Pittsburgh 2007

Last weekend Matt and I were in Pittsburgh for Megan and Paul's wedding extravaganza. We had a great weekend. It started off kind of rough when we dropped Will off in Allentown to spend the weekend with his grandparents, but we could tell by the time we left how excited they were to have him, and he seemed already perfectly at home with them. So that was reassuring, though it was difficult leaving him. And it turns out that they had an excellent weekend and saw lots of animals and played outside and went to a birthday party and ate ice cream. So I know Will was very happy, and Matt's parents seemed even happier to have gotten to spend the full weekend with him, so it was good.

But anyway, we arrived in Pittsburgh way earlier than we expected, so we headed directly to Robbie and Jess' place, where we hung out with Jess and Henry for a couple of hours before Robbie came home from work. Then we ordered Thai food for dinner, and then out to the hootenanny, which was the party planned by Paul's family the evening before the reception. Paul and Megan were actually already married by then, so it was very cool to see them for the first time as a married couple. The hootenanny was a lot of fun. Besides Megan and Paul and Robbie, Jess, and Henry, we also hung out with Debbie, Eric, and Dylan, and my college friend Jason, whom I hadn't seen in quite a while, and his friend Chris. After the hootenanny, I managed to track down Craig and Elisa's (friends from grad school who recently moved to Pittsburgh) phone number, which was fortunate since we were staying with them that night. It ended up being later than we expected, so we chatted just a bit with Craig and then went to bed. The next morning we went out to breakfast with Craig, Elisa, Robbie, Jess, and Henry in Squirrel Hill. I daresay a good time was had by all.

And this brings my narrative to the start of the real wedding festivities, because our next stop was the Omni William Penn in downtown Pittsburgh, which was the official wedding headquarters. Our room was ready even though it was only noon, so we got to check in and check out the state of luxury that was to be our home for the next 23 hours. Believe me, the room was more than adequate. But we didn't stay long, because we had the duty, along with Debbie, to hang out and chill with Megan before it was time to get ready for the big event. So that was really nice. We just chatted and got lunch and drinks at Starbucks and relaxed for a couple of hours. And then I showered and got dressed up in my fancy wedding clothes, and joined Megan and some other of her lady friends in her mother's suite to do hair and makeup and stuff. And this is when I got to hold the extremely adorable Sophia, the six-month-old daughter of Megan's friend Susan, while Susan got dressed. Sophia is tiny and amazingly good-natured. She did spit up all over my dress, but that was my fault. Her mother warned me that she was about to do it. But no harm done, and I enjoyed holding her. And then it was time to leave for the reception, which is where Eric took the picture above of Megan, me and Debbie. The reception was great--the site was pretty, the food good, the DJ fun, the MC funny, and the company excellent. It ended at 10, nice and early for old boring people like me. We opted to skip the post-party party at the hotel and instead retired to our room and enjoyed sleeping in a fancy bed for as long as we wanted the next morning. We also had the benefit of the time change that weekend. So we got lots and lots of sleep before meeting up with Debbie, Eric, Dylan, Jason, Chris, and Megan for breakfast the next morning. Then we hit the road, had a nice drive back to Allentown, and were quite happy to pick up Willito, because we missed him.

In conclusion, congratulations to Megan and Paul! We look forward to seeing you for Thanksgiving.