Catching Up
I forgot to mention that we went to my friend Jen's wedding last month. When I was living at home in my early 20's, we were the best of friends. Once I left for YCP, we didn't talk anywhere near as much. I got to take off a Friday and we drove up to Bethlehem, PA, a town that I had driven through many times but never stopped. Apparently, I didn't miss too much.
The ceremony was very Catholic with a mass and everything. My buddy Mike showed up just in time to keep Jen from having second thoughts and walking out the front door "These things never start on time" hehe.
We had a good chuckle at the old couple in front of us to made their own monogrammed handkerchiefs: they wrote a big "A" on it in magic marker.
The reception was in downtown Bethlehem in the historic Hotel Bethlehem. It looks like it'd be a great place for a weekend getaway. Cara is so hot. Plenty of shopping and bars within a couple of blocks of the hotel.
The cocktail hour was nice with the open bar and hors d'oevres. (sp?) Cara was drinking big margaritas on the rocks, Mike was drinking Yuenglings, and I really don't remember what I was drinking. We also had some brie, fruit, crackers, and some kind of stuffed mushroom or stuffed puff pastry.
The dinner was on a once-open terrace that has since been enclosed by windows that made up two of the walls providing a nice view on the main street on one side, and a great view of the local landscape on another. Through the entrance to the terrace, we could watch some local high schoolers attending their prom.
We sat with Mike and his date/girlfriend Ale, an old friend Meredith and her fiancee, and some 'fabulous' guy who works with Jen. The women at our table were all smitten with this guy, not surprisingly. He must've talked for 10 minutes about the cigarette holder he bought.
Dinner was very nice. The buffet consisted of a pasta table where I had some penne with a garlic alfredo-type sauce and you could choose from a few throw-ins such as mushrooms, minced garlic, and bell peppers.
The next table had roast turkey and prime rib with mustard, horseradish, and some unnoteworthy sauce. Finally, and much to Cara's delight, they had a mashed potato station with various fixin's like bacon, chives, cheese, and roasted garlic. The only drawback was that the attention to each individual's order slowed down the line as there was only one mashed potato engineer working.
Dessert, natually, was wedding cake. Afterward they brought out a small tray of cold anti pasti. I had some pepperoni, olives, and some other stuff. We had a good laugh at Mike's expense. he spent nearly 5 minutes talking about how good he is at handling hot/spicy foods. he had one pepper and it caused him to cough, hiccup, and start sweating a bit. He couldn't finish anything else.
I did make his day at last call when I got him two more beers and a double scotch on the rocks for myself.
Somehow I managed to drive back to my folks place that night. We had tickets to the yankees-A's game that afternoon at the Stadium. We got there just in time for the overcast clouds to break and the sun came out. As a bonus, it was cap day!
We were lucky enough to see the last appearance for the year of Tanyon Sturtze. it's really something to hear 50,000+ people groan in unison.
After the game we headed up to Westchester to pick up my grandmother and we all went out for dinner as a birthday bash celebration for Cara and myself. We had a huge Italian dinner.
the following day, we started our drive home with a detour into central PA to wish Cara's mom a happy Mother's Day. It was a welcome surprise to her and it really made her day.
it was a tiring, yet very fun and satisfying weekend.
I had a great time seeing Mike and Jen. I don't think I'd seen my parents since Thanksgiving, and these days it's always great to see Oma.
On an unrelated note, I have to go to work tomorrow, but Cara has the day off. I'm going to drive so that I can come home for lunch to watch the US-Czech Republic soccer game and eat some more leftovers from Maggiano's.
That's all for now.