August 26, 2007

Sleepless in SFO

The vacuum cleaners are whirring in the background somewhere as I write this though I can't see them. Maintenance man pass by every few minutes. I am right now in partially deserted San Francisco airport. Dearest Continental Airlines has refused to check me in till 4:30 in the morning (which means I am stuck with all the luggage so can't sleep whole night) though not before the sweet Counter lady (she isn't called hostess..what are they called..flight people? Airline people?) showed my ticket and passport to all her colleague.

"Hey, she doesn't have a last name".

"Did you know NLN stands for No Last Name?" (Thanks to the ticket agent, my tickets are issued to Richa NLN and as I posted earlier, my Visa is issued to a Ms. FNU Richa where FNU stands for First Name Unknown).

And hence my passport, my ticket and my state id was passed to 5 different person (probably because I was only customer at the time) till she finally saw the departure time of 8:30AM and told me to come back in the morning. Yet another counter person told me that I should have come in the morning. Yeah I know. But I just arrived from Seattle and don't have enough time to go back home and come back on time for the flight! I am not a total idiot, you know. Obviously I didn't say it that rudely but I wanted to. I am already sleep deprived and hence becoming crankier by the minute and to top that they started with my name YET AGAIN. And then told me that I don't have an ounce of common sense in me. Or may be I am just cranky at the moment and looking for excuses to vent.

Anyway, yet another embarrassing moment of my life. I attended wedding of my friend today, which btw was beautiful. I saw the bride (my ex-room-mate) after an year or so. She lost a lot of weight but that wasn't the shock. She has always been a tom-boy. I have seen her in skirt twice or thrice in 2 years we have been room-mate and never in a dress or makeup. So when I saw her today I was just shocked and as luck will have it, she spotted me at once and came to say hello to me. I was still in state of shock when I stupidly uttered (contradicting my earlier statement...I can be very very stupid at times) "You look STRANGE". I knew it the moment I uttered those stupid words. She laughed and said, "Thats a statement". Well she is a very sweet person and as I said earlier very tomboyish. I did apologize 3 times though and still can't believe I said that! To tell a girl on her wedding day that she looks strange! Stupid me!! I did explain that I have never seen her in makeup or dress and hence it was a shock even though I have been trying to prepare myself for that. Oh God, why do I open my mouth ever!

Anyway wedding was really nice. It was a very small party. There were approximately 40 people so we got to interact with her a lot which was really nice. I never attended a wedding when I got so much personal attention from the bride. It was very cozy and informal just like the potluck parties we arranged when we were together except that she was wearing makeup and a gown.

Obviously I took a lot of pictures. The one I like best is the one below(I like this shot better in B&W but then you won't be able see her beautiful wedding dress). She was running out on the deck towards her "Husband" (The guy seen between her left shoulder and head) for a photo shoot. Sun had finally decided to show up for few moments, a perfect photo opportunity so the photographer (guy on the right) was waiting...

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