Getting Real

I've been having buyer's remorse for an item that I can't return - my laser treatments. Not that I don't love my skin - I do! It's smooth and even. So beautiful. Unfortunately, the car went back into the shop, I still owe this month's rent, I had car insurance/registration to pay this month, and, (gasp!) I got a ticket...for jaywalking! $190!!! Even after I get my alimony check I'll still be in the hole for last month. Things are getting real, financially speaking.

I did have the chance to debut my beautiful new skin at my cousin's kid's wedding this weekend. It was at Wente Winery in Livermore, Ca. Ugly name for a beautiful area. I guess you could call it the eastern Bay Area wine country. I had to pay for my room ($93) and transportation ($117), putting me further in the hole. My cousin and I aren't all that close but her daughter married a rich kid and they invited, like, 600 people - everyone they knew, apparently, who were on the west coast and not away on some far flung vacation or basking in the cold wind at their Hamptons summer houses.

It was beautiful, as all weddings are (in one way or another.) The flowers were exquisite - peonys, roses, hydrangeas, stock, and dusty miller - all in the most delicate shades of peach, cream and pink. I snagged a couple of bouquets to take home and made four large arrangements which I've artfully scattered about the apartment.

The bridesmaids, all 12 of them wrapped in slightly different peach silk chiffon dresses, looked like tall, fluffy flowers themselves. Dinner was salmon, harcots verts, mescalun salad, and tiny roasted potatoes, followed by big slices of spongy white wedding cake filled with lemon curd and topped with a froth of ivory tinted buttercream. The dancing lasted long into the night, lubricated with oceans of wine, champagne and microbrews.

By 10 am the next morning, 27 people had come down with the flu. Today I'm queasy, but it's probably just the nauseating reek of dying flowers.