Behind the Scenes [Part 3]

AFTERWARDS:

David and Karen were known for wearing their friends out. Well, they definitely had the same effect on us, especially that week. Eventually we wrapped it up and headed out. I was headed to Jen King's house with Mark and a few of my friends to celebrate Kathleen's birthday. It was utterly awesome to go and instantly be apart of Karen's closest high school buds. We shared a few embarrassing stories about Karen, had some delicious cake, and I think tons of breadsticks too. They were such a fun bunch, just like I remembered. After a while though, I was ready to be home. I played it off as being tired, which was true, that's for sure, but what I really wanted was to go straight home, close my door, and be alone.

Once I got there, I didn't know what to do with myself. I jumped into sweats and curled up under the covers. Now what? What comes next? It was the first time other than sleeping that I found myself completely alone. Meanwhile, I could hear all of my relatives in the family room having a blast. I wanted to be alone, but at the same time wanted someone to check on me. All of my family, some 60 people, were out there and I probably wouldn't be seeing them all together for a LONG time. I should be out there. I wanted to be out there, but couldn't bring myself to be social. Do you cry? sleep? wouldn't be a bad idea since I was going off of and hour and a half of shut eye. I found myself talking to David and Karen, asking them to send somebody in to check on me or pull me out of my anti-scoialness. After a while, I figured they were trying to teach me to stick up for myself, I finally just pulled myself out of bed and tried to be as invisible as possible.

My parents were standing on the kitchen counter telling everyone about the graveside service, because not everyone was able to make it. They said a few thank you's, made a few toasts, shared a couple laughs, and had some very somber moments as well. I made my way to the back of the crowd, wanting to be with everyone, but please oh please don't make me talk to anyone. Of course, with my luck, Mom and Dad saw me and made a big deal about me coming to join the party, as they continue to stand on the counter and everyone and their mom looked back at me. I was mortified. I told them to pretend like I wasn't there and I made my way into the living room where I could hear and see, but wouldn't be easily spotted. Chet and Kristin, unknowingly at the time, came to my rescue. Somehow they had just arrived and were the perfect remedy to my aloofness. They had me chatting and laughing in no time. Karen and David really were still watching, and were planning to send someone all along.

That night consisted of way too much fun with the family. David's best friend from high school, Michael, ended up in the pool, and was shortly followed by Mark, Bryan, Travis, and John Paul (except they jumped in voluntarily) We had a huge picture of all the family taken. We'd have people randomly stand up and share a story if they had one in mind. It was really just a typical family reunion...which was so nice, because our family lives all over the US and it was the first time in a while that I had seen some of them. 

The Reis Clan 

Mr. Naworski very generously gave us a very nice bottle of Grand Marnier. We poured a few small glasses to sip and make a few toasts with. Sooner than you know it, our whole family was around with us. I believe Mr. Naworski began with the toasts. My dad followed and we all sipped from our glasses. It was really touching. Thennnn, I swear David possessed me. I decided it was my turn. I stood up on my chair and said something to the effect of "So, while I visited David and Karen this last December, one night David looked at me and said, 'we should get you drunk.' It didn't end up happening that night. We were all pretty tired and that's not how I roll just yet. I'm definitely bummed I never got to do that with him, because David was pro at it. But, here's to whoever teaches Mark and I how to party.".......and then I downed the whole rest of the glass in front of everyone. piece of cake by the way. I am definitely embarrassed looking back considering that it was meant to be a very respectable and calm toasting, but I'm not going to lie, at the time all I could hear was David laughing in disbelief saying, "that's my girl." 

The Reis living room at maximum capacity.

People slowly filtered out after a while. Chet, Kristin, and I continued chatting some more. We got talking about how they met and a few of their adventures with David. I was yawning up a storm, but I knew they were leaving the next day so I told them they had to stay until I was knocked out cold. I had it figured from the start, but just in case any one was wondering, David had some pretty darn good taste in friends. I mentioned how I was feeling before they brought me out of my antisocial cocoon earlier that night. All they could say was, "That's really crazy because we were just hanging around the hotel with the plan of eventually heading over to your house, and Chet just stood up out of nowhere and said, 'Time to go.'" David knew what he was doing that night because Chet and Kristin have been a huge blessing, especially since that night [which ended around 3 in the morning]. I've grown a lot closer with many people through all of this; I've gained a lot of friends, but Kristin and Chet were the most unexpected, considering this was the first week we had ever spent together. I get to visit them over my spring break, and I'm certainly looking forward to spending time with others as time goes on.

The next couple of days continued to be pretty hectic. I remember going to Mass at St. Phillip's that next morning and not wanting to be there. It didn't seem important any more. It was one of the few times I found myself not wanting to sing at all.  The family that was still in town went to Coconut Joe's that night along with some other close friends. Mark and I mc'd again as people shared more memories. Noah put together another slide show geared more towards their early years. My mom knew those pictures would hurt her harder than others and warned us that she might need some extra support. The food was delicious and the company was even better. We rapped up after a while and very slowly headed towards leaving. Almost instantaneously, my mom couldn't take the crowd anymore and before we knew it she was cranky and ready to be home. Mark, Dad, and I acted on that pretty quick and abruptly excused ourselves and headed home.

Herb Benham came over to interview us on Monday. He was extremely professional yet also very open and understanding. We talked about how we had been dealing with everything, about David and Karen and everything in between. I believe the plan was to have him over for an hour. Twenty pages of notes and 4 hours later, we were walking him out to the door and inviting him and his wife back for chicken picatta dinner later that night. Here is a link to the story he wrote. A few of Karen's high school friends: Sam, Kathleen, and Jen King came too and we turned my room into a massive picture archive. We found pictures from just about every era. Embarrassing stories, prom pictures, you name it, we found it. We squeezed about twenty people in our living room for dinner and it was absolutely delicious.

Sam, Kathleen, Jen King, Mark and I all headed out to go stargazing after dinner. It just felt like the beginning of a friendship. Mark wanted to start a reunion with everyone over the summer. I was having fun belting "I'm singing. I'm in a store and I'm singing. I'm in a store and I'M SINGING!!" from Elf. It was just fun to get away from the formalness of it all and go to the middle of nowhere, aka Shafter, to lie down and look at the stars. Sam gave us some ideas of what to expect in the future with our grief as he had dealt with the loss of his dad. He was [and still is] a guardian for us that week, silently watching and checking in on us, and of course giving the best bear hugs when needed. I couldn't even tell you what else we talked about that night, but I'm so glad we went. It was so good to spend time with all of them. We talked for a long while and only ended it because we knew that Dad, being extra protective, would want his kids home on time.

Tuesday morning, Uncle Robert and Aunt Fran wanted to take us to Camelot Park to go racing. When we had visited them in Boise years ago, that was one of the things we did. So the first time I saw them when they arrived in Bakersfield, I mentioned that we totally had to make that happen again. After arranging it all, we arrived and probably did seven different races around the track. I started in car #7 for Karen and then switched to #13 for David. Then I told them, I actually wanted to win and went for the good one, #4. My dad, Mark, Aunt Trish and Sharon also joined and we had a complete blast. Of course I had to drive a little recklessly for David and caused a few wrecks:) We teamed up a lot and all shared in the wins. Jeff Silva was also able to join us towards the end. Afterwards, we all hit it up in the arcade. I got in touch with my competitive side and played some air hockey. I attempted to play two games at once, but that didn't turn out too well. I played Aunt Trish in a timed shootout with basketballs. After a while I ended up setting the basketballs and did much better:) Aunt Fran and I also thoroughly embarrassed ourselves on Dance Dance Revolution. A game that I usually avoid at all costs in order to keep my tall, lanky, complete lack of rhythm to myself, but as usual with David and Karen, you've got to try it.

We had another dinner with friends and family that night. Tri-tip was on the menu this time. More good company and family and of course left over Jake's Tex Mex cake. Towards the end of dinner we got all of our aunts and uncles to share stories about how they had met and proposed and what not. My favorite stories come from this question and these were certainly some good ones.


The next day we were off to San Diego...