Part 1: Wicked and a Wedding

I am not a journalist, but I will do my best to make this exciting. Neal and I said goodbye to our great apartment in Salt Lake on July 26. As a farewell to Utah, we went to the Tabernacle Choir concert with the Osmonds. Neither of us were Osmond fans before, and we aren't now either, but we definitely agree they are entertainers. We had been warned that the concert was going to have a bunch of 40-year-old ladies screaming like teenagers, and I can think of no better way to describe it. The Osmonds brought with them two screens that played as a backdrop to all their songs. It included 70's style cartoon images, water animation, and family photos, but my favorite (probably because it was so strange to see) was the psychedelic flowers that flashed all over the conference center walls. That building is equipped with everything!

We started our drive Monday morning and arrived in Chicago Tuesday afternoon just in time for a Tuesday night "Wicked" performance that we had tickets for. For those who don't know, I like to shop for deals. I think I got the bargain hunting and coupon cutting habits from my mom, but I take it to a whole new extreme. I decided to try and save some money on a hotel in Chicago and was ecstatic when I found a $39.99/night Super 8 Motel. Neal warned me that it wasn't smart to get, but I convinced him that nothing could be too bad to bear for one night. I was fully expecting my non-smoking room to smell like smoke, for the continental breakfast to look questionable, and for the crowd to be a little, um, sketchy. Although I wasn't let down on any of those expectations, I was surprised to see the warping, moldy floorboards, the door that had a one-inch gap between the frame when closed, and best of all, the squished spider left from a previous tenant. Here is the spider for your enjoyment:

Wicked was amazing. I had heard so much good about it that I worked hard not to expect too much, and I was pleasantly surprised. Usually I am checking my watch every five minutes from about intermission on, even in good shows, but I never once checked the time in this play. We decided to dress up and it was fund to spend a night out in the big city with a great date.

Here I am clutching my map like a true tourist:

The next day we arrived at Neal's parents in Pennsylvania. His good friend, Colby, was getting married and Neal was in the wedding party. I started the day by going to the Kittanning Public Library and taking the last final of my undergraduate career in BioChem. What a relief! There were no glitches in the wedding and it was a wonderful day. Colby's new wife, Lexxie, looked beautiful and everyone had fun at the reception afterwards. Neal has a great group of 10 high school friends called "The Brotherhood." The good news for me is that now most of the "brothers" are getting married. While the boys prepared for the wedding, all the wives got together for breakfast and pampering. I am not much into hair and nails, but enjoyed the girls just the same. I am a little unfamiliar with weddings outside of Utah and made a few little mistakes. For example, I didn't know that women typically don't seat themselves in the chapel. You would think that I could have looked around and noticed, "Hum, it looks like all the groomsmen are escorting the women to their seats. Maybe you should wait and see what the other girls do," but I didn't. I walked out to seat myself and had to quietly be called back to wait for my escort. Luckily, it wasn't that big of a deal. I averted many more little embarrassments by attending the wedding rehearsal the day before and getting a quick lesson for the ceremony.