Wednesday, 03-Nov-2021 through Monday, 08-Nov-2021


My friends Dillon and Liz are getting married!!! It’s been on the books for a while now, so it’s kind of strange to think that it’s finally happening… but this is the weekend! This is the day!

The bachelor party was a hit, the suit was tailored, and anything that I needed had already been bought. The photobook was made, and I’d checked in with Dillon and Liz to make sure there wasn’t anything else left that I could help with. My speech was mostly written, and I was as ready as I’d ever be.

All that was left was to show up, and help out in any way that I could!




Saturday, 07-Nov-2021

Now we get to what everyone’s come to expect from me – ridiculously over-packed photo galleries!

The day after the wedding was a cooldown day for everyone. I started off with a nice long bath, packed up my room, and even did some artsy photography with the cool square mirror light in the bathroom.

It was a good framework for the day – We started off with an amazing brunch in the penthouse floor of the hotel, overlooking Providence before Brian, Clara and I broke off to check out an Art Museum! RISD, probably the highest ranked art school in the country, was maybe half a mile from the hotel… and they have a museum full of student and famous arts!



First though, let me say a word about brunch.

You know how I’ve mentioned that Dillon and Liz are great planners, and that the wedding went off beautifully?

Well, they’re also amazing cooks. Liz, especially, is a peerless baker. The dinners we’d had were second to none, and I had every expectation that the post-wedding brunch would be the same. Unsurprisingly, I was absolutely correct. It was glorious… from the main meal to the custom donuts, I could barely walk afterward.


Thankfully Clara and Brian helped me stumble out of the penthouse and down to the elevator… then around the city (stopped at Rhode Island comic-con to check out the cosplays, obviously), before settling into checking out every room we could get into at the RISD museum!

I’m not going to try and comment on the art – It was amazing, and getting to see such talent students next to famous pieces (like a picasso, even!) was super cool, absolutely something I enjoyed. We explored, enjoyed, and slowly made our way through the museum.

After our exploration completed, we did another quick spin through the city before heading back to the Hotel – grabbing some coffee on the way, of course!


It was an excellent way to cool down – I’ve found that big social events can be kind of dangerous after they’re over… the event itself is amazing, but then the sudden shift from “full power socialization mode” to “hey, I’m basically all alone” is a pretty rough transition to navigate. What I’ve been trying to do more recently is to come down slowly – sort of like how Brian, Clara, and myself hung out after the wedding reception.

A day of watching art was perfect, but the ideal cap to it was after we finished up at RISD, had picked up our coffee, and were back at the hotel hanging out with Liz, Dillon, and his family. I can’t remember quite how long we all spent hanging out, chatting, and relaxing in their hotel room.

I was worried that we were intruding, at first, but after a bit of time I think we all realized that we were in the same boat – the weekend had been an even bigger event for them (obviously), and the crash afterward… well, having good friends around was excellent for all of us.

We talked, we noshed on leftover snacks and desserts, and watched the sun slowly set from the high windows of the hotel. As it went down, we were even treated to a nice light show from Providence itself – not building lights, but bonfires!

See, one of the interesting things that Providence does is called “WaterFire”, where they set braziers alight throughout the river that runs through the city, with music playing in the background. This weekend was the last weekend of the winter that they were lighting the bonfires, so the crowds were nicely thinned out. We watched the initial lighting from the room, then took the excuse to get some air and went down to the water to see it up close.

It was, as one would expect, beautiful. The crisp air made a comeback, and the sound of the fire combined beautifully with the crackling of the fire.

We spent a while saying our goodbyes on the walkway around the river. It was getting late, and had gotten dark quite a bit ago… but none of us particularly wanted to end the evening. We’d planned on leaving town right before sundown, so that we could do the drive back to Boston before it got too late, but that plan was happily thrown out the window. I ended up dropping Brian and Clara off at the house in Boston (and eating some quick pizza, since we’d never actually gotten around to having dinner…) quite a bit late… But you know what?

100% worth it, for an amazing end to an amazing few days!