Wedding Toast May 22, 2007

I wrote this out while riding Amtrak from DC’s Union Station to NY’s Penn Station.  What a great ride!  I ended up not reading this verbatim, but the same sentiments and stories came out, with a nice jab at John’s dancing skillz.  Beautiful wedding, beautiful couple!

***
I truly believe, that when you meet someone, you know almost immediately whether or not you resonate with them.  Mary Catherine and I met freshman year at college, when we were crammed into a tiny, linoleum floored dorm room at Berkeley.  And from the moment we met, we were sisters.  We shared a lot of gossip, a little bit of wine, and many, many adventures.  Including one, in which we drove cross-country.  Every night of that drive, MC would pull out this massive road map of the United States, and hunker down with an impressive assortment of highlighters, pens, post-it flags, secondary reference materials, and the Farmer’s Almanac, and meticulously outline, date, cross-reference and footnote where we had been, and what we had done that day.  Some people call it obsessive-compulsive, I call it an endearing quirk.

And then, many years later, she met this guy John.  Via phone and email, she told me about romantic moonlit drives through the Capitol, about mint juleps at the club, and more about horse racing than I ever cared to know. 

And then I met John, and I instantly knew he and MC were perfectly matched.  And I’ll tell you why.  I flew out to DC earlier this week to help with some wedding prep.  I had a couple hours to spare, so thought I’d go for a quick run.  I asked Mary Catherine for directions to the Rock Creet trail, and where most folks would tell you, go down Conneticut, take a right at 22nd, and you’re there…Mary Catherine and John spent a good ten minutes debating whether or not I should run down the left side of the street, the right side of the street, if I should take 22nd, or maybe Cathedral, and by the time I left, I had full intelligence on the number of water fountains along the trail, a week’s worth of weather forecasts and an analysis of my predicted running form.  It was a nice run.  After which, I was scheduled to meet up with MC and John for dinner at the club. 

Not learning from previous experience, I made the mistake of asking, “What’s the best way to get to the club?”  Most people would say, “6100 Connecticut.  Head north on Connecticut, it’s on your left.  If you pass Bradley, you’ve gone too far.”  MC and John?  Not so much.  First of all, Mary Catherine sat me down at the dining table and pulled out her pens, post-its and highlighters again.  Uh-oh.  About 15 minutes later, I had a map of Connecticut Avenue, a more detailed map of the traffic circle on Connecticut Avenue, and an even more detailed map showing me the exact gate at which it would be most efficient for me to enter the club, which was, I was informed, almost exactly a half mile from the traffic circle.  I was actually told to watch the odometer.  And if that weren’t enough, about a half hour before dinner, I get a call from John.  Apparently, if I left within the next 10.24 minutes, I would be able to shave five minutes off my travel time because there would be four lanes of traffic open rather than two. 

Let me tell you, these two are perfect for each other.  Please raise your glasses and join me in a toast.  MC and John, I love you both very much.  May your love and happiness grow stronger every day, may you appreciate and laugh at each other’s quirks, and may all your travels be safe.  Salute.