Geography has never been my strong suit, and this past weekend, that came home to roost.
One of my dearest friends, TJ, was scheduled to marry his lovely bride, Melissa, on Saturday afternoon in Massachusetts, with a rehearsal dinner on Friday night. My original plan was to stay with another dear friend, Kathleen, in West Hartford – our old stomping grounds. In my head, it only made sense that since we used to both live there that the wedding was within a reasonable driving distance from there.
So, the plan was to fly in Friday afternoon, hang out with Kathleen for a couple of hours, and then go to the rehearsal dinner Friday night. Then, Saturday morning, I was going to go out to breakfast at Sally and Bob’s with my friend Donna (a Saturday morning tradition when I lived in CT!). After breakfast, I envisioned spending some time walking around the West Hartford reservoir, which used to be one of my favorite places to go walking, having a lunch at one of the fabulous lunch spots that I knew Kathleen would pick, and then, going to the wedding at 4pm. On Sunday, I was going to go visit my friend Alison to see her new house and spend some time with her before hopping on the plane home.
Great plan, right? Lots of friend time and nostalgia, right?
Not so much.
On Friday morning, as I was headed to the airport, I sent Kathleen a text to find out her new address. She replied with it and asked the address of where the rehearsal dinner was. When I told her, she looked up directions from her house – and reported back that my plans might have a wrinkle in them.
The wedding venue was 2.5 hours away from West Hartford, in a lovely little town called Mattapoisset, Massachusetts. TWO AND A HALF HOURS!?! My heart sank.
Kathleen graciously offered to find a hotel for me to stay near to the festivities, and before I could even get to the airport, she found a lovely historic bed and breakfast about 5 miles from the wedding.
So, my plans pivoted. I would do the rehearsal dinner Friday night, wedding Saturday night, and hang out in West Hartford with my girlfriends on Sunday. Then, I would use my newly found spare time to write, read, study and relax.
Rehearsal dinner – check.
Morning walk down to the harbor – check.
Reading – check.
Four-hour nap – check.
Wait, what? You read that correctly – I took a four-hour nap. I laid down to read for a little and thought I would close my eyes for a minute. Well, thank goodness I had an alarm set to remind me when It was time to get ready for the wedding – because that is what ended up waking me up four hours later! I sat up like I was getting shot out of a cannon and hustled to get ready for the wedding, hoping that the sleep marks on my face weren’t too obvious.
The wedding was beautiful – it was a true celebration of two families coming together. I got to meet some incredible new friends and get caught up with some that I hadn’t seen in a decade, and I got to hold the sweetest little baby while her mom and dad took part in the bridal party activities.
Sunday was perfect – brunch was lovely, with great food, deep conversations and lots of laughter. We had so much fun that we forgot to take any pictures together, but the memory is a great one.
I came home with my heart full and very well rested. While my trip didn’t go according to my original plan, it ended up exactly as it should be, and for that, I am grateful.
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