May 30, 2005 - Licking Chickens

Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

May 30, 2005 - Licking Chickens

My sister's dog, Emma, takes her owl
for a tour of the new place

This weekend, The Gryphon and I helped my sister with some more wedding stuff, this being the last weekend we could spend with her before her wedding at the end of June.

She and her fiancé have moved from an apartment in State College to half of a double house in Bellefonte, moving about the same time The Gryphon and I moved in together. They have a huge place, three floors altogether, and while they have some stuff moved in, the rooms are still fairly empty. Nonetheless, they are already beginning to have the sort of artistic flair my sister favors when decorating.

We got there early, because it didn't take as long as we thought it would take, even though Bellefonte is a further drive than State College. But they had a nice porch and have already put chairs on it, and we relaxed in comfort, watching the rain, for about 10-15 minutes until she and her fiancé arrived.

They'd been out taking care of wedding stuff. My sister had gone to her dress fitting, and they'd also rented some sound equipment for the reception.

The first thing my sister did when she saw me was look at my face and ask if I'd had an allergic reaction. I'd been anticipating this. Earlier in the week, I'd had a migraine headache, and the nausea caused me to throw up, breaking some blood vessels in my face for a blotchy effect. I'm happy to say that this morning, my face looks pretty normal.

After we took everything inside, we had a shoe swap. I'd found some shoes during my move that I don't wear anymore. Likewise, she'd found some that she doesn't really wear. In her case, the shoes were more casual than she needs, and in my case, they were dressier than I need. So we swapped.

My sister showed us to the guest room, on the third floor. It's a little yellow room with a bed and a lamp, and it was pretty pleasant.

Despite the rain, there were a few things we could take care of, so after we'd had a bite of lunch, I accompanied my sister and her fiancé to drive to the wedding site. They'd been invited to stop by and see how another couple, who was getting married that day, had done to set up.

Even though the rain had blown over by the time we arrived, the couple were forgoing being married on the deck for being married inside on the dance floor. Their decorations were really simple, consisting of some colored napkins and some colorful paper hearts. Apparently, they'd spent most of the money that would have gone towards decorations in order to make a contribution to a local no-kill pet shelter.

When we walked outside to look at the deck, we discovered a big disappointment. The birch tree my sister had been hoping would be a backdrop for the ceremony, and from which she'd planned to hang some red netting, had been cut down. She was very upset at first, but by the time we got in the car, we'd talked about some other possibilities and agreed to drive to a local rental center to see what they offered.

Looking through the various available archways and such, we found a four-sided wicker one that looked perfect for our purposes. We agreed to return the next day to measure the space to make sure it would work.

With that out of the way, we stopped in the store for a few things and then at a beer distributor to get a case of beer. As we walked through the store, the three of us made jokes about the various beers before deciding on "grabbing a Heinie" and getting a case of Heineken.

When we returned, The Gryphon had awakened from a nap, and the weather was nice enough that we all took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood, me and my sister's fiancé snapping pictures of some of the more interesting Victorian homes as we did.

We also stopped and got some coffee at a neat little coffee shop, Cool Beans, which also offers a wireless Internet connection to customers for a fee.

The Gryphon helped my sister's fiancé figure out some things on his computer while I helped my sister make dinner. As we cooked, we cracked open a couple beers and got pretty silly. My sister's fiancé came downstairs and picked on us for cutting out all the eyes from the potatoes. This was something we'd learned from our mother.

My sister also was fretting over how to make something with some rhubarb stalks she'd bought, and we told him that Mom had warned us never to eat dairy with rhubarb since it supposedly caused kidney stones.

But meanwhile, neither one of us happened to notice some chicken juice that had leaked onto the counter while preparing the chicken. Our mom, it seems, had taught us to be afraid of potato eyes and rhubarb but not of salmonella.

From here, the conversation devolved as we talked about how you almost have to try to get salmonella, anyway. Like going around licking chickens, for example. Or giving chickens back rubs and then eating with your hands. This gave rise to an in-joke about "licking chickens" for the rest of the weekend.

Dinner was delicious: barbecued chicken, corn on the cob and baked potatoes, and of course, beer. I got pretty tipsy after only two beers and only had three through the course of the evening, though you never would have guessed with how silly I was getting.

After dinner, I sat down with my sister and her fiancé look through the book the pastor had given them to create their wedding ceremony. I firmly believe this sort of task is best performed after drinking a couple beers.

They were sorting through various options for different parts of the ceremony, and my job was to give them an outside opinion when they were undecided. We managed to get through a good portion of it, despite some silliness. I urged them to take a little more time with their vows, however, and to write them after doing a brainstorming session on what they'd want to say.

By this point, it was getting late, but my sister and her fiancé wanted to share with us one of their newest favorites, a cartoon called AquaTeen and the Hunger Force, a crudely done animated series including plenty of silly, low humor. We found it entertaining.

Then they put in Sideways and everyone fell asleep. We all woke up about halfway through the movie and went to bed.