I Spent a Night in Alabama, Have You?
This past weekend (4/9/05), I went flew down to Mobile, Alabama to attend my friend, My's wedding. She was actually my extra roommate in PDP (the training program) at PeopleSoft. Long story short, she bought a futon and moved into my living room. Anyway, we've tried to keep in touch over the years. I visited her twice when she lived in Pensacola and she came up with Lindot and Jackie to DC for July 4th. She's a good friend that I wish I could keep better touch with.
My married her boyfriend, Craig, she met in Pensacola. He flies E-2 Hawkeye planes off of aircraft carriers. Right through the wedding, he got grief about his callsign. It was ManBag. I think this is how the story goes. He always had a European Carry-All during flight school, so the nicnkname stuck. Apparently, cool call signs only exist in Hollywood movies. Real pilots are given undignified nicknames to shame them.
Anyway, My invited a few other ex-PDPers, Albert, Andrew (lindot), and Venu, and it was great to see them. We all pretty much went our seperate ways after we left Pleasanton. Only one of us is still left at the company, but he's on his way out too (applying to law school). I was pretty excited to see Venu because of a newly discovered connection. He's dating a girl, Cindy who is really good friends with my brother's girlfriend. Odd. Venu, Cindy and I few into Mobile on the same flight, so we hung out Friday night and got drunk in the hotel Hospitality Lounge. I didn't know this about Venu, but apparently he's a man in perpetual chaos. On his way to meet up with Cindy, he left his bag of clothes and shoes on the bus to Jersey. He had to run out to the Target across from the hotel to get a new pair of shoes and essentials.
On Saturday, we woke up way too early relative to the hangover I was nursing, but I wanted to attend the Vietnamese tea ceremony at My's parents house in Irvington. I must say, they live out in the stix! Part of our directions was to "pass the gas station with the chicken on top of the car. It's usually there." WTF? But we did pass it, so we knew we were going in the right direction. We pretty much got there without much of a hitch. And it was a pretty interesting ceremony. Craig and My paid their respects to all of elder Huynhs and had a small lunch and a jolly time.
On a side note, I was kinda scared to go all the way out to Irvington. I've heard some bad stories about that place. My told me once that one of her childhood friend's uncles belonged to the Klan. So whenever he came over, she had to go home. Also, Ken, the friend I'm contracting through grew up in that part of Alabama, and he was feeding me all sorts of tales to scare me. Sadly, he too knew about the chicken on the car at the gas station off of US-90.
We had a little bit of time in between the Vietnamese ceremonies and the Western ceremony, so we chilled back at the hotel. The church was supposed to be close by, so some of use took our sweet time waking up from our naps and getting to the church. By the time we got there, My and Craig were already walking down the aisle. Not Cool Man! But we caught the ceremony and it was all good.
Again we got lost and ended up a tad late to the reception. It was pretty cool except for the fact I had to sit next to Neha. She too used to work for PeopleSoft, but left years ago. And I will openly and loudly say, Thank Gawd. She must be one of the most irritating and tactless people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. Here's an example. After I sat down, she asked me if I still worked for PeopleSoft. I politely said no, and before I could continue with my answer she interrupted with the question "did you get laid off?" That's extremely insulting. And as the night wore on, she got sloppy drunk and totally bombed the Maid of Honor speech. I think I have a valid excuse now for drinking so much Couvosier thank you.
Afterwards, some people were heading out to downtown Mobile to continue the party. I was dead tired, but figured I'd never be back (I hope I don't eat these words), so we went. Someone somewhere told us that it was kinda like New Orleans. After getting there, I could see the resemblence. Just make Bourbon street 1 block, take out 90% of the people and add a hotdog stand, and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Sunday morning, I forced myself to get up and get out of town. Mobile isn't quite as redneckish as I thought, but I don't think I would want to go back.
Me, Craig, and My toasting
The PeopleSoft Table - Jackie, Lindot (Andrew), some dude, Cindy, Venu, Albert, Me, and Neha
First dance as husband and wife
Thanks to Lindot for letting me "borrow" these pictures off his xanga site.
My married her boyfriend, Craig, she met in Pensacola. He flies E-2 Hawkeye planes off of aircraft carriers. Right through the wedding, he got grief about his callsign. It was ManBag. I think this is how the story goes. He always had a European Carry-All during flight school, so the nicnkname stuck. Apparently, cool call signs only exist in Hollywood movies. Real pilots are given undignified nicknames to shame them.
Anyway, My invited a few other ex-PDPers, Albert, Andrew (lindot), and Venu, and it was great to see them. We all pretty much went our seperate ways after we left Pleasanton. Only one of us is still left at the company, but he's on his way out too (applying to law school). I was pretty excited to see Venu because of a newly discovered connection. He's dating a girl, Cindy who is really good friends with my brother's girlfriend. Odd. Venu, Cindy and I few into Mobile on the same flight, so we hung out Friday night and got drunk in the hotel Hospitality Lounge. I didn't know this about Venu, but apparently he's a man in perpetual chaos. On his way to meet up with Cindy, he left his bag of clothes and shoes on the bus to Jersey. He had to run out to the Target across from the hotel to get a new pair of shoes and essentials.
On Saturday, we woke up way too early relative to the hangover I was nursing, but I wanted to attend the Vietnamese tea ceremony at My's parents house in Irvington. I must say, they live out in the stix! Part of our directions was to "pass the gas station with the chicken on top of the car. It's usually there." WTF? But we did pass it, so we knew we were going in the right direction. We pretty much got there without much of a hitch. And it was a pretty interesting ceremony. Craig and My paid their respects to all of elder Huynhs and had a small lunch and a jolly time.
On a side note, I was kinda scared to go all the way out to Irvington. I've heard some bad stories about that place. My told me once that one of her childhood friend's uncles belonged to the Klan. So whenever he came over, she had to go home. Also, Ken, the friend I'm contracting through grew up in that part of Alabama, and he was feeding me all sorts of tales to scare me. Sadly, he too knew about the chicken on the car at the gas station off of US-90.
We had a little bit of time in between the Vietnamese ceremonies and the Western ceremony, so we chilled back at the hotel. The church was supposed to be close by, so some of use took our sweet time waking up from our naps and getting to the church. By the time we got there, My and Craig were already walking down the aisle. Not Cool Man! But we caught the ceremony and it was all good.
Again we got lost and ended up a tad late to the reception. It was pretty cool except for the fact I had to sit next to Neha. She too used to work for PeopleSoft, but left years ago. And I will openly and loudly say, Thank Gawd. She must be one of the most irritating and tactless people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. Here's an example. After I sat down, she asked me if I still worked for PeopleSoft. I politely said no, and before I could continue with my answer she interrupted with the question "did you get laid off?" That's extremely insulting. And as the night wore on, she got sloppy drunk and totally bombed the Maid of Honor speech. I think I have a valid excuse now for drinking so much Couvosier thank you.
Afterwards, some people were heading out to downtown Mobile to continue the party. I was dead tired, but figured I'd never be back (I hope I don't eat these words), so we went. Someone somewhere told us that it was kinda like New Orleans. After getting there, I could see the resemblence. Just make Bourbon street 1 block, take out 90% of the people and add a hotdog stand, and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Sunday morning, I forced myself to get up and get out of town. Mobile isn't quite as redneckish as I thought, but I don't think I would want to go back.
Me, Craig, and My toasting
The PeopleSoft Table - Jackie, Lindot (Andrew), some dude, Cindy, Venu, Albert, Me, and Neha
First dance as husband and wife
Thanks to Lindot for letting me "borrow" these pictures off his xanga site.
posted by Steve at 5:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home