Day 2: Thursday, May 26, 2005

MFP and I got up fairly early (he is used to rising at 5:15 a.m. for work, although we didn't get up THAT early) and went to breakfast at the Terrace restaurant, which is by the pool and is partially outside. I loved that place. We feasted on a breakfast buffet and were given mimosas. I had never had one before, but I knew what they were. It was the earliest in the day that I had ever had a drink.

We met with the wedding coordinator at 9:00 in the wedding office. She was very sweet. We selected our wedding location (the beach, of course), our flowers (white orchids with green ivy) in my bouquet and his boutonniere, our mini-reception location (the rialto terrace, in the gardens) our wedding cake (cheesecake) and our restaurant where we want the dinner that night (the Internationale) and our menu. How exciting! It puts us in a very anticipatory mood. We finished with her at 10:00 and then went on a short orientation of the resort.

Following this, we decided to go to the pool, which had a lot of people in it but was not TOO crowded. Unfortunately, I could not find the bottom half of my tankini, which I THOUGHT I had packed (advice for the day: Never move and go on a trip in the same week.) So I had to wear the same one-piece bathing suit that I wear to swim laps at the Y. Very athletic-looking, very unsexy. I was the only woman in the pool area with a one-piece on. UGGGGHHHH! The first thing I noticed was that the pavement was so hot that you burn your feet if you walk on it without flip-flops. We lay out in the sun for a while, me reading Post Mortem by Patricia Cornwell.

Then I decided to go in the pool. The pool is shallow enough to stand up in, and is very refreshing. It is also full of people relaxing by floating around on these floating mattresses, which I called "floaties." I found an unoccupied floatie and climbed on with difficulty. Then I just relaxed and floated around. Ahhh. This was the life. There was even a bar IN the pool, with underwater stools, so you could swim up to it and get a drink. I drank a virgin strawberry daiquiri and wondered when MFP was going to get in the pool.

I went back to the area where MFP was reading and sunning himself, and he was peeved because I had gotten into the pool without him. I felt terrible. We left and had lunch at the Terrace again. In the afternoon, we went to the beach but did not go in the water, because I had an appointment to get my nails done at 5:00. I wished we could go in the water, because I was getting really hot as I read the adventures of Dr. Kay Scarpetta. We left and I went to the beauty salon and got a French manicure and got my face waxed by a local woman who informed me that the prime minister of Jamaica is named Patterson. Something else I learned about their country: They have a prime minister and a parliament, not a president.

I went back to the room, where MFP was nursing a terrible sunburn. I noticed that I had one on my chest as well, since I forgot to put sunblock there. We were both in a lot of pain. MFP was not in a good mood. He groused that he would be glad when this trip was over, and that made me very stressed, because it had been my idea to come to Sandals to get married, and I wanted him to have a good time and be glad he went. So I started to cry, and he felt bad.

I calmed down and we went to dinner, which that night only was outdoors close to the pool. There was a really nice buffet and long tables, and eating there made us feel better. After dinner there was a fashion show in the same outdoor area, and although I am not interested in fashion shows, the music was good, so I listened to it and enjoyed it. After that there was an art auction. The art was absolutely disgusting, and so MFP and I left. We again erected the barrier in the bed, asked for a 6:00 wake-up call because I had an 8:00 hair appointment the next morning, and went to sleep. Again I slept very poorly.

Oh well, I thought, tomorrow is the wedding, so maybe it will be a better day. By the way, I noticed that the voltage is different in Jamaica (110 volts as opposed to our 120 volts) and so my electric razor sounded way different. It was kind of scary.