Today was pretty much perfect.
Granted, I missed one friend milestone (John and Jess's baby shower) to witness another friend milestone (Steph and Jon's wedding), but other than the tradeoffs required, and other than the raging hangover I had from last night's drinking (which came on top of the wine tour the day before, and the drinking on Wednesday, and the lower-key drinking on Tuesday and Monday, and the singles' valentine's party on Sunday, and all the mai tais I had in Hawaii.....), I felt pretty good about today. I think I need to detox in March - I would say that I'm starting tomorrow, but I'm spending Monday in Russian River with Ritu and Bill to do a tasting at their wedding venue, so cutting wine from my diet tomorrow would be slightly premature.
sssanyway, back to today. I had breakfast with Ritu, which was great - the food was so-so, but it was lovely to hang out with her for some quality 1:1 time. We eventually parted ways and showered, and then we grabbed Bill and met up with Chris and Connie for a late lunch. I have somehow not seen Chris and Connie since before their baby (Mark) was born, and since he's now two, that tells you something. Granted, they lived in San Diego for a bunch of that time, but it's kind of crazy that I had to come to SoCal to meet their child when they live forty minutes from me.
But we had lunch at a taco place (along with our new friend Kirsten, who is still friends with us despite our shenanigans), and that was great. Generally, this wedding weekend has been awesome because there was nothing expected of me and lots of easy hanging out time, which made it feel like a cool friend break rather than a soul-crushing obligation. [editor's note: if you're reading this, I'm not referring to your own wedding as a soul-crushing obligation - I loved all your weddings, etc., etc.].
Then we came back to the hotel and quickly cleaned up, and Ritu and I split a half-bottle of wine in the lobby while waiting for Bill so we could take the edge off our hangovers and prep for the wedding. And the wedding was absolutely gorgeous - Steph looked amazing, and their vows were beautiful, and the backdrop was stunning. Then we had cocktails and snacks on a terrace, followed by dinner in a barn - the dinner included some great beef and chicken and pad thai and salad, and was possibly one of the best catered wedding dinners I've had. And there was an open bar, so you really can't go wrong (unless you go too deep on the open bar and end up in vomit territory, which I didn't come even close to, but I know some people who went deep into vomit land).
Anyway, the wedding was super fun, and I had a great time reconnecting with Chris about work and life and kids (especially when we had a brief political discussion about the Iowa caucuses, and someone who had never met either of us very earnestly said that he was extremely pro-Bernie, since the normal expectation at a California party is that everyone is pro-Bernie....he backed away slowly after we both looked at him and continued our conversation in a relatively anti-Bernie bent) (I should rephrase and say that that conversation was not my favorite part of reconnecting with Chris, since we had lots to catch up on, but it was certainly entertaining). And Ritu and Bill and I stayed until the bitter end, when we caught a ride back to the hotel with Jared, whose cousin Heather drove us all in his SUV, thus saving us from the risk of someone whose name I won't divulge possibly throwing up in an uber (again, not me - I'm almost sober at this point).
So I would say that Steph and Jon's wedding was a smashing success. And now I must sleep, and dream of the pep talk Steph's mother gave me (she made me promise her that I will have an amazing life, which I'm on board with), and dream also of love and new friends and all the serendipitous and ephemeral connections that occur at weddings - goodnight!
Granted, I missed one friend milestone (John and Jess's baby shower) to witness another friend milestone (Steph and Jon's wedding), but other than the tradeoffs required, and other than the raging hangover I had from last night's drinking (which came on top of the wine tour the day before, and the drinking on Wednesday, and the lower-key drinking on Tuesday and Monday, and the singles' valentine's party on Sunday, and all the mai tais I had in Hawaii.....), I felt pretty good about today. I think I need to detox in March - I would say that I'm starting tomorrow, but I'm spending Monday in Russian River with Ritu and Bill to do a tasting at their wedding venue, so cutting wine from my diet tomorrow would be slightly premature.
sssanyway, back to today. I had breakfast with Ritu, which was great - the food was so-so, but it was lovely to hang out with her for some quality 1:1 time. We eventually parted ways and showered, and then we grabbed Bill and met up with Chris and Connie for a late lunch. I have somehow not seen Chris and Connie since before their baby (Mark) was born, and since he's now two, that tells you something. Granted, they lived in San Diego for a bunch of that time, but it's kind of crazy that I had to come to SoCal to meet their child when they live forty minutes from me.
But we had lunch at a taco place (along with our new friend Kirsten, who is still friends with us despite our shenanigans), and that was great. Generally, this wedding weekend has been awesome because there was nothing expected of me and lots of easy hanging out time, which made it feel like a cool friend break rather than a soul-crushing obligation. [editor's note: if you're reading this, I'm not referring to your own wedding as a soul-crushing obligation - I loved all your weddings, etc., etc.].
Then we came back to the hotel and quickly cleaned up, and Ritu and I split a half-bottle of wine in the lobby while waiting for Bill so we could take the edge off our hangovers and prep for the wedding. And the wedding was absolutely gorgeous - Steph looked amazing, and their vows were beautiful, and the backdrop was stunning. Then we had cocktails and snacks on a terrace, followed by dinner in a barn - the dinner included some great beef and chicken and pad thai and salad, and was possibly one of the best catered wedding dinners I've had. And there was an open bar, so you really can't go wrong (unless you go too deep on the open bar and end up in vomit territory, which I didn't come even close to, but I know some people who went deep into vomit land).
Anyway, the wedding was super fun, and I had a great time reconnecting with Chris about work and life and kids (especially when we had a brief political discussion about the Iowa caucuses, and someone who had never met either of us very earnestly said that he was extremely pro-Bernie, since the normal expectation at a California party is that everyone is pro-Bernie....he backed away slowly after we both looked at him and continued our conversation in a relatively anti-Bernie bent) (I should rephrase and say that that conversation was not my favorite part of reconnecting with Chris, since we had lots to catch up on, but it was certainly entertaining). And Ritu and Bill and I stayed until the bitter end, when we caught a ride back to the hotel with Jared, whose cousin Heather drove us all in his SUV, thus saving us from the risk of someone whose name I won't divulge possibly throwing up in an uber (again, not me - I'm almost sober at this point).
So I would say that Steph and Jon's wedding was a smashing success. And now I must sleep, and dream of the pep talk Steph's mother gave me (she made me promise her that I will have an amazing life, which I'm on board with), and dream also of love and new friends and all the serendipitous and ephemeral connections that occur at weddings - goodnight!
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