Popular lately.
Sorry. No data so far.
search this blog
Things I write about…
Last week, I got onto a plane in Hawaii. 10 hours later, I was in New York. As much as it stinks to be stuck sitting in one place for so long, I can’t help but be amazed that I can just sit down and am suddenly transported 5,000 miles from where I began.
The flight was not too bad! I was not able to sleep, but I read A Dance with Dragons for about 5 hours and then watched television and ate some snacks for the rest of the journey.
I wish I could have slept though, because I have been having terrible problems with jetlag whenever I come home. I just have a really hard time adjusting to the time zone whenever I travel east. I usually fly to New York overnight and then land around 7 am. Once I have been up for 24 hours straight, though, I want to crash and sleep all day. Then I want to stay up all night. And I made the mistake of doing exactly that when I came to New York in December – my first trip back home. It took me about a week to get on New York time after that.
I did not want that to happen again, so I just took a quick 2 hour nap after my brother took me out for breakfast (yes he’s the best! He picked me up at the airport and took me right out to breakfast!). I spent the rest of the day hanging around with him before getting ready to go down to DC. He got me into watching How I Met Your Mother, and now I only watch it with him. We are on the 7th season so we still have a lot to watch whenever we see each other.
It was still hard to sleep that night for some reason, and I really didn’t feel adjusted to New York time until today.
On Friday, my friend Jason drove my friend Joe and me down to DC. We all met Christy through our church group when we were in college, so it was a little reunion for all of us. I talk to Joe all the time – he’s one of my best friends and he even came to visit Nick and me in February – but I hadn’t seen Jason since college. So, it was really great for us to have a mini-college reunion.
Once we got into the city, we wanted to explore as much as possible. Our hotel was within walking distance of Arlington Cemetery, so we headed down that way.
That night, I was lucky enough to spend some time with the bride! I hadn’t seen her since March so it really meant a lot to just see her in person and give her a hug. I was initially supposed to be involved in the mass along with Joe. Although a few things changed at the last minute, Christy still invited Joe and me to the rehearsal dinner, which I thought was just so sweet of her. I felt really honored to get to spend some time with her the night before her wedding.
We spent the morning exploring some more of the city with Jason’s girlfriend, Emily, who had flown in from Boston. The four of us had so much fun walking around and exploring the city.
Oh, DC, how I love you. We did not have that much time but we did walk the National Mall.
As you can see it was a kind of gray morning, and as soon as it was time to go to the church it started pouring. But, they say it’s good luck for rain on your wedding day, and, as the priest said, a day like that really represents what marriage is all about. Rain or shine, I don’t think it mattered to Christy one bit.
Then I got to see my friend walk down the asile and marry the love of her life!
She looked absolutely stunning in a dress handmade by her amazingly talented mother. She even designed it with her mom!
By the time the mass was over, the rain had stopped, and the sun slowly started coming out. I think that Christy got the best of both worlds — a little bit of rain for good luck, but it stopped just in time for her to go around DC and get some pictures with her husband and bridal party. I am so glad it worked out so great for her.
We had some time in between the church and the reception so we all headed down to the White House, which was just a few blocks from her reception. Look at that sky – what rain?!
Afterwards, we got an aerial view of the White House at Christy’s cocktail hour at the Old Ebbitt Grill! What a perfect place for a wedding in DC. It is a restaurant that has a space for weddings – if you are in DC you should absolutelty check it out. It was a really fun place.
That dress! I love the details. Can you believe her mom made it?!
Christy was one of the most joyful brides I have ever seen. I remember when we were both in long distance relationships with our then-boyfriends who are now our husbands. Not many people can understand what you go through in that situation, but talking to Christy always made me feel better because we were going through it at the same time. Even then, we both knew that we would end up with our husbands, no matter how hard the distance was. I think we could see that in each other’s relationships, too, which is what I think made us become even closer after college. So it really meant a lot to me to see her get married and celebrate with her.
Another view from her cocktail hour:
That night I got to dance with my friends and meet a lot of great people. Christy has an awesome blog, www.planestrainsandrunningshoes.com, that inspired me to start my own. She blogs about running, her many travels, and books, among other things, and she has made some great friends through blogging. I got to meet her friend Holly, who blogs at www.faithhopeandbaseball.com. She gave me some great advice for starting out and was just a really fun, genuine person. I really like her blog, too, so check it out. It was great to meet some other bloggers as I start my new adventure in blogging.
This morning, we were all exhausted from the wedding weekend, so we decided to just get in the car and drive back to New York early. Jason, Joe, and I spent 6 hours in the car together, and I have to send a huge thank you to Jason for driving us, putting up with horrible traffic, and stopping practically every hour so I could use the bathroom. Thanks, Jason!
I have about a week and a half left here in New York. I have something planned almost every day and am trying to see as many of my friends and family as possible. I don’t care what I do, as long as I get so spend time with them!
It was SO nice to meet you!! I’m glad you had a great weekend and I hope you enjoy your week in New York!! 🙂
This post just made me tear up! I love you, Carolann!!! I’m so so happy that you could be there to celebrate with us!!
[…] wrote about her wedding here so I will just say that her wedding and visiting Washington, DC was another amazing adventure. It […]