I’m finally at the end of my “having plans every single weekend in a row” era. It wasn’t intentional, but as I think I’ve mentioned before, I had something every single weekend from June to August. My introverted self made it through all of that and now wants to hide under a blanket and read for days.

Two highlights of the weekend: Jon, John & Pete comedy show and Josh’s sister’s wedding. (Fair warning: this recap ended up being longer than I thought. If you need 15 minutes to kill, I got you.)

Friday, September 8

I work from home on Fridays, and I took a half day, logging off around lunchtime. Josh had to pick up his suit rental since he was in the wedding party, so I went with him in the afternoon—mostly to make sure everything looked good. And it did. 

That night, we were going to see Jon Stewart, John Mulaney, and Pete Davidson at the MassMutual Center as part of a tour the three were doing. (Someone definitely oversold them on Springfield.) The show started at 7:30 p.m. and doors opened at 6:00 p.m.

We decided to get dinner beforehand at MGM Springfield. One perk is that parking is free there, so we’ll often park in that garage when we go downtown. We got to TAP Sports Bar around 5:00 p.m., and I’m sad to report that we didn’t see our close, personal friend David Ortiz like we did in December 2021. (We did keep an eye out though, just in case.)

For drinks, I got a Mighty Squirrel Cloud Candy (one of my favorite IPAs) and Josh got a Sloop Pumpkin IPA. Of course, we had to split a giant pretzel, and the beer cheese is in my top three now. For our meals, Josh got the Amory Mac and Cheese and I got the Pulled Chicken sandwich. 

We quickly ran our take-home boxes up to the car before heading out of the casino. There was a chance of rain and thunderstorms that night, and it did start to rain as we walked over to the MassMutual Center. Thankfully it’s a short walk.

This is the only photo we got from the night because it was a phone-free event. Which was painful for me since I love to take photos for my blog posts.

The venue mailed me printed tickets about two weeks ago, so I scanned both of those for us before heading into a big security area. This is where we got Yondr pouches for our phones. I also had to put my Fitbit in there—technically a smartwatch—and we got to keep the pouches with us. If you did need to use your phone, there were dedicated phone use areas on the concourse where you could open the pouch, but we wouldn’t be able to open them, really, until the end of the show.

(After we went through the metal detectors, Josh forgot something in that little bucket they make you put all of your stuff in. The security guy was like, “This is your husband’s.” Josh didn’t hear him but took the item, while I was laughing.)

Boy was that a disorienting experience. I was fine not having my phone, but it was killing me I didn’t have my Fitbit on and couldn’t see the time. Prior to the show starting, Josh asked a few random venue employees what the time was. 

We had to wait a little bit before they opened up the staircases to go up to the concourse. Josh got a beer, and I gave in and got the special drink for the night: SNL on the Beach (vodka, cranberry juice, and orange juice). It was probably more money than I should have spent, but I got to keep the fun cup it came in? I think we’re allowed a frivolous/dumb purchase every now and then.

Next was to find our seats. I bought these tickets in early August during the pre-sale, and I basically panic-bought them. I would not have done well trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets. When I was trying to buy them online, seats would show up and I’d put them in my cart and then would get a message saying they were already taken. I kept refreshing the page until I saw two seats pop-up that were the cheapest option and just bought them not knowing what section we were in. Whoops. We ended up two sections over from where we usually sit during Springfield Thunderbirds games (in the same arena) and had a good view of the stage. So it ended up working out just fine.

We’re assuming the show started on time? Again, we were so lost. There was an opener, Ricky Velez, before Pete came out, then Jon, and then John. The three of them came out at the end and took random questions from the audience. Overall, the show was really good, and I’m so happy I got to see John Mulaney in person. He’s one of my favorite comedians; like I would listen to him read a restaurant menu. 

Once the show was over, we had to go unlock the pouches. This was my only complaint about the event: there wasn’t any direction as to where we had to go. Obviously, the crowd was really big but I feel like people were confused. Some people were going outside of the building, while Josh and I went back toward where we came in. A security member told us to go outside to unlock the pouches, and there were Yondr employees out there with the device to unlock it. Some sort of signage would have been nice? Or just better crowd control.

I got my phone and Fitbit back—!!!!—and then checked my notifications to see that we had lost power and internet at the condo complex. Great. There had been scattered thunderstorms all night, and I guess some trees fell down and knocked out our power. (I started freaking out because the last time I had power issues in my condo, I had to replace my garage door opener and light fixtures.)

Unfortunately, we did come home to no power—the entire complex was pitch black. We went to bed but stayed up a little bit talking about the show, which was nice. I didn’t sleep well but thankfully the power came back on around 2:20 a.m. 

Saturday, September 9

The morning and early afternoon were full of boring adult responsibilities: I showered, went to the bank to get cash, went grocery shopping, got gas, went home and put the groceries away, stripped the bed, changed the sheets, washed the sheets, and started packing for Sunday. 

I spent a solid hour in the afternoon getting my nails ready for the wedding, while watching Below Deck Sailing Yacht. I needed to take off the current polish and re-paint both my fingernails and toenails dark green to match my dress for the next day.

Josh had the rehearsal dinner that night, so I went home to my parents for dinner and to hang out. I filled them in on the updated wedding day plans; Thursday night Josh and I worked on logistics for Sunday and made some adjustments that would be easier for both of us. After we ate, I played with Lucy—she got a new light-up ball that she loves—and watched TV with my mom.

I got back to the condo around 9:30 p.m. and read a little before going to bed. Josh came back around 10:00 p.m.—I think. I remember him talking to me but I think I mumbled some sort of response.

Sunday, September 10

This day felt a lot like Christmas: you wait so long for it to come and then it does and then it’s over. All of a sudden, the big wedding day was here.

Josh and I started getting ready around 12:00 p.m. after we ate an early lunch. We needed to be ready, packed, and ready to go by 12:50 p.m., and we actually left on time.

The groomsmen were also ushers, so Josh sat me in one of the pews on the bride’s side. The ceremony started a little after 2:00 p.m. and was done around 3:15ish. I hung around while they took some pictures at the front of the church inside before we left for the reception. There was another chance of rain and thunderstorms that day, but thankfully it was just misting when we left the church.

Although the reception was about 40 minutes from home, we still booked a hotel room to stay the night. Our original hotel room was about 15 minutes away from the reception, but by taking one car instead of our original plan of two, we canceled that reservation and booked a hotel four minutes away. I quickly dropped Josh off at the reception venue for photos—I joked that it would be a rolling stop and he’d have to jump out—before heading to the hotel to check in.

That was my first time checking into a hotel by myself, but it went smoothly. I quickly ran up to the room to make sure the keycards worked and everything looked okay before heading to the reception. (Most of this back and forth of the logistics had me freaking out Thursday night, thus why we decided to travel together instead of separately and book a closer hotel. In the end, it all worked out.)

At the cocktail hour, I grabbed a few cubes of cheese and cut veggies (most of it was already picked over by the time I got there) and got a glass of wine at the cash bar. I didn’t see until after I bought the wine there was a list of beer, so I just stuck with wine for the night.

I mingled with the family members I know, but I’m glad I’ve met most of Josh’s family before so I didn’t feel super out of place. His family is a lot bigger than mine, so I was intimidated at first, but everyone’s been great so far. I have a running joke going with one of his cousins that I’m part of this by choice 😅

They opened the doors into the room where we’d be eating dinner, and I sat at our table by myself for a little bit; I was sitting with part of the wedding party, the part that was going to be introduced. The maid of honor’s boyfriend, who was also at our table, sat with me and we talked until everyone came in. (He didn’t know that Josh and I met on a dating app, and I was like, “Yep, and two years later I’m at his sister’s wedding.”)

Everything went pretty quickly after that: the first dance, the parent dances, the speeches, the food, and the dance floor opening up. Oh, and the bouquet toss. I tried to hide under the table—literally—but the maid of honor forced me out onto the floor. I didn’t catch it.

I only really danced twice: the Cha Cha Slide and the Cupid Shuffle. Josh doesn’t really dance, and he was too busy watching the Patriots game on his phone. But I can’t say anything because I watched the start of the Giants game later on.

The reception was supposed to go until 9:30 p.m. but everyone started to leave around 8:45 p.m. Maybe because it was a Sunday night? Josh and I hung around to help clean up a bit before we left. We wanted to get another drink before going to the hotel, but the few bars that were close to the inn were already closed, so we ended up at the hotel bar. We caught part of the Giants game before halftime, and it was like, oooooh maybe we shouldn’t watch this.

Monday, September 11

We had the opportunity to sleep in, which was super nice. Check-out was at noon, so we could take our time in the morning. After leaving the hotel, we went to Tandem Bagel for brunch.

After that, we headed back home, first stopping at Josh’s parents’ house to drop off European outlet plugs for Josh’s sister for the honeymoon to southern Europe. We got to take one of the flower centerpieces home, so that’s on our dining room table now. Then we stopped so Josh could return his suit.

I took a nap on the couch and then dragged Josh to the library with me since my books were due back soon. We just hung out for the rest of the day, making dinner at home and finishing up Painkiller on Netflix before watching Monday Night Football.

We were gone for 24 hours Sunday into Monday, but it felt like we were gone for five days. I hadn’t been to a wedding in 11 years—I went to two the summer after my senior year of high school—but I’m glad I went to support and celebrate Josh’s sister. It was a really nice ceremony and reception, and I’m really happy for the new couple. And I can’t wait to hear about the honeymoon.