On Friday Brig and I
headed up to Saratoga Springs, NY for our friends’ wedding. I know it’s what
every best man/maid of honor says in their speech but it’s true: at some point it
stopped being our friend’s wedding and instead became our friends’ wedding.*
The wedding and
reception were in the same place. I think everyone preferred not having to
drive anywhere else but that meant when the wedding area wasn’t sufficiently
cooled down that the reception area also wouldn’t be nicely AC’d. It was a
pretty big wedding and what really surprised us was just how young the crowed
was. It almost seemed like there were little to no family members present and
instead it was all friends. Which they have a lot of. That culminated in a
packed dance floor, though, which is always more fun. The DJ played some “parents’
songs” during dinner but then it was all more modern music from there on out.
We tossed on our favors (sunglasses that said Alvin <3 Becky on the side)
and rocked out.
Seated at our table
were some of our old friends from AVID. There were 10 of us at the table and 6
worked there at one point in time. Only 2 are still there (plus the bride) but we
all picked up right where we left off; which was ridiculous when we were in the
workplace sober so you can imagine drunk at a wedding. At one point the girls
went to the bar to get drinks for the table and apparently the bartenders were
taking a break or something so they grabbed double the number of beers we
needed and a full bottle of wine which we hid under the table.
The next morning was a
mess. I was hurting from mixing alcohol all night (What’s the saying? Beer before
liquor makes you sicker and then if you add wine too you’re an idiot?) and
apparently somewhere along the way Brig lost her car keys. I don’t think I’ve
ever felt so paralyzed in my life. They weren’t in the room; they weren’t in
the car; they hadn’t been returned to the motel lost & found. We literally
didn’t know what to do. Even if we called a locksmith to get us in the car we
still wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere. We were far away from home and
had to check out of the hotel in a couple hours. There was a lot going on in
our heads. Brig tried calling her parents (because we were supposed to meet
them later that day) but they were already on the road and had their phone turned
off. Her next call was to AAA because they always seem like the right choice
when you’re in a bind. While she was getting transferred to the right person
she walked over to her bed (our room had 2 full beds for some reason) to shake
out the sheets again. This time we heard a rattle. She had slept with her keys!
Some princess
she is.
Thankfully we were on
our way and made it to Springfield, MA soon after her parents arrived. We had a
nice picnic lunch looking out on the Connecticut River and then headed into the
Basketball Hall of Fame. This is Brig and mine’s third HoF visit after baseball
and tennis. At first blush it seemed pretty small but of course basketball has only
a fraction of the history that baseball does. But it ended up being a really in
depth look at the sport’s past and I think everyone was really happy with what
we were able to see.
What really set them
apart though was their interactive areas. At one spot you could play a “virtual”
game using your shadow against a video game player. Another spot measured your
vertical leap and the most fun one was to see how high you could get to bring
down a rebound. There was this basketball attached to a mechanized contraption
and the guy running it would raise it 2 inches each time. I managed to get all
the way up to 9’4” and bring the ball down before retiring after 1 try at 9’6”.
I could still touch it but there was no way I was getting 2 hands around it and
pulling it down. It was a great workout though. Then there was a booth where
you could be the play-by-play announcer for a sports clip and record your own
commentary. Brig did a great call of “Havlicek stole the ball!” In another area
you could do a SportsCenter type thing on camera and watch it on playback.
Our last stop was the
basketball court that was the center of the complex. No one’s allowed to play
1-on-1 (even if you’re not causing trouble, like the girl told us when she
pulled us aside, whoops) but there is a full court. Then there are like 6
different styled hoops off to one side starting with the original peach basket
(FYI there was no backboard. I tried a layup before realizing it was
impossible) and moving up to today’s current basket. Then there was another
section of 4 different sized hoops purely for dunking. I slammed it home on the
3rd basket but couldn’t manage to get it on the full-sized hoop. I always
hit the rim but just can’t quite get it over the cylinder.
On the drive home we
got caught in some of the worst rain I’ve ever had to deal with on the road. I
put it in my top 3 all time. But we survived. And since we survived, we
finished watching season 2 of The Walking Dead which not everyone on the show survived.
I’m glad we got into this show because it’s really cool. Can’t wait for Season
3 in October!
*Even though the groom’s
a Giants fan.
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