We traveled to Salt Lake for my aunt's wedding last month, but what intrigued me was the sights. I'm not used to big cities; but I think they're beautiful. I love how the light reflects
radiantly off the windows of spacious buildings.
I got a great shot of the capital building on my camera, too.
That was cool.
I remember we were walking on the sidewalk next to a traffic-filled road and we passed a beggar woman. Believe it or not, I'd never seen one before, and so I took pity on her torn coat and ragged gloves. Others on the street simply told her that they had no change on them and turned away, holding their upturned noses high in the air. As I was filming the cars in the street, I heard the woman's cracked voice say, "Do you have any change?"
I hadn't been paying attention and I looked up from my camera to see my brother, Ethan, running
back to the woman who had been turned away. I saw him rummage through his jean's pocket and beam as he presented a quarter to the woman. As I realized what was going on I remembered a dime in my pocket. I ran
to her and handed it to her. "Thank you very kindly," she said sweetly, grinning to reveal rotting teeth. I smiled back and raced back to my brother and my dad and my cousin. Okay, I know it seems cheesy, but I felt accomplished, so don't laugh at my corny paragraph. Please. My dad thought she was a drug addict. At least I was nice, right?
All of this time on our stroll down the polluted streets of Salt Lake City our destination had been a huge library. A
mammoth library. It had to have at least a thousand books! You could walk on the roof and see all of the city. It was awesome! You went up this long flight of stairs, and when you got to the top, engraved in the ground were the words: THE END. When you turned around it said: THE BEGINNING. Then there was a revolving door that led to a absotively pretty roof garden. After we left the garden we went into the library. It was...Big. And I think that's the absolutely correct word to use. We were in Salt Lake, for cryin' out loud! There were shelves and shelves of books. Glass elevators, even! It was so freaky t
o ride them. My little brother was too afraid to ride. It was like we were waiting to go on the freakiest roller coaster in history.
I rode it with my cousin Winston, who somehow convinced me to look down, but I freaked out and closed my eyes. We went up and down, over
and over again, and then met my dad and Ethan, who was crying because he said that the stairs were scary, too. He's afraid of heights, obviously enough.
I never got to film the wedding, but who cares anyway? I mean, I'm assuming that anyone who reads this doesn't care, but sorry
if you do. It was me, in my dumb flower girl dress, with frilly sleeves. It was
pink! I detest
pink! And plus, my grand
ma kept commanding me to tie the bow in back, which I think is retarded. My dad didn't care in the least bit. Whenever my cousins who highly respect my grandma's orders tied it in front, I'd simply go to dad and say, "Tie. Now." He'd do as I said and I'd leave, only to be met by more strict aunts and cousins. Ugh. I eventually asked my cousin, "Anna, why are we tying our dresses in front? Isn't it
normal to tie it in back?"
She shrugged. "I guess it makes grandma and Aunt Ingrid happy?"
Oh my gosh.I commanded dad to tie it in back. He did. Someone ran into me again and tied it in front.
The wedding procession was like this: first the bridesmaids came down the steps of the garden and walked on the stone pathway by the flowers, smiling their cheesy "oh, I'm so pretty and I'm helping with a wedding and you're not" smiles. Next the flower girls (me) came down the pathway ans stood next to the guests on the right side. Then the teeny-weeny flower girls came walking down the stone path; white baskets in hand. They scattered silver ribbon everywhere once they reached us. Some went into their hair, all of it tangled in a messy knot. When all of the ribbon had been tossed onto the ground, they picked it up again, apparently not satisfied. All the parents were laughing, and eventually grandma, who had planned the procession, dragged them off to the side. Next the ring-bearers came, including my brother. They were wearing white suits, shoes, and underwear. (Probably.)
Then Ingrid walked to the standing-place, her sleeveless white gown glinting in the morning sun. She stood beside the bridesmaids, who were admiring her dress (probably not her.) Aaron (the groom) stood proudly, holding his broken,
purple nose high. Then they got married (hooray, hooray) and we all stood for a long time while a guy snapped pictures of us. It got pretty annoying after awhile.
Everyone went inside and ate. Grandma tried to get the flower girls to wear plastic ponchos over their
pink dresses. It was pathetic to see how many girls obeyed. I didn't wear mine.
Once it was
finally over, my dad, my cousin, my brother and I left to change at the hotel rooms. My face was flushed red from sunburn, and it got worse when we went to the library.
Later in the day was the reception. I had been forced to put my
pink dress back on, which hurt my sunburns really bad.
The reception was held at a gallery, which I think was really cool. You had great art to look at instead of Ingrid's drunk friends. It smelled strongly of beer and all the guys were laughing and talking all weird.
A band played a bunch of songs while the guests danced. I danced with my seven-year-old cousins, and I usually had to pretend to be the man of the couple.
I mostly enjoyed the art gallery upstairs. It was a place to escape the drunk people when you were too overwhelmed with the smell.
Near the end, Aaron launched the white elastic-things from Ingrid's dress. My cousin Cora, who was holding a lemonade, jumped in front of a guy who was reaching out and caught the first one.
Suppressed laughs filled the gallery. People stared at her from all sides, while some giggled behind cupped hands.
I turned to Winston. "Aren't men supposed to catch those things?" I inquired.
"Yes," he replied. (He's Cora's brother.)
"Then why'd she catch it?" I asked.
"Because she's Cora." he said simply. Winston doesn't usually have positive things to say about Cora.
Once Aaron had seen that a girl had caught the elastic-thing, I heard him mutter, "We'd better throw the other one."
Within seconds another elastic came soaring through the air. A guy caught it.
Then Ingrid tossed daisies to the reaching, eager hands down below. I caught a huge bunch of them, but I gave them all to the little girls. I really didn't care. And I thought that you were supposed to throw one whole bunch of flowers and one person was supposed to catch it?
Later, when we were at the hotel again, I finally got to take off the
pink dress for good. My sister Leigha was with us now, she had been playing with our cousins. We watched basketball on T.V. until we fell asleep.
