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Published: August 3rd 2008
The Dynamic Duo
Me and my childhood friend, Laura. We've known each other for nineteen years!A fair warning: this entry is going to be long and picture heavy. :P
I talked with Felix a little bit today about guidelines with regards to relationships, and how religions and other personal morals govern them. This not only includes married couples or couples in general, but also the relationships we have with our friends, our families, and people that we meet on the streets in everyday interactions. We each have our own personal morals by which we live; we each have standards on how our life should play out, and we each have our own different ways on how to achieve goals. Religion, other people, whatever outside influences that aren't our own thoughts are really just guidelines: it's up to us to make our own decisions in the end and live life without regrets. It was an accurate conversation to have after this weekend and playing an important role in Sora and Ben’s wedding; I learned a lot in these three days about the relationships and emotions I have for my friends and blood-relatives, and feel like I have again returned from North Carolina a wiser person. My friends are changing, always evolving and growing just like I
Look of Disgust
As my older sister would say: three, two, one, act pissed! am, but my blood relatives always seem to be stuck in the same place with the same gripes, with no willingness to change. And as hard as it is for me, I’m finally accepting that maybe some members of my biological family just don’t want to have a connection with me; I’m okay with this now. There is another relationship I’d like to elaborate on as well, and will probably do so in a couple of months once the people reading this have gotten to know me a bit better. That or I might make a private entry on it later; if you’re interested, let me know!
What is important are my friends who are and always have been my family, and who have always been there for me. Two of my friends I have known almost my entire life - those being Laura and Sora. I’ve known Laura since I was three-years old and we are practically sisters (or really, one could argue that we’re the same person in two different bodies since we’re just that similar). I met her the day I moved from my Grandparents house to Raleigh, and we sort of discovered each other by
a fluke - which was me running off from my parents to explore, and finding the backyard next door and mistaking it for my own. She knows me the best out of any of my friends; we can tell what the other is thinking, know what the other will say before it is said, have similar experiences in a way that can only be described as weird.. We also know that no matter what, no matter how, if either of us needs anything then the other will be there for them. She has already given me her blessing for going anywhere that will make me happy, for doing with my life what I want to do; she knows I don’t like America, and that I don’t really have anything or anyone here as far as family goes to cling to besides my sister. All she wants for me is to find happiness in my life, and she knows that it will take time and traveling to find such a reality. I want that very same thing for her: I want her to find happiness. I’m really glad that she finally has.
I’ve known Sora since we were five-years old.
Sea of..
Cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes. There ended up being 130 individual cupcakes with three flowers on each. We met through Sunday School at church and connected because we were the odd ones out; all the other children had playmates and groups, and we were sort of outside the box in our thinking. That trend continued and furthered in other ways as we grew up. There was anime, Star Wars, the desire to learn Japanese, creative writing, cosplay, similar interests and taste with regards to clothing, inside jokes, and more importantly boys. We never attended the same school until University, and even then it took a semester before we were in the same classes. By this point she had already met Ben; they were together in Lee-sensei’s Japanese 101 course the semester before, and I remember Sora describing him to me as “this boy who seems nice and follows me around a lot”. I called her one day that semester and she told me this same boy was sitting beside her desk fast asleep, and that he had followed her to the library even though he was done for the day. Next thing I knew they were dating, and those three years flew by quickly to one day last March when Ben called me up and said he
Iris
Five in the morning, 130 cupcakes later, we were tired and felt like powdered sugar xD was going to propose to her. Of course I was excited, and more so that he called me to ask for my approval and to not tell her anything about it. Once they had set their wedding date Sora asked me if I would be her maid of honor; I gladly accepted! I do regret in some instances that I was not around for the better half of the wedding planning since I didn’t want to let her down in any way. Sora and I have been connected for the better half of all these years and I really wanted her wedding day to be special. After a year of planning when the day finally came.. I think we were all just glad to have it over with. I can honestly say that playing a role in a wedding, whether it’s the planning or the actual event, is a lot of stress; it takes a lot of emotional, physical, and mental strength to just push through things to the very end and be happy with whatever happens.
The wedding itself was absolutely lovely. The decorations were all homemade and those at the reception were handmade origami pieces that Sora
made when she had time. The table favors included paper fortune cookies with ribbons tied through them, there were origami cranes, lotus flowers, bunnies, dragons, butterflies, and so on. The overriding theme of everything was cherry blossoms, though. These were seen in the main flower arrangements as well as in the trellis used as the altar at the ceremony, and in my cake design. It was homemade, it was simple, but at the same time it was all elegant and well thought out. For the reception they played music that we might listen to in the radio or when we’d get together for parties and events, and we just let the crowd do as they wished and have a good time. A lot of my college friends and I stood up and danced after a while, as well as watched all the boys (including Ben) stand up and do the Apache dance in front of everyone. :P I didn’t end up doing Kekkonshiki no Uta after all (and thankfully so, this weekend allowed no time for me to do anything but the cake and cupcakes), but so long as Ben and Sora had an amazing time then that is what
Mother and Daughter
Sora with her mom. I think my most fond memory of her mother.. is the time she did danced in front of us wearing nothing but underwear while we were watching Saiyuki. counts. And.. I can say they did. At one point Sora was chasing Patrick’s girlfriend around with a cupcake trying to smash it in her face. You’d think with all that lace and frills she’d be motionless but damn, I haven’t seen someone run that fast in my entire life. My own personal moment of glory: I caught the bouquet! Sora and I joked beforehand that she should just turn around and hand it to me since she knew I would tackle someone to the ground in order to catch it. I didn't go quite that far.. but Nephie and Laura assured me that I threw my arm out to the side like a soccer mom in traffic trying to protect her child, and caught the bouquet with all the grace of a dying ninja. After that I did a little victory dance that may have included me screaming "Yes! I caught the bouquet!" at the top of my lungs. But I was excited! So I guess if tradition has its way then I’m the next to get married?
Dear God, I hope not. Can you guys imagine me married?
The cake and cupcakes - I’ll tell you
Candid shot
Probably one of my favorite pictures of me personally from the wedding. My hair is getting long! And.. I actually look like a girl! now that I have never been more scared of doing something in my entire life. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to do my first portfolio piece since I really would like to enter culinary school someday, and move further into opening a bakery. But for an event like a wedding, and for someone who is so important to me personally I was really just terrified of screwing up. The cupcakes: I worked on these at Iris’s house on Thursday night and it took me around 8 hours to complete them. All together there were about 130 cupcakes that I made; these were then covered with a piped vanilla buttercream and decorated with three individual sakura blossoms that I made from tinted sugar paste. My fear with these was how I’d transport them.. and thankfully they made it to the church in one piece. I’m extremely proud with how they turned out and I can’t thank Iris enough for all her help and lending me her kitchen.
The wedding cake: it was the most tedious, most horrific moment of my life. But at the same instance I couldn’t be surer of what I want to do in the
Laura
Why do you look so bored? xD future. Every moment of making that damn thing was a challenge that left me frustrated, sleep deprived, and physically sick because of all the sugar work that was involved. Before this I had done cake decorating on what is considered a “basic” level - I’ve covered layer cakes with fondant and decorated ontop of them, made the standard frosting rose and worked with sugar paste and some stamping tools. I can write with icing, I like experimenting with flavors and colors.. But this was all of those things combined into one monstrosity of a cake that took me two days to complete entirely. There were many flaws but like the cupcakes I am thrilled with the end results. The top dome uses a decorators’ shortcut, in that it is actual a Styrofoam ball cut in half and then the sugar paste flowers were glued onto it. Usually I would prefer to use rice krispie treats to do something like that.. but lack of time and lack of funding really limited what I was allowed to do. Everything is hand painted and hand crafted, and I thank the glitter work and planning to Blender, Cupcake, and April. Without them I wouldn’t
Hair
Sora bought us each hair flowers to wear for the ceremony, and this was mine have survived the night; we stayed up until late in the morning watching old school cartoons, and got up early to finish it up. The cake seemingly was a hit, and one of the ladies there said she would be contact me very soon to do cakes for the church we had the reception at. So more jobs might be coming soon!
The funniest thing about this entire weekend was that I spent a great majority of it very, very confused. For those of you who read this and are from Kansai Gaidai for the better half of my life I have gone by the nickname "Nosha". It has reached a point where my university friends and friends in general just introduce me as Nosha, know me as Nosha, and don't even know my real name. Case in point: Ben almost wrote a check to me as "Nosha" and had to ask me how to spell my real name ;P But everywhere I went this weekend I'd hear people saying "Hey Nosha!" or "How have you been, Nosha?", Nosha this and that.. and I had no clue who they were talking about for at least a few seconds until
it hit that it was me. I've gone so long without hearing myself addressed by that name, or being called Keisuke by Japanese girls that it sounded odd to hear my old familiar. And now that I've gotten the name Akiko from Miho.. talk about confusion. There are a lot of memories attatched to the name Nosha as well, some good and some bad. Perhaps I'll talk about them in another entry, or if you want to know.. well, ask. ;P
And though it’s too soon to plan ahead, I already know one thing about my future wedding: we’re having pie. Strawberry pie and key lime pie, with coconut rum to wash it down with. We’ll dance how we want, however long we want, and there will be Dir en Grey played during the reception. The food will combine all my favorite things, which includes barbeque, Japanese food, and.. cabbage. And every single girl gets to catch the bouquet, except Laura gets an extra special one because she is my favorite person ever. She also gets her own bottle of vodka and a cupcake the size of her face. And I will finally end the plans to smash cake
Kiss the Bride
By this point we were all laughing, since they kissed for about a minute straight in each other’s faces and be the first person to actually do it :P That is the best wedding for me.
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Nephie
non-member comment
I feel honored to be a part of your travel blog XD I missed you dearly while you were gone and I was sooo excited to see you and hang out with you yesterday :3 Love you lots!, Nephie