What a whirlwind of a week 3/5-3/13. Kalila got home Friday (3/4) and I was with her pretty much all week. On top of the fact that we hadn’t seen each other since January 14th, we had pretty much every wedding thing imaginable to complete this week. I took Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off to give us all the time we needed, I even skipped classes for the week. So let’s review some of the things we got done…
Saturday. In spite of the fact that we stayed up extremely late and we got out of the door at 5:00PM, we accomplished the impossible. We arrived at Portsmouth at about 6:00PM, parked at the garage, and we found our reception location immediately: The Metro (www.themetrorestaurant.com). It was essentially love at first sight and first price. Only a $400 room fee and about $29 per person, which is extremely inexpensive considering the menu, the quality of the place, and the area. From there we walked over to Prescott Park (where we thought we would have the wedding). As we tredged through the snow we came to the place we thought the ceremony would be. We found a spot under a tree, called some folks to tell them we found a place, and then we danced und the tree. As we walked back into downtown, we began to look for rehearsal dinner places, as well as place to eat since we were hungry. We stumbled upon this sweet Irish pub called Molly Malone’s and had dinner there. I can’t describe how happy we were at that moment at the pub, eating the best steak tips, having good drinks, having a great meal all around, hearing timely music being played, enjoying a window view of a rustic alley in Portsmouth, and saturating ourselves with each other’s presence. From there, we walked around, peeking into different places and talking with managers about accomadations. We found a sweet place close to the water called the Dolphin Strker (www.dolphinstrker.com) that had the look and menu we were aiming for. We spoke with the chef about times and dates and we locked it in. We left Portsmouth that night around 10:00 PM, mutually agreeing that it was one of the greatest days we’d had together.
Sunday. Going on less than 3 hours sleep, we made our way to church (struggling to stay awake). We went to care group after at Danny O’s and hung out there till about 5:00 PM. Then we made our way to Sam Fisher’s (a fellow coworker) where we had dinner with Sam, his wife Rachel, and Josh and Heidi (of the shire). We enjoyed some wonderful hours of Thai/Indonesian dining, beer, wine, a game Sam tried to teach us that Rachel didn’t want to play, and stimulating conversation. While we were there, I kept getting calls from my friend Dave Scoggins. He had wanted me and Kalila to visit with him and his wife Amamda. At first, I told him were weren’t going to make it, given our lack of sleep and long day. Then he called to see if we could come later because they were going to Guatamala that week and this would be the only time we could get together. I abliged on our behalf and we got there sometime after 10:00 PM. We stayed there for about an hour and a half and we got home late.
Monday. I had a job interview at 9:00 AM at my work so I brought Kalila down with me so she could hang out and meet some people from my work. She got to meet many famous bloggers like Gentry and Art. She met some other good friends like Bill, Price, and Pam. From there, we had lunch with my roommate at Penara’s and then spent the afternoon at Bed, Bath, & Beyond registering. At 5:00 PM, we met Danny and Cyndie O at the Wildhorse Cafe. A little later, Dr. James and wife Brooke met us there and we hung out till about 8:30 PM. We checked an apartment a little later, and then had some time at the seminary to talk some things over.