A Teeny Tiny Twenty-Nine Forever Party

A fun gathering with friends at Match, a Burger and Martini lounge.

Trio


Brooke, Rob, and Ashley


Rachel and Louis


The following set of pics of the three of us (Stefan, Brian, me) ended up being a comedy of errors as you can see....













Steph wanted me to put this up - it was not my idea. The wind is blowing throughrtdfdvdgeyhyiukioo;luytrsdfwerry7i909'[ythrg through our hair... (and Bree and Steph added the nonsense commentary)


"We're all having a fantastic time!!!"


Ivan, Brooke, and Rob


Brian and his blackened Salmon - blech!!!!


My birthday dessert - pan-seared cookie dough with dulce de leche ice cream. That's me in the left-hand corner.

Old friends - me and Steph




We were trying to have a "serious" conversation, but take note of Stefan in the background.


Brooke, Rob, Ashley, and Louis


Bree, Ashley, and Chris


Louis, Rachel, and Ellyson

"Red Sox Nation"

...except I think I was the only one in the pub not rooting for the Sox. I kept a pretty low profile! I was wearing my OSU jersey kept it covered lest someone realize I was from Ohio.

But now, my loyalties shift - and GO RED SOX!!!!!!!

"Crabernet Sauvignon"

One of the gifts in my "Surviving your 30's" bag from the girls. Michelle created this masterpiece on the wine bottle. I tried to take close-up pics of the label so it's readable.

I also had a baggy of "1977" facts and other musings which we went around the room reading. I'll share some of my favorites:

In 1977... Where were you when the lights went out? A 25 hour blackout on July 13-14 in New York unleashes a crime spree.

In 1977...Final fairwells to Charlie Chaplin, Bing Crosby, Groucho Marx and the King - Elvis Presley.

(On October 17) There are 69 days till Christmas 2007!
There are 82 days till Orthodox Christmas!

In 1977...Last execution by guillotine in France.

1977 is...Silver Jubliee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Your fortune cookie reads:
Don't forget, you are always on our minds.

There are 366 days till your next birthday on which your cake will have 31 candles. Those 31 candles produce 31 BTUs, or 7.812 calories of heat (that's only 7. 8120 food calories!) You can boil 3.45 US ounces of water with that many candles!

No ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

Your date of conception was on our about 24 January 1977 which was a Monday.

30th Birthday

What a blessing to spend my 30th birthday (yes THIRTY - AGHHHHH) with these people - and the fun continues next weekend!!! :))))))))))))

A short posting.
I'm back online!
My new computer came yesterday!
I'll post more soon. :-)

Choir Camp 2007

The gang at home

I'm back from the land of the Buckeye! It was a whirlwind of excitement and absolute exhaustion but full of lots of happy moments. I apologize to those you I didn't get to see while I was at home. I was in Columbus for only a week before I went up to my parents and during the day I was at choir camp and in the evenings I was either sleeping or trying to catch up with as many people as I could.
This year's choir camp was brillant! It was disappointing in the fact that our numbers were very much down this year due to family vacations and unexpected family members coming to visit - but the kids we did have were so much fun, excited about singing, and learning about God. This year's theme was Children Go Where I Send Thee: The Great Commission. All music (choir anthems and hymns), projects and presentations had to do with spreading the Gospel. Brian also wrote an anthem for our choristers to learn and they loved it! They also loved getting to work with him at the end of the week. I'll try and post video from their dress rehearsal of them singing the piece.
Saturday evening I got to spend some time almost the entire gang (minus the Chizmars and Helmuths). The kids are all growing so big and it was really great to spend time with all these people who I hold dear to my heart all year long, but rarely get to see. It's good to know that some things never change. :-)
I'm back now and relaxing this weekend before I officially start at Longy on Monday morning. And the singing and rehearsing never stops. I have a concert on Wednesday, the 29th at Boston College so I have several rehearsals this week for that. Michelle and Shadi and I are trying to form a trio as well and have got some rehearsing to do in the upcoming weeks too. Oh, and George (guitar) wants to do some pieces for soprano and guitar. So yeh, it never ends!!!! :)
Earlier today and I got to meet up with a blast from the past. Paul Tipton was singing at Trinity in Copley Square and afterwards we had lunch together. It was great to catch up. To those of you who remember Paul (raptor man!), he sounds amazing!