Wedding Wrap Up: Tiff & Chris!

As I mentioned yesterday, John & I went to New York over the weekend to attend the wedding of our good friends Tiffany & Chris.  Tiffany & I met at MTSU in 1995 when we joined the same sorority (I know).  Lauren came through the following year & the three of us have been friends ever since.  After college, Lauren moved to DC & Tiffany & I moved to NYC.  Lauren would come up & spend the weekend with us a lot.  Lauren & I both moved back to Nashville after a couple of years, but Tiffany has remained in NYC.

Me & Tiff, circa 1996

Me, Lauren & Tiff, NYC, circa 2003

Me & Tiff, NYC, circa 2002

I remember when Tiffany met Chris because it was right before my wedding in 2008.  She was here a lot & she was clearly smitten.  I had never seen her like this.  I couldn't wait to meet him!  I don't remember when I finally met Chris, but it was soon after our wedding.  I loved him!  He was handsome, funny, down-to-earth & perfect for Tiffany.  He brought out a side of her that I had never seen.

Chris proposed last August & Tiffany hit the ground running planning this wedding.  In a mere 8 months, she pulled off one heck of a DIY wedding.  And in NYC no less!  I knew this wedding would be exactly what Tiffany wanted & it was; it was perfect.  As soon as I walked into the wedding, I immediately spotted all kinds of things Tiffany had pinned to her Down The Aisle We Go Pinterest board.

The wedding was perfect.  It was at The George Weir Barn/Henry Lloyd Manor House in Lloyd Harbor, Long Island.  The ceremony was outside in front of the barn.  It was a beautiful day & it started raining right as we took our seats.  Tiffany's mom walked her down the aisle under an umbrella, then Tiffany & Chris were married under a huge tree canopy.  It was tres romantic.  Our friend Ian Fay officiated the ceremony & he did an amazing job.  Ian had the genius idea of having us all hum "Here Comes The Bride" as Tiffany walked down the aisle.  It was so sweet!  Well done, Ian Fay!

The reception was inside the barn & it was GORGEOUS.  Tiffany had streams & streams of lights hung all across the expansive barn ceiling.  She also had banners & bunting hung along with the lights.  All four corners of the barn housed a different area:  bar, photobooth (!!), food & music.  Each station was labeled with a chalk sign & handmade paper flowers.  It was so cute!  Much like my friend Delaney's wedding, it looked like a professional team had come in & done this.  It in no way looked like a DIY wedding.  Good job, Tiff!

Tiffany, smartly, had the reception catered by the infamous Dinosaur Bar-B-Que & it was delicious!  It definitely lived up to the hype.  I apologize, but everything after the dinner is kind of blur due to the fact that at this point, Lauren & I had easily had about 100 bottles of white wine between us.  Caryn's boyfriend Marc was the DJ & he didn't disappoint.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I did nothing but dance for the remainder of the reception.  Oh, I did stop to go into the photobooth multiple times, of course.

I laughed, I cried, I ate, I drank (& drank), I rapped & I danced my butt off.  It was the most fun I've had in a long time & I'm so happy to have been a part of it.

Tiffany & Chris:  I am so, so happy for you.  Enjoy your honeymoon & I'll see you later this summer!

XOXO!

Full wedding photostream on Flickr here.

Oh, & P.S. this happened:

Weekend Wrap Up: Long Island Edition

This weekend John & I flew to New York to see our good friend Tiffany get married.  When we landed on Friday, John immediately drove to the Tesla Wardenclyffe Laboratory in Shoreham, Long Island.  John went through a huge Tesla phase a couple of years ago & has been dying to see this tower.  In typical fashion, I stayed in the car while John broke into the grounds & trespassed to his weird heart's content.

Friday night, Chris' parents hosted a Welcome Soiree at the local yacht club.  It was great getting to see all of our old friends & meet Chris' family.  They're so nice!  Above is Lauren & I with the bride-to-be!

On Saturday, John's childhood friend, Duane, drove out to Long Island to spend the day with us.  We went to Sagamore Hill to see Teddy Roosevelt's house (& museum, grave, etc.).  It was actually a lot of fun.  To know my husband is to know his unabashed love for all things Teddy Roosevelt.  And to know me is to know that it was hot, thus I spent most of my time in the air conditioned gift shop trying on $25 buffalo hats & posting pics on Instagram.  Thank god Duane was there.  He & John spent the better half of the day chatting up this awesome, 84 year old tour guide who is an engineer in Manhattan during the week & volunteers as a tour guide on Saturdays.  He was awesome.

Saturday night was Tiffany & Chris' wedding in Lloyd Harbor, Long Island.  It was hands-down the best wedding we've ever attended.  We had such a good time.  And I took a million pictures (all on Flickr).  In fact, I'm going to stop here & give the wedding "wrap up" it's own post.  To be continued...

We got up on Sunday morning & went to a post-wedding brunch at Tiffany's mom's rental house & then we drove around a little more before heading back to the airport.  John, of course, wanted to find some abandoned mental hospital that he somehow knew about.  We found it, obvi.  It was HUGE.  It was like a college campus.  And it was terrifying.  The few pictures that I took don't do it justice.  All of the windows were broken & the walls were covered in graffiti.  More info on the King's Park Psychiatric Center here.

Stay tuned for a complete wedding wrap up!

More pics on my Flickr photostream.

Weekend Wrap Up: Team Taurus Edition

My birthday was on Sunday, but that didn't stop me from blowing it out for three straight days.  The celebration got kicked off early, & by early I mean early.  Our 5:30am Pancake Run on Friday ended with crowns, sashes & birthday pancakes with fellow Team Taurus member, Mary Katherine.  Our birthdays are a day apart.

Here's me a mere five hours later with my second dessert of the day.  Claudia & Lauren treated me to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, where I was surprised with a birthday hot fudge sundae.

On Saturday, most of my friends got up early to run half marathons &/or triathlons, but me?  I got up early-ish & ran a "barely a 4k" beer run sponsored by Yazoo.  Jealy?  This is me & my Nasty friend Heidi, post run.  These runs are the best runs in Nashville & if you're not on Yazoo's email list, you're missing out.

On Saturday night, we had a few friends over for dinner.  John made carnitas.  They were unbelievable, just like you'd get at a Mexican restaurant.  Above is the chef tasting his creation.

This is Katie photo-bombing me & Jessica.  It's kind of the best picture ever.  Oh yeah, & I'm wearing my birthday crown from Pancake Pantry.  You know, like you do.

Katie always makes a cheesecake for my birthday.  This year, she really outdid herself.  The crust is made out of graham crackers & crushed Oreos.  The cake is regular cream cheese & sour cream, but then it's topped with MELTED PEANUT BUTTER & chocolate.  Oh, & crumbled Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  It was as amazing as it sounds (& looks).

On Sunday, my mom & Abigail, my oldest niece, came into town to take me to lunch.  I knew I wanted Jeni's afterwards, so we went over to East Nashville.  We ate lunch at Five Points Pizza & then trekked over to Jeni's.  Neither my mom nor Abigail had been before.  They both loved it!

To celebrate both of our birthdays, Mary Katherine & Marshall invited us over for Sunday Supper.  Marshall told us to pick the menu, so we picked the paella recipe in Gwyneth's book.  OMG, it was soooo good!

For dessert, Melissa made Smitten Kitchen's chocolate buckwheat cake.  It looked strange, but it tasted amazing.  We ate & drank (& drank) & sang & danced.  It was so much fun & the perfect ending to our birthday weekend.

Team Taurus!

Full birthday photostream on Flickr.

Bar Cart!

A few weeks ago, I was leaving Lewisburg & passed a roadside flea market.  Having such good luck the last time I was thrifting in Lewisburg (Vivienne Westwood shirt, woot woot!), I decided to pull over & see what this place had to offer.  I immediately spotted a brass bar cart buried alive under ceramic chotzskies.  Everyone that worked there was 300 years old.  I finally found someone who confirmed that the bar cart was for sale, then helped me clear it off.  It was "Randy's" & "Randy" was out running errands, so she had no idea how much it cost.  She asked, "Fifteen dollars?"  And I said, "Yeah, I can do that."  In my mind, I thought, 'sold!  suckers!'.  

I had no cash with which to purchase Randy's $15 bar cart & it's not like Lewisburg is a bustling metropolis, so they directed me to a far-off gas station that they were "pretty sure" had an ATM.  I was so worried that someone would come in & steal it out from under me, I asked them to put a "sold" tag on it.  They had no such tag.  Also, they thought I was insane.  So I booked it down to the gas station & back like there was going to be a sudden rush for bar carts at the flea market where clearly no one else has been for years, as denoted by the 2-inch layer of dust on everything in there.  

Long story longer, while I was at the ATM, they hauled the bar cart outside for me.  I had no idea how to get it into my car, or if it would even fit.  Also, I wasn't exactly dressed for manual labor.  I had on a tight pencil skirt & big 'ole city heels.  I rolled it down to my car & stood there staring at it.  Luckily, one of the 300 year old men who worked there came over, disassembled it & stuffed it into my car.  I handed him a five spot & went on my merry way, laughing at my good fortune all the way back to Nashville.

Bar cart, disassembled & stuffed into the back seat of my two-door Toyota.

I also bought this, obvi.  When in Rome...

Out of my car & put back together.  See all that dust!  It even had cobwebs in the corners.

My first attempt at "styling" it.  Fail.

My second attempt.  Success!

I had a West Elm gift card (thanks, Mom!), so I went to West Elm to shop for better accessories.  The Nashville West Elm has such great customer service.  Jen, who has helped me before, had me show her a picture of the bar cart, then she set up a 'stage' in the store so we could style it.  I already had all this stuff pulled, but she immediately vetoed all of it & went & pulled more stuff.  I had all this white, shiny, lacquered stuff & she said it was too much white & that I needed to add a "natural" element.  She was totes right.  Of course she was.  I put all of my stuff back & bought everything she showed me.  Well, done Jen!

Here's a close-up.  The books & the bell jar are mine, everything else came from West Elm (from smallest to largest):

Porcelain Candleholder
Shane Powers Ceramic Bud Vase
*I can't find the wooden ball/sphere online, but it was in the store, $20-ish
Textured Pure Jug Vase

Full bar cart photostream on Flickr.

How I Trained For A Half Marathon

After the half marathon:  Cara, me & Jaime

A few months ago, I wrote "A History of Running: My Story".  Now I want to write about how I trained for the half marathon.  My friend Jaime had her second daughter around this time last year & wanted to train for a half marathon to get back into shape.  Although Jaime is a seasoned runner, after having a baby, you basically have to go back to the beginning stages of running.  Because of this & because of my propensity to over do it & sustain injury, we stretched out a typical 12 week training program to 23 weeks.

Weeks 1 - 16 (September - December)

I decided to track our runs with the free iPhone app, RunKeeper.  We started with short, 2-3 mile runs in September & slowly built up to 5 miles.  Once we were comfortable at 5 miles, we ran the Boulevard Bolt on Thanksgiving Day.  From November to December, we stayed at 5 miles.  After Christmas, we got serious & decided to start adding a mile a week to our Sunday long runs.  Also, our friend Cara joined us & the three of us became a team.  We were running three times a week:  a 5-11 mile long run on Sunday, a 3-6 mile run on Wednesday (ENFL!), & a 3-4 mile Pancake Run on Friday.  Cara & I were doing yoga on our off days & I believe Jaime was doing Zumba.  I was also swimming some on the weeks when my knee felt over-worked.

Week 17:  6 miles

At this point, we were 8 weeks from the race.  Below are the stats from our first long run.  We ran 6 miles at an average pace of 11:51.  Side note:  these were city runs, i.e. lots of stopping at red lights, waiting at crosswalks, etc.

Week 18:  7 miles

We ran 7 miles at an 11:30 pace.  I believe this is our actual pace, so this must have been on a greenway, or somewhere without red lights & crosswalks.

Week 19:  8 miles

It was raining the day we ran 8 miles, so I didn't take my phone, thus, no run results.  But rest assured, we did run 8 miles.

Week 20:  9 miles

We ran 9 miles at a 12:19 pace.  We ran the course with a group of East Nasties who were training for a half in New Orleans the weekend before ours.  We stopped at the halfway mark & talked for a minute before turning around & running back, which I think is what skewed our time.

Week 21:  10 miles

Ahh, 10 sweet miles.  This was huge milestone for me.  My goal for years has been to run the 10 mile "Bongo to Bongo" route.  Because this is a popular route, we had a fairly large group on this day.  Also, it was 21 degrees, windchill of 12.  It was, by far, the coldest day of our training.  I actually had icicles form on my face.  Truth.

Frozen, post 10 mile run face.

Week 22:  11 miles

This was our last long run.  This was actually my worst run.  I overdressed for the weather & couldn't take anything off, so I was hot, slow & uncomfortable for 2 hours & 16 minutes.  It sucked.  For the last few miles, I was so miserable that Jaime started singing old school rap songs to keep me going.  It worked.  Barely.  We did 11 miles at a 12:23 pace.  This one was ROUGH.

Screenshot of how many miles I ran in the last few weeks leading up to the race.

Week 23:  13.1 miles

Race day!  As you can see, we trained up to 11 miles.  We also ran the course.  We were ready.  The weather was gorgeous & we ran a great race.  I didn't care about my time.  I just wanted to run the entire race, which I did.  Cara wore her Garmin, so she kept us at a steady pace.  We were constantly going too fast & had to slow down, which is really common on race day.  It's hard to maintain your pace when you're surrounded by other runners.

We ran it just like it was another training run.  We started slow, talked off & on & ran the whole thing.  The last two miles were my hardest.  I was super over it at this point & just wanted to finish.  You hear people say that running is mental.  This is what they mean.  I basically had to override my brain & will myself to finish those last two miles.  Luckily the East Nasty water stop was at Mile 12, so that pepped me up & carried me through to the finish.

Finishing the race on the Titan's field was awesome.  They put us up on the jumbotron as we came around the field & announced us as we crossed the finish line.  It was the exact amount of fan fare you want after running for 13+ miles.

I had said that I would only run one half marathon, just to see if I could, but I've already got the bug to run another one.  Jaime wants to do one in another city.  I think she had a tropic, beach locale in mind, but I found one in Austin, TX.  Actually, I found two.  There's one in late January & another one in mid February.  We're still working out which date/race to go with, but it looks like my next half will be in Austin in early 2013, which means we'll start training again in the fall.  Yahoo!

Full Tom King Half Marathon photostream on Flickr.