ok. just returned from a weekend in what is probably one of my favorite places to visit ever: athens, ga. i went because my friend, heather, was getting married and i was a bridesmaid.
i arrived friday afternoon and visited with my friend, leanne, for a while. leanne was gracious enough to let me stay with her since i am too cheap to spend money on a hotel room (i seriously would have slept in my car if needed). ok, so leanne and i hung out for a while, and then it was time for me to go to the rehearsal. leanne assured me that we weren't far from the church and that i'd have plenty of time to get there. just the same, i'd rather be a little early than a little late. so, i headed upstairs to get dressed. i put on my brand-new "happy birthday" dress from ann taylor, and holy crap! the zipper broke. never would i, girl who grew up climbing trees, expect to get upset about a stupid dress zipper malfunctioning, but i was very sad indeed. in a panic, i yelled at leanne to ask if i could borrow some of her clothes. i threw something together and headed to the rehearsal.
the rehearsal went well. the other bridesmaids were cool, so i figured it would turn out to be an enjoyable weekend experience. we headed over to the botanical gardens for dinner and it was absolutely amazing. i want to buy a tent and live in those gardens for the rest of my life. i mostly hung out with one bridesmaid in particular, sherri, b/c we're both from savannah and already kinda knew each other. we got really bored with regurgitating the same, boring, shallow banter over and over "hi. laura reagan. i'm a bridesmaid. savannah. oh, we went to high school together. i'm a teacher.....blah blah blah" so, sherri and i joked about telling people we met heather stripping. keep in mind, we hung out this weekend with some really ritzy people -- athens country club and all -- so the goal was not to just spice up the conversation, but kill it alltogether. anyhow, there was a surprise slide show that heather and jack didnt know about, so that was fun to watch. and of course there were toasts. i was concerned about how much alcohol some of these people had consumed, but they werent too bad.
saturday morning we girls got together for a quiet brunch, while everyone else attending the wedding was invited to brunch with the fellas at the country club (about 200+ guests....remember i said ritzy....). i was thankful for that quiet time. we all shared how we knew heather, and she had actually taken the time to write out what each relationship with us had meant to her and what she's learned from each girl, so that was really special. after eating, we headed over to the salon to get pedicures b/c we were all going to be barefoot for the wedding. i've never had a pedicure, and now i remember why: im ticklish! it bout drove me crazy, but it was fun. next, some of the girls went to get their hair done, but i opted to hang out with leanne some more.
leanne and i ate lunch downtown at trans metropolitan, which is a really cool and laid back place. we went into this store called helix that sold a lot of random things . . . mostly girly things . . . but it was cool and a bit retro and earthy, which i love. we looked in a couple of stores where we could never afford the clothes, and thats always fun.
it was a beautiful day in downtown athens and all i could think about was the past. i can count on one hand all boys ive ever known that i would consider quality. one of them is my friend, ben. ben is the absolute sweetest guy ive met in my life -- hands down. he used to live in athens and i went down and hung out with him a few times. one of those times was spent on a very similarly beautiful day in downtown athens. he and i ate lunch at five star day, bought records at school kids records, and played around in junkmans' daughter. since then, ben and i have tried to become adults, me teaching in savannah, and he working for the gbi up near atlanta. he met an amazing girl about two years ago, and now theyre getting married. i cant help but selfishly think that i wont have any more memories of just "me and ben" . . .
the wedding was fantastic and the reception was tons of fun. heather and jack are serious about having a good time. after enjoying a fancy-schmancy sitdown dinner, the live band kicked off what would turn out to be about 3 hours worth of oldies and 70s music that im pretty sure i never want to hear again for as long as i live. give me the symphony or booty music, but leave the honky tonk at home, please. half the songs made me feel like i was at young life club, which wasnt so bad, and at least they didnt break out YMCA, but still . . . apparently i'm just not white enough . . .
all in all, a good weekend.
in other news, i turned 25 about a week ago, so that was, whatever. the highlight? other than my kids at school completely lavishing me with love and homemade cards, my brother bought me my very first real piece of jewelry. im all about cheap jewelry, but erik, since he is now working in a jewelry store, offered to buy me something. i wasnt sure if id find anything i wanted, but i did. i picked out a ring with my birthstone in it (which shocked me b/c my whole life i've hated my birthstone b/c i thought it was boring) and four tiny diamonds. so, i now own bling with ice in it. exciting stuff.
