Jetsetter Jerry

Wow I slept well last night. Considering that for the last 48 hours I was either attempting to sleep on a couch, airplane, or not at all... I am refreshed.

I went down to SoCal for the third and final time (for a while) to attend my stepmom's nephew's wedding. I don't know the man very well, but my stepmom wanted the whole family to go, so my dad flew me down the morning of the wedding.

GAH, I wish that I had a camera, because this weekend was so visual that pictures would really do the best justice... I'll try to give a comparable account through words.

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From zero sleep the night before/during the flight, I was very much a zombie when I arrived in Orange County. Sidebar: what has the world come to when I don't even get peanuts anymore on a Southwest flight? When I got off the plane, I'd been awake for 22 hours and was beginning to lose some of my higher cognitive functions. The two hour drive to Temecula (where the ceremony took place) provided an impromptu nap.

Once we arrived at the house where the ceremony was being held, I was quickly ushered into a long line and given a silver platter of mangoes. Part of the ceremony is for every guest to follow the bride and groom in a long line, pairing off with matching platters of fruit, so that in the beginning of the line there are two people with apple platters, two bananas, two papayas, etc. Imagine Noah's Ark, but with fruit. At the end of the walk, the bride and groom are presented with literally a mountain of food, not to mention a fully-grown, roast pig on a spit. Blessings were given by the monks, and I think that was the end of that segment...

A two hour drive back to Long Beach is what came next, followed by a blissful afternoon nap. Then came the banquet...

Held in a large Cambodian restaurant, it featured a 9-course meal (including, and you can't make this stuff up, a shrimp that was nine inches long... one shrimp), traditional Cambodian dancing (which I partook in), a bottle of Hennessey cognac at each table, and drinking games all around me, involving the groom on occasion.

The highlight of the night came when I got to meet a Cambodian tranny, which was nice since all of the other times that I've met trannies have been in clubs or bars. It was good to finally meet one in a different setting.

Twelve hours later, I was back in the air.

I need a vacation. A real one.