I just got back from a wonderful trip home to see everyone
that I care about. I was expecting to
travel home for less than a week but the only days that I could use my frequent
flyer miles with United was from the 6th of July through the 18th
so I had a very big vacation home for the summer. I parked my truck in downtown Portland to
save money on the parking garage for the week and half and thankfully when I
got back it wasn’t broken into… might have to do that trick again.
I got
home the morning of the 7th after a redeye flight across the country
through San Francisco and Dulles, Washington. My beautiful girlfriend Emily picked me up at the airport just before
Noon and we headed to Jon Hughes’ camp on Glen Lake for a day of wakeboarding
and partying with him, Jacquelin, Logan, Megan Jones, and
Jacquie (soon to be
Jacquie Jones). Jon had to go home for
some family stuff until around 1 so Emily and I headed to my parents to say hi
for a little while before heading back to Jon’s camp. We ended up getting several great runs on the
lake despite some wind at first. Emily
had been out a few times already with some friends from work and she had
improved incredibly. I’ve always been a
little jealous of Logan having a beautiful girlfriend like Jacquie who can also
rip on a wakeboard and other sports. Although this was only Emily’s 4th time ever on a wakeboard I
feel like she has almost caught up to Jacquie’s abilities already. I was amazed. She is so athletic! My run was
ok, but at nearly 28 I decided it was time for me to stop trying to do misty
flips when I don’t even know how to pop off the wake properly for big
air! That night Megan, Jon, Emily and I bought a
bunch of food at the store and had a BBQ at his camp. We played cards and got pretty drunk. It was a great day. In the morning we woke up to Logan pounding
on the door of the bedroom (thankfully this summer Emily and I locked the
door). We hit up wakeboarding a few more
times and then Jon had to take off back to Boston so Emily and I left for her
place in Saratoga. That night she and I
took her car to the Glen Drive in to watch Transformers (kick ass movie) and
the Silver Surfer (sucked). It was fun
to be able to go to a drive in again…
Mon,
Tues, and Wednesday I spent the day at my parents and the nights with
Emily. We went out to dinner at the
sushi restaurant on Phila street and we got a
giant $45 “Lovers Boat” of sushi
which we shared. It was the first time
Sushi ever filled me up. Emily had
ordered it recently…. ;).
On
Wednesday I was able to visit my ex-girlfriend Kim Tyrer and her handsome
little boy Ethan. She and her husband
Jeremy have a beautiful home behind East Field in Glens Falls and she is
actually pregnant with a little baby girl. She seemed to be very happy with where she is in life and she misses
Jeremy who is away in Iraq in the military. Thankfully he ranked high enough that he won’t be placed in any very
dangerous areas. Evan pulled out every
one of his toys to show me and at a little over a year old he is starting to
talk pretty well. She looked great and
it was really nice to see her so happy.
Thursday
night I ended up going down to Albany to visit my buddy Kenny Wilhelm. Emily was traveling for work and he had the
night off so the two of us decided to head out to the bar that he worked at for
some cheap drinks. Before we left I was
introduced to the Wii and Guitar Hero as well which I really enjoyed. If I had some extra money I might even be
tempted to get the Wii. Kenny proceeded
to get me annihilated drunk at his bar that evening. Thankfully two of my drinks got knocked out
of my hands or I never would have been able to keep up with him. I don’t remember any of the night after
getting in the cab to go back to Kenny’s apartment. In the morning I woke up and headed back to
my parents forgetting the case for my video camera at Kenny’s… oh well. It was a good time with a good friend who I
haven’t seen since he drove out to Oregon with me last fall.
Friday afternoon I picked up a rental car and drove down to
Tarrytown to a beautiful restaurant called “Harvest on the Hudson” for the
wedding rehearsal dinner of my best friend Lindsay Sorter from my undergrad
years at Bowdoin College. We haven’t
really been in contact much over the years because she and I had let our
friendship progress to something more our Junior year and I had hurt her pretty
badly emotionally… To my surprise
several weeks before the wedding I got an email from her saying how much she
missed our friendship and how much she wanted me to be at the wedding. I’ve always considered her one of my closest
friends in life and the time when we were friends and living together at
Bowdoin are times I’ll never forget. Of
the 3 friends weddings I had this summer I decided that hers was the most
important for me to attend. I pretty
much had set the two of them up together anyways. She had liked Ryan but was too nervous to act
on it so at a party at Pine Street at Bowdoin I walked up to him and told him
to go over and ask her out because she had a crush on him… he did and the rest
is history. I was the only one invited
to the rehearsal dinner not in the wedding and that was very special to me. Lindsay sat next to me at the table and we
did as much catching up as possible. It
was a delicious dinner and I liked catching up with Jessie Poulin who sat on
the other side of me as well. It was nice that even after years of separation
I was able to sit between two of my closest friends from Bowdoin.
That night I left the dinner to go hang out with my old
buddy Adrian in Tarrytown. He was so
wasted when I met him at the bar that I and his friend barely got him
home. He wasn’t making any sense. In the morning he was fine and we headed to
NYC to Central Park to check it out. I
tried to call my buddy Matt Jones but was unable to connect with him in time in
the city. Central park was beautiful but
even in the park I found there were way too many people for my liking.
After changing at Adrians I headed off to the Tarrytown
House where the wedding was at 7pm. I
met up with Shawn and his new Melissa. Shawn looked great after all these years and is back in graduate school
as I am. The wedding only took 20
minutes and I was able to get the vows on video tape for Lindsay and Ryan as
well as their first dance. After the
wedding there were cocktails and munchies including scampi, chicken and pasta
etc. I thought that the food was the
dinner after the wedding and got a couple plates until Shawn told me that there
was still a full dinner ahead. Needless
to say I was absolutely stuffed by the end of the evening. I actually asked the waiter to “just stop bringing me food because I’m a
grad student and will eat anything put in front of me”. Everyone had a great time and it was
wonderful to see Lindsay so happy and dancing with everyone. I briefly danced with Lindsay during “Baby
got back” but nothing else because it was her day with Ryan and I didn’t want
my past with her to upset Ryan at all. I
was already getting odd looks from his father to begin with, especially since
she sat next to me at the rehearsal dinner and then at breakfast the morning
after the wedding… I know that Lindsay’s
love for Ryan is true and they will be happy together but I’m pretty sure that
her and I had more wild adventures together at Bowdoin then she’s had with
Ryan. But the best part of that is that
they now have their entire lives together to make their own adventures and
write their own stories. That night I
crashed with Jessie in her room for the night (who is also happily engaged… I’m
I the only one left?).
After a
quick breakfast with everyone in the morning I said my goodbye’s and headed to
Greenwhich, CT to see my beautiful daughter Ellie. This is only the 2nd time that
I’ve gotten to visit her and she has grown so much. She is starting to say
some words including
“hi”, “da-da”, and “ma-ma”. She is so
cute when she looks into your eyes and talks baby talk with a look on her face
expecting you to understand what she is saying. I got to meet Nicolette’s boyfriend Clay whom she has been dating since
September. He is a great guy and
wonderful with Ellie and I’m really happy to know that Ellie is growing up with
a father figure in her life. I think
Clay liked me and I really hope that she keeps him around because he is a great
person. We took Ellie for a walk and out
to dinner before putting her to bed. I
bought her a baby drum set because she is beginning to crawl and likes to beat
her hands on 
things and grunt (cutest thing ever to watch). I slept overnight there and got to drop her
off at daycare the next morning with Nicolette and meet her caretakers during
the day. They seemed like very caring
women. It was hard to leave my baby girl
again. I can’t wait until she can
communicate back with me. She holds my
heart.
I got
back to upstate NY Monday afternoon and after talking with my dad about all the
events of his life (while recording it) I got to see Emily again for a couple
nights before heading back to Portland, OR on Wednesday afternoon. It was a great trip home and the best part of
it is that Emily and I decided that we weren’t going to let distance kill
us. We had broken up in April because of
the distance and the fact that I’ll be in graduate school for a very long time
but when I came home it was just as intense, if not more, than when she came
out to Oregon to visit me. We decided
that we are going to work very hard
at finding something for her out in Corvallis so that we can be together. She loved it when she came out to visit and
I’m sure that she would get along well with everyone that I know. I think it would be great opportunity for her
to broaden her horizons as well. I’ve
always felt that the best things in life are those worth fighting for so I’m
going to do my best to find her something. I’ve also made a big move for someone before and I fully realize how huge
of life changing decision it is so she will have my full love and support
throughout it. I hope that it will work
out because I can definitely see myself growing old with her in my arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment