A terrific wedding weekend.

Well, from the subject line you could surmise how the weekend and wedding went. It was terrific to say the least.

Charlene and I left DM for Kansas City at around 9:45AM and we made it in time to meet up with Sarah and Heath at 12:30PM. I got to see where they both live and it’s a nice house that they are renting while both of them are still in school. For lunch, we went to Heath’s place of work. He is attending a culinary school in Kansas City and as part of his program, he needs to be working at restaurant. The restaurant is an Irish bar/restaurant that served some pretty amazing food. It was kind of funny hearing Heath talk about the behind the scenes stuff that go on before the food arrives at the table. He seems to really enjoy what he’s doing and I’m happy for him. While at the house, both Charlene and I were able to see some of Sarah’s textile art work and I must say it was more than impressive. She’s definitely an extremely gifted and talented artist.

We were on our merry way after lunch and the drive was not too bad except for the fact that we were caught in a major thunderstorm that lasted a good forty five minutes. I could barely see the road and car in front of me. Thank goodness we made it to Charlene’s hotel safe and sound without getting into any accident. The plan was for me to meet up with Kurt and Janet after I arrived in St. Louis. They had arrived on Thursday and were hanging out at Janet’s friend’s house when I called. I picked them up and we proceeded to a bar to have a couple of drinks and catch up with one another.

Saturday was an extremely lazy morning for me. My goal was to let my body wake me up whatever time it wanted to and believe it or not, I got up at 5:30AM. I forced myself to fall asleep and finally got up at 7:30AM. The morning was spent reading the papers and just chilling. It dawned on me that since I began my second job, this was the first Saturday I had off and it was just nice to sit back and just not do anything. Charlene and I connected on the phone and I got dressed for the wedding before picking her up. We decided to grab a meal prior to the wedding and the weather was gorgeous enough that we could walk all over.

The wedding ceremony started at 2PM and we were the first to be seated. After we sat, I realized that we had actually sat at the groom’s side. That was kind of funny. Anthony just can’t do things the normal way! As I looked over the program, I found out that it was not a wedding Mass, but a wedding ceremony. EJ is not Catholic and Cindy is very Catholic. I guess this was a way to come to a compromise. Oh, the wedding took place at the Newman Center on Washington University’s campus. When Cindy walked in, I was taken aback by how stunning she looked. The dress was amazing and whenever she smiled, the gown looked even more stunning. Cindy has always had a great smile but she was extra smiley this day! There were a couple of instances during the ceremony when the deacon spoke to both Cindy and EJ with the microphone off and I later found out that he did that for Cindy because she was almost in tears a number of times. Speaking of in tears, I was definitely teary eyed when I looked at Cindy and started to think of all the emotional upheavals she’s been through especially when she was at Drake. She deserved EJ who is the right person for her and I know they will have a long and happy marriage. They most certainly complete and complement one another extremely well.

The reception started at 5:15PM so Charlene and I had a couple of hours to blow off. There was no reason to go back to the hotel so we ended up sitting on a bench in Forest Park since the weather was a perfect spring day. It was just nice to sit back and take a magnificent spring day in. The reception was held at Windows at Washington which was this old building with huge windows and each floor was renovated to accommodate a wedding reception/party. The best part about the site – when it got dark, you got to look out the window and absorb the beauty of downtown St. Louis. Talk about a place to have a wedding reception. We were served a number of hors d'oeuvres and there was an open bar. At the ceremony, I saw a number of Drake friends and I knew we would catch up at the reception which we did. Even though eight years had passed, it seemed like yesterday, and it was just great to reminisce our years spent at Drake. It was a sit down dinner and the meal was very good. Charlene and I sat at the table with mostly Drake people and all of us had a blast. When it was time to toast, Patty and Alison (Cindy’s best friends from Drake) intimated to a couple of experiences that only us at Drake were privy to and it cracked us up while three quarter of those in attendance had no idea what was going on.

It truly was an extremely happy and marvelous reception from the people to the music the DJ played. So many great memories came flooding back and I was definitely caught up in the emotional aspect of it all. Alison tried to get me to dance a number of times throughout the evening and I finally danced at the last song. She most graciously allowed me to dance with her. It’s nice when people humor me. The reception formally ended at 10:45PM but there were a number of us who ended up at a bar to drink some more. I ended up taking a cab back since Charlene had borrowed my car to drive back to the hotel and had it the next day.

On Sunday, Kurt and Janet picked me up from the hotel as we had planned on going to Mass at Stan’s parish in Belleville. It was great to see Stan again since the last time I saw him was at ordination two years ago. He looked good and I kind of chuckled seeing him celebrate the Mass. After Mass, the four of us sat in the rectory and shoot the breeze since so much has taken place in all our lives. Before dinner, Stan had to go to a hospital for an anointing of the sick even though he was technically done for the day. That’s ministry for you. We ended up at the Hill district in St. Louis which is the Italian neighborhood and the restaurant Stan chose was out of this world. It was definitely one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve been to. Everything would have been perfect if not for the fact that we had dinner at the bar and by the time we left, there were a good number of people congregating and smoking. I do not use the word hate a lot, but I definitely hate cigarette smoke with a passion. I’m just so glad that bars, restaurant and almost all public places will be smoke free in Iowa beginning July 1st. Yay! After dinner, the four of us went to this most amazing dessert place called Chocolate Bar (http://www.baileyschocolatebar.com/) I have always dreamt of a place like this in DM and to see my dream a reality and thriving in St. Louis gives me hope that sooner or later, someone will start a dessert place in DM. It’s only a matter of time. I had four truffles for dinner and let me just say that it was heavenly. All of us were in agreement that this was a great way to end the weekend. Even Kurt and Janet who are living in Madison, WI which have some eclectic and wonderful restaurants were impressed with the Chocolate Bar. Stan ended up driving back to my hotel and he may spend a weekend in DM and I told him that it would be great and to give me ample notice so I can take the weekend off from work. Knowing Stan, I’m not sure if this will happen, but if it does, that would be wonderful.

Monday morning, Charlene picked me up from my hotel and I would be doing a bunch of driving since I told two of my former religious education students that I would be meeting up with them. I ended up driving to Dubuque which was a good five hours drive from St. Louis to meet up with Matt at Clarke College. We ate lunch in downtown Dubuque before visiting the motherhouse of Sr. Carola’s community. I know a sister who works there and she was more than surprised to see me there since we dropped by unannounced. The BVMs (Blessed Virgin Mary) has some amazing facility and motherhouse and I was happy that Sr. Mira gave Matt and I a tour. I can’t wait to tell Carola that I visiting her community’s motherhouse and was more than impressed by it. After lunch, I drove to Decorah which is twenty miles south of the Minnesota border to visit Steph. She goes to Luther College which is a private liberal arts college that’s famous for its nursing program. We had lunch in downtown Decorah at this mom and pop restaurant which was very good. After dinner, Steph gave us a tour of her campus and it was definitely one of the more beautiful colleges I’ve visited. The drive back to DM was a little long and uneventful but the weekend was memorable in so many ways.

I’ve had quite a lot on my mind lately so it was just nice to get away from it all, and spend a fantastic weekend with such dear friends. I came back to DM refreshed mentally and emotionally and am ready for my 30th birthday celebration to begin! This weekend will be another amazing weekend with a number of birthday festivities. I’m definitely excited about it. I’ve also been warned that I won’t be driving back to my apartment after my friends are done with me at the bar. We’ll just have to see how that goes.