Chicago Pictures, Weddings, Weddings, Weddings!

Wow, the last month has been crazy! It's been filled with many weddings, the start of fantasy football, the start of ACTUAL football, college football, fall recreational soccer for me, and lots of work craziness. So lets back up a few weeks. I was in Chicago visiting a friend, and at the time I was unable to post any pictures because my blogger skills had not yet been refined. Well here are a few shots.

This was the menu from the restaurant we ate at the first night. Sorry, I have no idea what the name was! The menu had pictures of every item on the menu, and they had DOZENS!! There were pages upon page of this stuff! And a whole drink section too!! Athma and I got some awesome drinks there too (see below).

This is Athma's crazy mango jello drink. She probably knows the real name, but for now we'll call it mango jello drink. They were huge! And we got a TON of food and it was still sizzling and boiling when they brought it to us! I would highly recommend it, but knowing the name of the restaurant would be helpful (oops, I'll get back to that sometime).

The Air and Water Show was this weekend too, so there were tons of fighter jets flying throughout the city and (I swear it's true) between the buildings and upside down. It was cool to watch, but a little surprising when you weren't expecting one of the planes to come by. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the planes, but I did get some cool panoramic views of Chicago. Here's one:

We went to the Shedd Aquarium, which is super cool, and I have discovered my new favorite animal... the Sea Dragon. Not Sea Horse, Sea Dragon. They are nocturnal, and look like swimming seaweed. It's hard to get a picture of them because it's so dark, but if you Google them I'm sure there are pictures. We watched a bunch of movies and ate Chicago-style pizza and had a blast! It was a good weekend ;o) Then the following two weekends were dedicated to weddings.

Wedding #1: Mike and Meredith's Wedding

Two of our friends from college got married August 23 in Milwaukee, WI. Tim was one of the groomsmen, so the whole weekend was dedicated to the wedding. Most of Tim's good college friends were part of the wedding, so it was good chance to see friends that no longer live in Madison. We started with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, where the groomsmen got Wisconsin footballs signed by the head coach (AWESOME!) and then we went to The Safehouse. The Safehouse is a bar in Milwaukee that you need a password to get in to, and if you don't know the password you have to do something embarrassing that they broadcast to the entire bar. You then enter the bar through a secret passage, and the whole bar is spy themed. It's really cool! We also ordered a martini just so we could watch them send it in a crazy chute device around the entire bar.

The next day was the wedding. The church was really beautiful, lots of plants and running water. Mike and Meredith were both walked down the aisle by both parents, which I hadn't seen before but I really like the idea. This was the second Catholic wedding I've been to recently, so I was prepared for how things run (they don't teach us these things at Hebrew school). Here are a few pictures from the ceremony:

Then the wedding party went off and took pictures, and all of us girls went to the Canyon Grill and ordered way more food than we meant to (but it was delicious!). Then the reception started... and the booze started flowing. You can definitely tell as you look at the pictures (not all of the 100 pictures are posted here!). The reception was at a beautiful golf club, and the facilities were amazing. Here are a few pictures:

The reception was TONS of fun! They played a Badger Medley, all of the songs from our days at Wisconsin from the football games, our Alma Mater, and a variety of other crazy songs. I was exhausted by the end of the night! It was so much fun! Tim and I got a lot of good ideas for our wedding, which we should eventually get back to planning! The following weekend we had Tim's cousin's wedding in Arizona.

Wedding #2: Erin and Zachary's Wedding

The wedding was in Phoenix, Arizona. It was over Labor Day weekend, so the rehearsal dinner was on Saturday, the wedding on Sunday, and a brunch on Monday. There were a LOT of people at this wedding, and since so many were coming in to town everyone was included in the rehearsal dinner (about 150 people at least... it was very large). The wedding and reception were at the JW Marriott (which is where we were all staying). I didn't know anything about JW Marriott's, and if you don't know either, it's not really a hotel... it's a resort! There was a lazy river, valet parking was included, butlers to open your car door and let you into the hotel. It was crazy! I spent most of my time with Tim, his brother Dan, and their parents. This was the first time I got to meet his mom's side of the family, including her two sisters Robin (mother of the bride) and Jody, and her brother Scotty. I met lots of other relatives and cousins, and I'm still trying to keep them all straight (150 people, remember). It was a black tie wedding, and a Jewish wedding at that (I suddenly became the Jewish expert that Tim's family turned to with questions). Here are a few pictures:

The boys: Tim's brother Dan, their dad, and Tim.

The girls: Tim's mom and myself

My future family-in-law! We're dressed in our "black-tie" best here.

The ceremony was outside, in the Arizona heat, but luckily it was in the shade. Tim and Dan both did readings during the ceremony.

The cocktail hour just after the ceremony. It was very pretty outside, and it was nice and cool since the sun went down. Tim's mom and I felt great in our dresses, but the boys were not happy in their suits! The dinner was inside, and was delicious! However by the time we got to the dance, Tim, Dan, and I were exhausted (too many weddings). We ended up calling it an early night and heading back to our room. It was a great wedding though!

Finally this weekend, Tim and I have had NOTHING to do! We've stayed in Madison for the first time in almost a month, and we're finishing up organizing the apartment and getting extra things we need. I imagine tomorrow will include lots of lying on the couch and watching football. Eventually we'll need to get back to wedding planning! But for now, we're all weddinged out! Hopefully no one else will get married for a little while ;o)

Tim moves in!!

Although Tim and I have technically had the new apartment since July 26, Tim was not actually able to move in until last Sunday, August 17. He was supposed to be able to borrow a truck from a friend's brother, but the friend needed it for work (since that is the trucks main purpose), and then the transmission was blown. So Tim had to wait an extra week and get a UHaul (my second favorite company, after Charter... lots of sarcasm here). Luckily things worked out well, and Tim is finally here!! He is making one more trip back to Lake Geneva to clean his apartment (yuck, I don't even want to think about it) and then we're finally settled! Now we just need to unpack all of these boxes!

That's about all the excitment here. Tim and I will be going to two weddings the next two weekends, one in Milwaukee for friends of ours and one in Arizona for Tim's cousins. After that I'm going to be all weddinged out! I also went to Chicago last weekend to visit a friend from high school, so two more weekends of not being around is going to be a bit overwhelming! I had a blast in Chicago though, went to the Shedd Aquarium, ate tons of good food, and watched the olympics and two really good movies; 21 and Definitely, Maybe. It was great to catch up too. Once all these weddings are over, maybe Tim and I will get back to planning our own! We'll see... ;o)

New Beginning and Long Update

Some of my family, and now some of my friends, have created blogs to help people stay in touch. I've considered starting one, but now I'm actually doing it because it seems like a perfect time. A few days ago, Tim and I moved into our first apartment together! It's a nice apartment, two bedrooms, two baths, vaulted ceilings, in unit washer and dryer, wood burning fireplace (will be nice during those Wisconsin winters when it drops to -30F outside!), and a garage that will be nice for storage. It's in a great location, right behind the west side mall, near REI, a movie theatre, all kinds of shops and restaurants, and target! The place is a mess right now, and once I learn how to upload pictures I will make sure to do so! Once we get settled and Tim figures out a job, we are also going to get a puppy!! Many pictures will follow that one, but that is quite a ways down the road!

So here's what I'm up to! I'm still in Madison, Wisconsin, and overall things are going really well! I graduated last year, and for the past year I've been working in an AIDS Vaccine Research Lab here in Madison. Work is great, although as of recently some things have not been working so it's been frustrating. But that's kind of how science woks; it's a very frustrating field! But aside from that, work is great. I get along really well with everyone, the work is interesting, and it's great experience. I'm preparing to apply to graduate school this fall to attend a PhD program next year (assuming I get accepted somewhere!). My number one choice is, of course, Madison, since it means Tim and I can stay here and we won't have to move and he won't have to find a new job! UW is very competitive for graduate school, so it's not going to be easy, and I'm definitely looking at other schools all around the country. So basically next year is completely up in the air! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

As for other things, life is good. As of 3 days ago, Tim and I finally moved into our first apartment together... FINALLY! Well, I'VE moved in, Tim's lease is not up until the end of August so he's taking his sweet time moving. Hopefully this coming weekend we can really start to organize and make this place look a little more livable! Tim is still working on finding permanent work in the area, but he is freelancing for one paper and might be doing a part time job at another paper, so hopefully one of those will become a more permanent position. In the meantime, I'm the breadwinner of the house, which isn't exactly what my income can support! We'll make it work though. And once Tim does get a job, we are planning on getting a puppy!! I want a dog so badly, and our apartment lets us have a dog up to 30 pounds (perfect!). We're not sure what kind we will be getting since we are planning on going to the animal shelter, but we're thinking a spaniel or a terrier of some sort. I'm so excited! but again, that's a ways off! For now, I have 4 fish that keep me happy. One is a 4-year old guppy (I don't know how he isn't dead yet) a blue gourami, a catfish that I haven't seen more than twice since I bought him a couple months ago (he hates the light) and my newest fish is a red gourami. They are fairly entertaining for fish; who knew fish had personalities?!

And yes, we are finally underway with the wedding planning. We have a date, June 13, 2009, the place is picked out, and we have a photographer and I've found a wedding dress! We will be sending out save-the-dates and invitations and stuff once we get a little more settled (hopefully soon!). There's a lot left to do, but my parents are helping us a lot, even from Connecticut, and Tim's parents are helping us out too. It's a lot to deal with between work, graduate school, taking GREs, planning a wedding, and moving! It's nice to have a few of the big things figured out, and we need to get a few more big things figured out and then it's just the smaller details.

I'm still swimming and biking and running a bit, but mostly just to stay in shape now. I did do one triathlon this summer, in Ohio where my sister lives, and that went well (except for the run... swimming don't run... ever... ever... ever...)! It was an olympic distance, which was a 0.9 mile swim, a 25 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. The weather was great, and I had a lot of fun doing it :o) I might try to do one more event this summer or this fall, but I've yet to decide which one! In the meantime, I'm just swimming for fun, and I bike to work everyday, and I run ever once in a while. I also started playing soccer with some work peeps so that gives me another reason to run! I'm starting to get better too, seeing as I haven't played organized soccer since I was in 5th grade!

Well, that's really about it!! Nothing too exciting, but lots of things to figure out and plan over the next couple of months. Grad school apps are due early December, and then I get to play the "wait-around-and-sweat" game while they take their time making a decision. Should be fun... hopefully I'll have a puppy by then to distract me! For now, that's about all!