Taste The Rainbow

 This past weekend I was in Schenectady NY with Colin, Christian, and Isaiah for (Colin's sister) Claire's wedding. (To her now hubby, Rob)

(Christian, Colin, & Isaiah)

Night one was the rehearsal dinner, and there was an open bar with the meal (Hooray!) and I filled up on entirely too much Pinot Noir. Mmmmm!

(This is the Van Dyck in Schenectady where the rehearsal and dinner took place... the interior, specifically the ceiling upstairs, is amazing.) 

Afterwards we all went back to the Inn we were staying at down the street. (Same owners apparently) and went to go hang at the bar there for a bit.

 

(The downstairs lounge was super comfy and welcoming)

Alas... they closed up shop at midnight... so we went up to a friend's (Taryn) room and did shots of Vodka & Red Bull (BLECH!).

The following morning (okay, okay... AFTERNOON) we all got up, hit a local diner with Colin's Mom (Deirdre), plus his Aunt Eileen, and Uncle Terry for some breakfast (I got the "greek omelet" 'cause it has the BEST ingredients... you can't go wrong with spinach, tomato, & feta. Mmmmm!) Then it was time to start trying to not look like we were up till 3am the night before and get ready for the wedding.

I pulled out my purple dress that I scored for a steal. (Seriously, a $450 dress for $98? THAT is one hell of a bargain! - even if it was a size too big... damn you tiny boobs!)... and my new green shoes that I am totally enamored with. Granted they make me 6'3 when I wear them... but I'll be damned if they aren't awesome! For real, total strangers were taking freakin' pictures of them. I'm not even kidding! I found it pretty funny.
(BTW, that's me & Christian in the picture... and he's standing on tippy toe, and my knees are bent... so, as you can see, I am NOT exaggerating about how much taller those shoes made me)

By 5pm we were all gathered downstairs for the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony. Colin read a poem for them... and when he got to the last line I kept my promise and flashed him the universal "rock on" sign. Though the ceremony, and especially the bride, was so elegant and sweet...  I kept it down low.  :)

This is the room the wedding was held in... beautiful isn't it?

After the ceremony we all migrated about 15' to the room where the wedding dinner was taking place.... and then crammed ourselves into the bar area where there were yummy snacks and free drinks.

I went to go ask for a glass of Maker's Mark on ice...but... :( they didn't have any.....


What they did have (bless their awesome lil' hearts) was, in lieu of peanuts or pretzels on the bar,................

That's right, big honkin' huge bowls of Skittles®!!! Freakin' genius! So, in my sugar induced glee I went ahead and got myself a tumbler full of Jim Beam.

I'm not normally a fan of the stuff, but the sugary yumminess that the Skittles® created took that nasty end of the sip bite off it. After a few sips with a Skittles® chaser I came up with what might possibly be the tastiest drink ever... like in the whole history of ever! (Or at least it was that night.)

I grabbed myself a handful of Skittles® and started ploppin' them right into the glass. I started off just putting in the same color... but after a while (read: two more glasses)  I ceased to attempt to separate them. I'd just scoop 'um up & plop 'um in.

I think I made it through about eight glasses before the reception was over. Yet, I still had the good sense to run up to the room I was sharing with Colin and take off the awesome green shoes and change into jeans and a hoodie. (I will eternally be thankful I did that. It was like 9˚ out that night and we all took quite the hike to a local bar about 10 blocks away.)


I had sent a text message to Taryn (a friend I met when Claire (the bride) had come to visit on the island about a year back) to let her know where we were. Taryn showed up with a cute guy in tow... AND (I fucking love this part!) a chicken mask in her purse. Obviously we had to put the chicken mask on him for the picture....

I was going to continue with my amazing creation... but the bar we were at didn't have Skittles® (WTF?! Clearly Skittles® should be standard bar snacks!)... so I switched to Heineken®. Mind you,
I don't love Heineken®...but I have learned over the years that even in the loudest, most crowded, bar a bartender will rarely, if ever, misunderstand you or ask you to repeat yourself... plus the green bottle serves a good purpose. (Only my very closest friends know about that one, so just trust me, it's a very good thing.)



I must admit, I was kinda bummed that I couldn't keep drinking the Jim Beam® & Skittles® concoction, but it was fun trying to come up with a name for it. Still have yet to decide on a good one. However... when asked why I stopped separating the colors and just threw in any ol' color into the glass I did get to tell people that it was because I wanted to "taste the rainbow."

The rest of that night will have to be filed under the clause known now as "What Happens In Schenectady, Stays In Schenectady"..... no joke. (Just for the sake of some of your twisted minds, and Colin's & my sanity... the whole "What Happens In Schenectady, Stays In Schenectady" has nothing to do with me and him, in any capacity. ok? ok.)
Hell of a fun weekend though.. even the ride home was fun. That was mostly due to the two in the front seat cracking me up, and the GPS that had a knack for making us drive in circles while nagging ....
Not. Even. Kidding.)
BUT... the best part, the VERY BEST PART... was watching two people, that make each other and everyone else around them endlessly happy, get married.

Congrats Claire & Rob! ♥