Giving thanks

Though this year has shaped up to be quite full of misses with few hits for me, in the spirit of the holiday season I have come to realize that it's years like these that define you. It's easy to remember the events that hurt you - a place, a smell, a feeling. And why is it that the best moments seem to pass by without you noticing? Maybe it's our endless search for self-improvement, or our need to have everything always work out. But it never does, and if it did, would it be as sweet if we had never known hardship? It really is true that life is what happens when you're busy making plans for it.

So for my own cartharsis, and to stick it to a world that tries to break us, I've laid out a few of my favorite moments and accomplishments of this year that I will carry forward. The bad moments can stay where they are - in the past. These are by no means in chronological order.

1 - My mom turned 60 this year, and my dad, sister and brother all came together to get her her first trip to Europe. I think the fact that it was from all of us made it so much more special for her, and she had such a great time. We saw so much and walked everywhere, and I always got tired before she did. I'm the luckiest because I got to share that with her.

2 - Matt hiked a horrible 42 miles over the treacherous and rather depressing landscape of Scotland. I was so proud of him for that.

3 - I surprised Matt with a birthday trip to Spain. He didn't know where we were going until we got past security. I never would have been able to do that from the US!

4 - I started my Sociology with Law B.S. program through the University of London, purely for intellectual reasons, but now hope it will help me get into Columbia Law. I love that I'm learning again.

5 - Matt and I got to go to a Polish wedding and see two of the nicest people we know tie the knot.

6 - I spent 3 amazing weeks in Italy, drinking more wine and eating more pasta than should be allowed. And I learned how to make gnocchi.

7 - I turned down two good job offers because they just didn't feel right. It feels great to be in a position like that.

8 - I finally got into Pilates, going twice a week now, and I've actually gotten quite good at it :-)

9 - I made a huge life decision to finally to try my hand at law.

10 - I survived another year in Amsterdam! And thanks to trips home and visits from friends, we haven't felt isolated from family and old friends.

Our Bed & Breakfast

The flow of visitors has come to an end for now. Over the past 2 months, we have enjoyed visits from our friends Emily and Bryan from Baltimore, Stacy from New York, and Ryan from Baltimore who joined Kristen, who now lives in Stuttgard, and Brian, who now lives in Vienna. Herewith I will share with you the highlights of these visits: Emily and Bryan - September While Emily and Bryan were here, all of our electronic equipment stopped working and I got fired from my job. It was their first trip to Europe, and we all joked that they'd get divorced before returning home. Of course they didn't, and we are all glad for that. They were really two of our most easy going guests, and having them was an absolute pleasure. The Saturday of their arrival was spent walking around the Jordaan, and in the evening dinner then the red light district. These two people were probably the most relaxed and least fazed by the sights at the red light district. Their calm was really quite fascinating. We headed to a bruin cafe for a chat afterwards. We spent about 20 minutes in the wee hours of Sunday morning staring in the window of an orthopedic, geriatric, incontinence supply store a few doors down from our apartment. Here we discussed the crutches, catheters, pantyhose, thick grip utensils and sippy cups displayed and marveled at how getting old must really suck. The weather was spectacular for them. On Sunday we got pancakes, took a canal cruise, ate vlaamse frites and drank small beers. We walked around a lot - I think they really got to see most of the city on foot. We also spent a lot of time on our balcony since the weather was so good, just people watching and snapping pictures of people doing weird things on their bikes. On Monday they headed to Belgium to continue their Euro-trip. Stacy - September/October This was Stacy's third visit since we've been in Amsterdam, and if you count the two weekends she was here as separate visits(she went to visit another friend in Brussels in between),then you could say third and fourth. It's always great to see her smiling face brighten Amsterdam's dismal weather. Since Stacy had already seen a lot of the tourist things, it was just max and relax time. The Saturday that she arrived, we took her to a houseboat bar then took a canal cruise. Stacy is a fellow foodie, so we took her to all the great restaurants, including Indian, Spanish tapas and Thai (which the Dutch call Thais - which is funny). On Sunday while walking around and enjoying the weather, Matt and I saw the perfect bookcase. It came in separate pieces. We've been looking for one that would work in our apartment and that didn't cost 800 euros, which has been difficult. So we got 4 pieces and made Stacy carry one back to our apartment. You have to work if you come visit! We went to a cafe in our neighborhood on Sunday night for a drink before dinner, and while we were hanging out on the couches, a photographer came up to us and asked if he could snap photos of us. He was shooting pictures for an article in a local mag about playing games in the Amsterdam cafes. A lot of the cafes in Amsterdam have little games that you can play, like chess, checkers and monopoly. We picked Kolonisten, a game that we learned from some friends, set it up and let the guy take pictures of us pretending to play. Beers had to be involved in the photos, and Matt helped the guy with suggestions for interesting pictures and was a hand model for several of the shots. So now we're kind of celebrities. Ryan, Kristen and Brian - October This was Ryan's second visit to Amsterdam. His friend from college, Kristen, recently moved to Stuttgard because her husband is an officer in the army and got stationed there. Our friend Brian from Baltimore also recently moved to Europe and now lives in Vienna. So they were all invited to join Ryan during his weekend here. Ryan arrived on a Thursday. I picked him up from the airport and then we went to a nearby cafe for lunch. After he finished telling me a story about how after his running club practiced one night, they went to a bar to get food and an hour later the waitress came by to tell them she had lost their ticket and they had to order again, I realized the same thing may have just happened to us. An hour after we arrived, we noticed people that came after us get their food. By this time, we were too hungry to speak to each other anymore. I asked the waitress about our order, which was taken by another waitress who had just left, and she knew nothing about it. Irony is great, isn't it? After eating, we walked around a bit and found a game store that had a Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game in the window. 30 euros and a short dispute with the store owner about who the biggest Buffy fan was (him or me) later, we walked back to the apartment to set up my new game. It was very complicated, and at first, not very fun. But we gradually learned, and when Matt came home we made him play too. And then when Brian and Kristen arrived the next day, them too. We played about 9 times that weekend. On Friday before Brian arrived, the three of us (Matt, Ryan and me) walked around and decided to stop in the Sex Museum, which was recommended highly by our friend Rowena in Baltimore. It was a very disturbing experience and I will now put it out of my mind. We walked over to Dam Square and found a little carnival going on. They had one of those swing rides that circle around and go real high. Ryan and I decided to go. What we failed to calculate was how cold it would be up there, and how fast the ride was going. We were scared, cold and dizzy. So in other words, we had fun. Later on Friday, Brian arrived around 4 and Kristen around 8. Once our party was complete we took them to the red light district for dinner at a great little Thai restaurant. Then we walked over to the windows. On Saturday we got pancakes, then they did the tourist thing while Matt and I just chilled and made a 5-person dinner. After dinner, we went to a bar to watch the rugby finals, then over to a bar where a friend was having her birthday party. We then stopped over at the Dam Square carnival one more time for Ryan to ride a crazy baton ride. On Sunday it was the Amsterdam marathon, and after Ryan missed his chance to run the half, we all headed over to the Vondelpark to watch the runners go by. Then we laid down some towells and Matt found a huge stick. Since Ryan randomly had a baseball with him, we decided to play. The stick got smaller and smaller with every hit. Ryan came close to getting beheaded with it one time when Matt hit the ball and the stick cracked in half. The half of the stick that broke off went as far as the ball. AFter the stick was no longer useful as a bat, we improvised and played long-distance throwing competitions and a weird golf game that we made up. Then some vicious dogs came over, barking and chasing and humping each other, and we decided to play a game of Uno then leave. It was a full day of playing, it was like we were 8 years old again. Then fun didn't end when we got home, though, b/c we then played another game of Buffy.

Le Rugby

On the weekend of October 12 Matt and I and our friends Ross and Sascha drove down to Paris. The drive was about 5 hours, including a pit stop, and very easy (especially since we weren't driving). The semi-finals for rugby were also going on that weekend in Paris, and in a surprising turn of events, France had beat Australia the week before so were still in it. Needeless to say there was a lot of excitement in the air.

We arrived around midnight, and checked into our roach motel. All the hotels in Paris were booked that week. In addition to the rugby tournament, that weekend was also the annual festival in Montmartre, as we would later find out. Our hotel was in a great location, but the rooms were pretty scary. I'm talking hairs in the sheets and very thin walls so you can hear everything going on in every room around you. We quickly dropped our bags off as soon as we arrived and jetted off to find some nice Parisian food. However, it was very late and a lot of the cafes were already closed or closing. We chanced upon a pretty lively place called the Hippopotamus, which was open late. Here, at 2am, we ate medium rare hamburgers.

The next day we met up around 10:30 and decided to forego the 5 euro breakfast at the hotel, figuring if our rooms were what they were for 140 euros, then what must the 5 euro breakfast be like. Matt guessed it was probably a coffee and a cigarette. We headed to the Museum d'Orsay, the impressionist museum that Matt and I missed during our trip in Easter. The museum is absolutely beautiful inside, and has some pretty spectacular sculptures, and works by Rodin, Klimt and Munch.

After perusing the D'Orsay we made for the Champs Elysses to have apps and a bottle of wine at a trendy bar/restaurant that came recommended. After some overpriced snacks that left us feeling less than full, we walked a bit more to find a nice terrace at a Parisian cafe, where we ate and drank some more. We then went over to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top. We spent quite a bit of time checking out the views and, mainly, watching traffic trying to get around that monstrous traffic circle. It's quite fascinating - like an almost organized chaos. Sascha and I then counted SmartCars - those tiny little death machines famous in Europe that the US is trying to introduce. Between 6:24 and 6:30 on Saturday, October 13, there were no less than 25 SmartCars making their way around the northwest side of the Arc de Triomphe. Or maybe it was southeast. You get the point.

Matt's friend and former colleague that used to work in Paris recommended a few bars for us to go to watch the rugby game at 9. One of them was an Aussie bar that we tried to arrive to early but even an hour before the game it was already crazy packed. It was full of unattractive New Zealand guys and trashy English girls, loud and smoky. Sascha and I were definetely not having fun, but the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves. The last straw came when the waiter accidentally poured some beer down the back of my cashmere sweater. We left and tried to find a more "decent" locale to watch the game. This new place came in the form of a cafe with a crazy waitress that kept moving us around the restaurant as more people tried to squeeze in. It was a good game, but unfortunately England beat France, so the anticipation of victory in the air all day Saturday turned into the dismay of defeat come late Saturday night.



On Sunday we slept in a bit, then headed out for some coffee and cappuccinos then went over to the Eiffel tower. That day was the Paris 20k race, which was just finishing up at the Eiffel Tower park when we arrived, so lots of runners were out walking around. We got in line to climb to the top. It was again a beautiful day, and 668 steps up later, we were looking at Paris from the top of the tower. Sascha pointed out to us the area in Paris that we would be going to that afternoon - Montmartre. Unfortunately we were too high up to count Smart Cars that day. After soaking in the sights and some rays from the top, we headed back to the metro to go to Montmartre.

By the time we arrived in Montmartre, we were all hungry and kind of grumpy. Finding food was a priority. Montmartre is at the top of a hill, so more climbing. After quite a bit of walking, we chanced upon a perfect little Italian style cafe that was virtually empty. The kitchen was closing but we convinced the waitress to feed us. After lunch we felt rejuvenated, and continued our walk to the top of the hill. Sunday was also the day of the Montmartre festival, so there were little tents set up all over selling wine and sausages and other fares. There is a beautiful church at the top, and another great view on the steps. It was so busy though that at first we couldn't even find the steps down. It turned out that there was a guy at the bottom playing guitar and singing, and the steps were packed with people sitting and listening to him. Very cool.





We then had to rush back to our hotel to collect our things and the car to make the long drive back to Amsterdam. We left Paris at about 6, and arrive in Amsterdam close to 11. Pretty amazing that we just drove down to Paris for the weekend!

Begur!

As part of Matt's 27th birthday gift, I arranged a surprise beach getaway. He had no idea where we were going until we got our boarding passes at the airport. All he knew was what the weather would be like, how long we would be gone, and that we needed to rent a car. So you can imagine the barrage of questions in the weeks leading up to it, but I revealed nothing!

The destination was Begur, Spain, in Girona along the Costa Brava, about a 1.5 hour drive north from Barcelona. We stayed at a fantastic little family-run hotel that turned out to be perfect. The beaches around Begur were all beautiful and we had many to choose from. It was really the most perfect little beach getaway and we really lucked out with the weather. Turns out that all the guests of that hotel had been asking for blankets all summer long because it had been unseasonably cold. But the weekend we were there was a comfortable 80 degrees on the beach and the water was cool and refreshing, and the evenings cooled down to about 65.

We arrived very late on Friday, landing in Barcelona at about midnight then having to wait on the Europcar line which wasn't long but was stupidly slow, then make the 1.5 hour drive up to Begur. When we arrived it was about 2:30 am, and luckily I had asked the hotel to have a bottle of red wine in our room. It was good to drink some wine on our private balcony and unwind.

We started the day off right on Saturday, waking up early and having a magnificent breakfast at our hotel and then driving down to La Platja Raco. In Begur, most of the inhabitants speak Catalan, which is a variation of Spanish that looks quite strange. Differences include the word for beach, which in Spanish is "playa" but in Catalan is "platja" and Spanish "agua" is "aigua". Luckily most people also spoke English, and the language was not a problem at all.

Adjacent to Platja Raco behind huge rocks was Illa Roja, the nudist beach. It also happened to be the most beautiful beach in Begur, by the looks of it. Why do the nudists get the nicest beach? It just isn't fair. So we had to stay in Platja Raco, because we didn't want to be nudies and we didn't want to have to be around nudies. Though the amount of topless old German and English women wasn't too appealing either. Is it really that big of a deal to have some tanlines? Leave something for the holy ghost! We also sat right next to an couple in their seventies, who everytime they went in and out of the water had to change bathing suits, very openly. It was actually quite hilarious.

Begur, as most of Spain, enjoys the traditional siesta. The beach tends to clear out around 1pm, and people start returning around 4pm, though far less. This also means that people don't dine until around 10. It's really great to see the town alive at night, with people of all ages. It's one of my favorite things about Spain.

On Sunday and Monday we tried new beaches. They were each great in their own right, and the water was cool and nice to swim in. On Monday Matt bought snorkeling gear and tried it out. We spent all of our days lounging on the beach, returning to the hotel around 5 most days and going out for dinner at 9.

This trip was our second time to Spain together, the first being our trip around Andalucia last August. It really is such a great place, full of culture, great food and great beaches. Check out our pictures below:

Na zdrowie - A Polish extravaganza

A few weekends ago we attended the wedding of our friends Agata and Theo. She is Polish and he is Dutch, and the wedding was in Warsaw, Agata's hometown.

The city of Warsaw, capital of Poland and its largest city, was ravaged during the second world war. Much of the city had to be rebuilt, and during the communist occupation large prefabricated housing projects were erected. The Old Town (Stare Miesto) was restored in the old style.

We arrived late on Friday night to our serviced apartment in the Old Town. We walked around for a bit, but it was late and everything was closed or closing.

Fun Polish fact: In every one of our four TV channels that we got in our room, the shows were dubbed in Polish by the same guy! So say you were watching a scene with four different actors -maybe a grown man, an elderly lady or what-have-you - it's all that one guy doing the voices! on every channel! Also, he doesn't really "act", he just reads off the words. Kind of takes the fun out of it. Luckily there was no MTV, i would hate to see what that guy sounded like in a music video. Just kidding.

On Saturday, we grabbed a map and walked the King's Path that passed through all the major sites. It was a very long walk, and we stopped by the Botanical Gardens (not recommended) and ended in the beautiful park that has the palace on the water. We somehow managed to find a bus that went back close to the Old Town - this was not easy as the bus routes are not very easy to decipher and the older people in the city, namely the cabbies and the bus drivers, do not speak very great English, if at all. So we were quite proud of ourselves for that. We did have a Polish phrase book, but we had no idea how to pronounce anything. The Polish language is not a fan of vowells.

We met our friends Sara and Rien for lunch in the old town, and feasted on greasy meat and cheese pierogis to prepare for a long night of vodka drinking.

The streets in the Old Town are much worse to walk on with heels than in Amsterdam, and believe me, that is saying a lot! Unfortunately, it was too late for me, and as we left our hotel to try to find a cab to take us to the church, I wabbled about, getting stuck between the cobblestones. There were about 50 weddings going on that day - and the weather was perfect for people wandering about in the Old Town. So finding a cab was difficult, but we managed to score one eventually. We asked them to take us to the only Protestant church in the city, which wasn't hard to find. When we arrived though, we had no way to know if we were at the right wedding, b/c we didnt' recognize anyone.

The ceremony was very nice. We understood nothing - the ceremony was in Polish, with some in Dutch. If you can believe it, it was actually comforting to hear Dutch because we could recognize it. That will probably be the last time I say that though, b/c I find the Dutch language repugnant.

After the ceremony, a nice Polish couple recruited us to drive with them to the reception, which was held in a very beautiful wine cellar-y kind of place. It was quite lively as there were two other weddings being held there that night, but it didn't really complicate things as they were in different rooms.

We were served champagne and when the happy couple arrived, they were promptly handed their first celebratory shots of vodka, which they then threw over their shoulders. After their arrival we were escorted inside. About 20 minutes after we sat down, we were given our appetiser - a medley of delicious fish nibblets with a shot glass full of vodka in the middle. We embarassed ourselves a bit by taking a picture of this (see above). Shortly thereafter, the waitress came with a bottle of red, wine and a bucket with ice and a bottle of white wine and a bottle of Absolut.

As the night progressed, the tables emptied a bit as some Dutch boys proceeded to drink too much and wind up in the unisex bathroom vomitting and passed out on the benches aside. The shots of vodka continued, and we ate a lot of hearty Polish food to absorb them. We danced around quite a bit, and at one point I decided to ditch my shoes - classic drunken wedding move.

All was dandy until the bouquet toss. All the single ladies circled around the bride and shuffled about in a circle to same crazy Polish tune. When the music stopped, Agata threw the bouquet and our little Sara Lopez caught it. We were all still clapping and laughing when her boyfriend Rien came over, got on one knee and proposed! A night of surprises it was.

Around 3am we headed back to the hotel. The next morning was brutal. A shame, because it was a beautiful day and it would have been nice to have some more pierogis! Instead we relaxed, slept and read in the room, all the while listening to the string quarter playing right outside our window, which was quite lovely. We headed back to Amsterdam in the afternoon.

Poland was a very interesting place to visit, and we would like to go back one day and visit Krakow and some off-the-beaten path cities. It was so great to be part of Agata and Theo's special day, and what turned out to be Sara and Rhijn's special day as well.

P.S. Na zdrowie means Cheers in Polish. Use it.

Random Musing: The Dutch Lemonade

In celebration of some hard-to-come-by decent weather last Sunday, Matt and I went out for a run around the Vondelpark in the morning then out for a walk around the Jordaan in the afternoon. We stopped at a cafe on the Singel canal that has a huge terrace that we frequent on warm Friday nights.

Matt had himself a bloody mary, and I ordered a lemonade. We had to pay in advance, and we probably should have taken this as a warning of what was to come, given that these people don't even have faith in themselves to complete a transaction properly and in a normal fashion.

Five minutes after ordering and paying, Matt gets his bloody mary. I get a sprite.

"This isn't what I ordered," I say.

"The ticket says Sprite," says the waitress.

"Ok. But I didn't order a Sprite. I ordered a lemonade."

"Oh. But this is just like lemonade."

"No, this is a Sprite."

"So you want a lemonade? Like, water with syrup in it?"

"Um. I guess."

"Ok. I will get it for you."

Fifteen minutes later, Matt has finished his drink and I was still waiting. The waitress runs by, "I will be right back with your lemonade."

"Thanks."

Ten minutes. No lemonade. If I hadn't paid for this drink, we would have left. But this was a matter of principle now! The service in Amsterdam is so bad, and something must be done!

Matt calls over the waiter we placed our orders with and explains the situation. He said he'll take care of it.

A few minutes later, the waitress comes back with a drink.

"Here is your lemonade!" she says. "No gas!"

Matt and I look at this thing.

"What the hell is that?" asks Matt

Does this look like a lemonade to you?

I sip this thing. Sure enough, it is water, with syrup in it. No gas. I tastes like a flat shirley temple. I leave the drink there, and vow never to return.

Moral of the story - do not order lemonade in Amsterdam, unless you want to wait 30 minutes for syrupy red water that tastes like an old liquified cherry.

your gay pride is showing

This past weekend, 4th August, was Gay Pride Day (aka Amsterdam Pride) in Amsterdam. One of the largest GLBT (Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transexual) events in the world, Amsterdam Pride sees 350,000 to 500,000 visitors every year. There are several street parties, mostly limited to the "pleins" (squares) and the well-known gay streets, but the big fun is on the canals. Instead of a parade with trucks, the Amsterdam Pride parade is on boats - lushly decorated boats with dozens of dancing men in speedos. Not a bad way for a gal, or a gay, to spend an afternoon. There were also a handful of lesbian boats, but these were nowhere near as fun. Many companies sponsored boats - like ING, ABN AMRO and TNT (the mailmen). There were also a few heterosexual boats that came by to ruin the fun, and hilarity ensued when tourists out on their paddleboats meandered into the Prinsengracht and had to navigate their way out. The parade was limited to the Prinsengracht and only lasted a few hours. We celebrated properly with eleven bottles of rosé between five of us - but it did take us all day.

We missed this event last year because we were in Spain, so it was great to catch it this year. I think I prefer it to Queen's Day because there were less people and funnier music (think theme song to "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"). Plus it happened to be on the nicest day of the summer so far - even the sun came out of the closet today!

Homecoming - July

Last Friday (20 July), we returned to the United States for our third trip home since arriving in Amsterdam. This trip was the best one so far - we got some excellent beach time, saw tons of friends and family, saw our good friends Drew and Paige tie the knot and ate an unbelievable amount of junk food like burgers, chicken wings and crab dip. Plus it was great to have some warm and sunny weather after being punished to no end with the rainy cold in Amsterdam. Spectacular indeed.

We took our standard flight to JFK that gets in at 8pm on Friday. My parents picked us up and we headed, excitedly, for a weekend in the hamptons. Saturday and Sunday was excellent beach weather - sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze on the beach, and cool in the am and pm. The beaches in eastern Long Island are unmatched - soft sand, clean waters and for the most part pretty desolate. We even found some time to go for a run and a long bike ride - it's nice to do those things without having to worry about getting hit by a tram, or speeding car, some jerk on his motorbike or reams of meandering tourists that are confused by the concept of walking on a sidewalk. My parents cooked up a mean bbq on saturday night, chased by some even meaner caipirinhas, then a late evening stroll through the westhampton town, which has become 80% real estate brokerage offices. On Sunday, my aunt and uncle hosted a luncheon to keep the eating frenzy in motion.

On Monday we took shelter from the rain by indulging in some retail therapy. It's fun shopping with dollars now that we have euros - it's kind of like monopoly money. Quite dangerous. On Tuesday it was back to the beach before heading out of LI and into NYC to meet some friends for dinner at Dos Caminos. Mike, Stacy, Liz and Saurab were kind enough to meet us for what turned out to be a really fun time at a mediocre restaurant (why does Robert DeNiro come here??). It was bittersweet since we knew we only had one night with them. We headed to New Jersey to Matt's parents' house that night.

On Wednesday, I did some damage at the new Anthropologie store that opened up in Red Bank (love that store!). Afterwards we went to an enormous supermarket - not really enormous by American standards, but to us it felt like Disneyworld. We sped along the aisles with our shopping cart and marveled at all of our options - it is truly amazing how many options we have in the US, what a great country. Mrs. Sgrizzi picked up a tremendous pack of ground beef to make hamburgers and I just stared at this thing with wonder, a reaction upon which Mrs. Sgrizzi responded with "You think that's big, you should see what they have at Costco". Wow.

A couple of delicious hamburgers and fabulous eggplant rollitini later, we were spent, also no thanks to the two-glasses-of-wine-and-two-Benadryl cocktail I inadvertenly swallowed (I'm allergic to Matt's dog Casey). Not much time for lounging, though, since we were catching the 7pm train to Baltimore.

We said goobye to the nice, breezy summer weather of the northeast when we boarded that train to Baltimore, where the weather was no less than 90 degrees and humid. A short train ride later and we were greeted by our good friend Ryan, who drove us to our friends and hosts Emily and Bryan's huge pad. After dropping our bags, we head out to the bars and met up with our friend Glowacki. While I was on the phone with a friend, Mattt had ordered me a Coors Light. Now, I've never been a fan of this beer, and especially now that I live in a country where "light" beer has no home, I was quite disappointed by this choice. But we were in Baltimore now, and we had to be as the Baltimorons are.

On Thursday, Matt had a hectic day of going to his office in Baltimore to say hello, then going to pick up his tux in Towson for the wedding the next day, then going to the rehearsal at 5, and the rehearsal dinner at 7:30 (Matt was one of the groomsmen). All this in a suit in nearly 100 degree weather - unfortunate. I, on the other hand, chose to lounge around for most of the day in my good friend Mia's bridesmaid boutique that she opened not too long ago. We gossiped and tried on some bridal gowns - I was tempted to take a picture of me in one and send it to Matt via SMS, just to freak him out. I decided against it though! After a few hours of fun, Ryan picked me up and we lunched al fresco on some crab dip in Fell's Point. Later I met Matt at Sabatino's in Little Italy for the rehearsal dinner. This is also the restaurant where Matt and I had our first date over 5 and a half years ago, so it was nice to go back. The dinner was good, but the portions were incredible! I couldn't finish even a quarter of my pasta dish, and neither could most people. Matt, however, had no issue here. And our espressos were like a triple shot! So gluttonous. When we got home, Kootman "surprised" us by coming up from DC to see us. We then went out to Fed Hill, our old haunts, for some more light brewskies. Our friend Andy also came out to meet us. We were surprised to see that The Thirsty Dog was renamed The Dog Pub due to some copywright infringement and that Ryleigh's was transformed from a sports pub where we used to watch all the Giants games to a suped-up lounge. Life actually does seem to go on in Baltimore since we left - odd.

Friday was wedding time - and it was a very beautiful ceremony and reception. The color of the details was a nice bright tangerine, which was different and worked out really, really well. Paige was a beautiful bride, and Drew looked dapper as always. We were so glad to be able to share that day with them, so many miles away.

Saturday, our last day in Baltimore, was spent lounging for the most part - playing Mario Kart and eating greasy food. In the evening we went back to Federal Hill for milkshakes and to walk up the Federal Hill and catch a view of the harbor. From here we could see the Trapeze School, and they were having a little performance that we vouyered. We also stopped by Matt's old apartment, which Glowacki lives in now. That was a pretty weird experience to see it all again. We decided to skip the Yankee game since it was too hot and there were only standing room tickets left. We were mindful enough to remember what an awful time those games used to be when it was hot and overcrowded. Saturday night we all went out - me, Matt, Ryan, Emily, Bryan, Glowacki and his girlfriend Traci. We all proceeded to drink too much, and I ended up getting into a verbal dispute with a redneck at Royal Farms b/c he was being mean to Ryan for no reason. And because he was holding a pillow, which I thought was weird and felt that I needed to call attention to that.

Great trip overall - and one we hope to continue doing in the future. With three of our good friends getting married next year in the US, all in different states mind you, and none of which are New York and New Jersey, it may be hard to pull off it in 2008. But thanks to all who were able to come out and spend time with us, hopefully we'll catch the rest of you next time!

P.S. Several people have indicated to me that they don't feel we are blogging enough. And to those I respond - we have quite boring day-to-day lives. But I do realize that certain things do go on that I am undecided as to whether or not they merit a blog. And from now on, I will choose yes. I will also try to post some of our many random musings for your enjoyment. Just remember that you asked for it!