Going AWAY...away...away...

Well, we had the last going away party on July 29th and boy was it fun. Vanessa sent out the invites and everyone came from all over the continent, including Mexico! Kate took pics of part of Friday night:

http://www.dotphoto.com/MemViewAlbum.asp?AID=2724349

Basically, about 8 of us met at Brian's and my place and we hired a van to take us into downtown Boston. We met up with others and eventually had about 25 people at Rock Bottom for dinner. In order to fit everyone, the table had to loop around like a "J." People came that I really didn't think would make it such as Nate and his wife, and Patty and her fiance.

Afterwards we hit a bar (where the pics were taken) then took cabs home. 7 people stayed at our place and slept everywhere from the attic to the basement and every where in between...even on the living room chair (Will - I told you to AT LEAST take the couch).
I slept in until 9am and came downstairs to learn a few managed to run off to Habitat for Humanity at 6:30am, two had already left for the airport, two people went running and two went for coffee. What ever happened to the good ol' hangover days?

Anyway, a group of us went downtown to meet back up with a certain male friend who met a new female friend the night before and was considerate enough to escort her back to her hotel and make sure she was safe all night long! Once we found him, Jason, Annette, Ashley, Kevin, Danielle and I ate outside at Au Bon Pain and let me tell you...I'll never forget that moment: perfect weather, perfect friends, good people watching, and a homeless guy that kept repeating the same phrase, "I've run out of excuses so can you just spare some change for booze?"

Finally we left there and broke into two groups: one to help Kevin get fitted for a tux and another to bring a house key to Brian back at the house. I won't get into details, but plans changed several times and included Kevin getting into trouble from Danielle (bad K!), watermelon icees, Jason babysitting a bag that no one noticed was "missing" until hours later, Annette and Ashley getting lost, and laying on grass in the middle of Boston Common for a very long time. Ya, it was fun.

Anyway, great job to the Habitat group. This was the first group philanthropic event completed by Celerant and congratulations to Megan for arranging it! Saturday evening on the porch was in honor of this group. Note: not surprisingly, the Director of HR was a no call/no show.

So we woke up on Sunday and had a group breakfast of 7 at the dining room table hosted by Jason and Kevin. Everything tasted so good (even the pancakes)! And afterward everyone even took their linens to the laundry room so cleaning that afternoon was easy!

Thank you, everyone, for a great weekend. Can't tell you how much I appreciate it.