Ivanna and Joe

Ivanna and Joe's wedding this weekend was a great time. Both of them looked wonderful-- Ivanna was radiant and absolutely glowing all day. Joe looked fantastic and incredibly relaxed. They were so happy-- and deservedly so. The reception was a great time-- everyone was dancing and celebrating. I chatted with Sarah, one of the other girls in my pledge class of TBS, most of the night. We had seen each other on the night of Drum Corps Finals back in August, but hadn't had much of a chance to chat with the seating arrangements. Sarah has changed in the sense that life has dealt her some really hard events, but she's come through it stronger, and the same person that I knew in college is still definitely there-- just tempered with experience and time. We were seated with three of the other alumnae, who essentially put a shell around themselves for most of the day, which didn't surprise me in the least. *shrug*

I'm looking forward to the stories from the after-party at the hotel bar once I get in touch with various people that continued the partying long into the night. I have to wonder if Ivanna and Joe didn't collapse soon after the reception. I've heard the tales about how so many wedding couples just collapse after the reception ends-- between the emotions of the day, all of the energy spent in preparing for the big day, and then going around to chat with everyone during the reception, I can imagine that I'll just zonk out. I didn't see either of them when we left. Erich had a bad cold, and I was tired, so we left a bit before the reception ended so we could get home before 1 a.m. and try to recover. :)

We did have some trouble hearing the ceremony at the church, sadly. We couldn't hear their vows. But seeing them so happy made up for it in droves.

The reception location was very nice. It was a function hall that seems designed for special event receptions. Outdoors there was a large garden with paths around different plantings, seating areas, a waterfall, etc. By dark, it was very romantic. :)

It really was everything a wedding should be, honestly. Lots of celebration. Lots of happiness. I can only hope mine goes this well!

I have a few photos on my camera, which I'll get up in the next couple of days. We haven't unpacked the Jeep yet from the weekend, though-- so it'll probably be tomorrow night or Wednesday before I get to it. It's probably going to take us until Wednesday to recover from the weekend.

Our drive down was pretty rough, and that set off the exhaustion for Saturday. We left home around 8 p.m. with a plan to drive down I-95 through NYC to Mom's. In perfect traffic, it's about 4.5 hours. I figured with Friday night traffic, we'd be looking at somewhere around 5.5 hours. It ended up being somewhere over 7.

We hit a bit of road repair traffic in New Haven, but it really wasn't a major issue. A couple miles of backup, and then we were back at full speed again.

But when we hit the Cross-Bronx Expressway, things quickly went bad. Sadly, this was after the exit for the Tappan Zee Bridge, which would have allowed me to completely avoid all of the mess. But I didn't get the "expect delays" warning until I was several miles past the I-287 exit, and then I was stuck.

We hit the traffic backup somewhere around 11:30, give or take 15 minutes. And we crawled. And we crawled. It turns out that from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., they had three lanes closed on the upper deck of the GWB for repair traffic (I don't know what was happening on the lower deck-- but I presume a lane or two was closed there, too). By around 12:45, we still hadn't hit the bridge-- we were still a few miles from it. We turned on the traffic radio, which stated that people should "avoid the GWB toward New Jersey at all costs" (whee... great.) and that the tunnels out of Manhattan were clear.

We take out the map. We find a route. We take Jerome St. through the Bronx, cross over the river, and do the trek lengthwise of Manhattan down Broadway. We were amused at the traffic lights, all timed perfectly in banks of blocks. I think we averaged about 7-10 blocks per light, surrounded by cabbies. And New York was being itself-- markets were still open past 1 a.m., fruits and veggies still displayed on the sidewalk. Flowers remained in containers in front of open corner markets. People were out and walking to or from their evening activities. It was just another Friday evening in NYC.

Sometime around 1:30, we drove through Times Square. After hours of driving in the dark, the lights were blinding, but amazing to peek at from the car. The street artists were out en masse, quickly drawing portraits of passersby. The movie theaters were still open at the Loews. Tourists were taking in the sights and the insanity of all of the brightness from the advertisements. There simply is no way to describe the heart of Times Square at night until you've been there. It literally overloads your senses. Your sight, at least.

Once we'd passed through Times Square, the rest of the trip was relatively easy. As the traffic report had said, the tunnel was clear. We got to my mom's house just past three a.m., where we promptly collapsed to get as much sleep as possible.

I was woken up at 8 a.m. by a combination of Mom's dog, Shanti, barking, and the beep of the house alarm as one of the exterior doors opened (I HATE my mom's alarm system... but that's a vent for another day.). I wasn't able to get back to sleep. Erich was up soon after I was. We chatted for a while. We had coffee. Then my mom was off to work, and we were getting ready so we could leave by 1 p.m. (the wedding was back in NJ at 3).


Thankfully, the trip back on Sunday was uneventful. We listened to the Sox-Yankees game. We got sick of the incredibly annoying Yankees Radio Network announcers, who were positively awful. I can understand an extreme slant of the radio against another team. Particularly with the Yankees, because the Yankees give off the air that they're the only team in baseball that has or will ever matter. And I understand that it's stronger when it's a Red Sox game. No problems there. It comes with old town sports. But the Yankees announcers were complete morons, and I'm in awe that in effing New York their sports announcers are so inept at their jobs.

1) They are clueless about the sport of baseball. They weren't sure who was ever up in their own bullpen, let alone both bullpens. They had no clue on when games in the playoffs start for any team but the Yankees. They actually said "I don't know when the Red Sox start. Wednesday, maybe?" Yet once we got onto WEEI radio territory, the Sox announcers could inform on ALL playoff game dates that had been settled, regardless of team. And they definitely couldn't name any potential starting pitchers for Tuesday, regardless of team (including their own).

2) They were incredibly hypocritical. The male announcer (there was also a woman) was strongly calling the behavior in another game a "disgrace to baseball" because said team wasn't playing to their full potential (having already secured a trip to the playoffs), taking their leading players out of the game early to conserve them for the post-season. (I forget which team it was, honestly). The announcer went on claiming that every game should be played 100%, yadda yadda yadda. Yet as soon as the end of the Chicago-Cleveland game was announced, where it was confirmed that both the Sox and the Yankees were headed for the playoffs, the Yankees start pulling their pitchers and putting random guys to see how they'd do. The Yanks are down 10-1 at this point. But it's not "disgraceful" when the Yankees do the same thing... it's "postseason tryouts."

Whatever buddy. STFU.

And then, the announcers whines about how the Yanks have to go out to Anaheim, and how they've been on the road for a week now, and how hard that will be on the players.

Ugh.

3)How much dead air can you have on the radio? Seriously, dude. There were long stretches of silence. I couldn't believe how bad it was. And on top of that, beyond the whining, no personality whatsoever.

I've never been happier to get to WEEI territory.

Anyway... it was a long weekend. A fun weekend. And now I need a vacation to recover. :)

Back to work...

~ Mel.