I want to share a story with you. A story about Air Canada's hate on for me and my loved ones, my dislike for people who wear jeans to weddings and my thankfulness that wedding ceremonies, despite every brides best efforts, start late.

First keep this tshirt design in mind.

Got it? Okay....that was the tshirt I was wearing when John and I arrived at his cousins wedding ceremony on Saturday afternoon. However this story begins at about 7ish in the evening the night before.

Friday after work I head over to my salon to see my hairdresser. My hair was in need of a cut and I decided on a whim it needed some colour as well. About an hour and a half later I had less hair and some blue and some blonde. It was tres rock and roll. I was in love. I arrive back in the apartment satisfied this adventure had filled enough time that awaiting John's midnight arrival not so bad. You see John had been in Hartford all week again so making sure we had everything ready to go for this wedding in the middle of no where Manitoba was up to me. And boy was I ready to go. For the first time in forever no last minute running around was required. Go me!

This was the orignal plan. Pick John up from Airport. Drive 2 hours to Brandon. Stay in hotel. Sleep...lots. Drive to Russell. Attend wedding festivities. Drive back to Brandon after wedding festivities. Have breakfast in Brandon with psuedo family. Go home.

Yeah that's so not what happened. The reason we were staying in Brandon and not in Russell in the first place was because we couldn't get a room at the Russell Inn for the life of us. Yes there was no room at the inn. They were a nightmare to deal with. So we came up with plan B and were happy with it. Then it all went to hell Friday night.

Turns out John's plane has mechanical issues and is late gettting to the airport in Hartford. He leaves many many hours after he should have. He lands in Toronto 30 minutes after his connection has left. He won't be able to get back to Winnipeg until 10am Saturday morning. Crap. He tells me to cancel our room fro tonight in Brandon but keep the room for Saturday Sunday. Cool. I call cancel and then find out they NEVER booked the room for Saturday to Sunday. BA?!?! Oh and they're full but they can put me on a waiting list. RAWR! I get put on a waiting list and make a final effort to get a room in Russell. It's been a pain in the ass getting a room in Russell. A nightmare of epic failure. In my final call to them (I'd been calling them all week after being told rooms were available with no luck) I'm told once more there are no rooms. I finally say, "Double check, I want to hear your fingers on a keyboard." Normally I'm not that rude but I was so done being nice. Oh look they have 5 rooms available. *sigh*

So now the plan is pick John up at 10am and head straight to Russell and see if we make in time.

Russell is like 4 hours from here. It was a long boring drive. Hence the reason we were entertaining ourselves by crushing far away objects with our thumbs and index fingers. Also why we were singing along to the Dropkick Murphy's at the top of our lungs.

We roll into the parking lot at the Russell Inn at 2:30 exactly. The ceremony is set to start at 2:30. Crap. We've missed it. Or so we think. We check in. Ask which room my mother in law is in so we know which room to call and leave a message in. We're told she can't tell us that and really it doesn't matter because everyones at the wedding. BA?!!? Okay I respect the can't tell me part but the second part, honestly, didn't need. That's when John and I see his cousin the bride walk by the window. She's outside in the parking lot with the bridesmaids. Huh.

So we follow them via car to the ceremony. Yes, we went to the ceremony as is. We may have had time to take our jeans off but not put something else on. No one wants pantless wedding guests (unless it's a nudist wedding I guess) so we opted for the "It means more that we're there than what we look like" approach. The bride agreed with our approach and was just happy we made it. It also seemed that everyone knew the situation we were in with the whole travel delays and such (you tell one Hammell you've told them all I'm told) that people were just floored we managed to make it. We were actually floored we made it too.

As you can see by the picture I posted in the entry before this one, we looked much better for the reception.

As irony would have it I had told my sister in law the day before how tacky I thought it was to wear jeans to a wedding  unless it was part of the theme of the wedding or it was like an uber casual type wedding. Though I am pretty sure it's never really appropriate to wear a roller derby team shirt to a family wedding. Now...if it was a derby wedding (there are such things) it would be a totally other story.

And the current comments for cans total is 32. Remember comments on this post or any post for that matter (new or old in either blog) and I'll donate a canned good to Winnipeg Harvest.

"I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." - Stephen Grellet

My job is to help people. I get paid to make life easier for some incredibly sick kids. Not everyone gets to do that. However, I was also raised by parents who fully believed in helping when you can and where you can in a way that works for you. So when I found this I realized it was some good that I could do with my blog. How awesome!!

Anyone who has a blog knows how fun it is to have readers leave comments! I read about this on some other blogs and thought it was a fantastic idea so a bunch of bloggers from Weddingbells have jumped on the bandwagon!!! ( I'll compile a list shortly so you can check there's out as well! )

I love when readers take the time to leave a comment, ask a question or even leave a compliment. For the next 2 weeks, if anyone "shares the luv" so will I! For everyone who posts a comment on ANY of the blog entries (new or old), I'll donate a canned good to our local food bank.

10 comments = 10 cans of food.
It's just that simple.

This also means I'm opening my blog and comments to everyone. So you shouldn't have to sign in to leave a comment.

Also I'm making this even more awesome. I'm doing this over at my 101 in 1001 blog as well (http://whereevilandgoodnessplay.blogspot.com/). That's right a double whammy of love.

10 comments at 101 in 1001 + 10 comments here = 20 cans of food

Come on....make me donate to my local food bank...I dare you!

ETA: What a twist...the commenter that makes me donate the most canned goods in the next 2 weeks will win 3 dozen assorted baked goods from me. So not only will you make me donate canned goods but you will make me bake.

My older brother and John who is also the first born of his siblings.
And me...the lowly youngest child hogging the spotlight. Typical youngest child behaviour.

Via google chat:

Tatiana:  You will NOT believe what I just saw at Hallmark! A christmas ornament that said, "Oldest Child Mom's favourite."I really really hope they were you know just sold out of the middle and youngest child ones
John:  No, middle and youngest children don't get their own ornament. They just use the oldest child's when he is done with it. Money doesn't grow on trees, you know.
 me:  and we don't own the electric company
 John:  and the coat is as good as new.

This is the closest thing I could find to the offending ornament.

I called my mom the moment I saw this. Hoping to get a sympathetic ear. Then I realized, I was talking to a first born. Who married a first born. Then I started thinking, I married a first born too. And most of my friends are first born. There are a few youngest kids in there and the occassional middle child for a good measure but yeah...a whole lot of them are oldest children.

Like my youngest child complex wasn't serious enough....now there are christmas ornaments to rub it in.

crap.

ETA: I figured I would elaborate on why the youngest children are so hard done by. We are...really.

- There are always fewer pictures of you (my mom didn't actually admit this until I was in my 20's and she was redoing the family photo wall and couldn't find pictures of me at certain ages)
- You always get hand me downs (My youngest sister in law not only got hand me downs from siblings but from her 4 older female cousins as well.) If you look at a lot of pictures from when I was a kid you'll notice my brother and I often have the same shirt...it's because generally it was his first.
- When you walk or talk for the first time it's not really a big deal because they've seen it before when your older sibling did it.
- If you're like me, there are more pictures of your brother in your baby book than there are of you. Yes, the first 4 pages of my baby book are taken up by pictures of my brother.
- When looking for a photo of just you and your deceased Opa for you wedding you find out exactly one picture exists of just you and your Opa...the picture from the day you were born. After that your brother and/or cousin is always in the picture with  you.
- You're constantly accused of getting away with EVERYTHING. Seriously my mom accused me of that today when I complained on the phone to her about the oldest child ornament. In my defence I didn't get away with everything....youngest children are just better at not getting caught.

AND we don't have christmas ornaments.