I arrive in D.C. a little stiff and a little disoriented. The drive from D.C. to Baltimore is generally half an hour to 45 minutes, but traffic is a nightmare this particular day. It took more a like 1 and a half hours.
I had forgotten that the mid Atlantic area has absolutely no shortage of trees. To the left, trees. To the right, trees. Open a window shade in your house, you're staring at a bird's nest. Want to get lost in the woods? Just go down the block, and make sure you're back by dark. There was an awesome forest next to my school (I had a Waldorf education there) that we'd walk around in, have snowball fights in, etc. On the other side of it, there was a patch of crabapple trees that we'd pick from and eat those lovely little tart fruits.
Back on point, We (Mom, Dad, and myself) drive into Baltimore and I can remember absolutely zero. I would at things, and know they belonged there, but I couldn't remember anything beyond that. I was some kind of weird alzheimer-like limbo and my exhausted brain wasn't doing anything about it, and I was too exhausted to care.
Then, I saw my Dad's former place of employment, the Baltimore Convention Center. And it looked like I remember. Finally! something was clicking! The wonderful trapezoidal designs welcomed me to the city I called home. Even the expansion of the building was nice enough to maintain the design scheme.
Now that I had some familiarity back I felt a little better. Just in time too because our hotel was coming up, and the family would be there. It was a Radisson. The Radisson Lord Baltimore to be specific. I'm going to apologize now because this is where I start listing names. My aunt Lois and uncle Kevin were checking in at about the same time we were. My aunt Kathy, who is James' mother, drove them from the airport and she was in the hotel lobby as well. Seeing as how it's been nearly 7 years since the last time I saw these people, they were pretty happy to see me, and me them. Then aunt Cheryl and uncle Larry came down the elevator and found us. All of them, except for Kathy, live around the Boston area (in case I didn't clarify it earlier, this is all on my mother's side).
A little side note about uncle Larry. If you ever find yourself in a situation that calls for a bad joke, Larry's there. If it also calls for an attack on any Kennedy, he's been known to break the sound barrier getting to the punchline. We've learned to love it and, secretly, I don't think we'd have it any other way. My father certainly wouldn't, because he's cut from exactly the same cloth (he'll deny it of course). This does make my mother a
little nuts.
My cousin
Kris arrived by this time. Being that she's James' sister, that'd be a good thing.
We get our gift bags filled with Maryland goodies (cookies, maps, Utz crab flavored potato chips, and they put bottles of water in there which I was desperately needing) and our room keys. I go up to my room and find the first unexpected treasure of this trip: A
Sleep Number bed. I'll get into why this was a treasure later.
After I put my things away, I go back downstairs with my parents to the Starbucks in the lobby. Everyone that's arrived so far is there. This now includes our cousins from Ireland, Ann and Leo. Grand! Mom and I grab something to eat because it's going to be a few hours before the rehearsal dinner starts. Then we go back to our respective rooms and lay low for a bit and freshen up for dinner.
I come downstairs and go back to Starbucks and I finally get to meet Kris' daughter, Alayna (Kris please correct me on spelling if I got it wrong, I'm going on phonetics here). She's a little angel and awesome and she says hello the long way (think Billy Crystal in
City Slickers).
Leaving for dinner, my cousin John (Lois and Kevin's first son) is waiting there, chatting with my dad. John is about 6'3" and more than a few years younger than me. I already know he's taller than me now, it just takes getting used to each time I see him. John is going to be my roommate for the trip.
Mom, aunt Lois, John, and myself (My mother and her youngest sister figured out very quickly after John was born that having both of us in the same room would be very confusing if all you do to get either one's attention was say the name) start getting the decorations and stuff ready over at
Maggie Moore's Irish Pub & Restaurant. The pub has three floors, the main bar and restaurant are on the first two and the third is where our rehearsal dinner will be. It's not long before John and I get bored and go downstairs to get a drink and see if the Red Sox game is on or when it will be on. This gives me and John a chance to chat a little, which was cool because it used to be that he and his brother and his sisters would kind of segregate themselves at family gatherings, which made it really hard for me to know them since I didn't live in the area (again, still Boston, although John's now in D.C.). This, finally getting to really hang out with my cousins, would eventually become another unexpected treasure.
We come back upstairs and now people are starting to come in. Everyone from the hotel is there, the bride's family is starting to arrive (I didn't meet them much, more on that later). My uncle Richard is there with is wife, aunt Mary, and their oldest daughter Julie (who holds the title of being the oldest of the cousins). Richard's camera is also there.
Uncle Larry, aunt Cheryl, Uncle Kevin, John, and myself are taking shifts going downstairs to a)check on the game and b)get away from the craziness that was going on upstairs.
I say craziness because I knew there was drama coming into this thing. I'm not going to say what specifically the drama was because it wasn't my business so I stayed out of it and didn't really know what it was about. I didn't want to anyway; I was there for my cousin and that's it.
Speaking of whom, James finally arrives with his fiance, Colleen. My cousin and I did the manly handshake into hug thing that manly men do. I met Colleen and my first impression of her was that she seemed nice and James clearly loves her, so it's all ok with me. To their credit, they looked a little overwhelmed but handled themselves very well.
James' and Kris' father Charlie was also there. Kathy and Charlie have been divorced for about 20 years (give or take). I hadn't seen this man since my grandfather passed away when I was 15. More to the point, he hadn't seen me, and he clearly didn't recognize me at all. Uncle Larry had to introduce me and he (Charlie) was little taken aback by the fact that I was now an adult. Larry added that "I have a feeling you'll being going through a lot of that tonight." Anyway it was cool to see him. I wasn't sure if I was still allowed to call him uncle. I had asked my mom earlier in the day about that, and she wasn't sure either. Her advice was to go with "Charlie", which felt the most right to me.
I also had to reacquaint myself with Kris' husband, Mike, who has quickly learned that the best thing to do at a Leonhardt (our family name) gathering is to sit back, shut up, and just watch.
Sarah and Laura (Lois and Kevin's eldest) showed up and it was good to see them (again, aforementioned treasure).
Everyone keeping track so far? Good, because I'm not.
The food was good, but not really memorable. Crab pate, pasta, other things.
The bride and groom each toasted their bridesmaids and groomsmen, respectively, which was very cool.
Then, came dessert.
Dessert choice number one was a chocolate something shaped like a giant pint of Guinness. I didn't have it because of choice number two.
Ladies and gentlemen, unexpected treasure number three: Grandma Leonhardt's cheesecake. AKA the most glorious cheesecake ever, and also on my list of most glorious
things ever. The richness, the creaminess, the perfect crust. It was like the Potomac, in cheesecake form. My cousin Laura asked me if the cake was good. My answer was, "It's Grandma's!"
There was a laptop with a slideshow of James' and Colleen through the years, and some obnoxiously cute ones with me and James were in there (If I get access to them, I'll put 'em up on my myspace page).
Speaking of which, I've got ones from the rehearsal up on my page (courtesy of Uncle Richard). Unfortunately, not everyone I've mentioned is there.
Well, dinner ends and I'm having to help my aunt Kathy and my mother walk. This was from a) having just a tad too much to drink (I think it may have had to do with the drama) and b) they've both been on their feet all day. I have to say that that was a first, and there was nothing to prepare me for it.
We get back to the hotel and back up to our rooms. John and I are in our beds when John decides to give the Sleep Number bed a whirl. It sounds like a vacuum having sex with a hair dryer. So of course, I had to try mine. Pretty soon, we had dueling beds going on. Word to the wise, setting it on 100 hurts like hell. My sleep number is 45.
Thank God I slept well.
Link to pictures
