A little over a week ago now, two good friends of mine, Meredith and Sandy, got married. That's them to the left, doing their reflective Abbey Road walk with their bridesmaids.
Last Thursday, me and mine packed up the Lincoln and left Murfreesboro at about 4pm. We made Connecticut by 11am the following morning. This is because we are hardcore. The kids were great and rocked it, sleeping in the car and not complaining any more than I was. Conservative talk radio keeps the blood up and keeps one awake, as does shitty gas station coffee. Adrenaline probably helps - we had a weird incident with our debit card all the way through Virginia, which turned out to be the fault of our credit union, but the shot of adrenaline from the not knowing and re-planning I'm sure helped immensely. Christie & I took shifts of napping, and after a McNew Jersey breakfast we got to Jesse & Sandra's house (after an interminable number of disgustingly cute bridges) about several hours before we were expected. Which was kind of terrible of us, but which felt so good to achieve that we couldn't get over ourselves. Luckily, the Greist-Salazars are too nice to really tell us how they felt about that. I suppose they could have been cursing us out in Spanish, but I think I would have twigged on to some of the words, there. Friday night we crashed like...well, like tired fucking people. We were tired. It was like having a day with another day tacked onto the end of it.
Saturday, Christie and I got up and dressed and left for Vermont and the wedding shown above. We drove for about four hours more (a theme!) and ended up at Moose Meadow Lodge, this place with awesome unfinished wood columns, tasty hot sauce, really nice owner/facilitator guys and too many dead things' heads on the walls. Meredith and Sandy were married under a natural arbor formed in the front of the forested area on the grounds while we stood on crunchy fresh fallen leaves and apples and watched. It was a great and sweet ceremony, and we had a great time in the short after with the delicious cake and champagne. I am proud to have been there, and to be their friend.
After, we adjourned to Michael's On the Hill, which is up on a hill (curiously enough) and filled with burnished and painted and attractively displayed bits of farming equipment. I do not understand Vermont. The food was delicious, though, and my only lament was that there could have been more soup and cheesy fried things. Cheesy fried things with a smear of aioli next to them on a plate are good, cheesy fried things in a basket lined with greasy wax paper in quantities of say, half a dozen...well, it's an experiment I'd like to try. During dinner, I had my first substantial conversation with Joe and Davida, Mer's brother and sister-in-law, and while I don't like most of the people I meet, I liked them. So love was in the air.
After some hanging out, Christie and I checked into our hotel, which had a fireplace in the room, a roomy shower, covered bridges on the grounds, and cuteness just goddamn splattered on stuff. We had a great mini-vacation within the vacation, most of which is none of your business. When we checked out on Sunday, we toured the Ben & Jerry's original factory while our kids were at the UU church with Jesse's family. I ate ice cream while my kids were at church. Heh. We bought some Cabot cheeses and looked at more pastoral adorableness and then headed back to the CT, arriving Hamden around fiveish in the rain. Jesse's family treated us to pies at Antonio's pizza place, which was awesome.
The following day was Monday, and had some hanging out and sending postcards in it, and I got to see some cool parts of Hamden/New Haven, and we relaxed. You know, that thing that "people" do when they're on "vacations." Monday night was this great dinner at Ellen's house, and then I crested the hill. Tuesday morning we got up early and couldn't eat eggs. We did some grave rubbings, then my family had to take me to Hartford to fly back home, as I had missed the maximum number of some of my classes.
Flying is exactly the same. I haven't been on a plane since 2004 or so, and it's the same. Same plane interiors, same stupid airport stuff, same conversations about my knee, same old shite. Same old delay into Baltimore, resulting in the same old running through the airport. Got picked up by Ron at the airport, so thanks for that, and then I was home, to my house and pets most excellently looked after by Laura and Whitney, who both became overly attached to my dog.
It was good, and there's a commemorative photo album there on the side.