2013 Wedding No. 1

This year has been an important one for the apartment friends.  Let's recap:

Diana's wedding!

As usual, I'm well behind on blogging.  Like...months behind.  Which means that I'm now blogging about a wedding that happened on April 27th.  Nevertheless, it will be blogged!

It was a beautiful Saturday up in Maine.  They couldn't have possibly asked for better weather the entire weekend!  I traveled up with two good friends part of the way, dropped them off at their house, and then continued up to the island for two hours.  The following morning, I met Diana for breakfast.  Here's what went down:

Me: "DIANA!  You're getting married TODAY!"

Diana: "I know...isn't it horrible??"

Of course, she didn't really mean it.  She was beyond excited to actually get married, but I think it was a little overwhelming to realize that her months of planning were finally coming to fruition and there was nothing more she could plan.  I'd say that's a little stressful.

At breakfast, we ran into Laura and Nathaniel! 

Turns out when a wedding is a tiny town and you know many of the folks invited, you and your friends are very likely to take over fill up the local inn.  Meghanne and Jon arrived later that morning and Jon took a room upstairs (Meghanne stayed with me - roommates for life?).  Lauren and Nathaniel stayed in the room one floor above.  Catherine, Beth, and Joel stayed in a room adjacent to ours.  It was a glorious reunion.  

Later that afternoon, we all headed to the church and witnessed the union of two dear friends.

Their love story is beautiful, but that's worth a blogpost of its own.  Summary: read Anne of Green Gables.  Remove all the initial consternation between Anne and Gilbert, and you have Diana and Nathaniel.  What a blessing to be a witness to something so sacred and precious.

Once the ceremony was over, we headed up the hill to the reception.  I was sadly dateless due to the official blog boyfriend's business trip to India:

(I actually missed him even though this photo makes me look gleeful...)

We ate cake, chatted with friends, and watched Diana and Nathaniel dance.

It was beautiful.

After everything was over, Beth, Joel, Catherine, Meghanne, Jon, and I ran around Deer Isle in the dark.  Everyone else in town was asleep (at 9 pm).  We walked in the middle of the road.  We swung on swings in the playground.  I tripped over a curb and went flying about three feet before landing (I was fine).  We acted like we were back in college, and then we went to bed.

Finally, we met up for breakfast and then we headed home.  

Back in the Day

I journeyed home to Vermont this weekend. Vermont is a gloriously beautiful place. Maybe I'm just biased because I grew up here, but even the cows are cute. Although technically cows look the same anywhere...but still. It's beautiful here. Speaking of growing up, I decided to look through old photo albums. As a result, you get to look at old pictures.

I was born in New York, actually. (Before you get nervous, I can assure you that I support the Red Sox, not the Yankees.) But then I moved to Williston, VT when I looked like this:


We spent a little while there, and I gained a love for overalls.


Based on the evidence, I'd say that I had a good time at age 2 and a half. I don't actually know, because I don't remember.


Then we moved to Jericho, where the lawn was bigger and the tutus were more available.


Sooner or later, a brother or two appeared on the scene.



(I tried to get Christopher to like music too. I guess it didn't work out.)

1999 (I was 10) was a big year for me.

I built snowmen on the lawn:


I went to the King's College Chapel in Cambridge:


Aaaaaaaaand...I, uh, met Howard Dean.


Weird, huh?

Maybe this type of thing doesn't interest you at all. But I love, love, love looking at old pictures and remembering all the things that would remain forgotten if I didn't. They're not the best quality pictures, they're not brilliantly composed, and you'd never find them in a magazine, but they do tell stories, and they're important because of that.

Especially now that we're slightly older, and the days of playing in the sandbox are over.

Hopeless Romantic?

I think I've begun a new love affair with tomatoes.


This is a little weird, because I wouldn't even come close to touching one while growing up. But now I find myself putting them on everything and loving every bite...maybe the apocalypse is coming sooner than I expected.

Where I'd like to be right now...

I would give anything to be back here right now:


where they have stuff like this:


and this:


and this:


There are ancient places to worship:



hidden among cobbled, windy streets:


and even the police officers are friendly:



Unfortunately, in order to do that I might have to go back in time.

I'm old?

So...I'm 22 now. My very numerological birthday was quite nice, since it included getting rid of my terrible license picture from when I was 16, hanging out with dear friends, and playing both Rossini and Brahms. Oh Brahms....how you fill my soul with joy!

But now it's on to bigger and more important things, like grad school audition number 2 on Friday.


I'm excited! Hopefully I will not be destroyed or something.

Lauren's Birthday!

Lauren M. lives about an hour and a half away from Gordon, which gave Diana, Meghanne, Michelle, and I a nice car ride in which to be ridiculous. I mean, heck, what else do we ever do?

Here, Diana and I decided to be Sherlock Holmes and Watson. I think I was Watson...


We took one wrong turn on our way that led us to a warehouse that apparently had something to do with either new or used cars - couldn't figure out exactly what - but we found a Mini with the Union Jack on the back of the mirror. I think I want it.


Once there, there were, of course, the obligatory and yet much-loved roomie pictures:



...and then things got a little weirder.




(Scenario: "Jillian, you just found out that Matt Damon is your father." I'm trying to remember why I was so excited...)


(Scenario: "Jillian and Lauren O. are planning a camping trip for Meghanne, but she doesn't know about it.)


(Scenario: "You just found out chocolate has been made illegal." I find our reactions very accurate.)


(No scenario; just really good carrot cake.)

And finally, this was the whole group!


Happy birthday, Lauren!

WHOA.

People my age are getting married. I realize this every once in a while, but it has never really had any effect on me. But this evening, I went to the bridal shower of a girl that graduated from high school one year before I did. It feels so incredibly surreal to have reached an age where getting married does not seem as unrealistic as a fairy tale. Really, I have no brilliant realizations stretching beyond this somewhat obvious one - I mean, we all have to reach that age at some point, right? - but that feels like enough to keep me thinking for a good long time.

I'm over 21, I promise...

This afternoon marked my first experience purchasing a bottle of wine. I spent almost 45 minutes in the grocery store, slowly accumulating all the materials I needed to make dinner, wine included. The process of finding the wine in and of itself was a bit of an adventure. I had (and still have) absolutely no idea of what makes a wine good or not; I just knew that I needed a "young, full-bodied red wine such as a Beaujolais or a Burgundy." Right. Eventually, after staring at the astonishingly wide array of options for a significant amount of time, I decided to save money and buy the least expensive Beaujolais I could find. That probably means that it tasted bad...but I can't tell, and I was only using it to cook anyway. Finally, after I'd perused the rest of the store, picking up things like three pounds (!) of lean stewing beef, tomato paste, and parsley, I headed up to the check out. The lady working scanned everything, saving the bottle of wine until nothing else was left. She asked for my ID, and after struggling to get my license out of my wallet, she took it. Now, I haven't gotten my license updated yet, so the format is that of the under-21 license, complete with a picture of me at age 16. Nonetheless, it very clearly reads that I will be 21 years of age after 2-22-2010. Today is 3-4-10. I think she thought it was fake. She looked at it for what felt like a full three minutes before she finally decided that I wasn't trying to be illegal. Finally, after typing several numbers into the computer (maybe she was trying to calculate my age), she asked, "Does that say...19...80...9?" I assured her that it did, she let me buy the wine, and I went on my merry way. Ironically, I didn't even drink a sip, because I'd bought cider as well and I was more excited to drink that.