East Coast Swing

One of my most favorite people in the whole, wide world got married this weekend. I spent only 48 hours on the ground in New England, but they were wonderful and filled with love. Note: I am still so, so, so tired, so I didn't edit this. Let me know if it's completely unreadable.

I took the red eye and landed in Boston around 8am on Saturday. I caught the bus up to Durham, NH where my aunt picked me up. I was nearly though my book, "Touching Spirit Bear," which is the first book my 9th graders read. I want to make sure I know what they are up to...

My aunt picked me up in the Miata and I was grateful for the fresh air in my face. I was so exhausted after my school's two day camping trip (read: no sleep) and the red eye (read: still no sleep). I got some food in my belly before getting in another vehicle to drive the two hours to Squam Lake.

I drove to Kate's house to have lunch with all the girls. Kate's parents just built a house on the lake and it was the most relaxing place to be after so much travel. And I was as happy as a clam to see Kate and Jenn run up the path to greet me.

After lunch, we went to the camp, where the wedding was to take place. Most everyone would be staying there for the weekend and taking part in all the activities.

We checked in and immediately made our way to the water.

Here's Kelly enjoying the dock as soon as we arrived.

This was the view right outside our door. Jenny, Kelly, and I (all teammates in college with Jenn, Kate, and Chrissie) were staying in adjoining rooms with a shared bathroom. It was totally camp cozy. When we checked in, we got a goody bag, that had a facebook of all the guests staying at the camp for the wedding. And everytime I referenced the facebook, no one knew what I meant. Let me break it down for you. The website "Facebook" is actually named for a real object, which is like a yearbook that you get at the beginning of the school year. It's called a facebook because it has everyone's picture in it (and usually their hometown and maybe their major). At Hopkins, we could become quite obsessed with these, especially the annual sports team facebooks (ehem, lacrosse). Some people liked them to remain pristine and other people liked to cut out the cute boys (or maybe they were cutting out the bad boys...I don't know...it wasn't my thing). I wonder if there is still such a thing as the paper facebook. The electronic facebook is pretty great...I get to keep in touch with people who I think are fabulous, even if I'm not that close to them. After checking out who was going to be there (and catching up with some guys I met in my first few weeks at the Hop), we got ready to join the wedding party for dinner and a contra dance.

Jenn married Rob. Here's the story of how I know Rob. Rob lived on the same floor as the first guy I dated at Hopkins. His name was Peter and we met during some orientation game where you had to group by birthday. He and I share a birthday and you can figure out the rest. We didn't last very long, but he had nice friends who I got to know fairly well in those first few weeks and were always nice to me when I saw them around during our years in Baltimore. The whole group of boys pledged the same fraternity, so they stayed very close. Jenn and Rob started dating in New York after she graduated (a year behind me and these boys). I haven't been back to any of our reunions (I see the people I want to see in the meantime), so it was fun to see some people who knew me when.

Here's Jenny, making som mischief by ringing the fire bell. Oops!

All the Hopkins girls after the Contra Dance. I love all sorts of dancing, but Contra Dances are very special to me, because it reminds me of my summers in Maine. I don't think I get much happier than seeing the girls I love from college. The line-up here are in the following places: Groton, Connecticut; Charlottesville, Virginia; NYC; NYC; San Clemente, CA; Silicon Valley, CA;Norwich, VT; Pomona, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; and Nashville, Tennesee. It's kind of crazy how much scatter has happened.

We were in bed around 10pm. Some people stayed up...I know this because the walls of this place were paper thin and my room was right next to the "rec room." I went to sleep hearing people talk about me...my headlamp (jealous, I'm sure) and how I knew the boys from freshman year.

On wedding day, I got up (not as early as I'd planned) and went for a run. I was so, so, so exhausted, that I didn't make it very far (I was supposed to run 16, but there was no way I was going to pull that off). We grabbed breakfast with the whole camp and tried to enjoy the outdoors before getting ready. It was rising up to 70 degrees for the day, but it was so windy in the morning. I couldn't even stand to sit out on the dock to read. So, I wandered into the bride's quarters to enjoy some girl time. Jenn had actually left me a book that I had just borrowed from school (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian...which I enjoyed a lot). After some fun catching up, and hair advice for Ryddie, I was off to get ready.

The women of the bridal party was taking pictures when we boarded the boat to the island. Yes. Jenn was married on an island. How awesome is that?!?!

Terry, Zack, Jenny, and Kelly enjoying the boat ride to Church Island. The boys here were making fun of us for wanting so many pictures. So, then we decided to just ham it up.

Church Island. We took this picture. Therefore, we were there.

We walked to the "church," which was pews set up outdoors, facing the lake, shaded by the trees. It was quite lovely.

Can you see Jenn's bouquet in the air? This is her "drive-by" before getting dropped off.

Five of the six bridesmaids. Lovely color on all of them. We have Sara (Rob's sister), Marisa & Amy, Jenn's roommates for most of college (from day one of freshman year...how cute!), Kate (teammate), and Emily (Rob's other sister). All the girls had the same color dress, but three styles were represented. I loved the look!

Why does the bridal party dress alike? To make it easier for the photographer, I think. We danced all night, even indulging Chrissie to do the Double Dutch...which is where you pretend to double dutch jump rope. I was skeptical, but it was so fun. The band was incredible...the lead singer was the white James Brown and the young(er) Mick Jagger. There was lots of blues and soul and just great dancing music. When they took breaks, they put on an ipod, which was a great combination with the band. I highly recommend a band with a few recordings thrown in. When JT's "What Goes Around" came on (not the most wedding appropriate), the girls were all out on the floor. This was not the wedding to meet your soulmate, as I think there was one single guy there, the 24 year old brother, but that meant it was the wedding for sweating on the dance floor. Actually, it was too cool to sweat. Can you believe that? I danced all night and hardly broke a sweat! Now I know when and where I need to get married to give myself a chance at not being a mess.

Here's the lovely couple, just a few hours married and 24 hours from a plane to France. Rob is wearing the lobster belt that Jenn made him. Is it any wonder why I love her so much? They are in Brooklyn for the time being, which means that I'm going to need to get myself there soon.

I was back in the car right after the wedding, back to my aunt's to get a few hours of sleep before my early morning flight back west. Everyone kept asking me how I like Cali and how long I'm going to be there. I never know what the answer is to those questions. But, I do know that when the pilot said, "We are now beginning our decent into San Francisco," I thought he had misspoke. I thought I was going to be landing in Boston for some reason. On well...I'll be back in December.