The truth is that a lot of the past few weeks has been spent in dreary moving-related situations:
I'd like you to know that the above office is now not only as-if-freshly-painted, but also thoroughly empty, thanks in (small) part to my intrepid driving of a rental truck.
My grouchy look is representative of my feelings about driving a truck, but unrepresentative of the actual location of said truck at the time:
Being scared of the highway I stayed on Route 1, that gauntlet of temptation. And being about to leave New England I had to to get a last taste of Grape-Nut ice cream...and of course Jeff needed a black-and-white shake (or, if I'm being regional, frappe). This attitude may account for the 12 hours it took to get Jeff's office packed up, but might also be responsible for us not breaking up in the process.The rest of these photos make my life look really, really fun. Which it has been, in between all the dreary stuff. For one thing I've gotten to see several dear but remote friends lately, like Kendra and Jake:
These fun-loving and photogenic people live in England now, but were in town for Kendra's brother Patrick's wedding, of which I have no photos. You'll have to take my word for it that it was lovely.
Speaking of weddings, Jeff and I headed down to NYC over the weekend to see Tom and Elizabeth safely hitched. The rest of the time was mostly given over to eating terrific food and drinking copiously, starting with the bachelorette party at Pylos:
And Odessa:
(If you look closely here, you can see that Elizabeth's eyes already gleaming pink with anticipation.)
As a public service announcement, I must tell you about these:
Do you know what you are looking at? It is a picture of the best pancakes in the world. If you didn't know that pancakes could actually be mind-blowing (and who did?), and if you are in the environs of New York City, please go to Le Baricou, at Grand and Union in Williamsburg. We had a world-historical breakfast there with Nora and Noam.
You'd think bringing us into the proximity of the pancakes to end all pancakes would be a good morning's work, but they also revealed to us the truth about modernity's place in history. At breakfast!
And then the highlight of the weekend, the wedding at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday. Behind the scenes there was wrestling with ribbons
and face-painting
But in spite of the inexpert help, just look...
Elizabeth was, everyone agreed, a vision.
From the seats Jeff managed to get pictures of the lovely Melissa
and my demure self
and, finally, the new husband-and-wife!
Then came the party, with more spectacular food and copious drink, and a dearth of pictures because I don't like my flash. But here's Dave and Michael
and us
and Jeff and Abigail, whom I wish I had a better picture of because they were so very good-looking.
Then it was all over, and Jeff and I drove home. We managed to clear enough room in our tummies to make the customary stop in Vernon, Connecticut
and then I fell asleep and remember no more.
The next day was Labor Day, and while Jeff ran more dreary errands I got to go to Wells Beach, where my brother-in-law's parents have a house. It was, it turns out, Jenny and Reggie's first anniversary. A year ago we were all running around trying to keep Hurricane Ernesto off our dresses. This year, we looked at honeymoon photos
and generally sat around, enjoying the much-improved weather.
I hadn't seen Laurel since the wedding, because she's been working so hard on her tan in the BVI all year. She managed to adjust to New England conditions tolerably well, considering.
And with that we are up-to-date. Today we're doing some packing and moving of furniture and running of errands; tomorrow we pack up the rental truck, and then we'll be on the road for sweet home Chicago. So the next images will be rest stops, and fields of alfalfa, and moving boxes, but I'll try to spare you those.
