Toledo Redux

Toledo is a pretty town, but it seemed a shell of its former self, literally: half to two-thirds of the storefronts downtown had "For Lease" signs in the windows, and entire blocks were barren.

The wedding was beautiful, held in an arboretum/botanic garden-type place out in the middle of nowhere (this particular nowhere being about 45 minutes from Toledo). The reception was in a tent on the grounds, where we mingled and danced and ate and drank until late in the evening. Mike and Em and I headed back to the hotel a little early to try to catch some of the Cubs game on TV; we were able to get WGN in the van most of the way back, so we heard the score go from 7-0 to 7-2 to 8-3 before catching the last two innings in their room.

So, two more people "from" Toledo:

Ken and Mike and I appeared in the Red Eye this past March: Ken is laughing, I'm guffawing and Mike is looking over at someone with the face he gets when he tells a joke. The photo was taken at Coyle's Tippling House, which is now Orange Crush, just after I did some yoga positions on the bar floor for the amusement of the crowd. I gave Ken a copy of that paper as part of his wedding present this weekend.

Ken is a financial planner, but we don't hold it against him; instead, we call him (alternately) Mitch, Kitten, Fuzzy Dice and Monty Carlo. He hates all of them, but responds with the same big grin he goes through life with.

Emily is a French teacher, so I get to practice my now-very rusty Françe; on her. One of the first times we were out with her, we were at Nick's Uptown for a drink or two -- it was Emily, Lauren, Mike and Em, Cinnamon and me. I think there was a heavy metal song on the stereo, some '80s hair band. Mike was saying something about how great that music was, going on about G'n'R or the Scorps or something, when Emily stops him and lifts up her shirt to reveal a vintage Metallica shirt on underneath. The crowd goes wild!

Congratulations, Ken and Emily (or is it Emily and Ken?) on your marriage!

Posted by Andrew Huff at October 13, 2003 02:52 PM