Well we survived the weekend and the office move. Friday afternoon at around 1:30ish, they said if we had nothing pressing we should go to the new office and pitch in. So, I took off figuring it would be easier to get out early from the new building. Boy was that wrong, we were cleaning and moving and arranging.
I got out of the new building around 5:15 when my manager finally realized I was still there and took pity on me.
Just a note on the new office...with the exception of the fact that the office is located at the Waterfront, it's a phenomenal space. I encourage visitors (if for nothing else, just to take a tour of this space). We have a full recording studio now instead of just a sound studio. It has a sound booth, a control room, and a television area. Very cool toys to play with.
Now, my space isn't ideal, but it's very good otherwise. The only new "rule" is that we aren't allowed to eat at our desks. That's rough for me since I don't just sit and eat lunch if I manage to find time to eat at all. I usually snack at several points now throughout the day. So, now I have to hit the kitchen area (complete with ice-maker, dishwasher, garbage disposal, trash compactor, etc.) several times a day for a few minutes here and there.
Anyway, back to the majority of the weekend.
Friday night we made it to the hotel at around 10:15. Fortunately the swimming pool didn't close til 11 and I was able to get in some swim time. Saturday morning we took Gage for a while to the pool and he seemed to enjoy it again so hopefully that trend will continue.
We got ready and headed down to the church. We got there and said hi to Father Ted (the Priest that married Terri and I in Bradford) and then mingled with family. The wedding was really nice. Pam (my new cousin-in-law) was very beautiful and she has a little nephew who's maybe 3 or 4 months older than Gage. He was the ring bearer and he made the wedding highly unpredictable. At one point he was walking off the altar and he stepped on the crush and face planted. He didn't cry and Father Ted looked down, pointed and said, "Now that's the picture that you want to get." Then he continued with the ceremony like nothing happened.
The reception was good. Although (and anyone who knows me knew this was coming anyway) the DJ sucked! He sucked hard. He screwed up everything he read when he announced the couples entering. It got to the point where he was so gun shy and so confused as to who had actually gotten married for the rest of the evening he referred to them as the bride and groom only. Which was kind of funny since there was a big banner across the back wall with their names on it.
Now granted, having DJ'd for a long long time I understand the difficulties, but yet I cut very little slack. For a business who depends on service and word of mouth in order to be remotely successful, you have to be on your game each and every time. I planned more receptions for my clients than I'd care to remember. I guess that's why Terri and I were so controlling with our wedding.
Although I must say, between our friends, family, DJ'ing, and singing, I've probably been to anywhere from 200-250 weddings. And I saw two things for the first time at my cousin's reception. Instead of a money dance or dollar dance or honeymoon dance or whatever your ethnic group calls it, they held a 50-50 raffle with the groomsmen and bridesmaids selling tickets. Very odd, but they made $200 from it and I think the winner might possibly have given the money to them as well.
The second first (some English teacher's head just exploded)...beer pong. Now I've seen beer pong in a lot of places, but never a wedding reception. That being said, I think I ingested more beer on Saturday than I have in the past 5 years, easily. My cousins dusted the floor with opponents for quite a while. My cousin-in-law Greg and I held our own with a couple of wins.
Oh and another couple of complaints about the DJ. He broke several cardinal rules...don't ever ever cut a song off in the middle. And for God's sake, no one likes medley's at a wedding. I don't care who you are, you'd rather hear the six songs from the medley played in their entirety. This guy just sucked beyond words. I almost asked if I could take over.
Anyway, after dipping my elbow quite a bit on Saturday night we headed back to the hotel (Gage had left with my parent's hours before). So we headed back to the hotel room, changed clothes, freshened up and walked over to pick up Gage. We were simply going to leave him with my parents since he was already sleeping, but then he woke up and that was that.
Sunday we got moving, packed, and visited with family for most of the afternoon. Then we headed back home and here we are.