Old friends, sucky football and wine

I’m having my first people-pleasing wedding freakout today. This could have been caused by the fact that I forgot to pack breakfast this morning and had an extra cup of coffee, or it could be that I’m just not cut out of this “my day” business. I honestly just feel like no matter what happens, people are just going to be mad at me.

I have issues. But we already knew that, didn’t we?

So, I’m going to take a break from that and think about non-wedding things while I shove lunch into my face thirty minutes early to avoid a full on panic attack. (I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO BE HAPPY DAMMIT!)

Friday night, two of my friends from high school/college were in DC so Tom and I met up with them for dinner and drinks.

Man sandwich! Tom took that picture so it wasn’t inappropriate. Promise.

The guy on the right is an old family friend and I’ve known him forever. It was so great to see him and catch up. It’s fun to be around people that know me that well.

Since moving to DC I feel like no one really knows me. They’ve never seen how weird and awkward I was in my youth, and are thus unable to appreciate how normal I seem in comparison now.

Trust me, guys, it used to be a lot worse.

By now I’ve at least mostly learned how to handle my crazy. That took a long time.

It was kind of like potty training a small child. There was a lot of shit involved. And many temper tantrums. But now we mostly keep it to ourselves, with the occasional accident here and there. (Those are never pretty.)

The other guy was his roommate in college, and I spent many a night at their apartment being ridiculous and young. I think we all tried to recapture that golden age by staying out too late, drinking too much and seeing who could remember the most embarrassing stories about each other. Good times.

I knew I’d hate myself for it the next day, but sometimes you just have to go with it. At least I was prepared and didn’t have a test to fail the next day or anything.

So Saturday, I didn’t move from the couch like… at all… and I watched my first Sooner football game sober in as long as I can remember because I couldn’t stomach the thought of a beer.

This turned out to be a very bad move, because we lost and I am just so fed up with our coach and the complacency that is happening in our program that I wanted to cry. Still do. Football is dead to me.

I woke up on Sunday in a state of bitterness, but it was hard to be too upset when I stepped out into the gorgeous weather.

We went on a bus tour of two Maryland wineries. There’s been a lot of nature in my life lately. I love it, minus the critters.

It was fun, but very strange. Our tour guide was James Earl Jones’ clone (I’m actually not quite convinced that it wasn’t him) and there was a group of WASPs constantly complaining that the wine wasn’t good enough (apparently rose’s are the preferred drink of the rich and fancy these days) and talking is hushed, judgmental tones about everyone around them.

At one point they were talking about someone’s kid who was being cut off because they were either in rehab or had given birth to a bastard child, or both. I really wanted to point out that maybe their constant negativity and superiority led to this person’s decision to “jump off the deep end”.

Seriously, I’m really glad my family isn’t that hoity toity. I’ll take rednecks over WASPs any day.

Anyway… wine.

We went to Loew Vineyards and Elk Run Vineyards and they were both scenic and beautiful, with several delectable wines to sample.

The Maryland/Virginia area is known for producing good Cabernet Franc, so we bought a bottle of that along with a couple of other standouts like the Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Elk Run.

I now have enough wine to open a restaurant. No complaints here.

Now I must go back to worrying about things I can’t control and preparing for a very special visitor tonight. Cheers!