Looks Like It's Time For A Wedding!

Early Friday morning, we packed up the car full of stuff (and Michal shoved in the back seat somewhere, I myself wasn't even sure where) and headed off to Chocorua and the Brass Heart Inn cuz it was WEDDING TIME! The first picture I'd like to share is J Virgin, the first bizarre license plate of the weekend. Yes, this is for real. And yes, they are Pat's fans.

I had the pleasure of staying in the Liberty Room at the Inn. I got to see all the rooms since Linda and I went to deliver all the gift baskets and I can say that it was one of the better rooms.


Until I turned around and saw this in the corner. I'm convinced they came alive when we weren't around....Otherwise the Brass Heart Inn was gorgeous. There was a lovely library and TV room...
...a lovely dining room....
um.... weird plate decorations.....
....beautiful old fashioned architecture...
.... an artichoke plant decor?...
... gorgeous views of the autumn leaves (this was my fav view)...
...cute little gables...
... rocking chairs on the porch....
....large fields (where I believe Civil War re-enactments happened, even though there wasn't a battle here)...
.... glorious setting for a wedding....
... and a sweet barn for some amazing reception dancing....The place was just perfect....
Oh gosh! OK, maybe I've changed my mind. The place wasn't perfect.
I would NOT want this creeping over my head while I slept. No thank you.
By the end of the afternoon, the wedding party and most of the families had shown up and it was rehearsal dinner time. Delicious food, presents, chatting, laughter and of course, a massive chef's hat cake. Glorious and all ways, shapes and forms.

Ashley, Jessica, Danielle, me and Bridget- we weren't able to get Mary into the picture :(
Jess and I also took the opportunity to sneak into the Casablanca Room. Yes, this leopard print monstrosity was called the Casablanca Room. We were just concerned.
Sneaky sneaky!
Late that night we had an incredible bonfire which, amongst other things included Ricky nearly falling off the picnic table, one of the Aunts falling over and hoping she didn't get wine on her white puffy vest and drunky Erica shaking our hands about fifteen minutes. Each.

There was a gorgeous full moon though- that must be good luck, right???
The next morning was crazy- people were cranky and grouchy, we couldn't find the owner of the inn, things were starting to get set up and Jess and I got massively lost on our little hike. Isle of Wight lost (see Isle of Wight blog post for details....)


Does this look familiar? I feel like I'm experiencing deja vu....

Oh, and we discovered this in the barn. Not weird. Not weird at all....
BUT, everything worked out in the end. The weather was incredible! The colors of the leaves were shining brightly and everyone looked amazing.
One last pic with the bride before the ceremony.


The sun was so bright it was hard to see (for me) but we could hear everything just fine and it was a beautiful, beautiful ceremony. Danielle and Ricky, I'm so excited for you guys!
This is Lily, she is my new best friend.
We like to take silly pictures during the cocktail hour. There was some delicious finger foods and I got to meet some of Danielle's other friends who hadn't been in the wedding (Jess and Bridget and I had already gotten along splendidly).

And then it was reception time. They had their first dance and a few toasts and then we got down to the eating and the dancing. Good music, good food, good friends, that's all you need for a good wedding.


Me, Trev and Danielle....
Lily, Jess and me- silly picture!
me and the momma of the bride- and the woman who tucked me and Danielle in when we were at her house
me and Ash and baby Feidler
dancing with Mary
and the bride
my pic with the bride and groom!
Trev, Mary and me
Danielle, Adam and me
roomie!
The next morning, we did it all in reverse- packed up the cars, shoved Michal back into the corner again and drove home. And so it would only be fitting to end with another bizarre license plate to tie it all back together. Yay Salads.

Blast From the Past

I had the amazing privilege (THANK YOU FALL BREAK) to go back to New Hampshire for a few days. I don't think I've been there since 1996 and it was a total trip to drive past places that I had remembered so vividly in my mind. I left Boise way too early to conceive and after a lovely few hours in Denver with my favorite little-est sister (who helped me catch a student plagiarizing his second paper), I landed in Beautiful Boston. There was a little snafu with the original bus that I was going to take into Lebanon but it turned out to be even better because I caught a different, cheaper coach, got to watch Date Night and got into Lebanon (not Hanover) an hour and a half earlier. Danielle picked me up, we hugged and jumped around with glee and then headed home. Her house, other than an addition to the front, was seemingly unchanged since the days of my youth- the days of watching Touched By An Angel and eating strawberries and sugar, playing telephone at birthday games, sleeping in the basement and playing dress-ups. It was pretty late so we headed to bed.

The next morning was all about the memories. "Dairy Twirl!" I shouted with glee as we passed the ice cream place that had the cruddiest parking lot ever. So dirty. But the best place to go after t-ball games. And yes, I played t-ball. I was the only girl (except for that one year Kelly Parla was on the team- but she was useless).

We stopped by the library so I could print out the rest of my papers to grade (ugh, more on that in another blog post so as to not tarnish the happy mood of this blog post) and then headed to the Powerhouse Mall and Lui Luis. When I was little, they would give you raw dough to play with while waiting. I met Mary-Catherine, Trev's wife, and Ali, their sweet little baby girl, as well as Sarah, Ricky's mom. Lunch was delicious! As were Ricky's inappropriate sound effects (BOOM!) Well, those weren't delicious, just funny.

We also wished Bruce a happy birthday.

After lunch was the moment I had been waiting for. We drove up the road to King's Grant neighborhood to Wellington Circle to see the old house.
So many changes! The wood is different (or at least looks different), they painted the garage and doors and the deck and added a trampoline (OK, that last one is pretty cool...) So weird to see the house again- and so good! If it hadn't been so rainy, we would have gone romping through the Beaver Pond (even though someone lives right there now!). We passed all the old houses too: the Avery's, Rosensweigs, Lounsburys, Sorensens, Blankenbaur (I think?). Even though I didn't remember names, the houses I definitely recognized. We even drove around Nottingham Circle to see the Tselepedakias' old house and pool.



That nostalgia out of the way, we headed back to the Lebanon Green and wandered about. The old library was there, Lebanon College, site of the toy store Danielle's mom used to own, the complex where we had a few outdoor concerts, the CCBA and the big wide open spaces with the Pan statue. The colors were just gorgeous and the rain had stopped- we even had a little bit of sun!




Then it was onto Hanover, passed Greensboro Lane where Mrs. Shewmaker and Nancy Bent used to live and over to Dartmouth. (We may or may not have done a little stalking on our way over.... but we will never tell....) We drove around the green looking at the old buildings we used to play around. Danielle's dad used to be the trainer for the Dartmouth Sports teams and so we spent many-a-weekend watching the basketball, football and baseball teams play.


We headed over to Occam's Pond where, in the wintertime, we would go sledding, cross-country skiing and and ice-skating. I once lost a tooth on that hill. A lady wanted to take me to the E.R. since I was bleeding. My parents were cross-country skiing at the time.


Then it was across the Connecticut River on the Ball Bridge, as Danielle and I are now calling it (don't ask) to the Montshire! I loved the name- a combination of Vermont and New Hampshire. Wayyyy before Bennifer and Branjelina was popular, we had the Montshire. The speed limit at 18 mph getting into the museum. No more, no less. We didn't go in but drove about the parking lot talking about what we loved inside the musuem.


And finally, to the place where our love story began :) We went over to Mount Lebanon, our elementary school, where we happily spent second and third grade together. It looked exactly the same, from the bubble window in the library to the sad little playground to the creepy cemetery next door. The garden outside of Ms. Mills' room was still there (the garden that our class started, 17 years ago.... holy crap that's a long time!). We finally accosted a teacher leaving for the day and asked her to take our picture. She was very kind and obliged. As we left, we also drove past Seminary Hill Elementary where I only got to spend about two months before moving to stupid California.





That night, after several amusing conversations with Ashley where she revealed she hated the public library and hates Ronald McDonald even more and that Quakers wear turtlenecks, we dug out the Wee-Sing videos from the basement. Our joy was short-lived when we couldn't get sound so we ended up watching two hours of Cops. From one extreme to the other.
Oh New Hampshire, how I've missed you!