It's been a while, huh? I have to apologize for that but give a big shout out to Memere and Grampy who made sure to remind me that I had not posted in a while. There is a reason for this, and not just that my ADD kicked in and I lost interest. These past couple of weeks have been a complete whirlwind and it doesn't look like its slowing down any time soon. Just a brief recap of the past 2-3 weeks...
For those of you who don't know, my best friend of 13 years got married on Halloween weekend at a vineyard in Charlottesville, VA. I hopped on a plane late Thursday night to make it home in time for the festivities that weekend. I left Chicago wearing jeans with a pair of tights underneath, and a jacket under a second jacket. When I landed in Virginia, the pilot informed us that it was 67 degrees. That's more like it. Mom met me at the airport, which was great of her since my flight landed after midnight. Best part was I had to turn around and drive up to C-ville that next morning. Good thing Lauren is worth it :)
Friday, I spent the day with Lauren and the other bridesmaids getting our nails done for the big day then headed off to the rehearsal dinner. And this is where the debacle began (and by debacle, I mean best weekend ever). After dinner Friday we headed to a local bar where we met up with all the out of town guests, which included about 150 people just from Lauren's family. I MAY be exaggerating with 150, but I'm not sure its that far off. Every part of that gathering was amazing. I honestly cannot remember the last time I laughed that hard for that long. It was all topped off when one of the bridesmaids tripped down the steps, landed flat on her face in front of her parents, and tried to play it off like one other other bridesmaids pushed her down the steps. Classic.
Best part about the night? Around 11:00, we looked outside and it was snowing. Are you kidding me? Apparently Thursday it was 75 degrees. And then I show up from Chicago and it snows. It carried over into the next morning when it rained like crazy. All I can say is that Lauren was THE best sport ever. I have never seen someone so calm on her wedding day especially since the wedding was outdoors. Her positive energy clearly made an impression because the skies cleared up literally just hours before the wedding began. It never did quite warm up, but we all sucked it up because the backdrop for the ceremony was breathtaking. Lauren and Brad got married outside in the vineyard with the mountains in the background. Lauren was by far, the most beautiful bride I have ever seen.
Then, before we knew it, it was time to party. And if anyone partied hard, it was my mother. Just ask dad. It was hilarious. She somehow even managed to get dad out on the dance floor for a good number of songs. For those of you who watch Friends - my dad dances like Chandler. And dad, I absolutely love it! I don't know what was better - watching my mom catch a marshmallow on fire while trying to make a s'more or reading the text messages my dad was sending to my sister after he had a few drinks. They were not in English. I think they were in that broken French he thinks he can speak ; )
Unfortunately, the trip couldn't last much longer and I had to jump back on a plane Monday and get back to Chicago. The following Saturday I was leaving for Philadelphia for a week for work. So, I had four days in the office to get caught up and get my act together before hopping on another plane. It was my last week of travel and unfortunately, it was the longest trip - a full 6 days.
Oh Philly. I wish I could say I love it the way Lauren loves Philly. But I just don't. I think it all started when the guy at the hotel told me that it was only a $15 cab ride from the hotel to downtown. A co-worker of mine from R-MC was in town for the same event I was there for, so we decided to meet up Saturday night downtown. Her school is nice enough to pay for her to stay right downtown. Mine, well, they were nice enough to let me stay out by the airport. But clearly the guy at the hotel was confused, because when I got into the cab, the driver set the meter to $30. It was a flat rate from the airport to downtown. Welcome to Philly - enjoy your $60 cab ride.
The next morning led to another adventure when I was trying to make my way to the convention center for the massive college fair. Instead of listening to the GPS when I got off the interstate, I muted TomTom and just started looking for the signs to the convention center and parking. Sure enough, right as I got off the interstate there was a parking garage labeled "Convention Center Parking." I should have known it was too good to be true. I didn't realize how shady it was until I left the garage to head down to the convention center. As I walked out of the garage, I noticed that there was barbed wire around the garage. Seriously? Not off to a good start.
I then realized that I had parked in the farthest parking garage from the convention center as possible as I walked 8 blocks with 50 pounds worth of materials. My poor luggage is a little beat up. It just got better once the fair started and we were swarmed with middle schoolers and their sticky fingers taking all of our COLLEGE material. I'm not mad that middle schoolers attended the fair. I am mad that the middle schoolers seemed to be unattended the entire time. But, they were better than the high schoolers in that they didn't ask unbelievable questions like some of the high schools did. See below:
Me: What are you interested in at DePaul?
Student: I dance.
Me: What type of dance?
Student looking at her friend: I have no idea what she is talking about.
Student: Do you have CSI?
Me: Do you know that actually involves?
Student: No, not really.
Mom: Oh, you guys are in Lincoln Park? Like the cartoon? You guys must get that a lot.
Me: Um, I am not sure what you are talking about.
Mom: You know, with the boys that say bad things??
Me: I am sorry, I really am not sure what you are talking about.
Son: South Park, Mom? Are you talking about South Park?
I wish I had my little notebook that I carry with me to these things. I had even better ones written down. But no worries. We are in application season now. I PROMISE you there will be even better essays than there have been questions.
So that is pretty much how the entire 4 hour fair went. My co-worker from R-MC and I then headed across the street to the "famous" Reading Street Market. Matt told me it was one place I had to go while I was in Philly. It was an indoor "market" with different places to eat, a ton of different candy shops, little gift stores, etc. It reminded me of a smaller version of the Fanuel Hall in Boston. When Caitlin and I finally found somewhere to eat, no sooner had we sat down when a homeless man wanders by our table and asked us for our food and money. At least our homeless people here in Chicago talk to themselves and don't bother us.
My day in Philly ended appropriately enough when I left the parking garage. It was one of those garages that has no attendant, so you pay first, then the machine takes your ticket. And you don't get it back. DePaul does not reimburse you for ANYTHING if you do not have a receipt. 6 hours later and $15 of my own money, I was ready to get the heck out of Philly.
I did have to head down to Baltimore for two days and I ran into another one of my friends at the Baltimore fair. She had also been in Philly and had been with Caitlin and me throughout the day. She was upset with us in Philly because we did not want to do sight-seeing in Philly after the miserable fair. So, she did it on her own. She did proceed to tell me that around 5:30, after she asked a woman at one of the stores she was shopping in what other things she should see before leaving. The woman told her "you have seen everything you need to see tonight here. You need to go back and get in your car now." My friend was basically told to get the heck out of Philly after dark.
Lauren - I know this must be annoying to read this because you love Philly. But I promise not to COMPLETELY judge Philly on this one trip if you promise not to be mad that I didn't love it :)
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and I made it home Thursday night just in time for Matt's first game of the season on Friday. The Blue Demons are currently 2-0 with another game next week down in Florida! And, VCU opened up their season with a win as well. My two teams are off to a great start!
I head home next week for Thanksgiving and am SO excited to have a weekend at home with no plans other than spending it with family and friends. Thank you all so much for being patient with my lack of blogging lately. I hope this one made up for lost time! Happy early Thanksgiving to everyone!
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