Day 19: Dayton and Fairfield, OH

Yesterday started off kind of slow. Megan got up and went very early to her marathon training group and Zumba class, and I went to the laundromat to once again clean my clothes. After we both got back to the apt, we went and had lunch at Big Sky Bakery, a place right around the corner from Megan's apt that bakes all their bread fresh and also has soups and sandwiches. And you get a free piece of bread with whatever you order. Bought a muffin? Free slice of bread. Just a soda? Free slice of bread. My kind of place! After that Megan dragged me to the new Kroger on Stroop and showed me around the place - it is actually pretty fancy.

Then we went back to her apt and I got ready for the wedding I went to. I had to wrap the gift but there was no scotch tape in the house, but luckily I found some blue tape and used that (that is one of those "You know you're an RA when..." type situations, I swear). The wedding was in Fairfield, OH, which is about 40 minutes south of Dayton (in between Dayton and Cincinnati). I was wearing my suit, and spent about 45 minutes in the car when it was 90 degrees and humid out - can you guess what that equals? Yes, a massive amount of sweating. I'm pretty sure I was already sweated out by the time I got to the ceremony. And the ceremony was outside, which meant more sweating. Luckily I took my coat off and managed to not pass out from dehydration.

So this wedding I went to was a friend from grad school (Matt Perry) who was getting married to his partner...also named Matt Perry. Yes, they are in love and have the same name - small world! So while it technically wasn't a wedding, it was a commitment ceremony but had everything that a normal wedding has - a wedding party, toasts, cake, dancing, a drag queen performing the medley of Motown hits from the start of Sister Act 2. You know, normal stuff!

In actuality, it was a fun ceremony. I was even more impressed that they would use so much of their own money to have a ceremony and reception for all their family and friends when they would not "get" anything else out of it (like how heterosexual couples get tax breaks, spousal support, etc from the government). It was nice of them and a fun way to celebrate.

Anyway, there were a bunch of friends from grad school at the wedding, including Mo, my work spouse from last year. By work spouse, I don't mean that we want to get married to each other (although we did discuss if we got married what songs would be played at the reception). Mo is just my counterpart in work. We don't do things the same or agree on everything, but we just get each other and challenge each other appropriately and can trust each other. She works at Paul Smiths College in Paul Smiths, NY (aka middle of nowhere) so it was fun to see her and catch up. We did make tentative plans for a roadtrip next year (which would include a webcam in the car so you could watch our shenanigans).

After the wedding was over, Mo, Chelsey, Andrew and I went to the Back Porch Saloon nearby to meet up with Krys, Mo's friend from undergrad, and Lauren and Jessica, Krys' friends. (Side note: Jessica was originally introduced to us as "Lindsay" until that was corrected, and I really wanted to keep calling her that throughout the night, but I was told she wouldn't like that. Oh well). At this bar, my fact was reaffirmed that ResLife is a small world when Chelsey and I ran into Alan, a former staff member from Dayton, and Mo ran into one of her old residents (who was underages - whoops). We also managed to talk to a guy from Germany for awhile, and we decided that he was telling us the truth where he was from and not just acting.

Left the bar around 11:45pm and started the drive back to Dayton. It had actually cooled off considerably and it was just wonderful driving home with all the windows down and not sweating. I enjoy summer nights like that! All in all a good day.