Friday was the day to pay the piper for our hotel (Somara still says motel) room at $78 for five days…sitting through another timeshare pitch. Our guy Tom was very nice but we dodged the bullet this time but I seriously admit, the offer was tempting. This one had a four-bedroom setup that was 300-square feet larger than my house. The psychology of it must have been working because all I could think was “how cool it would be to invite my brother, sister-in-law and their two kids down for an Orlando getaway with this!” Still would need a rental vehicle due to its distance from the theme parks. They offered to roll over my equity from Vegas, refinance it at a better rate thanks to our bitchin’ credit score (according to Nelson, I’m shy of the “perfect” range). The bigger deal was how having more bedrooms in the unit creates a stronger position when trading which didn’t matter to me, I keep it simple by thinking this is just prepaid lodging for Las Vegas. We still said thank you, but no thank you, we haven’t used our one in Vegas, we like Vegas more as a childless couple so the Mouse has no hold on us (we didn’t tell them we have friends and relatives to crash with). Maybe we’ll consider it in the future, there were counter arguments yet I think they knew I wouldn’t budge.
Nancy is laughing about the possibility of having to attend confession a second time due to Jose’s tardiness.
A quick cat nap back at the room and then the joys of Central Florida rush-hour traffic to Leesburg for the wedding rehearsal. Personally, I am glad we did the Vegas thing and not the Catholic or Mormon mumbo jumbo. I know nothing regarding LDS’s hoops yet this parish made Jose and Nancy attend confession before the priest (a very nice man) walked us through the basics. My altar boy past came in handy for remembering all the key locations of where to stand.
A very joyous Señora Garriga flanked by Nelson and me.
Then came the bigger highlight, eating and drinking on of Jose’s mother’s dime! It took some effort tailing Jose’s Mustang from Leesburg to Mount Dora hotel/restaurant, he has a lead foot and I handle like a bus driver (description courtesy of our mutual friends Paul and Helen]. We were all introduced to the Puerto Rican faction of Jose’s family who live all around the world: Spain, Germany, St. Louis and Detroit. Jose also had a video presentation he pieced together with his Mac showing pictures of Nancy and him growing up, meeting and events leading to the wedding. Yours truly was in several. Thankfully, any involving us mooning people at Marquette were omitted. There were speeches, toasts and dancing; I really enjoyed his Uncle Paco’s story about a young Jose flying a kite.
That’s it for now. Today is the big day (really evening). It was pouring rain this morning so no hot-tub time for me, wah! There may not be a post tomorrow due to other plans…okay, hangovers and the rush of getting Nelson to the airport on time. Enjoy your weekend and keep your browser pointed to here on Sunday evening/Monday morning for the latest. I have to get a nice shirt for the reception once I’m out of the tux.
Nancy and Jose didn’t need to rehearse this, they’ve got it mastered.