Missing Link

This past weekend was spent at a retreat house on the east side of Indianapolis. Why would I choose to spend my weekend at a retreat house on the east side of Indianapolis? I wouldn’t, to be honest. And I didn’t…. I was told I had to, so I did.

You see, Ann and I are getting married in… under 5 months now. As part of the preparation for marriage, the Catholic church decided that we needed to partake in a marriage preparation retreat weekend. So, dutifully obeying the commands of the Church, we went.

We went in expecting to have a terrible weekend. After all, it was a weekend where we were forced to go stay at a strange place, with strange people and do strange things. I was still somewhat sick from having the flu last week and Ann had a ton of studying to do for school. Neither one of us could think of anything we could want to do LESS than the retreat.

We were wrong.

I’m not going to lie and say that it was the BEST WEEKEND EVAR… it wasn’t. But just as it wasn’t the BEST WEEKEND EVAR, it also wasn’t the worst… by a large margin. You see – neither Ann, nor I, realized going in that this weekend would afford us the opportunity to hang out with each other and talk, and have fun, and joke around. Without distractions.

So, we did all that…. and we liked it. There were some other nice couples there too, which was cool. Nobody I’d call a new friend, but they at least made the weekend a bit more enjoyable.

Plus, the weekend was over by noon on Sunday, giving us Sunday afternoon and evening to spend doing what we wanted. In my case that meant installing Boxee on my AppleTV and testing it out by watching episodes of ALF, Ghost Hunters (both regular and International), and Doogie Howser M.D.

Right now I’m watching Indiana Jones’s (the new one, Crystal Skull) from Netflix, and later I’ll begin my journey through the world of 24 by watching the episode that started it all off…. the first hour of the first season… thanks to Boxee.

Soooo yesterday was a pretty big day for me and Ann.   We got engaged!    

I could post all about it here, but that’d be a duplication of effort from yesterday – so if you would like to read more about “how John asked”, go to the post on my my super secret website.

We now return you to your normally scheduled program.

This past weekend was simply amazing.  A good buddy of mine whom I met during my first semester at St John’s, MattyP, came to visit.  Matty and his roommate Jay kept me sane that semester,  and proved to be two of the only real friends I had there.  I owe a lot to both of them, and consider myself lucky to have such a great friendship with Matty still today.   

The last time I had seen Matty was a little over a year ago,  when I was in his wedding.  As you can imagine, I missed him! This was his first trip to Indy, and his first time meeting my longtime girlfriend Ann. A great time was had by all.

Matty arrived Friday afternoon,  and after a tour of my house we went out for a bike ride around my neighborhood, the Eagle Creek Greenway and some neighborhoods nearby.  It was incredibly relaxing and fun – the weather was gorgeous.  After that we made plans for the evening with Trevor and Ben – dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill with Trevor, followed by rock band at his apartment (Matty thoroughly enjoyed Rock Band),   then we went to Ben’s and watched Snatch before finally returning home and watching some Weed’s on my AppleTV. 

Saturday we woke up and Matty was awesome and willing to help out with some chores around the house – in fact, he offered to mow the lawn while I took care of some much needed weeding in the front yard.  He did a fantastic job and I’m very appreciative of his help (this was three weeks overdue).  Afterwards we hung out watching Boondock Saints until Ann could come over.   We went and got some burgers to grill beer to drink and a frisbee to toss.  

The burgers turned out perfect,   and the beer was good.  The company was awesome – it was one of those nights where I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but where I was.

Sunday morning I got the news that Matty could stay longer than initially planned,   so we went out and did some shopping (and picked up a football to toss around),   then went home and played outside for a while. Ann came by after work and we all went to dinner, then to Coldstone Creamery for desert before Matty departed for his home of Milwaukee.

It was an awesome weekend, and I really hope it can be done again soon!

This past weekend Ann and I went up to her parents farm for the weekend. While I’m sure ann probably thinks otherwise – I actually enjoy trips like these, and like her family quite a bit.

Saturday afternoon we went to the county fair and walked around checking various things out such as arts and crafts, as well as all sorts of animals. I took a few pictures.

That night we went to her brothers house and watched Harold and Kumar escape from guantanamo bay – which was every bit as ridiculous and funny as the first.

Sunday morning we relaxed before heading to her other brother’s (Sam) house for her neice’s 2nd birthday party.

I enjoy trips that allow me to get away from work and chores and let me enjoy myself and the company of those I care about. This was one of those.