Oak Island, NC: A week in heaven

I just got back from a week at the beach. It's been a long time since I've had such a lengthy vacation, and a job where I could ask for a week off. We drove down Sunday morning, the day after Joe and Maria's wedding, and met my parents for brunch at Cracker Barrell (it was father's day!). Then we hit the road for about five more hours and finally arrived at Oak Island, North Carolina. Oak Island is a remote part of the NC shore which is hardly as populated as many other beaches you'll find. It's near the southern border, very close to SC. The weather was beautiful every day of our vacation, which was full of rest, relaxation, laughter, good beer, good food and good company. Every two years, Sam's family on his father's side gets together at this condo on the beach to reunite and catch up and sit together on the beach under an arsenal of umbrellas. There were about 45 family members present. It's the perfect kind of reunion; everyone does their own thing and there are hardly any scheduled events other then "meet you under the umbrellas tomorrow" and the occassional night crab hunt and hotdog cookout. Here are some pictures that will describe the rest of our vacation is greater detail...

Our condos are visible in the background. Mike, Sam's bro, is lounging in the corner.

A little crab greeted us in the kitchen when we arrived.

I was given a daily tennis lesson (except for the morning it rained) by a very talented (and adorable) teacher...

Ballet+ tennis= my own personal style :)

SAM'S FAMILY


Vic scares everyone with a crab. And, yes, he was pinched later!



LuAnn is hilarious.



Imelda...the filipino connection!

Like father, like son.

Sieb rides up in the sand asking "Can someone refill my drink?"

I taught Karen how to knit.

The family was wonderful...very warm, welcoming, Southern, and comical. I really felt welcomed into the group. There are more pictures of them at the end of this post.


Fun with PUTT-PUTT

One night we braved the humidity and made our way to the local putt-putt course, which was about 5 minutes away. Sam beat Mike and me...suprise, suprise. :)

Sam takes his putt-putt, like all other "sports", very seriously.

Don't hurt my elephant friend!


Indoor fun.



We taught Sam's dad how to play beer pong.

Knitting, of course!

Back to the beach.

We found out this trick quite early. Hold a wheat thin in your hand and you'll soon have a formation of seagulls hovering above you. Just don't give it to them, or they'll never leave you alone!!!

The sand sculpture is a reunion tradition. This year: froggie!

Somebody bought a new towel with the Superman S on the back...






There's nothing cuter than a cowboy, except for a cowboy reading Ayn Rand. :)
Sam stole my hat for the day, and I didn't mind because it looked so nice on him.



Hotdog night (or veggie burger night for me!)

This night includes the taking of family pictures, which is quite an ordeal. There are members of the Layman, Tuck, and Brown families in attendance. Each family must have their own picture, and then each generation must have it's own...it was really fun to watch all the family connections!



All the cousins. That's second cousins or first cousins twice removed...or...or...


Here's a picture of the "outlaws" who attended the reunion.


Sam must have said something obnoxious to get this response from me :)

me and Sam


Brothers.

On the last night before we left, at the stroke of midnight, it was my 25th birthday. I wanted to be down on the beach, sitting in a chair under the stars when the clock struck midnight. Sam and I enjoyed the night sky until the bugs started biting us. When we walked back into the condo, Mike and Sam 3 were waiting with a birthday cake (decorative text by Mike Brown). Sam bought the cake at Walmart earlier (a trip to buy energy drinks supposedly). It was the perfect way to ring in my 25th year with three lovely gentlemen.

Well, the beach is over for now...but it was a perfect time and much needed. Back to the real world, I suppose!

Wedding #3...yes, I'm wearing the same dress.

Well, I didn't have to sing at this wedding, so the pressure was off. And I was getting to see my two big brothers from Newark! Jose (better known as JOW) Sousa, my sophomore year RA, married Maria Kilner on June 17th. Bruce Soltys, my 2000 Beaux Arts Ball date, was the best man. It was a beautiful wedding with lots of family, babies, and yummy seafood at the reception! And I got to bring Sammy to this one.



Joe (the handsome groom), me, and Bruce (the handsome best man).

The beautiful bride, Maria

My dashing date, Sam. The next day we drove to the beach!

And yes, I'm wearing the same dress to all the weddings! It's fantastic. The first one was a high school friend, second a friend from DC, third a friend from college, and last a friend of Sam's. That cutie dress is getting a lot of mileage :).

WAKA

I finally got to see Sam play a game of kickball. It was a gorgeous night, and Caitlin was in town! I convinced her to come along for the game and the "special lemonade". Here are me, Sam, and Caitlin after Sam's team played a victorious game with the red rubber ball. I love my city...

Beer Pong Championship

For those of you who didn't know, I'm currently bartending at a sports bar in Adams Morgan. For those of you who don't know what Adams Morgan is, it's a part of DC, a neighborhood if you will. There is a strip of bars on 18th St., and my little sports bar of love is one of them.

Last Saturday we had a beer pong championship. For those of you who don't know what beer pong is, check out this website about BEER PONG.

So. It's basically a silly game with a long table, two teams of two, some ping pong balls, and some little cups of beer in a pyramid formation. It's a college game. It's a drinking game. It's a fraternity/sorority type of game. It's silly. And I was the official championship bartender.

Here are some photos from the event:

This team of two lovely ladies was called the "Jersey Girls". They had a suprise win in one of the first rounds only to be beaten later.

There were refs calling all the shots. Woah. Serious.



This silly boy wore spandex. Good for him, I say!



I borrowed Sammy's Thundercat wristbands for the event. and took a picture with a kid who also had wristbands. HOT.

Well, that's about it, kids! A peak into my life at the bar...more to come, I promise!

2 Down, 2 To Go

Another wedding, my friends! Last week I was lucky enough to attend the wedding ceremony of Craig and Erin Toomey (formally McGee). Craig was the other singer/guitarist in the band that I was in last year, Five Too Many. I was honored to be the singer/cantor (Catholic ceremony) of their wedding. Due to some miscommunication and honest mistakes, I ended up sight reading 95% of the music I sang during the ceremony. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, it means I was singing music I had never seen before. And since the string quartet and I were using the half hour we had before the wedding to figure out when to play/sing what where, we had no rehearsal either. We didn't have enough sheet music, so I was reading over the shoulder of the violinist. At one point, I was completely off from the quartet because the music they were given had a measure of rest that mine didn't have (another music reference...let's just say our music was different and that makes it impossible to stay together). I also had to turn on my own mic and mix my own sound at the last minute when I realized no one was going to do it for me. Oh, I was sweating up there in the choir loft. Thank goodness the ladies and gentlemen in the quartet were phenomenal; jovial, light-hearted, quick on their feet, and calm in a crisis. We worked it out...and no one could tell the difference (except that perhaps my first song was a tad loud, before I got the hang of the sound system...but not too bad!). All in all, the ceremony was beautiful, and I received many genuine and heart-felt compliments on the music from people at the reception that evening. I was thankful that, regardless of the stressful sittuation we were presented with, we were able to pull it off...here's to a degree in music and years of experience in the sponateous nature of live theater :).

Here are some pictures from the wedding day. It was in a city in Pennsylvania just outside of Philly...

In the limo bus before the wedding, riding over to the church with the groomsmen. Craig looks cool, calm, and collected! And all the men look great in their Coast Guard whites!



At the reception, where we were all finally able to relax. Here, Craig and I are motioning to Erin to come get in the picture...



And here we are! Craig, me, and the beautiful Erin.



Another action shot. Here, I have no idea what's going on...but clearly it's humorous.



More discussion...



Me, Bill (also from Five Too Many, and my date for the evening), Craig, and Erin.

The Mummers.

About two hours into the dinner/reception, the sound of drums filled the air outside of the ballroom. Music could also be heard...it sounded like a marching band directly outside the ballroom, but come on, why would a marching band be in a hotel during a wedding reception. The doors burst open, and in came about 30 people dressed in outrageous neon outfits. At this point you were either one of two kinds of people in the room; if you happened to be from DC (like me), you were thinking "What the heck is going on? Can someone tell me what's going on?" and if you happened to be a Philadelphia native, as half of the attendants were, you were hooting and hollering and thinking, "Yay! The mummers are here! I didn't know the mummers were coming!" The two groups quickly became one as the Philadelphians clued in the Washingtonians, and soon everyone was cheering and flapping their arms like a chicken (a typical mummer dance).

The mummers are a Philadelphia tradition, going back to the 1700s and the Swedish who settled outside of Philly. For more information, including all the info on the annual Mummer's Parade, pictures, and a brief history, check out www.mummers.com. Here are some of my own pictures of the mummers at Craig and Erin's reception!

Here is Mr. Hardy Cash...also formally of Five Too Many. Bass player extraodinaire and a white man who can DANCE! Get it, Hardy!




I just love this picture I took of Erin. She looked so beautiful, and was clearly so happy. Here she is dancing and talking to guests, enjoying the day she had worked so hard to put together.

Thank you, Erin and Craig, for asking me to be a part of your very special and beautiful day.

Two down, two to go!

Gavin is singing 10 feet Away

This man's CD has been playing on many a metro trip of mine. I can sing every note, every riff, every falsetto note by heart. He's got soul, he's got fast fingers, and he's got a big fan in me. I was doing a Corona promotion last week when this dude Robin who works for Premium started talking about this Gavin DeGraw concert the following week for Miller Lite's "Save the Taste Revolution" tour, and my ears perked up. Hey, being a Corona girl is incrediblely rewarding.

With a little convincing, not only did I get Robin to hook me up with tickets to the evening concert at Clarendon Ballroom, but to the private session before hand on a train car at Union Station. About 30 people got to hear Gavin sing, and afterwards I talked to him, got him to sign my poster, and took a lovely picture as you can see above. He was very gracious and it was awesome to hear him sing live and so up close. That's always the best way to hear someone...as little amplification as possible, as intimate as possible...but how rare is that? What a nice opportunity I was given to hear one of my favorite artists in such a special way. Thanks, Robin...and, gosh, thanks Miller Lite!

Here's the stage. Pretty close to our floor seat.

Sing it, boy. This was an "acoustic set". But doesn't acoustic mean without electricity?

Here's Sam with his eyes closed, and me with my eyes open.

I convinced Bryn to leave work early to come to the concert. I love being a bad influence.

Sam and me.

Good friends, good music, and a VIP couch. Who could ask for anything more?