Guess what bush liked the cold and rainy spring followed by not-yet summer?
Did you guess the Western Syringa outside our front door? You are correct! I have never seen it bloom as much as it has this year. It’s especially nice to see that growth after it fell over when it snowed in April this year.
Since childhood, Matt has used this not-Lifesavers coin bank. You can see where he scratched his name.
Sadly, the bank has reached the end of its useful life. Matt is saying goodbye.
However, he still has a coin bank in his life. I bought him a Tootsie Roll one on eBay.
Or as we call at the Orange Door “Fours!” (Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights remains a very quotable character, all these years later)
The mothers, Matt, and I celebrated by going out to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory and then eating Triple Chocolate Cheesecake. Which was delicious!
This comic made me laugh and I thought it would make Matt laugh, so I used my phone to take a picture of it and then texted that picture to him.
This is a thing that happens fairly often.
Matt unwisely left a sleeve of saltines out overnight. Feral kitten Antares went on the prowl.
As has been the case during the pandemic, the wedding we attended was not the actual marriage ceremony. Greg and Renee got married on 12/02/2021, a date which is not only a palindrome but also an ambigram because it reads the same way upside down. (Assuming you choose the right font.)
Here was the script from the ceremony, full of nerdy fun things.
And the wedding party.
The night before Greg and Renee’s wedding, Matt was asked to fill in for a reader at the wedding. They had taken sick. Matt was thrilled to read this excerpt.
I really think Renee’s and Greg’s wedding hit it out of the park with the clear expectations. When RSVPing the online form made sure that every guest knew they would (1) be required to show proof of vaccination and (2) wear a mask at the ceremony. If you didn’t say yes to those things, your only choice was to go back and change your RSVP to decline.
That said, not everyone wore their mask at all times, but most people did. And they did check our vaccination status at the door.
The table decorations were very fun. I liked the origami hearts. The wedding also came with a program that had cards for a get-to-know-people card game and a crossword puzzle.
A shot of the ceremony itself. The light was tricky in this room, so I have a lot of blurry photos.
The bridal party.
Our delightful tablemates watching the ceremony.
The person who I assume is the wedding planner. (See! Blurry!)
During the reception, there was a magician! I adore magicians.
That was my card!
The reception had an element I’d not seen before at a wedding. The bride and groom sit back to back holding one of their own shoes and one of their spouse’s shoes.
Then, questions are asked of the couple and they have to raise the shoe of the person they think was the answer. The questions were along the lines of, Who asked whom on the first date? This was a very fun activity. Greg and Renee agreed.
Obligatory self portrait, with Matt looking a little squinty.
This was a very fun wedding. There was even dancing! It’s been a long time since Matt and I shared the dance floor.
Our 20th anniversary was really on May 1, but I tried to make reservations the week of and that wasn’t happening. So we celebrated several weeks later with a very fancy dinner at Republica that was worth the wait.
Our welcome and delicious menu.
This was our third course. As you can see, Republica is the kind of fancy restaurant where the portions are small. (This is a thing I like about fancy restaurants.) But don’t worry, by the time we got to the sixth course, we were well fed. We would eat half of the food on our plate and then switch. I learned that Matt really doesn’t like squid.
This was our fourth course and it was both beautiful and delicious.
It was a good choice for a big (and smaller) anniversary.
Matt and I both enjoyed the documentary Freestyle Love Supreme, both for seeing people in the Hamilton world before Hamilton (baby Lin-Manuel!) and for the marvel that is hip hop improv.
So imagine my surprise when I discovered that we could see the show in Portland!
This was a double win as I discovered that Portland Center Stage offers a smattering of seats for every show at $25 each. A very big discount. (They are on the sides, but it’s a worthy tradeoff, as far as I’m concerned.)
The above two pictures were taken before the show and these two were taken during the part of the show where we were allowed to take pictures.
The stage set was amazing. All those speakers lit up and changed colors. And the hip hop improv was also amazing and very funny.
This is well worth your time! Check out the documentary or see Freestyle Love Supreme live, if you can.
Antares is ready for me to come and sit down. He’s got my place all warmed up.
