last weekend was 99% fantastic

If you ignore the part about the foot injury, I had a pretty great few days last weekend. One of my dearest friends (she doesn't have a blog, but you can go read about another time when I talked about her) got married. This is the friend with the fiesta-themed shower a couple weeks ago.

It was really fun getting to watch someone else go through the whole actually-getting-married process almost exactly a year after having done so myself. For one thing, the rehearsal on Friday was a decidedly lower-stakes event, that's for sure. The rehearsal dinner they hosted -- 20 of us around a hibachi table! there was drumming! -- was pretty much the polar opposite of what we chose to do -- drinks and mingling over hors d'oeuvres before dinner -- but it was great to see how each approach was ridiculously fun in an entirely different way.

Saturday was an absolute hoot, wherein I poured mimosas (a calming elixir, don'tcha know) and took care of random odds and ends. Walking down the aisle of a church knowing everyone was craning to see past me, not bothering very much to look at me, was pretty awesome too.

One thing was definitely more difficult, though. The toast. Good lord, the toast. I gained an entirely new level of appreciation and admiration for my friend sitting next to me in her white dress, recalling how eloquently she spoke about me last year when the shoe was on the other foot. My voice wavered and my eyes watered and I got through about half of what I intended to say about her and her husband (HUSBAND!) before I cut my losses, asked everyone to raise their glasses with me, and wished the happy couple years and years of the joy together that they so richly deserve.

The Awesome Husband and I twirled and spun on an empty dance floor when the song we'd used for our first dance was played, commenting to each other how much more enjoyable that was without the pressure of all our loved ones staring at us. Later in the evening, the song we'd used as a processional wafted out of the DJ's speakers; I sobbed uncontrollable tears of a thousand different emotions into my husband's tie (the first few bars might always do that to me), and thankfully I think nobody else in the room noticed.

Crying-in-public aside, though, the wedding of one of your favorite people in the whole wide world is pretty much the most fun day you can have without actually getting married yourself.

Oh, and bonus: if anyone wants to invite me to a swanky holiday party this year, I'm set, because the bridesmaid's dress she chose was a super fun black cocktail number. (See, I toldja she's pretty awesome.)

¡Olé!

I had the great pleasure of co-hosting a shower today to honor one of my dearest friends who'll be getting married soon. She and her soon-to-be husband will be honeymooning on a cruise to Mexico, so we went with a fiesta theme. She also happens to really like margaritas, so it worked out well.

Hey, speaking of: if you want to make really excellent margaritas without using a mix, here's whatcha do, as I learned this weekend:
- Juice a bunch of limes. Like, 8 limes to get a cup of lime juice. For this event, I needed 3 cups. Yeah. A lotta limes.
- Make a little bit of simple syrup. .25c water + .25c sugar + low heat, until dissolved.
- Mix those two together with 3c of tequila and 2c of triple sec.
- Pour into glasses that have been rimmed with salt (use a lime wedge to make the rims wet, then dip in a plate of salt).


I also made a cake with the happy couple's wedding "logo" on it -- their initials, morphed into an infinity symbol (awwww!). It got a little smushed in transit, but it was still tasty.

We didn't play shower games, but we did make a hat/bouquet out of wrapping paper and ribbons. This might be the only instance where one object can double as both a hat and a bouquet, both of which are a bit of a stretch.

A lovely afternoon was had by all. Us bridesmaids were so happy to shower the bride with love.

And see, I told you it was fiesta themed!

Good for the soul, if not for the arteries.

I had three days off from work at the end of last week and I worked from home yesterday, so it was nearly a full week that I was out of the office. I may have gotten a little bit spoiled. Hmm. I might also have gotten a little bit spoiled by all the yummy food and beverage consumption during my wee vacation, or perhaps by the guests visiting from far away that I rarely get to see and who filled my house with energy and excitement over the weekend. The house is so quiet today. It's good and bad at the same time.

The pendulum has swung far enough that I'm yearning for a salad, a four mile run, and some fresh raw vegetables. I would, however, love to stay on vacation so I can keep enjoying sites like this. Although I suppose that's the best part: this beauty is near where I live, so I don't have to travel far to be rejuvenated.

Pretend you're reading this yesterday...

I'm wearing my new favorite pendant today, an iridescent seashell (I'm guessing) in a silver setting.  I love the look of it, but what really propels it to favorite status is its source.  One of my closest friends bought it for me when she was serving in the army overseas (yes, I should have posted this on Veterans Day) because she thought I'd like it.  Really, how thoughtful is that?!   Brave and driven and thoughtful and perceptive (she really was on target in thinking the pendant is just my style)...  I'm so lucky to have her as a friend.  And, of course, we're all lucky to have her and her colleagues working and fighting and putting their lives on hold for the sake of the greater good.

Super Secret Gift Knitting

If you hadn't already surmised, the super secret gift knitting project I spent the late winter and spring working on was wedding related: I knit a shawl for each of the lovely women who served as my attendants.  That photo up there shows the finished product, an aggregate twenty-plus feet of shawl.  The photo quality leaves a bit to be desired, but take my word for it that they're a nice shade of pale pink, to coordinate with chocolate brown dresses. 

There actually wasn't much need for the shawls at the wedding (as we had pretty much perfect weather), but hopefully they'll be worn and enjoyed for years to come.  I certainly enyoyed making them... Any moments of monotony (I'll admit, it was an awful lot of stockinette) were more than worth the looks on my friends' faces when I was finally able to give these puppies to their rightful owners. 

Part Deux: With a Sunday to Match

I wasn't kidding when I said I had an exceptional weekend. You've already heard how great Saturday night was, and while Sunday was very different, it was equally lovely.

The Awesome Fiance and I took an hour-long boat ride to spend the day visiting one of my closest friends. We live in an area that's generally pretty scenic, as areas go: nice architecture in the downtown area, city parks with beds of tulips or roses, depending on the season, that sort of thing. I gotta say, though, the islands off the northern New England coast take the cake -- so, so, so beautiful. And, lucky us, we got to spend most of the day on one. The Awesome Fiance was kind enough to snap a photo; note the new spring vegetation and birch trees in the background!



After a ferry ride back to the mainland, The Awesome Fiance and I fired up the grill and ate dinner out in the backyard: hot dogs and broccoli slaw (thank you, Smitten Kitchen!) and a few menacing but ultimately inconsequential raindrops. Then he got a fire going in our free-standing fire pit, so we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores! Oh yes we did! Realio, trulio, campfire s'mores. And, because a fire does not simply extinguish itself once it no longer senses the presence of marshmallows, we *had to* sit and watch it for an additional hour or so of soothing (pyromaniacal?) enjoyment.

A yard with a fire pit, and table, a grill, a hammock, and a garden: highly recommended. Having super-great friends who live on islands is great, too, but the key, really, is the super-great friends part.

cue the jpegs

The Awesome Boyfriend and I passed the road trip test this weekend. After twenty hours in the car together, we still love each other to pieces (I should hope so!), and enjoyed being around each other. (Excepting, perhaps, a brief stretch of time during which we were hopelessly lost. I glare in your general direction, New Jersey.)

We made the great voyage for the nuptials of one of my closest friends. It was a terrific weekend all around, but because much of the excitement revolved around other people's personal lives, I don't think it's particularly bloggable. I'll do a brief photo essay instead.

Craftosaurus and The Awesome Boyfriend Venture to the Big City

That's right, folks. A mini-travelogue for you today, complete with photos.

We departed for The Big City by rail transport, earlier than I'd've even wanted to be awake, never mind out of the house and functioning. It meant, however, that we were in The Big City before mid-morning and had the whole day ahead of us.

First stop was the natural history museum of a prominent and reknowned university. By unintentionally taking the extremely scenic route, we managed to find it after just about an hour of brisk walking. Once inside, though, we saw, among other things, this fossil of a 40-foot prehistoric marine creature:

It was thiiiiis big!

From there, we met up with a good friend of The Awesome Boyfriend for lunch and a few pints of Guinness at an Irish pub that was pleasant enough, particularly considering its nondescript location nextdoor to a FedEx location.

Blurriness due to lack of flash, rather than intoxication.

Lunch and beer having taken the lion's share of the afternoon (and that, of course, always being the mark of a lovely time with great people), our plans to visit the Fancy Schmancy Art Museum had to be scrapped, so as to meet more fun people for dinner, specifically, a friend from college and her husband. By the time I'd enjoyed my chicken with capers and olives and mushrooms and anchovies in white wine sauce, and half a cannoli, it was not a minute later than 8:30 and yet, exhaustion had set in. The Awesome Boyfriend and I headed off to catch our train north, but not before making sure to get photographic proof of the visit.

It was cold, so I wore a big hat.

We were left with about two hours of spare time, during which neither The Awesome Boyfriend or I had enough energy to do much more than read or knit, respectively, and people-watch. A group of sports fans and their VERY intoxicated friend came through in strong fashion. Thanks, guys.

Oh, but The Awesome Boyfriend did bring out the camera during the wait in the train station. Considering the amount of sleep I'd gotten, the amount of time I'd then been awake, and the distinct lack of make-up or hair-brushing that had happened in the preceding several hours, this is the face I made:

Dancin' Fool*

One of my oldest and dearest friends, The Big Noodle (that's right. she's got some spunk, yo. you'd love her. :)), made it her goal a few years back to go out dancing every week for a year. Even if she didn't think she felt like it. Even if she didn't have anyone to go with. I don't know for sure whether she hit every single week, but I do know I've heard her say that it was the best year of her life (up to that point, at least), so in that respect she was successful.

I'm not ambitious enough to make the same pledge for myself, but I do love me some dancing, and I've got The Big Noodle to thank for it. I did, after all, tag along on some of those weekly adventures in the Year of Dancing, and I learned how to have FUN on a dance floor, with or without alcohol, and to stop caring so much what a bunch of strangers might think of my sense of rhythm.

So while I've not committed myself to my own Year of Dancing, I was pleased to look at my calendar just now and realize that the past three weekends have involved varying amounts, but at least a little bit, of busting a move. Annnnd, I get to go rock out with some friends tonight, too. Four weeks in a row: it's the Month of Dancing. And it rules.


*Referring to myself there, not The Big Noodle. She can call herself a fool if she wants to, but that's up to her. :)