Rhodes Hall, Atlanta

Lovely lunch setting.

Rhodes Hall. 

This was supposed to be my wedding dress

See below. When I first realised I would need a wedding dress I was slightly confused - I don't like white or overly formal, traditional dresses and this could be a problem. Then I saw a picture of a dress that was essentially a white and floor-length version of the one you see below, and I thought "Perfect!" In fact I may have said it out loud.

The wisdom of mothers prevailed however: when I sent the picture to my mother she replied "Daughter dearest (I take artistic license with the "dearest" part): the bain of all mothers is convincing their daughters that they too once had waists the size of an anchovy, and as you will keep your wedding photos forever, pick a dress that proves it." So I did.

(This was the result, and I am happy to keep the baggy-baby-like dresses for regular cocktail wear).
(Although, let's face it: if I did it all again I would probably wear this).

Forza Azzurri

A quick comment on yesterday's game (for those not following: the quarter finals of Euro2012, Italy-England):

We were AMAZING! I'm sorry it went to penalty shoot-outs but we can all say hands down that the deserving team won. We missed a few great chances on goal, but Italy dominated that game like it was our invention.

Oops, sorry England.

Watching the game at an Atlanta pub filled to the brim with England supporters, I have to applaud almost all white shirts present for their sportsmanship. Celebratory Peroni post-game (and than you for putting up with our occasional singing) and pizza to end the day in style.

Semi-Finals this week, Italy-Germany.

Such prolonged silence!

But I am still here.

London was cold - freezing - and rainy with a single sunny day which fell smack on the wedding day. Again a huge congratulations to the Gessis, who I love very much and am so happy to see united.

And thanks to everyone who came out for drinks on the Thursday, it was great catching up with you all.

And Italy was not freezing but not warm, which was confusing. And overall a terrific time.

So I'm back in Atlanta now but swamped, and will look to update with more pearls of wisdom and cynicism in the near future.

More on complaining

The reason you would rather complain than make any changes to your life, is that the latter option would mean taking ownership. It would mean responsibility for your decisions, it would mean things might go wrong sometimes and if they do it's on your shoulders. Much easier therefore to maintain the status quo and complain about, and absolve yourself of everything that is wrong with your life. So long as you can complain about it, you can blame somebody else.

But I did make it to New York

What a week.

After skipping out on the Lake Lanier boat ride outing extravaganza, I flew to NY for the week instead. This was mainly work so I spent most of my time running in between meetings and also feeling GREAT because they all went well. My clients/contacts rock.

It just so happened that the parentals were in town at the same time so I took a day off to spend with them.

As a side note: we stayed at the Doubletree Hilton. They give you a cookie when you check but the rooms have no WiFi. NO WIFI. Internet is included but only by cable. Apparently they have never heard of iPhones, let alone iPads.

But that aside it was a great day out, we saw Kimeran, and then Kristin and Peter, we had buffalo for lunch at Ted's Montana Grill, we saw Jersey Boys, and were then intercepted but a Four-Seasons-song-singing kid on the street in front of Penn Station. We had dinner in Hoboken, which I had never seen, at the very good Bin14 (I recommend), and got to see the Manhattan skyline from there (I also recommend).

Speaking of skylines, this is what Central Park looks like from the 28th floor of 745 5th Avenue

All this was followed by a weekend in Poughkeepsie for my 10th college reunion at Vassar College. Yes, that. Which was, yes indeed, fun. Amazing how out of place I was though, I couldn't remember how to get from one part of campus to the other (this is not a large campus). But it was good fun to show Giuseppe my amazing freshman year dorm room and see some of the people I enjoyed the most in my time there. I was missing a few people though, like me two senior year flatmates, and a couple more friends from freshman year. Although it turns out most of my friends were either younger or older than me. 

Anyway, I looked like this:

London now, more later