September
Well September was, for the vast
majority, amazing! This was our wedding month!! One of my goals for the
first quarter of the year is to do an in-depth series detailing
everything about our wedding so I won't write too much about it right
now. It was so amazing to have all of our family and friends come
together to celebrate our union. Our ceremony went so well, the dress
my mom made was perfect, our bridesmaids and groomsmen were amazing, our
minister was amazing, everyone who all gave speeches were amazing and
the weather was absolutely perfect. The venue was beautiful, the flowers
were perfect, my bouquet was beyond stunning, Bill
looked so classy, the DJ was on point, the food was delicious, and so on
and so forth. The one thing that didn't go well, which I haven't
mentioned on any blog yet, was that Bill's mom got life-threateningly
sick the day before the wedding, so she wasn't able to attend the
wedding. It put a real damper on the day. It didn't take away all of
our joy, as it was the best day of our lives, but we were very worried
about her and her presence was greatly missed. That all being said,
other than that major issue, the day was perfect in every way.
The
day after the wedding, we headed to Hawaii for our honeymoon! We were
worried about Bill's mom, but she would never have forgiven herself if
we delayed our trip on her account. We had an incredible 8.5 days on
the islands of Kauai and Maui. More on this to come in my honeymoon
recap posts!
After the trip, we got to meet up with my family for lunch in Dayton for a few hours before catching our flight back to DC.
Slowly,
life returned to normal. We returned to work to boatloads of emails
and work that had piled up, but we felt that newlywed glow! People kept
asking me it felt different to be married and I thought it did
instantly! I really didn't know what to do with myself without wedding
planning and to be honest, I felt a bit depressed that everything we/I
had worked so hard on for so many months was just over. I still feel
this way sometimes.
The only other thing that I remember happening in September was volunteering at the National Book Festival for JLW.
October
Oh, October. This was a month that was pretty darn good.
I
started the month with my last Honor Flight trip of the year and it was
a pretty great one. After the trip, I went for drinks with my friend
Shawna who also volunteers.
One of the best moment of the
year was seeing Adele in concert. I had wanted to go so bad ever since
the tickets went on sale and sold out instantly. The tickets on StubHub
were just so expensive, even for the 400-level seats. It was killing me
to not go, but I couldn't decide if I should spend that kind of money.
Eventually I decided that I would just go outside of the Verizon Center
early on the day of the concert to see what I could find and I got an
amazing seat for yes, a lot of money, but for less than what I had seen
online. The show was life-changingly amazing. She sounded exactly like
she does on the radio, if not better. As Tara said, it was seriously
like a spiritual experience. She was so funny and down-to-earth. She
talked a lot between each song. Normally this tends to annoy me, but
with her, it was as if I was having a conversation with an old friend.
Her voice is so powerfully amazing. I wish I could have seen every one
of her concerts. I'll stop going on and on about this because I will
never adequately display how great she is.
Bill and I
went on a "ghost tour" of Old Town, Alexandria with JLW. It was
actually pretty cheesy, but it was still fun. We learned more about
local legends than ghosts, but it was fun. Our tour leader was a man in
traditional colonial garb who led us around the town while holding a
lantern to light the way.
The next day, I returned
to Old Town for OysterFest at Hank's with my friend Stephanie. I always
enjoy that event because it's all-you-can-eat and drink but it's also
very low key. I took the metro to get there and rode the trolley in,
which was fun!
I saw Cinderella at the Kennedy Center with BJ.
We
ended the month in San Diego for my now sister-in-law's wedding! I
intended to do a full post on this, but I'm not sure that will ever
happen so I'm going to give a short recap here. We flew in and checked
into the nastiest hotel of our life. The next day, we checked out and
moved to an absolutely amazing hotel downtown. San Diego is seriously
beautiful! I had no idea. I had to work most of the first day so I
toiled away at Starbucks. That night we went to a traditional Hawaiian
meal at Dom's family's house where we met all of his great family
members who welcomed us so warmly. The next day was the wedding! Sharon
& Dom got married on a Hornblower yacht at sunset. We all gathered
at the dock and then were led onto the boat and given champagne.
Sharon was glowing, the ceremony was beautiful and emotional, the dinner
was delicious (seriously, best steak I've ever had at a wedding and the
cheese plate was to-die-for), and then Bill & I danced the night
away on the outside dance floor. One of the best parts was that Bill's
mom was finally recovered enough so she
was able to come!! She and Bill finally danced their mother-son dance
and there was not a dry eye in the house. We went to a hotel bar and
then to a BBQ joint after the wedding. The next day, we hung out with
Bill's parents, went shopping and then to lunch. I squeezed in some time
at the pool as the sun went down and then we went to dinner with the
extended family at a yummy seafood place where I got a giant bucket of
crab legs and lobster. On our last day in town, we woke up early to swim
at Coronado in our wet suits that my brother got us as a wedding
present. It was freezing so that was a short-lived adventure. I got
back, got ready and headed up to Temecula to meet one of my best
friends, Angie!! She lives in LA so we met halfway at the wineries
there. We tried 3 different ones - Wilson Creek, where we had almond
champagne, Old Europe and then the cutest one, Briar Rose. It felt like
we were in a fairy tale! It was so wonderful to get one-on-one time
with her and really catch up. The day ended too soon, though. We
grabbed In-n-Out, which was decidedly not as good as I remember and then
I drove back to San Diego, took a shower, and we all headed to the
airport!
Back in DC, we spent the rest of the month
apartment hunting. We saw about a 10 different apartments and finally
settled on one!
Pausing here because I have a lot to say about the last 2 months of the year. Catch up on the end of the year tomorrow!
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