Wulia Wedding Weekend: Highlights and Recap

It is hard for me to put this weekend into words. Will is one of my dearest friends from William and Mary. Julia has become one of my closest girl friends. This was also my first wedding of a close friend that I've had the chance to attend. It was absolutely gorgeous and perfect.

I obviously tweeted the deets all weekend (Cohen says he is glad I take that role so seriously), but here are some highlights from the four days. Trying to rank them in chronological order.

• The Drive Up. Kylie, Cohen, Stephen, and I left Williamsburg around 4:30 (about an hour after we had planned) and the boys had a boat to catch for Will's pirate ship bachelor party. Stephen had to provide the pirate costume (complete with parrot) so us getting there on time was crucial. Our GPS estimated we would get to Baltimore right as the ship was leaving dock. Somehow on a Memorial Day weekend Friday, during rush hour, having no clue where we were going, we arrive with a half hour to spare. And Kylie and I had to drive through Baltimore to find the hotel as the two most anxious drivers in the world. We found THE LAST parking spot in the parking garage of our hotel. #wuliaweddingmiracle

• The Bachelorette Party. The only girls I knew prior to the bachelorette party were Kylie, Kelly, and Julia. But as soon as we arrived, we got to know each other very well very quickly. There were private shopping experiences, slushies, dancing, and I became instant best friends with Jane, Sladky's girl friend who I met for the first time that night. Kelly and I took a picture with a 'sassy' face that instantly became a hit on facebook. It was almost the most embarrassing picture of me I've ever seen. Kelly did an amazing job organizing the bachelorette party!

• Team Dragon Elite. Because we were not in the wedding party, Kylie, Mike, Jane, and I decided to get dinner at the Inner Harbor. We walked so many places to find seafood, but decided on sushi because we were starving. Afterwards, we rented dragon paddle boats, tweeted the deets (and Mike got so excited about the hashtags he was coming up with.) Then we got Rita's (even though we whined to Mike that it did not count as real ice cream) and watched kiddies played in the fountains on our walk home.

Mike and Jane and Kylie at dinner

• Wedding Day! Kelly and I ate breakfast in the hotel and caught up on all of the important things. We rode a charter bus to the beautiful country outside of Baltimore to the Bleser home. There was the most delicious appetizers and then catering from a food truck! I had an amazing veggie burger. Even though it took hours of annoying the DJ, he finally played "Call Me Maybe". #wuliaweddingmiracle

Waiting for the ceremony to begin!

• Home. Now the summer officially begins. It will take at least a week of recovering from the wedding weekend, but it was so great to spend time with the people I call my chosen family.

K&K and Return to Running

Saturday, my mom threw a graduation party for my sister and I. Even though my sister swears otherwise, I promise I knew nothing of this party until like a week or two before graduation. It was my mom's first time making a facebook event and, despite inviting friends of mine who had since moved across the country, she did pretty well! The food was amazing and I was grateful for an intimate gathering of friends and family since I was still over small talk and crowds from the previous weekend. At some point during catching up/gossiping with everyone poolside, I made Lo get a twitter and found out she now runs!!! We've come so far from our varsity cheerleading days. I promised to do a race with her soon.

Speaking of running, Sunday was supposed to be my return to running after a hiatus during finals. A good friend, Stephanie, from the counseling program was unable to run the 8k she signed up for this weekend so I volunteered to run for her. We did the Christmastown Dash in December together and she joked I would run a better time for her. Ha. She did not know I had not run in almost 3 weeks. Another detail: we did not know the race was on Saturday instead of Sunday which I found out after waking up early on Sunday morning and seeing tweets wishing the half marathoners good luck. While I realized it was probably best that I didn't try to race after not training, I was too stubborn to let a good playlist and my cute new tank top from Wulia go to waste so I logged an easy 6 miles instead.

Awkward 8k Playlist: (awkward because I don't typically run to a lot of acoustic covers)
"Not Ready to Make Nice" -Dixie Chicks
"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -U2
"Lover in Japan"(acoustic version) - Coldplay
"Breakdown"-Mae
"Empty House" -Paper Route
"Every Teardrop is a Waterfall"(cover) -Boyce Avenue 
"A Thousand Miles"(cover) -Boyce Avenue
"Rise Above 1" -Reeve Carney ft. Bono, The Edge
"Eyes Open"-Taylor Swift
"Peponi" (African/Piano/Cello cover of Coldplay's Paradise (yes, this exists)) -ThePianoGuy (I've linked to it here in case you are curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgovv8jWETM )


I timed it perfectly to look like I was simply cooling down after running the half marathon:) An ambulance headed towards the course also passed me on my run and I realize how glad I was that I had not run the half. Note: I have immense respect for everyone who ran that half this year. It KILLS. Half of the course is on the colonial parkway which is mostly hills and just brutal. (I ran it last year after having mono in February and only having run 8 miles as my max. I was definitely out of commission for like 3 days after.) After saying all of that, Stephanie and I have vowed to both run the half next year in May. And I know she will hold me to this.

Btw, Stephanie blogs here: http://graceandaplum.blogspot.com/. She's highly entertaining, a badass, and an incredible mom.

Missing the 8k on Saturday just made me ever more hungry for my next race now that I have a life again and have realized how out of shape with running I am. I am contemplating the Richmond ColorMeRad 5k in July with Lo and the VA Beach Rock and Roll Half in September (flat course!), but am still shopping around. Once I decide on a race, I'll try to come up with a more concrete training plan, but until then I'm trying to stick to my half hour every other day routine.

Where to now?

On Sunday (also Mother's Day), I graduated with my M.Ed. in Community Counseling from The College of William and Mary's School of Education. When I look back on the past two years of my life in this program and how much we went through as a cohort, I am so grateful for all of the friends and family who supported me and were rooting for me, even sometimes without me knowing.

The weekend was a crazy one.

Friday night, Kim and I went to see the band Horse Feathers in concert in D.C. and they were amazing. (We also got Chipotle with Mike beforehand. I'm going to say I'm a huge fan of the brown rice.) That same night, we drove back to Fredericksburg because Kim had to graduate at 9am in the morning! 

Saturday, I would not wake up a second earlier than I had to, even for mimosas Kim was having. So, yeah, super tired. One cappuccino and a trek to campus later, I was Kim's official photographer during her graduation ceremony. After an hour of ceremony and 2 hours of reading EVERY name of EVERY graduate, and after running into plenty of people from Rapp, Kim and I met up with the rest of our present family (mom, stepdad, grandma) for lunch. I then drove back to Williamsburg to meet up with Mike and Kelly who were down for WM's graduation. Alex, Kylie, and Cohen also made a surprise visit and we feasted on cupcakes and champagne.

Sunday! Graduation Day! Breakfast at Aromas (same place Kel and I ate the morning of our undergraduate graduation) was quiche and fruit that I ate in like .5 seconds because I was late for the walk across campus. Please, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and everyone knows the walk doesn't actually begin until like 15 min. after line-up.

Mike & I after he and Kelly and Alex found me on the walk across campus.

After waiting like half an hour in the same place in Crim Dell back-up (everyone pauses to take picture on the Crim dell and we were going to be late), we made an executive decision as a group to be rebels and bypass the Crim Dell. Best decision ever: because we actually made it in time for the big ceremony! Even with Gates and Lehrer speaking, I still think Taylor Reveley stole the show. He always does. After the small ceremony in the School of Education courtyard, I finally received my diploma, and got to see friends and family. After an amazing lunch/dinner with my mom and Kim and saying goodbye to everyone, I couldn't believe the day was over.

I came home to this present from Wulia in the mail which made me feel incredibly grateful to have such wonderful friends who cheer me on in whatever I'm doing.

Now it's been a day and a half since graduation and the panic of "Where to now?" is starting to set in. Well I really want a job. And I really want this job not to be in Williamsburg. It would be extra cool if this job was in the Washington DC Metro area. Because I'm such a pro at the metro system now, it'd be a shame to waste that skill. I'll keep you posted on the details of my upcoming life changes. Until then....