I had so much fun over the last two weeks! But it's always wonderful to return to the familiar comforts of home after a busy bout of visiting. The trip felt long, but went fast... if that makes any sense.
Now, I was about to write all about the places I went and the people I saw, but it's so much easier to let the pictures do most of the talking. (BTW, thanks Jodie and Heather. I stole some of these pics from you!)
So let's begin...
The best trips always start off with a shared shwarma platter. Tip!: Be sure to order extra pickled turnips (those neon pink things) for your dinner companions. Chances are they'll think they're gnarly, which means all the more for you!
Heather's San Diego pals, Petra (that's Pet-ra, not Pee-tra) and Pierce made a detour through Ottawa on their 90 days across America adventure. Very cool people. Here's their first time sharing shwarma. They seemed to like it, except for those gnarly pickled turnips. Good thing Heather and I insisted they order extra! Ha.
Nothing is more heartwarming than when the surpriser becomes the surprisee. I'm still tickled by the surprise party held at Heather n' Jen's.
Saturday morning, Jodie and Catherine were first to arrive, which made sense. I knew Jode was coming and it was great to see Cath. But soon after, the door opened again. This time it was Steph. It was only 10:30 in the morning, so that was definitely a shock, since Steph lives in Toronto which is about a five hour drive away (if you're going the speed limit anyway...) I didn't expect to see her at all! From there, the dominoes quickly fell into place. Aissa was next to show up, and finally Lori, Julie and Quinn. A few others were invited, but couldn't make it. Still, what a turn out! I was definitely surprised!
It was a full house, so we took it outside.
Two out of three Gilmers, ain't bad.
Lori, Julie and baby number 1.5.
Quinn chasing bubbles. Quite possibly the cutest picture ever.
Shortly before we headed out to the Shanghai Restaurant for dinner, I was thrown off by yet another surprise when Wendy showed up. I haven't seen Wendy in for-ev-er! So that was pretty awesome, and very thoughtful of Heather to extend an invite her way.
Okay, so moving around the table clockwise we have Wendy, Heather, Aissa, Petra, Pierce, Catherine, Jodie, Steph and Lori. There will be a test.
After dinner, the Shanghai Restaurant hosts some karaoke fun featuring the fabulous China Doll. Here she is giving Wendy n' I a piece of her mind. "Hey you, bitches! I'm in the witness protection program!" So funny.
She must really be a wanted woman because she did a few costume changes over the course of the evening.
Who knew that we had such a serious table of karaoke singers? This picture wasn't even posed.
Willing to make an ass of myself, I bravely got up there a couple times. Since there's safety in numbers, Wendy n' I started off with Grease. Sing it with me... "Grease is the word, is the word that they heard. It's got groove, it's got meaning... Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion. Grease is the way we are feeling..."
The other song we had chosen was the Family Ties theme song. ("I bet we've been together for a million years... And I'll bet we'll be together for a million moooore....") But they never called us up for it, which is too bad. That's a pretty rare karaoke gem, so I really wanted to do it.
Next, a bunch of us got up to sing Margaritaville.
With two songs under my belt, I mustered up the courage to go solo on Mercedes Benz. If I wasn't feeling so awkward up there, I might've grabbed the tambourine. ;)
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go out on a high note. Almost immediately after, four or five of us went up at Heather's request and tried to sing Good Vibrations. Good lord! I'm sure we left the audience with nightmares for years to come. Even my enthusiastic pom-pom action didn't distract from how terrible we were. On our way up, some random had actually cheered, "Yeah Melodie!" After Bad Vibrations, no one even clapped! Seriously, it was that terrible. There are no pictures to earmark this event, because I think all those involved would rather not remember. Ha.
But as for the day itself, it was definitely one to remember!
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment