Weekend of May 16-18-- Portnoy wedding

Night 1: "If I had Karen Carpenter's voice, I would have eaten."

This past weekend was Michael's wedding in Hartford, Connecticut. Now, let me just say that I was not excited about going to Hartford. "Insurance Capitol" doesn't really conjure up images of sexy fun. But I was seeing some of the law school crew and that IS always sexy fun. I got there Fri. afternoon. It was grey & rainy but Kim's smiling face greated me at the Hartford airport. We hung out and had a martini before the rest of the girls got there. Me, Kim, Theo, Amy & Tamara went to a local eatery for dinner. I had a drink called an Astropop which had God only knows what hard alcohol in it but was yuuuuummy. Dinner was nice and we had some time to catch up. Oddly, we weren't the loudest group of girls at the restaurant. Not used to that. We left after eating and headed over to the bar that the rehearsal dinner was at.

Tamara, me, Kim & Theo at dinner

Rick & Julie were at the bar when we got there. Now you should know-- Julie is pregnant. With twins. I have to say, that girl is a trooper. I'm not so good being around drunk people when I'm sober (ironic, no?) and I CANNOT imagine being sober around drunk people AND being pregnant w/ twins. But Julie was in good spirits as was Tamara, the other lovely pregnant trooper. Seriously-- happy, good looking, up-for-anything pregnant ladies? How often does that happen? The rest of the crew was in the process of getting lit. Beer, wine, spirits. A shot of Jaeger. Then a bunch of obnoxious kids came in. They were, wait for it-- LAW STUDENTS. Just graduated from Trinity. One kept jabbing Kim w/ his elbow and when she asked him to stop he told her she shouldn't sit there. Like she was crazy for sitting at the bar. Class, class, class. Eventunally we decided to take the party to the hotel bar. Which would be quieter. And we could have civilized conversation. I guess here I should note that we have our 10 yr law school reunion this year. Yep. We're old.

Theo, Kim & Amy at the bar. Obnoxious law students were about to invade.

We moved on to the hotel bar. The end of the night was me, Theo, Rick & Kim. Lots of talk about music. That's when Kim declared that if she had Karen Carpenter's voice she would have eaten. There was a heated defense of the BeeGees as real musicians and led to Rick & Kim singing Andy Gibb's "I Wanna Be Your Everything" and then Barry Gibb & Barbra Streisand's "Guilty". That's when I thought to myself, "I'm SO glad I flew to Hartford to see this."

Night 2: "Open up your purse. I want to put her in there and take her home."

The wedding was Sat. night at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. It was a lovely location. The ceremony was in a small chapel-type room. Now first, let me say that the ceremony was beautiful, Michael was so happy, Kimberly was goregeous and it just overall a touching, personal, sweet, lovely ceremony. But-- Michael's 1/2 Filipino so there were a lot of Filipino traditions incorporated into the ceremony. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cord tradition. This is when the bride and groom are bound by a cord that symbolizes everlasting love, happiness, fidelity, whatever. It was a white rope w/ 2 loops-- 1 loop placed around the bride, 1 around the groom. It looked like a noose. I swear. I'm not the only one who saw the resemblence. I SWEAR. It wasn't just cynical me. I swear.

The ceremony led to a cocktail hour with SUSHI. Another bummer for the pregnant ladies but me & Rick were like pigs in $hit. There was rumor of scallops wrapped in bacon being passed around and Theonie looked like she would even take down Tamara's Michael for the last one.

Theo, Amy, Tamara, me & Kim at the cocktail hour

The reception was in the theater. I wasn't sure how that was going to work. It worked amazingly-- the whole party was on the stage. The flowers were stunning. There was a movie screen in the background w/ starry night projected on to it. Little white lights everywhere. It was beautiful. The reception started with the traditional bride-groom dance. I've never seen anything like this-- it was choreographed a la "Dancing w/ the Stars". I wish I had a video of it. And it just reminded me of one of the 1st times I got really drunk w/ Michael in law school and we were dancing and he'd just spin me around like a rag doll. I didn't even fall. He's an amazing dancer. And he showed it off that night. We also could see where he got his moves from-- the dance floor was filled w/ older Filipino men & women dressed to the nines in sequins and chiffon busting out moves I haven't seen in real life. Michael's mom was so cute that it prompted Amy to tell Theo to open up her purse so that she could put her in there and take her home. The toasts were lovely and ended with a movie that Michael had made for Kimberly. It was a spoof mainly poking fun of himself and his hair. But it was also super sweet and got me choked up. I was alone at the singles table at this point, so maybe that had a little something to do w/ it as well. But it was truly the most unique wedding I've ever been to. Personal, classy, fun and touching. All in all, good times, good times.

Kimberly & Michael- The happy couple on the dance floorThe amazing flowers w/ the starry night background
Julie, the super trooper, and Rick
Amy & Theo and the starry sky
A Yankee & a Red Sox fan finding a moment of harmony
Kimberly & Kimberly
Trooper Tamara not letting anything stop her from boogying
Amy, Theo & me
Kim & Sheik

Rick & Michael