Ryan and Alina Get Married

In September my high school friend Ryan got married to a lovely lady named Alina and they invited Rob and me to partake in their day (along we a lot of other friends and family).  It was a wedding of a few firsts, one being the distance to it.  It wins for closest wedding I have attended and it was nice to just pop up to PA for a day and come back to my own bed at night.  It's also the first wedding I have attended where I knew a lot of people (from pre-Rob days) and got a chance to catch up with some I haven't seen in a long time.

The ceremony was and reception were both really nice.  You could tell the two of them put a lot of thought into it and it reflected them. And they were in the same location so that eliminated the chance to get lost on our way to the party.  Bonus.

They had lots of cake.  All different kinds and they also put donut holes on sticks and dipped them in chocolate.  They were tasty!

The guys, Shawn, Josh, and Adam.  Between them and Ryan, they were the gang I hung around in high school and when I was home from college.  I will never forget the ride back from the Carousel Mall where Shawn was begging me to go to Denny's (or Perkins) I can't remember which.  I said no because I was tired and I was driving.  We had stopped at a red light next to it and Shawn got out of the car and made a run for it.  Needless to say I was too shocked and had to pull in to at least retrieve him, so we stopped and had snacks before returning everyone home.  Lots of fun memories.

I also got a chance to finally meet Sterling, Shawn and Bonita's baby.  I have seen him in lots of photos, so it was nice to him for real.   He's a very well behaved baby.  And cute too. :)

Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without some awesome dancing.  My husband and Josh and Shawn getting down with their bad selves.

It was a great chance to reunite with a number of people I truly miss.  They are like the extended family you only get to see every now and again with a huge family reunion (or wedding).  I know they will be a part of my life always. :)

Marie and Adam Get Married

Marie and Adam were married last Saturday, August 9th, in my home area of Syracuse, NY. This worked out well for me since I was able to combine attending a friends wedding with a trip home to see my own family. Thank you Marie and Adam!

The wedding was really nice and was followed by a wonderful reception at Borio's on Oneida Lake. It provided a pretty backdrop to the evening.

Since Marie is Rob's friend from college, a lot of his friends were in attendance. We had a pretty fabulous time hanging out with them all Friday night and Saturday between the end of the ceremony at 3pm and the start of the reception at 6pm.

Since Syracuse is the closest thing to my home stomping ground, I was in charge of entertainment on Friday evening and made the executive decision of going to Armory Square to the Empire Brewing Company for dinner. The food was pretty tasty and the micro brews weren't bad either. We meet up in Ben's hotel room later to party and drink beer while watching to opening ceremony of the Olympics. There are a lot of freaken countries that go to the Olympics. And a lot of those I have never heard of. I am pretty sure they were made up. Also, I thought the last torch carrier was going to die when his harness shifted. Turns out, it was all part of the act.

Saturday we killed time pre-gaming with the gang in Ben's room again. He's the party master. :) Then we made our way on over to the reception for a great night of poking fun at each other, dancing, and more drinks. It was just great to hang with everyone again.

Below are some priceless moments that I am very glad I had my camera out for. Got to love your friends.

Amanda Pennock is explaining to Marie what Ben has been up to over the last 30 minutes.

This is where Marie finds out that Ben has been stealing her center piece and has not been very conspicuous about placing all the stones in his shirt pocket.

Let's celebrate with a sugar shot!!

Dinner for Two

We just have none stop fun here. That's right, we are going to hit up the grocery store together today. Wild and crazy things happen in Atlanta, I am just here to tell you about them. Again I say, lucky you.

This marks our first trip together while living under one roof. No more buying two gallons of milk (unless it turns out we are milk fiends) or loaves of bread or other such things. As it stands now, our refrigerator is mostly full of beer and condiments. Kind of a throw back to college days.

This also means planning dinners got slightly easier. We have been cooking for two but in two different places, which you may say, what's the difference? Well, normally by Thursday it was "I had the two meals planned we ate and I thawed some stuff, but could make pasta, so umm, now what?" Never quite compared notes on those kinds of things. That's about to change.

Between the two of us, we have approximately a ton of cookbooks. We are trying to reference them as we go forward to find new recipes. This week we are trying Herbed Pork Chops with Wild Mushrooms, Tequila Shrimp, and Asian BBQ chicken in additional to some classics.

I may have to adopt the side bar Meredith keeps on her blog, "Project In My Fridge" to show the latest creation, but we will see. That may need to wait until things have settled here a bit. This should be interesting. :)

Kara Bo Bara Got Married!

I promised more on the wedding event I attended in Rochester, NY, so here it is!

My friend Kara or as I call her, Kara Bo Bara was married to Matt last Saturday. The wedding was held downtown at a place called Artisan Works. It's basically a huge warehouse full of art and eclectic items. They had both the ceremony and the reception in the building. This worked out really well because after the ceremony we were given free range of the place to explore all the quirks it had to offer.

I must say this wedding was very Matt and Kara and done in their own style. That was pretty refreshing to see two people tailor such a special ceremony in a way that best represented them. They wrote their own vows, used song lyrics for readings, and had their wedding design as their backdrop on a giant projection screen behind them.

The reception was a lot of fun. We were given our table markers that looked like rock concert tickets with our names and the name of a band which was how they designated tables. On the tables they had old records glued together as a center piece and guitar picks laying around like confetti. For your favor, they had a table set up like a concert vendor stand with different jars of candy and little bags for you to fill. What an awesome idea!

There was no detail overlooked, but it didn't seem over done and no one seems uptight or spazing about anything. Just comfortable and fun, the best kind of party. I know they both put a lot into designing their wedding, but it was totally worth it and noticed. Almost everyone we talked to said positive things about it.

I just want to say how happy I am for the both of them and wish them the best and their start their life together. I am sure it's going to be a rockin' good time. :)

Weddings, Friends and Family

This past weekend Rob and I got out of town and flew to Rochester, NY. The main reason for going was a wedding of one of my college friends, but we managed to squeeze in some visits to places and with people. The wedding is going to get it's own entry because it's that cool. :)

Friday we landed and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Rochester Airport Marriott Hotel just north of the airport. I was impressed with the hotel as it was one of the nicer hotels I have stayed at in a while. From there we drove east to meet Josh for dinner and general visiting. I only get to see people in NY about twice a year, so it's a big deal when we do. Computer and telephone hugs can never beat the live ones. :)

Saturday we got up and went to Wegmans for some muffins and coffee. Let me just say, DELICIOUS! From there we visited my alma mater, RIT. A LOT has changed on campus. What used to be a grassy corner on the far side of campus is now filled with our future bookstore with some shopping centers, apartments, and town homes. It is called Park Point at RIT and seems like it's trying to bring the city feel to a campus on the outskirts of town. They also built two brand new buildings and are clearing spots for the next few. A lot of existing buildings were updated from total brick fronts to ones with tall glass fronts on the bottom floors. This allows a more modern feel as well. I popped by my old work place and said hi to Paul, my old boss for a short visit. I randomly drop in every few years or so just to keep them on their toes. :) We hit up the very tasty Dibella's Subs for lunch and went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding was was a lot of fun, but you'll have to read more about that later. :) *Enter Jeopardy music here*

Sunday proved to be the day of visiting = eating. For each person we met, with we shared a meal. This works out well, however, by the end of the day, you feel like you ate an entire buffet. Not that you did it on purpose mind you. Just sort of happens. We started with breakfast with the newlyweds and then traveled over to visit with Rob's grandfather who lives in Victor. He and his wife Linda were very nice people and greeted me with a giant hug. We went to lunch with them and then headed slightly more east to meet up with my sister and my brother-in-law. We ate dinner and just enjoyed each others company chatting about whatever came to mind. I miss my sister and brother-in-law a lot, so it's great when I can see them.

That's probably one of my biggest gripes about being this far south. Visiting friends and family gets to be a real struggle any time you enter the respective home states. You are only home for such a short period of time and you want to visit everyone, but then all the visits are short and hurried, but it's what you can do. It sucks, but will have to do for now.

We left the gray skies of Rochester on our 6am flight back to Atlanta. The flight was cheaper, but my productivity at work was about a 3 on a 1-10 scale. Granted, even with a good nights sleep, it would have only been a 6 at the most (can you say beach weekitis?), but still. Overall, it was a pretty fantastic weekend. Now to coast until vacation!

A half a year in weddings

Tis the season! There has been so much activity involving engagements and weddings, it's been a little more than nuts. I am more than thrilled for all involved parties that share this with me, but I didn't know so much could happen to so many people in the course of 5 months.

Starting from the beginning of the year. January was a fairly quite month, but it's been the only one. In the beginning of February my friend Phil on the west coast got engaged. Their wedding will take place next year sometime. March, two of my friends got engaged. First it was Kara and Matt. They have staked May 18th, 2008 as their date. Then John jumped in with his engagement. They are getting married August 4th of this year. There were a few other "oh did you hear so-and-so are getting married", but not people I really am that connected to. To wrap March up we went toa bachelor party in DC for Alex. Well, Rob attended, but I went to DC for company for the ride there and back and to see some people as well.

Then, in April we back in DC for the actual wedding. Rob was a groomsmen for this wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony done by their pastor who really knew both of them. Afterwards it was off to Top of the Town. It's a very cool spot located in Arlington that allows a spectacular view of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Alex and Bonnie Enders.

In May, my friend Andrea got married. Since she is first really good friend of mine to get married, I think this event meant more to me than all others this year. I was honored that she asked me to take part in her wedding as her maid of honor. I managed to pull together a really nice toast and had an absolute blast. This wedding was held in Needham, MA right outside of Boston, so we were able to stay with Rob's brother and also see my other friend Adam while we were there. Mr. and Mrs. Tyler and Andrea White.

And lastly, but not least, we attended Bruce and Colleen's wedding last month month. This was another trip to Northern VA. This one was different from the other two in that it did not take place in a church, but rather an outdoor garden. It wasn't too hot out for it and the rain held off so it turned out beautifully. Also, the reception was at the same place so we basically just had to walk to another building, very convenient. Rob was a fill in best man for this wedding since the real best man was still in Iraq. He did a wonderful job with his toast and we had a lot of fun. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce and Colleen Showalter.

On the Road Again

Ok, so keeping with my promise of many blogish things to write about I continue. Last weekend Bonnie and Alex got married in DC. Rob was in the wedding party so we got there Friday night for the rehearsal dinner and of course the ceremony on Saturday. It was a beautiful event and it was a good time getting to see everyone again.

What this blog entry is about though is more the journey there. It started leaving the complex the evening of Thursday the 12th. On our way out we got to see the famed, "place the trash on the hood of your car blocking your view while trying" trash removal technique. Too bad my camera wasn't at the ready because it was a sight. On our way to the highway, we also saw the most highly acclaimed driving move of a left on red. Meaning, the light had turned red, the driver stopped, then went. Not ran an orange light. I really don't understand how that is ok, but whatever.

We went onwards to Holly and Wade's without too much trouble aside from not knowing the exact exit to get off. Rob knew where he was going which was all that mattered because he was driving. We had a very enjoyable visit with them over cookie dough and the next morning we were off and running again. About 10am or so we decided to stop for gas and stretch our legs somewhere around NC/SC border. As far as memory served me anyway. Well where ever it was we stopped had to have been deep in the heart of freaksville. It was a true truckers stop with a dinner and chapel that was open for services. The bathrooms were just gross, however I found two things amusing while in there. One - they had a scent machine you put a quarter into to get a blast of a scent on you. How odd. Two - the womens bathroom had a door that lead to a shower but said, "CO-ED" on it. How creepy. Rob and I left rather quickly and feeling icky. Lunch was at a combo KFC and Taco Bell which was a little weird, but delicious as only Taco Bell can be. Or, I supposed as a KFC can be, but we got tacos so I can't say for certain.

We made it the rest of the way with only one accident in Richmond. I was flustered because I was driving. "Have your accidents on your own time! I have a wedding practice to get to!" Anywho, got there right on time. Whew! It's not exactly what I would call the journey that makes movies, but it was amusing.