and on Sunday we are all going to see Cats (Broadway comes to San Jose). 

No, I'm not tipping any excitement scales.  However, I'm blessed with my kids and family.  Is being content a crime? 

The Dream of The Guy Who Knew Me

Last night I had a dream.  In the dream was a guy I did not know, but he knew me.  He called me by childhood nicknames.  He recited my complicated life situations verbatim.  I asked him how he knew all of that.  He said he was one of my guides.   Somehow we got on the topic of previous lifetimes and how I died in combat in some of them.  He then showed me what looked like movies of myself dying in combat in past life times over the ages.  It was gruesome.  

After seeing the past clips of myself dying that were met with "meh" from the universe, my guide told me that this was my lifetime to just enjoy, and that I had earned a break from war, misery, and death.  My mission in this lifetime is to enjoy.  

I'm having trouble accepting that.  There must be a catch, right?