This past birthday has been by far the best one in memorable history. I really like this tradition that Sheri and I have started about going away for my birthdays. This year was also extremely special because it was also the wedding weekend of my oldest and closest friend.
I was excited when months ago my friend called me to let me know that they were going to hold their wedding on the same day as my birthday. I knew that this would be amazing to be able to spend my birthday with the love of my life and my two closest girlfriends.
We only knew small details going into this weekend, like the ceremony was going to be small and quick on Friday evening while the reception would be held on Saturday. We packed up my car early Friday and drove two hours to Philadelphia through torrential rain. We checked into our beautiful hotel and snuggled in for a quick nap. Unfortunately birthday sex was ruled out this weekend since I was sick and Aunt Flo decided to pay her visit. We got settled into our room and decided to go grab lunch somewhere around our hotel. We had spied the Hard Rock Café right across the street so we decided to eat there.
We got settled and looked at the menu and Sheri announced very happily that she was going to have a beer with lunch. Our waitress came over and I asked what kind of birthday specials they had, if any. She said that they didn’t have any specials but they had drinks that people tend to order. She pointed out the Bahama Mama (rum please!) so I ordered that in a keeper glass (for prosperity sake). When our drinks came out we toasted to a wonderful weekend and immersed ourselves in conversation and a little booty shaking. Well, I did the booty shaking. If we’re somewhere, anywhere, and there’s music playing (especially the Hard Rock Café) I will do a little dance in my chair to make Sheri laugh. I will do the cauldron, I’ll do the shopping cart or even pump my fists really fast. I realize that I look like a special person being the only one in the restaurant who’s getting her groove on, but as long as the woman that’s across from me is laughing I will carry on like a buffoon.
We finished our lunch and of course Sheri wanted dessert. She ordered a small chocolate sundae and we sat back to digest a bit. The waitress comes out and sets down Sheri’s ice cream in front of her and in front of me she has a smaller sundae with a candle sticking out. She smiles and takes out a lighter to light the candle and asks how old I’m turning. I tell her 29, she then asks my name so I tell her Jennifer, and all of a sudden she shouts “HEY EVERYONE!! I NEED YOUR ATTENTION! THIS IS JENNIFER AND IT’S HER 29TH BIRTHDAY!!” The entire restaurant starts whooping it up and she motions for me to stand. At this point I’m mortified and I slowly stand to the hoots and hollers and I do what I do when I’m embarrassed…I bow. She gets the entire restaurant to shout happy birthday and I blow out the candle and sit back down as red as my maraschino cherry.
We dug into our ice cream as I mused over what triggered that. Sheri grins devilishly at me at says “Do you think that was by accident?”
“No, I figured it was because I asked her about birthday specials.”
Her grin got slyer as she slowly shook her head no.
I was slow to catch on. “Did you do this?” She broke out into on full on smile at this point. “But how? I was sitting here the whole time. When did you tell them it was my birthday?”
“I have my ways.”
“You’re so sneaky!” I said. “When did you do this?”
“I have to keep some things secret,” she stated triumphantly.
Turns out she called the hotel days prior to find out what restaurants were around. She then called the HRC, let them know we’d be there for my birthday. I asked how they knew it would be for me. It wasn’t as if she had some secret hand signal to let them know we arrived.
Sneak. She knew it would make me happy, and she was right.
After lunch we walked across the street hand in hand and back up to our hotel room. We snuggled in for a quick nap then started getting ready. I love showering with her because all we do is laugh. Bathtubs are far too small for both of us to maneuver together so one of us will be clean and the other soapy and when we try to wiggle past we’ll get the other one soapy all over. There will be elbows to the head, stepping on toes, and rubbing our butts together and laughing. A few times we yell out “ROTATE!” and shuffle past one another trying not to slip out of the tub.
We got dressed and I buried my nose into her neck to breathe in her perfume. We grabbed a taxi that took us to the restaurant and the confusion started. We walked in, saw my friend’s parents and said hello. They ushered us to a separate part of the restaurant that was only open to use where we saw a few rows of chairs 3 chairs wide placed around the small room. Sheri kept looking around with her eyes wide and mumbling “I…is this where the wedding is? Is this where we’re eating afterwards? I have no idea what’s going on here.” I kept giggling and telling her to hush. A few of my other friends walked in, one that I haven’t seen in 7 + years with her Aussie boyfriend. Sheri and the boyfriend got on like a burning house and I knew immediately that we were going to have a wonderful time. Then my other best friend and her husband came in and I gave them a big hug. We were standing around the room which was lined with shelves of merchandise and a cooler full of drinks. I was absolutely parched and didn’t have any gum so I whispered to Sheri to snag me a small bottle of water. She looked right, then left, then discreetly reached her arm back and grabbed a water and gave it to me. I turned my back to the room and drank the water like I was taking a hit off of a bong.
We saw the groom, a bunch of their friends enter the room. In all there may have been about 30 or 40 of us. We were all standing around, shifting our weight from side to side not knowing exactly what to do. Then we heard my friend’s voice from the hall and knew we had to take our seats. Sheri kept leaning in to me and said “Who’s officiating the ceremony?” I shrugged because I didn’t know. I didn’t get that close of details. We see the groom standing at the front of the room right by the restaurant window. People were walking by on the busy street looking in and smiling. We hear someone clear their throat and turn to see my friend and her father walking down the…well, aisle I would guess you would call it…it was an aisle made by the chairs. I had to stifle a laugh because there was no music or anything so there was nothing to set the tempo of the walk. The poor father was being dragged by his daughter who was nearly sprinting towards her almost husband. I smiled widely at how beautiful my friend looked. She met her fiancé up at the front of the room and was squeaking “I don’t want to cry but I am already!!”
Sheri and I were still waiting for someone to stand up and welcome us all there, but that didn’t happen. My friend turned to us and they thanked everyone for joining them on their very non-traditional wedding. My eyes were still grazing the limited audience when they launched into their joint vows. Sheri and I exchanged very confused looks when after their list of promises they placed the ring on each other’s fingers and then kissed. I had ???? over my head when they turned to us and said “Yay!! We’re married!”
Sheri leaned in to me and chuckled. She said “You know in Tangled when Flynn Ryder is battling the horse with the frying pan? Well that’s how I feel right now. I’m so confused!”
I elbowed her to hush while a knowing chuckle was in my throat. I leaned forward to my other best friend and asked “Do you have any idea what just happened?”
She smiled and said “They had a Quaker ceremony. They were able to marry each other without an officiator.”
Ahhhhh, that made sense. I had no idea you could even do that but I’m glad that I now know. Who knows, maybe one day Sheri and I will do that.
I gave my newly married best friend a hug and we took a few pictures. We made our way back to the private dining room where we carried on 3 hours of wonderful conversation with our friends, newly formed and old. It was around 9:30 and my head was POUNDING from being so tired and still getting over being sick so Sheri and I made our way back to the hotel.
10:30 we were in bed. 3:30 am I was still wide awake. I must have rolled the snorer over at least 8 times throughout the night just wishing for her to be quiet long enough so I could fall asleep. I was so tired, and I knew Saturday was going to be a very, very long day. I must have drifted off at some point and was able to get about 5 hours of sleep.
Saturday was one of the best days we had in a while. Sheri pulled me into the shape of her body and we snuggled for a bit before we got up. We had a wonderful breakfast at a farmer’s market and then set off on our adventure. When I found out we’d be in Philly the entire weekend I told her all I wanted to do for my birthday was go to the Aquarium that’s down there. I hadn’t been to this aquarium in nearly 20 + years since my parents took me when I was a little girl. We climbed into my car and made our way over the bridge connecting PA and NJ. The Aquarium was only about 5 minutes away from our hotel and soon we were parked.
We could not have asked for better weather. The aquarium was right on the other side of the Delaware River and even for mid-October it was warm enough to not need a jacket. There was not a cloud in the sky and the breeze was warm off the river. We walked through each exhibit holding pinkies. Oooing and aaahing at the beautiful marine life. It was bigger and better than she expected and was quite impressed. We saw tons of sharks, I touched sting rays – I tried to get Sheri to touch them but she refused. I kept telling her they feel like wet leather, daring her to take a risk. She was happy enough snapping pictures of me petting the rays. I squealed when we saw the hippos. The penguins didn’t want to come out and play, and a shark photo bombed our photo in the underwater tunnel through the shark tank.
After we were done with the aquarium we ventured back into Philly when our stomachs told us it was lunch time. I suggested we go to Geno’s Steaks, one of the famous stands to get a cheesesteak for lunch. We held hands as I slowly navigated the narrow streets of the city. We got lucky and found a spot close and I wowed her with my parallel parking skills. We stood at the crux of the street where Geno’s Steaks is on one corner and Pat’s Famous Cheesesteaks were on the other. These two restaurants have been featured in numerous food war shows on different food networks and travel channels. I ordered our steaks like a pro and we ate while watching the kids play basketball on the city court.
When lunch was over we strolled back to the car. It was still early in the day and the sun was high in the sky. Sheri grabbed my hand and asked “Do you want to go for a horse and carriage ride?” Seeing as it was only around 2 PM and the reception didn’t start for another 6 hours I jumped at the chance. Normally when we’re on vacation it consists of numerous naps and not really leaving the hotel room. I was ecstatic that we were actually spending the day experiencing everything Philly had to offer.
We dropped the car off at the hotel and walked down the street to Center Philly where the museums and the Liberty Bell was. Along the street several carriages were lined up with horses waiting to take tourists for a ride. We picked a beautiful brown and white horse with a very nice gentleman that wooed us to his services. He helped us up into the carriage and we snuggled in together and he took our picture. I would have posted it, but Sheri was in mid-sentence because she likes to be a punk like that. We were tugged forward and the horse started clip-clopping down the cobble stone street of Philadelphia.
The tour was over in twenty minutes and we stopped at Dairy Queen to get a small ice cream treat before we went back to the hotel. It was around 4:30 when we got back so we still had plenty of time to spoon and watch some TV.
After a few hours of lazing around I hopped in the shower and we started to get ready. We arrived to the venue right at 8 and sat with our friends again. It was again very unique and non-traditional. There was no first dance, no announcing the husband and wife, no cake cutting, no bouquet tossing. And to be honest, I LOVED it. I grew up with nothing but traditional weddings and I always felt pressure that this is how it had to be. It was a breath of fresh air to be at something that was so uniquely theirs and gives me ideas about what mine and Sheri’s wedding would be like.
We had SO much fun. All I did was dance with my friends and scream out the songs. Sheri refuses to dance so she sat at the table watching me on the dance floor. I love watching her watch me dance. She said that when she watches me dance she thinks That’s right, I’m taking her home. I lose myself when I dance, hopping and jumping and shaking and moving. Later in the night when I was in the bathroom I had a few of the other guests say about how I’m a good dancer. One of the girls slurred “You are sooo good! Here, here’s a sunflower for you. It matches your dress and you should have it.” I thought it was so sweet because I feel like I’m a spaz on the dance floor but apparently this white girl has some moves.
It was right before midnight and we had to take our leave. We gave my friend a big hug and I told her that I loved her and was so thrilled that she was so happy. We walked hand in hand down a deserted Philadelphia block back to the hotel soaking up the warm night air. I took a shower and crawled into bed and Sheri opened her arms to wrap around me. My stomach hurt from jumping around so much and being so exhausted so her fingers lightly traces circles over my belly and she gave me small kisses on my shoulder and my neck. In that moment I felt safe and so much love that the only thing I could do was to press myself up against her more.
I drifted off to sleep quickly and slept through the night. We awoke bright and early and packed my car and headed back home where I had my hand on her leg as we drove in silence with the windows open. I watched Philadelphia disappear in my rearview mirror and knew that this city holds the memories for one of, if not the best, vacations we have ever had together.
