The Show Must Go On: Tuesday, August 4, 2009

As you know, I went up to NYC this past weekend to co-host Ali's shower and bacherlorette festivities, this despite having had chest and abdominal port insertions earlier in the week. The show must go on, right? I took the train up Friday morning and Christina met me in Penn Station to cab out to her place in Brooklyn together since she knows just how much I enjoy navigating the city's public transportation system on my own, particularly with fresh surgical wounds.

When we got to Brooklyn, we grabbed lunch and then headed out to the grocery store to buy all of the ingredients for the white wine sangria and tea sandwiches for Ali's shower. We had planned to start making things that evening but after an exhausting day of travel for me, tons of errands for both of us AND my increasingly spastic abdominal/lower back pain, we just decided to enjoy a glass of Rose (just one, Granny!) and grab dinner with Christina's husband, Andy, at a great restaurant called Ici, which is in their neighborhood.

My pain grew worse during dinner so I took another vicodin when we got home, got tucked in by Christina (she's a very nurturing physican assistant), and fell asleep watching Revolutionary Road. Fortunately, my pain was gone by the time I got up on Saturday morning and so it was time to get busy putting Ali's high tea shower together! Christina needed to de-stress so we took her dog, Molly, out for a little walk, then it was more errands (to the grocery store AGAIN in search of the perfect tea sandwich bread, then cupcake pick up, then ice cream sandwich pick up...), and finally home to make over 100 tea sandwiches! Here's the menu we used, which everyone seemed to love, in case you're ever throwing a high tea in the heat of summer:

Assorted tea sandwiches:

Curried egg salad on white

Roasted red pepper, basil, red onion, and goat cheese on wheat

Cucumber, dill, and cream cheese on a variety of breads

Smoked salmon, dill, and cream cheese on rye

Prosciutto, fig jam and whipped butter on wheat

Mixed greens with mustard vinaigrette

Vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from Baked

Chocolate chip, chocolate, and dulce de leche ice cream sandwiches from Bierkraft

Iced tea with lemon or mint

White wine sangria with Triple Sec, apricots, peaches, strawberries, and raspberries

Pinot Grigio

Water with cucumber and mint

As you'll see below, Ali's shower went off without a hitch (thanks to Andy Craven for being the best sous chef in the world!) and a good time was had by all. After the shower, Christina and I recuperated for about 15 minutes on the couch before getting ready to head into the city for dinner and karaoke with the bride-to-be and several other of her good friends. Fortunately, my pain didn't make a return appearence the rest of the weekend (although, it was around yesterday afternoon) and I managed to stay AWAKE (I know this will shock many loyal readers) and out until 1 a.m. on Saturday night. The rest of the girls were out until 5:30 a.m. dancing the night away. Needless to say, many were craving a nice, greasy spoon kind of a breakfast on Sunday morning! Here are some highlights from the weekend. Enjoy!

Ali's wedding colors are pewter gray, orange and fuschia so we used orange and fuschia flowers for the centerpieces, which Christina's florist friend Towanna (spelling?) made.

Crowd-pleasing cupcakes!

Cheers to the bride-to-be! Ali with her sangria.
Ali received the obligatory "Bride" baseball cap.

Me, Julie, and Kim at dinner.

Kara, Christina, Ali, and Melissa at dinner.

The dynamic duo at again in the private karaoke room. We haven't performed together like this since our all night high school graduation party back in '94.

I was fast asleep when this photo was taken early in the morning. In case you're wondering, no one knows who the chick on the far right is. Total random. Good times!