Wedding #3

Ok, before I lose all steam, here's Wedding #3 from 2013!  My college roommate (the other college roommate...not the one whose brother I'm dating) got married in StL right after Christmas.  I was super excited leading up to this one because of the venues.  Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to see my friend so happy, but The Church!  The Chase!  Despite living in StL for several years including college, I had never been to a wedding at the College Church (listed among the most beautiful college campuses for a wedding!).  I'm sure I'm biased by all the great memories in this church (though to be fair there are some sad ones too) and the fantastic choirs, but this is hands-down my favorite church.  It's just exquisite.  The reception was held at the Chase, a very fancy, historic hotel not far from campus.  We used to go see movies there in college because that's right, there's a theater in the hotel.  The reception was on the top floor, with a lovely view of the city.  The hotel block for the wedding was at the same place, and between the off-season timing and the wedding block it was shockingly affordable.

Now I knew this wedding was going to be fancy.  The bride has by far the most elevated taste of all my friends, not to mention she's the most meticulous planner I know.  Let's say I wasn't disappointed by this wedding.  Not only was there a dress change during the reception, there was a hairstyle change between the ceremony and the reception.  Her dad is Chinese, so during the reception she changed out of her American-style, traditional white gown into a red gown, as red is the traditional color for Chinese weddings.  When I'd heard beforehand that she was going to change her hair before the reception, I assumed this meant something like up versus down, or changing to a more sturdy style for dancing.  What I never dreamed this meant was a new hair cut and color!  In less than 2 hours too!

Dinner was also super fancy...we were highly entertained by the number of glasses with the place settings.  It wasn't difficult to figure out what they all were (water, white wine glass, red wine glass, and champagne flute), but my goodness!  Add to that the fact that most people got to the table with their last drink from the cocktail hour in hand and I had nearly as many glasses as I use in a week in front of me at once.  A raspberry sorbet palate cleanser was served between the salad and the entree.  I've watched enough Top Chef to know what a palate cleanser is, but I'd certainly never been served one before!  When the chargers were cleared from the table before we expected there was a puzzled conversation as to the purpose of chargers that never got resolved, even after consulting with Boyfriend's (and college roommate's) very ladylike southern mother.

While this was a much fancier wedding than I'd ever come up with, I have to say it may be the first where there isn't anything I'd critique!  Everything was incredibly well organized and just so elegant.  I know I've talked about how fancy everything was, but really the best part was the gigantic smile on the bride's face.  It's the sort of smile that makes me weepy-happy. :)

Blurry roommates!

With the college-roommate-whose-brother-I'm-dating and our fellas

That sums up the 2013 year in weddings.  I don't know of any yet for 2014, but it's hard to imagine that won't change...

My Other Home

So I'm so behind in blogging that three months later I'm getting around to writing about going to St. Louis for Little Brother's college graduation.  It was mostly a really nice trip, and I'm always happy to go to St. Louis.  I love St. Louis.  I loved my time there.  It's such an under-rated city.  Little brother still lives there, along with Dad's side of the family, and one of my college roommates.  I can't wait to back for Wedding #3 in December!

I mostly took photos of family and graduation stuff, so not a whole lot to share, but here are a couple shots.

Ted Drewes.  Amazingness in a cup.  It's right on Route 66, and it's pretty much a St. Louis icon.  Grandpa (mom's dad, who lives in Connecticut, not dad's dad who lives in St. Louis) thought it was crowded.  The crowd that night hardly counted as a crowd.  After a Cardinals' game it's nothing short of a mob scene.  Ted Drewes is an essential stop on every trip to StL.

Those of you who have lived in mid-town St. Louis may recognize this UFO-like building.  Though you may not, as it is now far more classily (Yep, made that one up.  Standing by it.) occupied than when I was in college.  At that point it was a Del Taco.  And I never once in 4 years ate there.  It was a shady, shady place.  Now the university has bought the apartments behind it, and it's much more respectably occupied by a Starbucks and a Chipotle.  The flying saucer has come so far.

Time for a tangent.  My dorm freshman year was directly across the street from the above flying saucer, somewhat separate from the rest of campus.  The road was a really busy road, and we were just south of a large and apparently confusing intersection.  Accidents happened all the time.  The former Del Taco makes me think of one of the dumbest accidents I've ever seen, which happened right in front of it.  There's a light there, and a school bus - you know, giant, bright yellow vehicle - was stopped at the red light.  I was walking up the street towards campus when I heard a crash behind me, and I turned around to find a vehicle had rear ended the stopped school bus.  I don't really remember, but I think it was a jeep.  It's entire front end was smashed into the back of the bus.  We're not talking little fender bender from somebody creeping forward at the red light.  How do you miss the GIANT YELLOW BUS stopped in front of you??

At commencement all the faculty in their academic regalia process in before the students.  Check out the guy in the middle of the photo below.  It's Dumbledore!  Apparently he teaches at my old college - he didn't die in Book 6 after all!  After the ceremony we were chatting with a professor (actually a Jesuit priest who lived in the same dorm I did my freshman year) who was a contemporary of my parents when they were all students at this same college.  Dad asked him who Dumbledore was (literally, that's exactly what he said), and this professor thought about it for a few minutes, and said he teaches in the theology department.  On that description alone, he knew exactly who he was.  Priceless.

While in St. Louis I got to hang out with my college roommate (the bride in Wedding #3 this year - and I'm seriously excited for that wedding!), and she and her fiance just got the cutest little puppy.  He's adorable, and super photogenic.

I just love St. Louis.  Only 4 1/2 months until I get to go back!

Furthering My Education

After Christmas I flew down to Arkansas to visit Boyfriend and his family.  He grew up on a rice farm in a rural area.  Needless to say this is VERY different from my upbringing in suburbs outside of major cities.  I'd been to Arkansas a couple times with my college roommate (aka Boyfriend's sister...), and it's always been a very enlightening and amusing experience (for me and them).  The first time I went to Arkansas I had to ask what grain bins were.  Another time in college, my midwestern/southern roommates collectively decided to refuse to explain chicken fried steak to me.

Itty bitty plane like the one I took to Arkansas.  Apparently not many people fly to Arkansas.

We spent a day driving around the farm, where Boyfriend had a great time getting his truck super muddy.  (He found this more entertaining than I did, especially when I had to watch him scrub it clean the next day.)  I had a lot of fun with the rusted out ancient equipment on the side of a field.  I also got to drive a tractor, only to be laughed at because I was so excited about it.  Boyfriend also "made" me climb to the top of the grain elevator.  Heights don't really bother me, but climbing up the ladder was scary.  Good thing the view from the top was pretty nice...  Then we took his dad's dog (who couldn't quite make up her mind whether she liked me or not) out on a tramp through some pastures and around the rock quarry.  I'm calling it a tramp because it was more than a walk given the terrain and mud, but not really a hike because it was mostly flat.

Eagle's nest

Beaver dam

Fourche River (Pronounced "Fo-shee."  My French teachers would die.)

 

 

Check out my beautiful donut!

We ate a couple meals at his grandparents' house, where I worried about offending his grandmother with my ability to clear the 3 lb plate of spaghetti and meatballs she put in front of me.  I love his grandparents - they're great, but I have never even tried to eat so much spaghetti before, nor followed it with a piece of super rich (and delicious) pina colada cake (complete with lots of rum!).

On New Year's Eve we drove up to St. Louis, where we paid a quick visit to G-Pa before hanging out with my other college roommate and going out to First Night for New Year's.  Once we could drag ourselves out of bed we spent the rest of the very long day driving back to Pennsylvania (with a pit stop in Columbus, OH to say hi to my old labmates!).  Later today I'll head back to Tucson, via both Chicago and Dallas...ugh.  But hey, the ticket only cost me 12,500 frequent flyer miles and $5, and Boyfriend doesn't have to drive three hours round trip to get me to the airport.  Looking forward to the warm weather!

More Adventures in Plumbing

The week before last I was in St Louis for my college roommate's wedding, and after the wedding I was staying at my grandfather's house. He's been in a nursing home for almost a year now, so I was there by myself.

Sunday morning that terrible cold was at its worst and I got up earlyish (since I couldn't breathe well enough to actually sleep) looking forward to a very long, hot shower. So I get undressed, and pull the knob to turn the water on, when the ENTIRE fixture comes off in my hand, and water is jetting across the entire bathtub.

I'm grabbing my phone and wrapping a towel around myself (I have no idea why exactly, it's not like there was anybody there) and calling my dad as I run to the basement.

Dad: Hello
Me: Dad! QUICK! Where's the water shut off for Grandpa's house???? (I can hear the water gushing from the basement.)
Dad: Try the front corner on the [neighbor's] side.

Here's were I have to give my dad A LOT of credit. He gave me an answer quickly without asking what the hell was going on (he waited until I got the water shut off to ask that haha). And he was right about where the valve was (which is impressive for a house he's never actually lived in), and I managed to get the water shut off before there was any flooding. Anyways, so then I shut off the water valves just to the bathroom in question, and then reopen the house line. I go back upstairs to look at the broken bathtub fixture to see if I have any idea what failed and if it's something I can fix. I'm sitting on the edge of the tub (still in a towel), talking to my dad and looking at the pipe coming out of the wall and the shower knob (now on the counter).

Dad: Try taking the faceplate off the wall to see if you can spot the problem.
Me: Um, Dad? Can I put some clothes on and call you back in a couple minutes?
Dad: Oh, um, ok. (Listen to that awkwardness! Isn't it great??)

So I get dressed, find a screwdriver and take apart pretty much everything I can see to take apart, and call Dad back. I tell him the faceplate is caulked onto the wall, and we agree that removing it is unlikely to reveal anything helpful. He suggested emailing him pictures, which I did. I had both my big-girl camera and my point-and-shoot in StL, but of course I only had the transfer cable for the big-girl camera, so they were very nice photos of the shower fixture. And to make this more fun, emailing pictures meant dragging my sick self to the nearest cafe to get WiFi.














Unfortunately, after sitting in (what seemed like) a very loud cafe looking over these pictures with Dad on the phone, going back to the house and further disassembling the plastic knob, I now know how the faucet works - how it lets water come out and how it changes the ratio of the hot/cold water to change the temperature, but I had no idea what was actually broken.

Plumbing fail.

Eep!

So Tucson doesn't have that many mosquitos (thank God...something I DON'T miss about StL)...but the bugs we do have are really freaking huge!

Reasons I Miss StL

In no particular order.

• 10 pm Mass (well, I guess it's technically the 9 pm Mass now, but same difference)
• My college roommates
• Dirty Shirleys
• 5 pm shots in the kitchen (sex with an alligator, mexican flag)
• The Hall of $h!t
  
• The Muny
• The Big Bang
• Grandpa
• Seasons
• Grass
• Lightning bugs
• City Museum
• Ted Drewes
• Uncle Bill's (really just for the 24-hour ghetto-ness and the Golden Alaska)
• Toasted ravioli
• Regular access to a piano
• Forest Park
• Direct flights to Boston
• Good music at mass
  
• The Ozarks and their beautiful, partially shaded, crystal clear water for floating
  

I'm just mad about saffron...

Yes, I just used a tangentially related song lyric as a post title, again.

Saturday night some friends came over for dinner - E, her boyfriend J, and Slim, a new first-year in my group. As he's the baby in his family and this is the first year he's lived on his own with a kitchen, he can't really cook, but he is a B.A. chopper. He can chop just about anything we give him. Many thanks to him for tirelessly chopping the many, many chopped items that went into Saturday night's dinner. But before I continue, I need to backtrack first. To January. Sorry.

The trip before last to StL, I found saffron in my grandfather's kitchen...and since saffron is so expensive, I brought it back to Tucson. Now before you tell me I'm a terrible granddaughter, I'd like to point out that my grandfather can't cook anything besides pasta, steamed vegetables, baked potatoes, and grilled meat. While she was alive my grandmother did nearly all the cooking, but she's not here to use her kitchen anymore, so Grandpa has always invited me to take anything I could use in terms of dishes, gadgets, baking stuff etc. I just assume that this extends to less-than-common spices as well.

Possession of saffron obvious requires a specially made meal revolving around said saffron. I went with paella. Because it's delicious, and the fact that it's a one-pot meal so I don't have to come up with any sides is also a perk. (Not that I'm all that opposed to one food group meals.)

Any good cook knows that cooking only improves with the assistance of some beverages. Since we were making paella, sangria seemed like a logical choice.


I like the recipe I linked to a lot - but some commentary in case you're looking to make sangria. I used the cheapest cabernet I could fine, spiced rum, and added apples, because they're delicious soaked in alcohol. First comment - it's a really strong drink. E thought it was rather sweet, to the point of masking the wine (which is also probably due in part to using spiced rather than white rum), but I like sweet, and the more she drank the more she seemed to like the sweetness. :) I suspect that if it's going to have that much strong alcohol in it that it probably needs to be that sweet, so if you wanted to cut back on the sugar I'd probably also cut back on the rum. This recipe doesn't call for adding any white soda, but I added about a cup worth anyways to dilute it a touch and give it a hint of fizziness. (In the past E and I have also made a delicious white sangria. Something different. A good summer drink especially.)

So. Dinner. With sangria in hand, we started where many good recipes begin, by sauteeing peppers and onions.


We fairly closely followed the recipe given...well closely for us anyways. Recipes are just a starting point anyways right? We left out the squid and mussels. I don't like mussels, and I don't trust seafood in Tucson, especially when left to my own preparation. We added asparagus, because some of the other recipes I looked at called for it, because I was able to find good (ie skinny) asparagus, and because it's delicious. We put them in when the rice was maybe halfway done cooking. I also added nearly twice the amount of peas it called for. I like peas, and the more vegetables the better right? Here's the finished result:


Isn't it pretty? It was delicious, too. Things I might do different? Of course. I'd use more saffron. I've never used saffron before, and I'm under the impression that it's quite strong and that a lot should go a long way. Even so I probably still used more than it was meant to have ("a pinch" is so open to interpretation). And I'd use even more next time. Unless I somehow happened to have newer saffron - any spices claimed from my grandparents' house is going to be rather old and therefore not as strong. Other than that, the only thing I think I'd really be inclined to do differently next time is add more bell pepper at the beginning, and probably more meat. Even give these (minor) changes, I'd say my first big foray into Spanish cuisine was successful. :)

There's a reason it's the most dangerous city in the country...

I love St Louis, I really do. It's one of few places that I'd seriously consider "settling" at this stage in my life (which is a very weird concept on its own - perhaps I'll write about that at some point). While it's got lots of charm and fun stuff to do, there's also a certain je-ne-sais-quoi quality about it. You can meet some pretty um, interesting, people - especially if you spend any amount of time in the city itself. For example the charming man who proposed to me (my first and possibly last proposal) on Grand Blvd my freshman year. I was walking back from brunch at Gries on a Saturday morning wearing gigantic pajama pants and a hoodie. He asked if I'd marry him. I said, "No, thank you."

Anyways, this past weekend I was back in the StL for wedding planning adventures, and came across another classic example of the type of charming men you can meet in StL. I was on the shuttle bus from the airport to the off-site rental car place, and there's a rather skeevy looking man at the front trying to talk to the shuttle driver. This guy is probably in his 40s, balding, greasy, thin hair combed over - a real looker ladies, let me tell you. He's asking the driver if he knows of any good clubs in the area, clubs with good dance music and an older crowd. Because you, his chances go way up with an older crowd. He's not interested in a college bar, because with the younger girls he just doesn't stand a chance, he needs a slightly older crowd to up his odds - wink, wink. Two women, maybe about 40, are sitting directly across from me, and we're all giggling a bit and looking at each other like "this guy is PATHETIC." As creepy as this guy was, I very much appreciated that he was seeking out the clubs with older crowds. The last thing I want is to walk into a bar and find him hitting on me or some poor girl my age.

So then I'm in the rental car place, getting my car, and he's talking to the next agent over from me. He asks if he can have a black car, because that's clearly going to help him get laid. She offers him the choice of 3 cars, and he says (skeezily of course), I don't know, which one do you think is the coolest? The poor woman kind of mumbles and tries to point each type of car out in the parking lot around the building so he can decide for himself.

I just wish he had turned and asked me so I could have told him just how gross and creepy he was.