Year: 2005

Woke up about 8, and felt fine! As a precaution, though, took a couple of Tylenol. Also felt ravenous, so gathered the troops and ate breakfast at the Menlo Park Diner (not too far from where my great-grandfather lived when he was an engineer working for Thomas Edison). Didn’t eat too much, though, because I knew there would be vast quantities of Persian goodies awaiting us at Eb’s mom’s house Img 2527, and I was not disappointed. Louis and Maria brought their little dog, and Madison immediately took to her.Img 2525 Was a lot of fun, but had to leave at two to get to DC because Greg had gotten us tickets for Ricky Jay, which was a truly amazing demonstration of card skills. Afterwards, on the drive back, I kept pointing out houses that looked like good investment opportunities. Melissa said she had been thinking about doing some more of that, and the seeds for a business venture had been planted.

Bit of confusion about whether breakfast came with our room or not: I thought it did, the front desk didn’t. Oh, well. The Houston and DC contingents went shopping, but I stayed in the room and tried to reload on sleep. Got to the reception at 5 (the ceremony itself was family-only), and started visiting with everyone. There was eating and dancing and ululating and everyone was happy, as a wedding should be. Greg dared me to get drunk, and, for some reason, I agreed, so Greg started ordering. It was an open bar, and over the course of the evening the bartender was quite generous with the Jack in my 4 Jacks and Cokes (probably closer to 6 or 7), followed by Glenlivet, and finally ending with 2 Long Island Iced Teas. So, for only the second time in my life, I got smashed. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera to the reception to document the debauchery, but there is video evidence that I’m awaiting. Portions of the alcohol removed themselves voluntarily from my system shortly when I went to the restroom before going back to the hotel, and some more decided that the trash can Melissa placed at my disposal would be a more appropriate destination. Big thanks to Melissa, Greg, and Gil for tending to me in my reduced state.

Before finally crashing at 5am, called and asked the front desk for an extended checkout time, which, luckily, they gave. Woke up around noon (though Gil took a bit longer Img 2456-2). The Trans had just checked out, and had gone to IHOP, and John was good enough to come back and pick us up. Img 2462 We transferred to the Hilton, where Melissa met up with us, then we all walked over to the MetroPark station Img 2469 and
went into the City. We got some pretzels and shish kabobs from a street cart, then took the Img 2505 Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty Img 2503, and got neat shots of the city in the background Img 2481 Img 2482. We wandered through the financial district Img 2508 and then went into Century 21 and shopped for a bit (I got a windbreaker because it was getting downright chilly). The Trans headed back to the hotel so Madison could swim, while the rest of us went to It’s a Domincan Thing for some great food, then headed back to Jersey.

Waited for the Beltway traffic to die down before heading out Thursday morning. Got to Chatham, NJ around 2ish, where we met up with Jason Haddox Img 2438, who is working on his Ph.D in liturgics at Drew (quite a long way from his Baptist roots in Baytown!). We had a late lunch, then got a tour of the Drew campus followed by the church where Jason works. They dropped me off at the train station, and I made it over to Woodbridge, where Eb’s dinner was to be. Eb, needless to say, was late, as was everyone else save Eb’s friend Keith. Greg’s train got stopped in Trenton because of a fire on the tracks, and he had to take a cab. Lotto and I left at 8 to pick up Gil, and Eb got to the restaurant after we left (less than 90 minutes late!).
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Dinner was pretty good, then we went to Karim’s house and played poker til 3
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, interrupted by a White Castle break
Img 2449. It was a really wild party:
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