A Wedding and a Homecoming

On Friday, I arrive in Iowa at 8 p.m. The next day, I cut the cake at Unkie and Helen's party and I get to see my family! It's been quite a week. Last Wednesday was my last day of school. Then I had to finish a paper and prepare a presentation for my last grad school class on Thursday. I then had one week to finish my portfolio, and I spent some of it with my friends and on Fourth of July celebration...and way too much time on the Saga of Chris. Nonetheless, that's all done now, and so is my portfolio! All that I need for my master's degree is to clear up some clerical stuff. Ugh.
Last Friday was my friend Madrid's bachelorette party. It wasn't the traditional debauchery. Instead we went to dinner at a restaurant called Mexican Radio, then when to a vodka bar with a cool, underground decor.

During the party, we discovered that Madrid's fiance, ChrisP, wasn't having a bachelor party. [He's a grad student, and after his friends recently graduated they moved away. Since they weren't inviting anyone to the wedding (immediate family only), he didn't feel right asking anyone to come back.]

I suggested that we throw him a bachelor party. Madrid didn't think he'd want one, but he was happy about it. We all wore ties and went to a vegetarian restaurant with a Moroccan decor, Caravan of Dreams. ChrisP said it was perfect: "I get the attention of six lovely ladies and my fiance doesn't get jealous!" He also said it was nice to be in a relationship where the friends all approved.
"Not that I wouldn't have married her anyway, it's just...sometimes you get out of a relationships, and all your friends say, 'Oh, thank goodness you got out of that one!' But when the friends all approve, it's like they see that you're a good match."

And they are. Yesterday they got married, and after the wedding they met up with us for dinner. We all toasted the couple, laughing and getting teary-eyed I ended this week with a celebration of a marriage beginning. Next week will end with a celebration of a marriage that has lasted for 50 years. That's a beautiful and inspiring thing.