What...is....this....

The title of this blog is in honor of my slow-reacting, frozen, robotic reaction to the SURPRISE SHOWER yesterday!!!

I had always wondered if I were walking down a dark alley and got attacked, what would I do? Research shows that there are two kinds of people: people that are highly-reactive and people that would, well, just get mugged/injured/fatally harmed. I'm apparently in the second group. I always thought that a surprise party for me (in whatever parallel universe this would happen in), would result in me jumping, screaming, crawling up the walls in shock. Nope...just....mouth agape, blind confusion.

My Mother (or M.O.B. as we will now refer to her) and Bridesmaid Mrs. Smith had set this up for months, telling me that we would have a shower in May in Philadelphia. I had even told my Future M.I.L. (mother-in-law, if you're playing along at home) that May was the month of my Philadelphia shower. The M.O.B. had asked me for dates in May that would work, even appearing stressed out when I talked about some of my plans that month. This February trip was supposed to be for wedding dress shopping and a belated 30th-anniversary celebration for my parents.

I know most of the people that read this blog have been following along this weekend, so we should be all caught up through Saturday. Sunday morning, M.O.H. Nicole and I went to Church with my parents (at 8 a.m.), then went to breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Zaccarelli (more on them in a second), then went to Broomall Rehabilitation and Nursing Center to assist my Dad in administering Eucharist to the elderly. Finally, after my parents routine Sunday stop at Starbucks, we arrived home to freshen up and head over to The Newtown Grill.

Once I walked into the Newtown Grill with my parents and M.O.H. Nicole, I followed the hostess to the doorway of a room at which point she said, "Just head through here". Obediently, I did and was welcomed by about 20 people taking pictures. Cue my robotic reaction. I started to tear up, but because I'm a tough girl and don't cry, there were no tears. My brain started working again as my heart rate subsided and I managed to walk around the room and give hugs and kisses.


The theme of the shower was evident. PHILADELPHIAAAAAA!!!!! The favors and cake integrated the Love sculpture in Love Park (pictured above). Genius.

The setting for this shower was perfectly in tune with the overall feel of our wedding. There were two fireplaces giving the place beautiful lighting and warmth and candle centerpieces: Green pillar candles were lit in glass holders with champagne ribbon tied towards the top of the candleholder.

The food? If you're reading this, you may have been at the shower, but let's relive it: Appetizers included bruschetta, caprese, italian sausage in a marinara sauce, pieces of breaded chicken also with marinara, and a beautiful cheese pizza. Once everyone was seated, the sit-down meal included a salad with house dressing. Then the choices of appetizers were Chicken Parmigiana, Chicken Marsala, and Baked Tilapia (I went with the Chicken Marsala because I never make it!).

The cake? Although it pained me to see this cake get cut, it was the BEST cake I have EVER had in my ENTIRE life. The description: Chocolate chip pound cake with chocolate buttercream swirl topped with cream cheese frosting. Can we have this as our wedding cake? My gosh. I don't remember the bakery Mrs. Smith said this was ordered from, but if I knew, I would give them a big plug right here!

With all that being said, I'd like to give a few awards with respect to the Shower - hey, it's Oscar week, people!


Award for Almost Giving the Whole Bridal Shower Secret Away - My brother, Aaron, called my parents 63 times (not an exact count) from 9am until we arrived just after 1pm. I know my brother loves my parents but 63 times was excessive.
Honorable Mention: Theresa Nguyen, who wrote me a Facebook message probably giving the secret away, then texted me to ask me to delete her Facebook message with out reading it....shady, Theresa!!!!



Biggest Surprise Guest - Carey Brown, who just recently finished her first run in a Broadway play (Ragtime) and is destined for a life of fame and stardom. She travelled from New York to come to the shower.


Best Actress(es) - Everyone who spoke to me over the weekend without giving a THING away. This includes: Mrs. Thompson (who we ran into at Church), Mrs. Zaccarelli (who sat through a whole breakfast with us, asked questions about my parents anniversary lunch...maybe she should talk to Carey about getting an agent), M.O.H. Nicole who didn't mention a THING despite hanging out with me non-stop since Wednesday, my Aunt Claire who gave me a very convincing see-you-next-time-you-come-home-goodbye after two days of dress shopping, Bridesmaids Mrs. Smith and Melissa who both saw me the day before, sat through lunch with me, and said nothing! and of course, my Mom who kept this whole thing under wraps for months.


Best Secret-Keeper - Bryan. Seriously? He knew about this and didn't say anything??? He didn't say ANYTHING!!! I'm shocked and impressed at his secret-keeping abilities!! He even knew his Mom and Aunt were coming in for it, which leads us to...


Award for Best Effort - I mentioned to many people yesterday that I am royally bummed that my future M.I.L. and Aunt Deb didn't make it in for the shower. They had plans to come tour Philadelphia all weekend, but got snowed in up in Rochester, New York. If you both were reading, I appreciate your willingness to come and I really missed you!


Best Dressed - The same people get this award from me continually at every event the three of us are collectively at (although most of the time I'm not quite blogging about it), but they always wear awesome clothes (and shoes) and those people are Mrs. Burke and Aunt Chrissy.


Award for taking the most pictures - This is a tie between the Zaccarelli ladies (and the Zaccarelli-McMullin lady) and my cousin Cathleen. I think Cathleen could actually make one of those flip-books of the shower and you would get the feeling you were watching it!


Best Gift (Materially) - All of them!!! I was not kidding when I told you I could actually recite what people got me. All of the gifts we received are SO appreciated and will be cherished and loved!!! While we're talking about it, I would like to correct myself on a former mistake. On one of the first blogs where I talked about registry gifts, I got really excited one of my...I mean, our, platters (from my...I mean, our...Fine China, Lenox, Federal Platinum - in case you weren't taking notes yesterday) had been purchased. I mistakenly wrote that it was the 13'' that had gotten purchased, but it was not, it was the 16''. This was from my Aunt Claire and I LOVE it!!! (The 13'' has also since been purchased and given to us from my awesome boss, Mr. Kang). The people I know rock, don't they? And I'm not kidding about this China, I thought I was gonna need a moment alone when I opened my first place setting of the day (we ended up with 6!!!)


Best Card - Alot of people gave me really beautiful cards (yes, I read ALL of them). I especially received alot of really nice hand-written messages from people including Sonia (the most recently inducted S. Hoey) and Mary Karom (my supervisor at GSU and close friend) who both sent cards up to Mrs. Smith so I could have them at the shower.


Best Gift (Non-materially) - The shower itself and getting to spend time with everyone there.


Hall-of-Fame honorees for Best Bridal Shower Planners - No surprises here. These honoress include my Mom (the M.O.B.), Bridesmaid Mrs. Smith, and Bridesmaid Melissa Vetter. They threw an awesome, beautiful shower and managed to keep the whole thing a secret (and get everyone else to, as well!). I could never repay them for all their hard work, but it was much appreciate. I had a great time and I hope everyone else did as well!


There is so much left to tell - I could write a book!!! But if I wrote it all now, you wouldn't check back, would you?? The next blog, I will tell you about this crazy, insane game that we played where I had to answer questions about Bryan. A thing about Bryan. He cheats at games. Connect Four, Monopoly, Phase Ten, Cribbage...you name it (He claims he doesn't, but there's no way I can lose as much as I do...right? RIGHT?!?!). I will fill you all in on how he manipulated this game WITHOUT EVEN BEING AT THE SHOWER. I know you wanna know what happened when I got home so check back in tomorrow!!!