A pointless little article about my week off
I'm back from Pennsylvania. I took 5 days off work, edged by a long weekend and went home to Central PA. The purpose of my visit was for a wedding. Two of my High School friends (Heather & John) got married on Saturday, June 4th. While that was the reason to travel back, it wasn't all I ended up doing.
Sunday:
-Got up at an unholy hour and was on the road by 7:30am. Got to State College around 12:30. If I hadn't stopped for gas and gotten lunch I could have tied my travel record of 4.5hrs (it's roughly a 370mi trip... I average around 85mph)
-Bummed around the house a bit, chatted with my parents. Planned the week's meal arrangements (when I come home I get to request meals). Started the trip off with burgers on the grill 
-Hung out with an ex-gf and her roommate, did shots, got very drunk. Passed out on couch.
Monday: (Memorial Day)
-Recovered from Sunday night.
-Went over to Dan & Bella's place. Hung out with them and their beautiful baby girl (1yr 9mo) for most of the afternoon then went to Bella's parents for a cookout (in the rain)
-Dan & I tried to teach Bella some basic Ultimate Frisbee stuff (backhand and flick throws, pivoting, throwing around a mark) since she'll be playing with Dan in the summer Ultimate Frisbee league this year
Tuesday:
-Didn't do much of anything at all. Went out with a few random people in the evening, nothing exciting
Wednesday:
-Ran errands I needed to take care of. Bought shirt to wear to the wedding. Took suit to drycleaners Discovered that no stores in our mall open before 11am on a Wednesday
Thursday:
-Had lunch with Aleta at a Korean place. Ate WAAAY too much and got sick.
-Watched the first two episodes of Firefly since I had never seen the show and she had the whole thing on DVD. Cool series, may download it at some point.
-Still being sick, I had to cancel evening plans with Leah.
-Went to bed early, got the first full night of sleep all vacation
Friday:
-Played some video games, chatted on IRC with other JoeUser people (you know you want to join us!)
-Liz (one of my best friends) came over and had dinner with my family (they want to either adopt her or see us get married... not happening much to their dismay)
-Hung out with Liz until relatively late. Came home and went to bed, hoping to get some sleep before the wedding the next day.
Saturday... THE WEDDING....
-Didn't do anything in the morning at all
-2:10pm
Ok. Now remember that shirt I bought the other day? Well, I take it out and iron it and all, and go to put it on along with the rest of my suit. I put the shirt on and the shoulders are way too broad, the sleeves are several inches past my hands and the collar is HUGE. This is a mens shirt we're talking about... we still get our clothes with (supposedly) exact measurements. 16" neck, 32/33" sleeves. Same size shirt I wear to work on a daily basis (I didn't have a suit-quality one though). So here it is at 2:10pm. The wedding starts AT 3. I HAVE NO SHIRT! I have under 50min to go out, buy a shirt, get my suit on and then get out to the church. I try calling around to see if anyone has a shirt that fits me, all of my friends have already departed for the wedding. No luck with neighbors either. So at 2:20 I jump in the car and floor it for the nearest walmart. I run into the store, sprint to the shirt rack, find the brand I know fits, get a blue one with the proper measurements and run to the cashier. The cashier who takes an ETERNETY to scan each item. And then the person in front of me tries to pay in exact change... and the person behind me tries to cut in front of me.
I get out of the store at 2:35pm. As I run to my car I'm tearing the package open and putting the shirt on. By the time I open the car door the shirt is on and half buttoned. On the very fast drive home I get it buttoned the rest of the way.
I get back to the house at 2:40 and fall into my suit (I had mom lay it all out while I was gone so I could just jump right into it). I tie my tie as I'm running out the door. I get out the door and am moving... it's 2:45.
I. Hit. Every. Red. Light. I mean every single one between me and the church. I finally get there with 2min to spare. Thank God they didn't get moving early.
The ceremony was wonderful. The vows were slightly customized and very moving. I've known these two for years now and it was just something else to see them finally tie the knott. When they faced us, I had a grin ear to ear... almost made Heather laugh. Instead of throwing rice at them as they got away, we blew bubbles at them (Very fun thing, if I ever manage to find a girl dumb enough to marry me... I want to do the bubbles).
After the Ceremony we all head to the reception. I was seated at the "Singles" table ... well sorta singles... Dan & Bella where there with me so I had someone to talk to. The reception was also a lot of fun until they started doing slow songs and all the couples got up to dance and the singles people vanished to dance with cousins (very few of their friends were there, it was mostly family). It was a bit sad to sit back in the corner when all that happened.
I have to admit, when Heather and her father did their dance, I almost cried. I don't cry much or easily... but it was close.
All-in-all the wedding and the reception were wonderful. The two families are both very funny and easygoing so even though I didn't know most of the people, I felt very comfortable and at-home. I got home around 9:30 that night.
Sunday: The Picnic
Woke up late, wandered over to the park around 10:30am. It was about 80 degrees already with heavy humidity. So of course, we went to toss the frisbee around for a while. Between bouts of Frisbee, we ate lots of food. A bunch of people who couldn't make it to the wedding came to the picnic and I got to see some friends from college and high school that I hadn't for a while because they moved away too. We all sat around for quite a while chatting and telling jokes and stories. Heather & John's families didn't mind us at all and jumped in with their own jokes and stories. A fun time was had by all. Around 4, Dan and I split and headed over to his place.
Bella had to do some carpet cleaning so we took the baby to see my parents. The last time they had seen her was at New Years Eve before she was walking. She's also talking a little bit now, and my dad was overjoyed when she said "Apple" (he's a pomologist with his major focus being apples). At one point the baby went for my mom's drink (rum & coke), mom covered it with her hand and said "No"... to which the baby responded with something that sounded almost exactly like "Alcohol". We were on the floor laughing. Dan had NO idea where she could have learned it since he and Bella don't drink, and neither do any of the grandparents that look after her from time to time. We ended up chalking it up to very funny coincidence.
After the visit I just hung out with Dan, Bella and baby for a bit longer and came home around 10pm.
Monday:
-Drove back to CT. So ends the vacation. Tomorrow it's back to work and catching up on a week's worth of email and voice mail.