Surprise Wedding!

Despite having lived in a couple of the most desirable locations in the country, I have a soft spot for the lesser known "underdog" cities.  Louisville, Kentucky has never disappointed me, and, if you can meet a friend like Kelly Gold, it will never disappoint  you.

Kelly Gold is the curly haired, rollerblading, rock-climbing, raw-egg eating, "fern" that everyone loves.  Though she has an actual twin (hi, Evan), I have always made it my goal to be as twin-like with her as possible.

In high school, she had this German exchange student boyfriend.  After college, Kelly lived in New York where she had a lot of fun until she didn't.  That old high school boyfriend called her up and said, "wanna move to Germany?" So, Kelly packed her bags and never looked back.  Then he proposed.  Kelly was going to marry her first boyfriend!

Because they love Germany, they decided to get married in Benny's hometown near a beautiful lake in the south of Germany.  In the meantime, Kelly's family and family friends decided to throw the couple an engagement party in Kelly's hometown - Louisville.  Since it was a great excuse for everyone to get together, no one had any hesitations about going.  

When Jess and I were picked up at the airport in a LIMO and taken to the beautiful Marriott, we knew it was going to be a special weekend.

We were greeted with gift bags!

The Engagement Party

I'll start with the highlight of the weekend - the "engagement party."

We pulled up in the limo to Kelly's family friend's home.  This is one of those homes that has a name and the street is named after the home.  The same architect who built the New York public library near Bryant Park also designed this house.  You could tell.

We entered the vast hallway through the large columns and were greeted with mini beef wellington and glasses of bourbon.  We excitedly caught up with old friends, met  and ate the delicious hors d'oeuvres, while having our bourbon glasses refilled multiple times.  Finally, we came to the part in the evening where we were going to watch the engagement video that Jeanice put together.  Jeanice is good at these videos and takes them very seriously.  As we watched and danced in our seats to the cheesy German music on the video, Jeanice began fuming because Kelly and Benny were not in the room to watch what she had worked so hard on!  At the end of the video, we were told to enter the middle room for another activity.

When all 100 guests were assembled, Paul Gold (Kelly's dad) stepped to the front of the room and said the next activity would require the assistance of Meredith, Shaina, Jessica, Jeanice, Julia, Lisa, Stacey, Lynne, Annie, and Becky.  We all looked at each other as we were ushered to the back.  No one knew what was going on and Lisa kept telling Julia to calm herself down and not rile the crowd.  In a very surreal moment, we were lined up at the front of the room and handed bouquets.  The music began and Kelly and Benny burst into the room having changed into wedding attire.

Bridesmaids and Bride

Me and Kel before we knew what was happening

For once in my life, I didn't have to bend down to take a picture

So excited to celebrate Kelly and Benny

iphone5 rocks

Did I wear white to one of my best friend's weddings?  Yes.  Do I blame it on the fact that no one knew it was a wedding or the fact that I still wanted to be her twin?  We'll never know...

Moments before she was hitched!

Feeding her groom cake

The Bourbon

The weekend involved a lot of other Kentucky traditions...mostly drinking bourbon.  We all got decked out in our Kelly and Benny T-shirts and went off to moonshine university to learn the distilling process but mostly taste the final product.

We surprised Kelly and Benny with the shirts

Standing in front of a masher

Back in the limo traveling to the next bourbon establishment

We went to lunch

Drank some tea

And woke up the next morning for more bourbon tasting at Woodford Reserve where we got to see all of the aging barrels.

And drink more bourbon...

...Before noon

Ryan photo bomb!

Later we walked around Midway Kentucky for some antique shopping.

Julia's a good instagrammer

Like, really good.

This is a Kentucky "hot brown"

I don't think I'll have it again.

The Gala

To top the weekend off, Kelly's brother, Evan, was the chairman of a Gala to support the MS society and her family bought us all a table!  This gala had everything from a 6 course meal prepared by Louisville's best chefs, to dancing, to girls in skimpy outfits, to bourbon.

I was able to enjoy my first chocolate fountain!  I've never seen a white chocolate fountain before and I was so excited, I went back 4 times!

The Dinner Menu

See below for pictures of the food

Kelly and Benny's first dance!

Perhaps we stole the feathers from the centerpieces and handed them out to everyone on the dancefloor!

Conga line!

Dirty Jerzzz

New Jersey has always scared me. I recall in college thinking that it was some type of porthole for aliens. Seriously, New Jersey is sooo tiny on a map yet somehow one out of every four people I meet are from there. I haven't heard any other reasonable explanation.

This weekend I spent a nice amount of time in the real dirty Jerz - Lake hopatcong. Turns out the Jerz isn't so bad after all.

After arriving on Saturday, we had turned on one of my favorite documentaries- idiocracy - and played some billiards before going to dinner.

As we left the house, I looked at the Jersey establishments.  I saw two stores called "the liquor factory", "snono" gas station, and "Food Mart." Then I realized New Jersey is pretty much in the year 2505. I looked for the trash heaps and when I saw some, I became uncomfortable that I was unscannable.

Okay enough of that (but if you haven't seen idiocracy you need to).

Darren took us to pub 199 for dinner where you can get a lobster and 24 clams for only $21!

Then we went to the landmark Cliff's Homemade Ice Cream Shop. Mmmmmmm.

But the real reason we came was for lake fun on Sunday!!





































We boated over to a lakeside restaurant for brunch where Darren used to work as a dock boy!



 Fueled on bacon and eggs, Darren was the first to jump on the wakeboard.

Since he's been doing it all his life, he's pretty awesome!  Nice jump!

This is me water skiing!  

Then we went tubing!  Darren tried to kill Mike.

I told them to take it easy on me, but no such luck!

The Leopard Lady Turns 80!

Meet the Matriarch of Mike's family - Roz Rosenblum.

Believe it or not, this woman turned 80 years old, and, as always, she threw a party you definitely did not want to miss.

I frequently tell people about Mike's grandma.  Usually it comes up when I am complimented on a beautiful piece of clothing and I have to confess that it was a hand me down from Grandma Rozi.  "A Grandma gave you that?" is always the question I get.  And I have to tell everyone that she is no ordinary grandma.

For her 80th birthday party, this fashionista decided to throw her party at the Lotos Club.  This is an extremely fancy literary club where we have had many Rosenblum family occasions like Thanksgiving where we relax in suits and ties and eat traditional Thanksgiving fare such as wild boar gnocchi and smoked salmon.

Okay, I tease, but it is a beautiful location and the perfect spot for an 80th birthday party.  The room was exquisitely decorated with gorgeous flower bouquets, waiters serving elegant cocktails and appetizers, and a piano player singing beautifully in the corner.

We were all excited about the dinner,

But first, there was dancing to do!

Mike's Parents

Grandma Rozi and Grandpa Bob (he's almost 90)!

Lee and Gail

Silly kids

Dancing with his mom!

The dinner was fabulous, but the real reason for the night came out over and over again in the speeches.  Friends from all over came to celebrate and the sentiments about what a wonderful woman Grandma Rozi is unified the crowd.

Everyone at the party talked about how lucky we were to be in Roz's life.  I think one of her son's said it best, "You're all here because you're my mother's friend.  And when Roz is your friend, you don't need a lot of friends."

It's true.  She has taken care of all of us.  In return, we put her on a chair and swung her up and down!

After some wine induced group singing,

and playing in the library

(The picture hanging on the wall is actually of Mike)

we had to go home.  But, the 80-year-olds raged on into the night.  I hope to be half as vivacious as this group when I'm 80!

Happy birthday, Grandma Rozi!  We love you!

Rugged Maniac

I am a maniac!

I want to be rugged!

In true Shaina form of taking on things that I am not equipped to handle, I decided it was a great idea to run the rugged maniac 5K obstacle mudilicious race!  I've always wanted to do something like this but mostly because I like mud.  My Summer Associate mentee, Nick, was running the race and his roommate went out of town at the last minute, so with two days notice, I was in without asking any questions.  http://www.ruggedmaniac.com/home.html

For example, I might have asked, "where's the race?"  It turned out to be in Brooklyn, but not really.  It was all the way at the very end of the 5 line, which happened not to be running the day of the race.  We took the 4 to the 2 all the way to the very end!  At this point we had to get on a school bus to shuttle us to the very edge of Brooklyn - believe me, there were no hipsters in sight.

After paying an extra $10 and pinky swearing that I was Shaina Stahl from Hawaii instead of Anne Ford from Michigan, I found myself at the start line feeling really excited and a little nervous.  All was well until Nick looked at me and said, "You can set the pace and I'll run with you."  What?  I don't know a lot about Nick, but I do know that he is a runner.  Like, a real runner.  He came in 5th overall in a much harder warrior dash.  I, on the other hand, am decidedly not a runner.  Ever since eighth grade where I faked sick every time we had to run in P.E., I have tried to find every possible way of exercising that does not include running.  "Please don't run with me?"  I murmured and wondered how I would handle the race.

I didn't have much more time to think before the air horn sounded and we were off!  The first 30 seconds were great and I was very excited.  Quickly, the course turned and we bounded up and down over 5 foot hills of dirt.  The pack of runners created a dirt cloud so massive I've only seen one like it when demolishing buildings at Disney.

I didn't realize the effects until I took in a deep breath of dirt.  My eyes began to sting, my lungs started to burn, and the dirt sucked all the moisture from my already drying mouth.  Oh dear.  It's only the first 2 minutes of this race!  I bounded up another hurdle, and sharply inhaled when I saw a deep pool of mud at the bottom.  I closed my eyes and jumped in.  Unfortunately, I left my mouth open, and the mud  entered it quickly.  Using my tongue to assess just how much dirt was in my teeth, I heard a teasing voice next to me, "you hesitated!" Nick laughed.

"Please go," I pleaded with him.  His eyes widened, "you really want me to?" he asked.  I nodded and smiled and he dashed off with ease passing everyone in sight.  He even managed to still finish first in our heat!

Now I was alone and understood that my mouth was unacceptably dry and I could barely breathe without coughing because of all the dirt I had inhaled.  The long road of pavement ahead of me now looked like it stretched on forever.  I realized I had a horrible side pain and began to notice the heat.  It was another one of New York's 95 degree days - the kind that's perfect for long stretches of running on black asphalt.

With all of this happening so early in the race, I wanted to look inside myself for some encouragement. "Dig Deeper"  I heard Tony Horton's voice in the back of my mind.  For those who don't know, Tony Horton is the super fit, narcissistic, and silly man behind the P90X workouts.  The three mile course ahead of me seemed daunting.  I had an overwhelming longing to do all of the exercises I have always hated.  I would have loved to plank for a few minutes on stability balls, make me do those extra pull ups, I will warrior 2 like it's my job!  Anything but this!  What's the difference?

Then Shawn T's words popped into my head.  Shawn T is the coach for the insanity workouts.  During one of my favorite workouts he looks at one of the panting men and says, "you run marathons, don't you.  How does this compare?"  The man barely gets out, "it doesn't."  While insanity is tough, gets your heart rate up like crazy, and has no mercy, I'd say the first 10 minutes of my rugged maniac didn't compare.

Fortunately, all this thought meant that I had advanced significantly on the course.  I began to get to some of the obstacles.  Mostly, I was climbing over a lot of pieces of wood in various configurations.  Then I ran through tires.  Then it was back over some wood.  Where was the mud?

I struggled and continued to jog and walk just to make it to each new obstacle.  Getting over the obstacles was definitely fun and what I was hoping for in the race.  It was just a little more difficult without really being able to breathe.  Finally, I saw the halfway point!  There were girls there with water!  Fresh glasses of room temperature water!  This was the best thing ever.  I quickly downed one and hung out in case I wanted a second.  Four glasses later, I felt like I could breathe a little better and went running through the woods.  This was much nicer than the pavement and most of the silly obstacles reminded me of high school camp ropes courses.

It wasn't until the final mile that the fun really started.  I wasn't really feeling any better but the obstacles became more interesting.  I enjoyed pulling myself over walls and was overjoyed to see a giant TANK of mud.  I scrambled up and into the mud bath.  Once inside, I realized to make it through, I had to duck under planks of wood, which meant submerging my entire body in the muddy water.  "I don't want to get pink eye!" I heard a girl scream.  Then don't open your eyes?  I thought.  The sweet muddy water was cold and energizing!  I was really excited to continue the race.  The girl in front of me was struggling to get out of the tank and before I knew what I was doing, my hand was on her behind pushing her over the ledge.  Was that really inappropriate?  She looked embarrassed as we both got out of the tank.  "Sorry." was all I managed to squeak out before I put my head down and continued.

I was so close to the finish when I saw more mud!  I excitedly got on my hands and knees and crawled through the mud under the un-barbed wire.  What, they think we couldn't have handled barbed?  I probably would have ended up with tetanus.

Next it was in and out of muddy tubes before I reached the water slide!  Weeeeeeee!  There was one last obstacle in the race.  I climbed up the largest of the wooden frames and looked down at the rope net below me.  I had been told what I had to do.  I closed my eyes and just....rolled!  It was like rolling down a hill.  "Weeeeee!" I'm pretty sure I audibly exclaimed again.  I climbed up the other side and down the wood frame and was met with a great unexpected surprise.  Nick darted out from the crowd at the finish line and I lept at him in the air.  "I did it!"  I managed to squeal before promptly crumbling to the floor littered with empty water cups and orange peels.

"I started to get worried about you 20 minutes ago."  Sigh.  I tried to respond but pretty much all I could do was cough for the next five minutes.

So rugged!

Tired maniacs

Ready for more!

Mud face.

We had to go rinse off at the happy time water station!  Glorious cold water!!

Then we came across an amazing shoe graveyard!  I climbed to the top and declared myself queen of the shoes.

Stupid water spots on the camera!

Then they gave us free cold beer!  

I give the race an A+, but next time, I will definitely train!

The Piano

Some of my first memories include sitting down at my antique white grand piano with my Grandmother, whose hair matched the color of the keys.  She would hopelessly try to get me to sight read while I insisted on playing by ear.  My grandfather would sit at the accompanying drums trying to follow the musical whims of a 7 year old who liked to bang on the keys to make the low notes as loud as possible.

That piano had traveled with my family from Florida all the way to Hawaii as a gift for me.  I enjoyed it and played it through high school.  My mother made the decision to drag it all the way back to Florida up to the 4th floor of her Delray apartment.  It then journeyed to two different Hobe Sound houses and then back to the 4th floor of the Delray apartment where I am sure it will stay because moving it again might actually kill my mom.

I hadn't considered buying another piano until my second year of law school when Justin and I moved into "the ponce."  We casually looked at a church yard sale for used furniture (this was before bed bugs... no soft surfaces!) when there it was standing right next to the book shelves - MY piano.  The price tag was only $150, a small price to pay for...WAH.  Justin hit a key and it sounded horrible.  We looked at each other.  We hit a few more keys and some sounded better than others.  I didn't care, I knew this piano was going to be mine and it seemed completely logical.  I paid an extra $75 to have 8 high school boys carry it across the street for me.

The piano in its most recent home

I liked it because it was OLD - I thought it had a lot of character and history.  The original price of the piano was embossed on its side - $500!

Someone even marked some dates in pencil! 4-30-32 and 5-4-32

It tuned up perfectly and Justin and I both got to learn and play many songs through law school.  We gave each other concerts where he would play my favorite, the girl with the flaxen hair, and I would play the Super Mario Brothers theme song and, of course, In the Mood.

After 4 great years, I had to leave Atlanta behind, but I wasn't about to leave my piano.  I may have left it with Justin, but anticipating the separation, he had purchased a super fancy digital piano and didn't need mine anymore.

There were lots of things I didn't anticipate about moving this piano to New York.  In law school, I could play the piano anytime because I was home during the day and we didn't have close enough neighbors to bother.  In New York, the piano is right up against a neighbor's wall and I'm only home at times highly disturbing to play loud music.  The wood also did not love the temperature changes.  If it was tuned in warm weather, it immediately went out of tune as it got cold.  I began playing less and less.

Finally, Mike bought me a (super sweet) digital piano (with earphones for playing anytime).  

I knew that was the beginning of saying goodbye to my piano.

Finally, I decided to just do it and put the piano up on a piano adoption website.  I got about 20 people looking for a piano donation!  After accidentally promising it to two people (yikes!) I gave it to the guy who actually came to the apartment to look at it.  (Then shed a few tears for the other girl).

The guy didn't come to pick it up - he sent two very large Russian men to remove the piano from my apartment.  At 9am after a late night out, I sleepily answered the door and let the men in.  "Shaina, Sit," they kept telling me as I cleared space to move the piano.  "The other guy is paying you," I kept insisting while being forced to sit on my own couch.  I finally called the other guy on speaker phone and everything was sorted out.  

The piano left quickly - I didn't have time to cry and say goodbye like I normally do with inanimate objects.  I just smiled and know that it's going to a good home.  So long, Piano.  Thanks for carrying a tune.  :)

Trapped

One of my worst nightmares came true and I survived.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrified of being trapped.  It's certainly not a rational fear but I have completely lost it on a few occasions.  I think the first time I ever had this feeling was when I was young and thought it was a good idea to climb into a cardboard box.  My siblings closed it and wouldn't let me out and it was one of the scariest feelings in the world.  This issue runs so deep with me that when I die, I do NOT want to be buried... you know... just in case.

I'm off topic.

Friday I was flying down to Florida to visit my mom for her 65th birthday.  I was so excited to see her and I left work in a terrific mood!  The bus driver even gave me a student discount without my even asking for one!  There was no traffic and the security line was short.  Life was good...

I approached the gate agent and asked for them to assign me a good seat.  He had an exit row at no extra charge!  In addition, he told me that the flight was oversold and they needed 9 volunteers to take a later flight in exchange for $400.  I toyed with the idea but decided that it was supposed to rain later and I really wanted to see my mom ASAP so I declined.

I boarded the plane and texted my mom telling her that I was on my way!  The plane had just filled up when CRASH - lightning struck really close by and the sky opened up.  The captain came on and said that the ground crew had to run inside but only had 5 more minutes of preparation once the rain stopped.

The flight attendant then came on and gave me my final chance.  Apparently the plane had a weight and balance issue (seriously, who heard of this on a commercial flight?  I was on an MD-88) and they had to take another passenger off the plane.  This time they were offering $500 to go on a later flight.  It did bother me that the giant aircraft would only fly after potentially removing the whopping 150 lbs of me and my suitcase put together.

I strongly considered the deal this time and quickly called my most reliable phone a friend - Justin - who happens to be an expert on both weather and air travel.  After considering the options, we decided since I was already on the plane I should just stay put.  He saw weather scattered all over the east coast but it was clearing up in New York.  I figured I'd stay.

The passengers were all getting wary.  The rain finally had cleared up and we anxiously awaited pushing back from the gate.  We finally pulled away and there was an audible sigh and cheer from the plane.  Our joy lasted only minutes before the captain came on to tell us about the long line of planes ahead of us.

"Sorry I don't have better news, folks, but I am estimating with this many planes in front of us, it'll be about an hour."  My heart sank.  We had already been sitting on the plane for 1.5 hours and now we had another hour to wait!  I pulled out my laptop and began typing up my notes from earlier in the day.  I kept myself busy with work and sporadic texting even though the cell service was not good.  Finally it got close to the hour mark and the captain came back on for an update.

"Sorry, folks, I know it's not raining but there's some weather all around us and no one can take off or land." UGH - that was frustrating to hear.  I figured it'd be another few minutes for a storm to pass and then we must be at the front of the line since we've waited an hour already... "Then, when they start letting us go again, there are about twenty five airplanes ahead of us."  Twenty-five?!  How is that even possible when we've been waiting for so long!  At 2 minutes per plane, that's almost another hour we have to wait after the storm passes.  I took some deep breaths and tried to mentally prepare myself for another hour.  That's when the captain crushed my spirits, "And, folks, we have to save some gas so I'm gonna go ahead and just turn the engines off,"  okay, fine, "and sorry about this but that means the AC is gonna go off too."  WHAT?  It's been 95 degrees out and I have already been stuck in this metal death tube for 2.5 hours and now you're turning the air off?  I'll survive by looking out the window to the real world.  "So, it might get hot in here, if you wouldn't mind, folks, please lower your window shades to keep it cool."

I'm going to die.


I jumped from my seat to run to the bathroom while frantically trying to call my mom.  When she finally returns my call 20 minutes later, I am a puddle - sitting on the floor of a hot and stuffy airplane while pretending to focus on my note transcription.  "I didn't have my phone because I thought you already took off!"  ouch.  I yelled some nasty things at her while she sweetly tried to give me advice that I wasn't listening to.  My heart-rate was up and so were most passengers, making the plane feel even more crowded.  I kept my head down and focused.

After the next hour (3.5 hours in) the captain came back on with some good news.  We were going to move to the other side of the runway!  Some of the other planes had to go back to the gate so we were going to be moving up in the line!  The engines and lights blazed into life and I immediately shot up and stuck my head in the air vent!  Sweet cold air!  I felt like a fish in oxygen deprived water, sucking at the bubbles that come from the vent.

Of course, it was a brief moment of relief because as soon as we got to the other side the engines were cut again and we were returned to darkness.  I crumpled back to the floor as the flight attendants started passing out food.  I greedily began eating packages of pretzels - one after the other until ten empty packages stained the surrounding area with salt.  I hadn't looked up in about 15 minutes.  When I did, I began to realize that I was not alone in my feelings.  A small girl cried quietly in the corner, a young man had his head in his hands as he listened to something on his beats by Dr. Dre headphones, a woman dressed in leopard print yelled at the flight attendants about the passenger bill of rights, a middle-aged... WAIT!  The passenger bill of rights!  They can't DO this to me!


I started my texting frenzy again.  "Look up the passenger bill of rights!  What does it say!!!!!"  I knew the airlines couldn't keep passengers sitting on the runway, but for how many hours?  Three?  Four?  Seven?!  I really wasn't sure!  Now the whole plane was chanting!  One of the flight attendants addressed us over the speaker, "I'm sorry - none of us have ever encountered anything with the passenger bill of rights.  We don't want to tell you any wrong information."  I got a text saying it was three hours.  We were clearly approaching that mark.

Everyone was extremely agitated when the captain came on again, "Sorry again, folks, it looks like we're going to have to go back to the gate."  There was an audible boo.  BOO?  My inner self was jumping up and down cheering!  We get to go back to the gate!  I'm not gonna die!  Is that a tear?  Keep it together, Shaina!

We arrived back at the gate.  "What a smooth landing!" someone joked.  There were more murmurs that maybe we would go back to the gate but they wouldn't actually let us off.  Fortunately, that wasn't true.  They did not give us any information and I hurried off the plane.  I looked around and realized that not only were we at a different gate, but we were in a different terminal!  I guess what did I expect?  We were out on that plane for FOUR AND A HALF hours.

The entire airport was in chaos.  They were announcing canceled flights left and right.  The board was a disaster of delays and cancels.  I looked at someone in a long customer service line, "What are we supposed to do now?" I practically yelled at him.  "I'm sorry," he looked at me sympathetically, "I don't even know what flight you were on."  RIGHT.  I am not the only one in this mess.  I felt the tears that I was holding back surfacing.  I darted for the door.

In the fresh air the tears began streaming down.  I saw a taxi cab and ran for it.  "PLEASE TAKE ME HOME!"  I pleaded.  "I'm sorry, honey," the driver said with wide eyes, "I'll get in trouble!  Go to the taxi line."  I stumbled to the taxi line and the tears began to subside but I was sniffling.

It was a short ride home.  Julia looked at me confused as we arrived home.  "Aren't you going to Florida?"  Here come the tears again, "NOOOOO!"  She gives me a hug as I begin babbling again.  Then she rushes to make me a drink.  A strong drink.  Yes, I think.  This is what I need!  Julia is having a party that is about to start and I decide I am going to turn this night around and have the best night ever!  I begin my frantic texting again and make tentative plans all around the city.  Julia's friends have all shown up and so have more drinks in my hand.

I am perched on the floor, listening to their stories when I apparently fall asleep.  I am slightly nudged and stand up and stumble to my bed, which is cluttered with piles of clothes, bags, and a ukulele.  Julia brings me some water and I push everything over and promptly fall asleep again in all my clothes with my knees bent in the air.  I don't wake up 'til morning.