Karen & Brian’s Wedding Weekend

I think I must have kept the germs at bay for a few days with the constant stream of alcohol provided by Karen’s family (I think I drank more in three days than I had in the prior three months), but as soon as we got on the plane to return to Houston, it was over. The low level sore throat I’d had for a few days grew into a roar, and by Sunday night I was feeling pretty miserable. Thus my four day vacation has now become six days and counting — but the last two days haven’t exactly been fun. I hate being sick. But Jose has been taking good care of me and I feel better today than yesterday. Sleeping for 12 hours will apparently do that.

We all had a great time in Atlanta. After arriving on Thursday, we had some time before the evening’s bachelorette festivities, so Becca and I took Jose on a walking tour of Georgia Tech. (We stayed at the Renaissance, which is right across the highway from the campus. In fact, our balcony overlooked the campus which I thought was very cool.) We ate lunch at Junior’s, a diner on campus where the chicken tenders tasted just like I remember them, before covering the rest of the campus. There has been an enormous amount of construction in the 7 years since I graduated, and there are so many new buildings that parts of the campus are almost unrecognizable. There’s also an entirely new section of campus across the highway that has a few stores and restaurants as well as academic buildings, the bookstore, and a new hotel. It would have been really nice to have some of those facilities when I was a student! Alas, the years I was there, GT was simply raising millions of dollars. They didn’t spend it until after I left!

Thursday night was girls night (though Jose and Karen’s dad were allowed to join us for dinner). We had yummy Mexican food at Casa Grande before heading across the street for dessert and drinks at Cafe Intermezzo — and presents. From there it was back to the hotel. Karen’s grad school friends all had to work on Friday so they headed home, but Karen and Becca and I spent the rest of the night in Becca’s hotel room drinking champagne and gossiping.

We got to sleep in on Friday, which was just plain awesome. I hadn’t been getting enough sleep for the past few weeks (so what’s new), and with the hotel curtains pulled and the room dark, I slept until 11:00!! Jose headed off to visit the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world (and yet another new thing that wasn’t there when I was at GT), while I joined Karen, Becca, Ashley and Karen’s mom for manicures and pedicures. It was lovely, and I’m proud to say that it’s been a whole 5 days and I haven’t screwed up my manicure yet.

Friday evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The priest doing the ceremony was very funny and kept us laughing during the rehearsal and even during the ceremony itself. Dinner was fabulous (Maggiano’s, mmm) and the cold front that Karen’s mother had been dreading came through while we were eating. It was raining hard, but it finally slacked off when it was time for us to walk back to the MARTA station.

Saturday dawned overcast and early. Karen had let me know a few weeks ago that the Pi Mile 5K was scheduled for the 12th and that Ashley would be running it. Well if one bridesmaid has time to do it, I figured that I did as well! I was very excited to get to run this 5K on the Georgia Tech campus, especially since I never did it as a student because I didn’t start running until I was gone and in grad school. I brought my running clothes (and proudly wore my Texas Independence Relay shirt), but this race was more notable for what I didn’t bring — my watch. Yep. No watch, no nothing. My plan was only to run comfortably and enjoy my jog around campus. In the end, I’m very happy to report that it was a good race! Atlanta is no San Francisco, but it’s also not flat. The entire course involved going either uphill or downhill — there were really no flat areas. I am proudest of the fact that I did no walking! Not a bit! They were calling times at the mile markers, so I do have an idea of my time and pace. I passed mile 1 in 10:40 and mile 2 in 21:32. The last mile had the biggest hills, and I don’t actually know what my official finish time was because I got only a glance at the clock as I passed the finish line, but it was something like 33:30.

I got to see my friends James and Chrissy at the race, but only had time to chat for a few minutes before walking back to the hotel. Jose and I ordered room service breakfast and had just enough time to eat it before I had to jump in the shower to get ready for wedding day activities! Ashley picked me up and we headed out to meet Karen and Becca at the hair salon. In yet another example of why I don’t particularly like hairdressers, I asked for my hair to be done straight, with the top part pulled back out of my eyes. I ended up with curls everywhere. Not what I asked for, but it looked good so I didn’t complain.

The wedding was beautiful and lovely and perfect and after 8 years of dating, Karen and Brian are finally married. The reception was held on the top floor of the Renaissance with an absolutely fantastic view of Atlanta. After all the thunderstorms and rain, the sky was finally clearing as we sat down for dinner, and the sunset was lovely.

Because Byron couldn’t make it because he was in Miami learning how to fly 747s, Becca called in Kent as a backup date. He is perhaps the only guy I know that actually enjoys weddings.

During the “money dance,” I decided that I wanted to dance with Karen instead of Brian.

I was exhausted by the time Karen and Brian took off, and was asleep within a half hour of getting back to my room. On Sunday morning, Kent came to pick us up for breakfast at Ok Cafe. This was the one time I wasn’t busy with wedding stuff, so I got to see all my other friends that still live in Atlanta — Carter, James, Chrissy, Chris, and Kent. It was great to see everyone, especially because it’s been a while since I’d made it back to Atlanta. I used to go a lot more frequently after I graduated, and when my sister was at Georgia Tech, but it had been almost 2 years this time around.

After breakfast, we had a couple hours to kill before Kent so kindly ferried us to the airport, so we randomly went and climbed Stone Mountain — another Atlanta tourist thing that I never did as a student. It was a gorgeous day and very clear, so we got a great view of downtown from the top.

All in all it was a great long weekend. The wedding was wonderful, but I also was very happy that Jose was able to come with me. After visiting Boston last summer and watching him relive his college days, I really wanted to be able to show him around Georgia Tech and meet the last of my college friends that he hadn’t met yet (Karen, Carter, and Kent). I know he wasn’t thrilled about a trip that revolved around a wedding, but he made the best of it and we had a great time.

Congratulations Karen and Brian!