Tag Archives: parties

Oct11

New Year’s Eve in Dublin

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Tuesday and Wednesday, 31-Dec-2024 and 01-Jan-2025



I don’t have any pictures for the blog from New Year’s Eve.

I’m very okay with that.

It wasn’t really an evening that lent itself to photography – Andrea and I hosted a small New Years Eve shindig at my apartment; a small shindig with a few friends and our only neighbors in attendance. A few classmates joined in for the beginning, before heading out onto the town for a bit of clubbing, but by the end it was just three couples – Ourselves, our neighbors, and two friends from the executive side of the MBA program.

We took it easy and enjoyed ourselves and the pleasant company – Good sparkling wine was had (not Champagne, but a variant that was easily as good while avoiding the price tag), stories were shared, and fireworks were watched from the windows of our 7th floor nest.

We did a cursory photoshoot with Anduril, just for fun, though I’ll leave those photos in the inboxes of the friends who modeled for them – They came out well, but it feels a bit strange publishing photos of other people in the context of a silly night in together.

It was a simple evening, and a lovely evening. A celebration of a life being built across the pond, in a new world.

Apr15

Ben makes an Easter Ham for the first time – Easter Sunday, 2015

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Sunday, 05-April-2015

 

The family’s Passover Seder was finished, the leftovers sitting in my fridge just waiting to be warmed up and snarfed down.

But unlike most Jewish households during Passover, I had bread on my shelves.  I even had a ham sitting in the fridge!  Was I the worst Jew ever?  Nope!  I was the best, since I was being a good host!

“But Ben!” you may ask, “How does any of that have anything to do with being a host?”

“Well, unnamed person who’s asking me questions in my own head,” I’d reply, “I’m being a good host by throwing an Easter Sunday dinner for my friends who’re far from home!”

“Ohh wow, you’re such an awesome person Ben!  I wish I was like you!”

“Ohh stop flattering me, voice-inside-my-head, you’re too kind!”

 

Baseline, we made dinner.  Daniel and I did some climbing early in the day, hitting up the usual Yoga class with Emma, and then roping up for a few lead climbs.  I even finished my project cleanly!  Not just once, but twice in a row!  But we had to cut it a bit short, since the Ham was slated to take a while in the oven, and there was other prep work that needed doing before dinner could be served.

So Emma and I biked back to the house while Daniel hit up Whole Foods for the last few bits that were missing – including some Oysters for us prep people… simply to keep us fed and able to cook well, of course.

 

The rest of the night was finishing the food, hanging out with people as they trickled in, and generally having an extremely lovely Easter Dinner.  We had everything – ham, sweet potatoes, normal potatoes, bread, drinks, ginger beer, all the fun stuff that one expects from Easter when a Jew is cooking it.  We even had Mandelbread for me, so that I could rock some kind of bread-shaped-food!

 

Apr11

Katie’s Emerald Extravaganza

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Saturday, 14-March-15

 

Daniel is one of my best friends; we’ve climbed literally all over the world, and gone on some amazing trips.  Over the years, I’ve become very close with their family; so when his sister put together a party to celebrate 10 years of being cancer-free, I was very excited to get to party with all of them.

And since Katie is a very classy woman, the event was a very classy event.  Black tie mandatory, white tie optional.  Held in the ballroom of a nice Boston hotel, with good drinks, great food, amazing people, and intimidating dancing.

 

But back to the beginning… it was a good day for a fancy indoor party.  I took the T instead of driving over; it was a bit of a walk in the rain, but thanks to a rainproof jacket and a good umbrella it was nicely simple and dry.

I arrived at the Liberty right during cocktail hour – it was fun, but I’m honestly never really sure how to mingle in situations like that.  There’s only so much time, and everyone’s already talking to everyone else, and I want to talk to everyone and catch up… but it was really nice – and the open bar definitely made it quite fun!  From cocktail hour on the top floor of the hotel, we moved down the the main floor and the central ballroom – the room Katie’d reserved for the party proper.  It was a good sized room; not small, but not cavernous either.  Brian, Daniel, Erin and I got tabled together with a few other folks who I hadn’t met before, and we all hung out and chatted while dinner was set up.

And what was dinner, you ask?  Yeah.  It was amazing, that’s what it was.  Buffet style, with salmon and prime rib, and really almost everything that you could want.  Excellent potatoes, grand desserts, coffee, and yet another open bar.  Gin and tonic all around!  Everything is awesome! (Cue that song from the Lego Movie)

As dinner’s continuing, the dance floor transforms – where it originally was just a flat wooden floor, now it’s a dangerous land, full of spinning dresses and swinging high heels!  Katie and her friends are extremely skilled ballroom dancers… and getting to watch them all show off is kind of an amazing treat for the night.  I’ve gotten to see them dance at parties before, but there’s never been enough room to really spread out, from what I could tell.  Now?  Now, they have all the room they need to really show off.

Of course, the rest of us joined in on the floor too, once the good people were tired out and had slowed down a bit.  I didn’t do too poorly, and I had a lot of fun.  Which is what I’ll keep telling myself until I’m convinced that it’s ok that I’m not as good as them, hehe.

 

The rest of the night is spent as a party should be spent – hanging out, drinks, photobooths, photo bombs in that photo booth, and hearing about fancy proposals made.  Ohh, that?  Yep.  This wasn’t just Katie’s 10th anniversary of being cancer-free – it was also her 0th anniversary of being engaged to her now-Fiance Nathaniel.  The proposal happened off-stage (I believe Katie got pulled aside quickly), so we only got to hear the outfall from it.  Cheers, impressed noises at the ring, etc…

A great party – though now I have a wedding to look forward to… if this was impressive, I can’t imagine how much so that will be!

 

 

To quote Katie, from her invitation:

“Freshman year of college i was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma and underwent a year of surgery and chemotherapy to treat it. Next March will mark 10 years of being cancer-free!
In celebration, I am going to throw a giant party. It will include cocktail hour, buffet dinner, dancing, photo booth, and other various and sundry fun times. Party will be held at the Liberty Hotel in Boston on Saturday March 14, 2015.

This Site will serve as the information center for the Emerald Extravaganza. If there are any questions that have not yet been answered here, please let me know and I can update!

Thanks for celebrating with me 🙂

Katie”