May 21- May 30: Sun City, SC

After travelling for 5.5 motnhs in South America and not having so much as a sniffle, I managed to get the flu in Miami.  It's a family joke because every one of my colds seems to begin in Florida.  The last time I had a cold was 3 years ago- also in Florida.  On the brighter side, what better place to be sick than in your mother's house?

Indeed, it was great to be a MOMnivore again.  That's my word of the week that I coined for eating nothing but food made by mom (and dad).  I must say that the cuisine and the service here are great!!!!

While the house of the Brett and Valerie (bride and groom) was eerily calm, the house of the FOG (father of groom) and MOG was not.  I tried to be helpful and patient as my mother fretted over wedding details.  As most of you know, patience for me is a learned behavior that I am still working on: hence, I was not always successful at keeping my cool.  Nonetheless, it was nice to have the opportunity to spend quality time with my parents.  Living in AK doesn't usually afford such opportunities.

I commandeered the downstairs guest bedroom because it is quiet.  My parents now live in an obsenely large house and they never go downstairs.  As a result, I have 2700 sq feet to myself.  I even have my own gear room!  It was good fun to go through all the clothes I left here and actually wear something different.  By the same token, I found it overwhelming to have to choose which clothes to wear after having only 3 options in South America.
My parents reside in an active living community.  I spent my mornings playing pickle ball with my dad.  Mid afternoons were largely spent shopping for wedding shoes and other items and getting my strapless dress altered.  The wedding dress was a size 8: I don't think I have ever been a size 8 anything and it was at least a full size to big.  This is particularly problematic with a strapless dress and I certainly don't have the boobage to keep a dress like this in place.  The dress has a low cut back that compounds the problem keeping it up.  I was forced to shop for new things I didn't even know existed- "chicken cutlets" (paste on gel-silicon boobs) and spanks (hideously unsexy slimming undies).  I never wanted to know about these things, but evidently the time to shop for them is not right after prom when there are slim pickins.

I spent my afternoons either working on wedding details indoors, cleaning and sorting gear, or at the pool enduring the arduous task of erasing tan lines for my strapless wedding dress.  Such work!  I helped clean up the wedding itinerary, designed labels for the 400 cookies my mother baked for the welcome gift bags, helped with speeches, and other assorted tasks.