My Best Friend's Wedding - The Sequel

Cristy always said she was going to have a beach wedding, and a few weeks ago, she made good on that promise and said “I Do” to Jon Simon on the shores of Southern California.

David and I were more than happy to escape cold, dreary London for sunny, warm Cali. I flew in early to spend a few days with Katie and Cristy at the St. Regis.

The three of us booked our flights to arrive in San Diego at the same time, and after picking up our rental car and miraculously fitting all the luggage (including Cristy’s gown) into the trunk, we had a quick lunch in Little Italy and then drove up Highway 1 to Monarch Beach.

We had a lot of fun experimenting with the 

new iPhone panorama camera at the hotel

The St. Regis was beautiful! Thank you, Katie, for using your hotel points to get us a great deal!

After checking in, we immediately went down to the pool, ordered some girly drinks, and soaked up the sun while catching up!

When we got back to our room, there was a sweet treat waiting for us…

The staff at the St. Regis was so nice! When we checked in, they asked if we were there for any special occasion, so we told them it was a short getaway for our birthdays and Cristy’s wedding. Katie’s birthday is the 7^th, mine is the 9^th, and Cristy’s is the 12^th so we always try to celebrate together. It’s amazing that living so far apart, we’re still able to do this. We’re already planning Hawaii 2014 for our 30^th birthday celebration! Can’t wait!  Let’s see if we can all hold off on the bebes until then… 

That night for dinner, we had more yummy surprises waiting for us! We ate at Motif overlooking the resort’s pool, golf course, and the ocean.  We had a cheese plate to start (which was weird for me since in Europe we usually have cheese for dessert), then I had the lobster risotto with truffle foam, Cristy had the salmon, and Katie had steak. My stomach was still stuffed from all of my fast-food adventures in Connecticut the weekend before, but I managed to eat about half of my risotto.

Then came the good part!

We were way too full to order dessert, but before we could object, our waiter brought us each our own bday treat, and a cake for Cristy’s wedding. 4 desserts total – not to mention the cake up in our room! 

Doesn’t this wedding dessert look like it has teeth?

The next morning we woke up ready for a day of pampering! We had lunch by the pool and then headed to the spa for massages.

I had never had a massage before that day. Shocking, I know. I had the Turkish bath massage, but that was an entirely different experience. Most of my girlfriends are obsessed and always berating me for being outta the loop, but now I’m hooked!

We popped open a bottle of champagne to enjoy with our mani/pedis.  

That afternoon we checked out and headed back down to San Diego to check into our Del Mar hotel closer to the wedding festivities. David arrived a few hours later with our friends Margarita and Marisa from Houston. I said hi to David and then bye, as it was time for Ladies Night at Lips!

Lips is a bar/restaurant run by a group of hilarious drag queens. I’d never been to a drag show before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I was thrown right into it because they started the show off by asking who traveled the furthest to be there. I pretended not to hear, while Margarita, Marisa, and Katie started screaming, “London!” Another woman called out “New Jersey,” but the host heard my girlfriends and declared “London’s further, bitch!” before dragging me out of my seat and over to the bar for a free shot.

I don't know what's going on with her/his makeup in this pic...

Then they did birthday celebrations, so Katie and I were gifted a cupcake to share with our table before being pulled back onstage to dance around with the "California Gurls." Then we had to introduce ourselves.

Parental Advisory Warning: This video contains some bad language...

P.S. Katie and I look TINY compared to the queens

I swore I wasn’t going onstage again after that, but after dinner we played Bitchy Bingo and guess who won? So I got back up there to claim my free T-shirt.

I thought I was done for the night, but after the show and dinner and bingo, our whole table got one last pic with our waiter? waitress? I don’t know… What I do know is it was a ton of fun. Thanks Margarita and Marisa for planning girl's night out!

The next day we toned things down a little, and David and I had breakfast with Barbara, Jeremy, and Kassandra before heading to Escondido to visit my grandparents. We hadn't seen my dad’s parents since we took a Spring Break road trip to CA and Vegas when we were juniors in college. It’d been way too long!

Grandpa and Grandma looked great and the house was bright and beautiful, just like we remembered. We chatted at home for a while before they treated us to a belated birthday lunch at the Beach House, our favorite restaurant on the water.  

That night we had the rehearsal dinner back at the Hilton.

Bridesmaids

Margarita, me, Marisa, and Katie

After dinner, we hung out with Cristy before wishing her a great night’s sleep on her last evening as a single lady. She slept great and came into our adjoining room the next morning bright-eyed and ready to go!

I love that sign outside the door!  Such a nice way to say 'leave us alone!'

Dave and David went on a 5-mile run with the groom and some other friends while the girls were spoiled next door with more massages, mimosas, hair, and makeup.

These are the cutest bridesmaid gifts - 

Tom's that say "Do Small Things with Great Love"

Cristy and her Mom getting ready

The guys came back a little while later with giant breakfast burritos from Roberto’s. I couldn't turn down the hash brown burrito, but when it was time to get in my bridesmaid dress, I definitely had a burrito baby. Good thing the dresses were black! Cristy was sweet enough to let us each pick out our own, as long as they were black. Each girl’s personality definitely showed through her choice in dress!

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect and the location was stunning in a park overlooking the beach.

The most adorable ushers ever!

The most adorable husband ever!

The Texans

And the reception was… well it was really, really fun. I had a little too much fun. Actually, way too much fun.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Cheese!  

I didn’t realize that ridiculous block of cheddar would take over the shot!

Why is David a rasta again?  And where did Dave go in the second shot?

Cristy was a little scared during the Hora...

Jon was much more comfortable up there.

Katie's maid of honor speech

The Dave's and Jon

Instead of a cake, there were a gazillion cupcakes to choose from.  

And then later they brought out mini creme brulees.  Yum!

This was the first Pinterest wedding I've been to and it was awesome! Where was Pinterest when I was getting married? Cristy took all of the photos for the table numbers herself - she's a great photographer.

Whose foot is this?  And why am I holding it?

Margarita and me "resting" at the bar…

And then we got our second wind and got back out there!  David and I danced “gangnam style.” He was the horse, and I was the rider. Cristy and Jon said their photographer has a great shot of us galloping around the dance floor. I’m not sure I want to see that… And why do Margarita and I look so angry dancing (especially me)??

We even got the bartenders out on the dance floor!

We survived!  

Katie and me soaking our sore feet in the tub back at the hotel. 

Dave asleep with the mac ‘n cheese… Cristy and Jon did a midnight snack at the reception, and there was a ton of leftover mac ‘n cheese. Katie couldn't let it go to waste, so brought it back with us, and then David wanted an “artsy” photo.

Miraculously, the next day at the zoo we actually felt pretty good!

Marisa the panda, Margarita the lion, and me the giraffe

Cristy and Jon invited everyone from the wedding to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday after brunch. There were so many people there, that Cristy borrowed my animal-print umbrella so no one would get lost. 

Just like a real tour guide!

Watching a panda eat its bamboo lunch

Congrats again, Cristy and Jon! Thanks for making us a part of your wedding. We are so happy for you two! 

Byte Night 2012

100,000 young people in the UK faced homelessness last year.  Action for Children, a national charity, is committed to bringing that number down and keeping youth off the streets.  The organization focuses on providing support for neglected, vulnerable children to prevent homelessness.  These are children who are physically and/or emotionally abused at home, living in poverty, leaving their current care system, or unaccompanied asylum seekers who have no one else to turn to.

Every year for the past 15 years, hundreds of IT professionals have committed to sleeping on the streets so they don’t have to.  This annual event is called Byte Night.

When I ran the JP Morgan 5k earlier this year, I met a great group of people from the Dell London office that invited me to participate in Byte Night with them.  So we began fundraising by reaching out to our colleagues and requesting donations, sponsoring game nights at the local pub, and hosting bake sales.

My Rolo cookies were a hit and brought in $45!  

Thanks for the recipe, Pinterest!

The Dell sleepers raised over $3,500 for Action for Children.  Way to go, team!  But that was just the beginning…

The 10 sleepers, myself included, met at the office at 5:00 armed with our raincoats, sleeping bags, and layers of leggings and wool socks.  But of course, right as we left the office to head to the tube station, it started to rain.  A steady, hard rain that lasted 12 hours non-stop!

What was I expecting?  I hiked 26 miles in the rain and mud, I ran a 5k in the rain and mud, and now I would be sleeping in the rain and mud.  Every time I do a charity event here, it pours.  One of the other sleepers, at about 3AM looked up to the sky and started pleading, “God!  We’re trying to do a good thing here… can you give us a break??  Please?!”  Hahaha – I guess God had more important things to do Friday night, or He wanted us to really experience what it’s like for a homeless child on the streets facing the British elements.

By the time we got to City Hall for the event registration, dinner, and auction we were already soaked.  Luckily the heat was on at City Hall and the indoor part of the evening lasted 4 hours.  So we were able to get dry and warm before heading back outside.

But at 10:30, it was time.

The first aid tent in the shadow of City Hall

The Dell group grabbed our gear (which Action for Children had packed in giant waterproof trash bags for us, making us look even more like vagabonds) and found a spot in Potter’s Field near Tower Bridge to bunk down for the night.

At first, I thought it was awesome to be sleeping next to City Hall, with Tower Bridge as a giant night-light.  That feeling quickly wore off.

Since it was pouring, we were going to wait as long as possible to actually try to get some shut-eye.  So we socialized, drank to keep warm, and seriously considered paying £50 for a Domino’s pizza (they auctioned off the pizzas to raise some last-minute funds).

Trying to stay awake as long as possible

At about 2:00 in the morning, I was so cold and wet and tired that I started shaking uncontrollably.  Lynda had been asleep for a while and she looked mighty snug in her sleeping bag, so the rest of us decided it was time.

We made one last run to the port-a-potties and then set up our umbrellas 300-style. 

I say 300-style because they reminded me of the Spartan shields the soldiers would layer on top of each other to protect themselves from arrows and spears.  Except we were trying to protect ourselves from the rain.

We laid our tarp out and then stuffed our sleeping bags into the giant Byte Night plastic bags gifted to us.  Then we had to somehow take off our shoes, avoid getting our feet wetter (they had already gotten soaked through our shoes from walking around in the mud for hours), and then shimmy into the sleeping bag/plastic bag combo.  Luckily I was not the last one going to sleep, so William came over and jumped up and down with me so I could scootch lower and lower into my sleeping bag.  Then he lowered me like a plank down onto the tarp.  Man, I wish I had a video of that.  It was an ordeal.

Half an hour, I had to pee like crazy.

Lying on the wet tarp with rain dripping onto me didn’t help.  I held it for another half hour before opening my eyes at 3:00 and finding two of the other girls staring back at me.  I whispered, “I have to go the bathroom” and they both started laughing and said, “Us too!  Let’s go!”

So we shimmied back out of our sleeping bags, ran to the port-a-potties, and then got back to our campsite.  This time there was no one to help us into our bags, so we just jumped into them and fell back down onto our backs.  Terrible technique.  During the fall, water seeped into the top part of my sleeping bag so now my hat and hair were soaked.  Plus there was a horrible nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me I was getting gangrene from my soaking wet feet.

This was no good.  As I lied there, a man from another company set up behind us started moaning, “I hate being homeless!”  I feel ya.  Then the wind picked up and a few umbrellas blew away.  Bruce, next to me on my right side, was struggling to hold his down while half asleep/half awake.  He started mumbling that this was the worst night of his life.  That’s when I piped in with, “You’ve had a great life if this is the worst night of your life!”  But honestly, I think it was probably the worst night of my life, too.  I can’t remember being more miserable.

We put on our brave faces while out there

At 4:00 we couldn’t lie there anymore.  The “sleep” was supposed to last until 6AM.  Then the event organizers were to wake us up, give us breakfast, and at 7:00 we would be on our way.  But we weren’t the only team struggling.  The organizers actually came around at 4:00 with the first aid crew and asked if we were warm and dry. 

OF COURSE NOT!  HOW WAS ANYONE KEEPING WARM AND DRY?!

So they told us not to feel obligated to stay and that a lot of people were leaving.  We sat up and looked around us and sure enough, at least half of the 300 other people out in the field were packing it up.  But where were they going?  No one drives in London and the tubes don’t start running until 5:30 on the weekends.

We tried to tough it out for about 30 more minutes, but it was getting unbearable at that point.  I was getting colder and wetter.  I wasn’t going to risk getting sick because I was headed to the states the next week to see Bailey, and I couldn't be sick around her.  And then the second half of the week I’d be in California for Cristy’s wedding.  Images of me as a sneezing, wheezy, coughing bridesmaid during the ceremony started flashing through my mind.  It wasn’t worth it.  I was throwing in the towel.

I called my trusty London cabbie and sure enough, he would be there to pick me up in 5 minutes!  It was $45 to get across the city to get home at that time of the night, but it was worth every penny to not have to wait for the tube and lug my backpack, changing bag, and sleeping bag in a giant trash bag on the subway.  I didn’t have the energy for that at 4:30.

I jumped out of my sleeping bag, threw everything inside the trash bag, and dragged it down to the street. 

David was actually awake when I got home half an hour later.  He had laid out my slippers and giant comfy robe for me.  I took the hottest shower ever and then flew into bed, wrapping the duvet around me.  But as I lied there in warmth and comfort, I couldn’t help but think about how I had kept telling myself all night, “It’s only one night.  It’s only a few more hours.  It’s only a couple more hours…”

For real homeless people out on the streets, they don’t know when they’re going to get a hot shower, or be able to sleep in a warm bed.  They don’t have spouses waiting for them with slippers and robes and towels, or washing machines to throw their wet clothes into.  They have to wear those sopping, filthy clothes the next day.  And the day after that. 

As I’ve travelled through developing countries and seen extreme poverty like children living in dung huts in Africa or Bedouins with nothing but makeshift tents in the deserts of Jordan, I’ve felt very little sympathy for the homeless in rich, Western nations like the UK or US.  It actually really bothers me when I see young people, like the drag rats in Austin, panhandling when they still have their whole lives ahead of them, and the potential to do some good in the world.  Instead, they’ve made some very bad decisions, gotten involved in drugs, crime, whatever, and ended up on the corner begging for cash.

But sleeping on the street that Friday has definitely made me much more compassionate.  I realized I don’t know their situation or how they ended up where they did.  I can only hope that by raising money and awareness for Action for Children, that we’re doing our part to help prevent homelessness.

Pinterest Pumpkin Pic Fail

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with Pinterest.  I have to limit myself to 30 minutes a day or I will get nothing accomplished… 

While browsing my favorite new website, I came across the cutest Fall baby picture and decided I had to try it with my new niece during my visit to Connecticut.  Bailey already had the hat and everything!

First, we picked out the largest pumpkin we could find at the local pumpkin patch. 

I don’t know why we thought we needed the largest, because Bailey is a tiny baby.  On her birthday, she weighed in at 6 lbs. and 6 weeks later, she’s only 8 lbs.  That’s smaller than me when I was born! 

Then we hollowed-out the pumpkin, saving the seeds to roast.  I enjoyed all of the seeds during our road trip the next day, since no one else likes roasted pumpkin seeds.  What?!  Those were such a fun treat when we were little; a healthy snack to munch on during our Halloween school parties.

Back to the task at hand!

We lined the hollowed-out pumpkin with a garbage bag and then stuffed a pillow in so Bailey wouldn't be swallowed whole.  I guess we could’ve just used the smaller pumpkin, but she was already stripped down so we had to act fast.  “Hurry, stick the baby inside the garbage bag!” we yelled...  That’s just not right.

At first, she didn't seem to mind being stuck inside a pumpkin.  As long as her mama’s hand stayed on her back, propping her up, she was all right.  

But then Emily snuck out of the camera shot and all hell broke loose.

Bailey started to slide down…

Further and further down…

To avoid losing her forever, or having to use the jaws of life to get her out of the giant pumpkin, we stopped clicking away and pulled her out. 

Suprisingly, a few minutes later she was happy to try again! 

This time we balanced her very carefully on top of the pumpkin.  Emily held tight and then quickly stepped away while I went all “sport-mode” with my Canon.

But this didn’t look right either, so we gave up. 

Bailey took a nap and we carved out all three pumpkins while watching Hocus Pocus.

Dracula’s castle with a bat, a monkey for Bailey, 

and a pumpkin-head scarecrow.

Maybe next year, Bailey, when you can sit upright we’ll get a shot like this:

But for now, I have to admit defeat.  My first Pinterest fail.  No!!!