There's no place like home

Hello,
I'm in New York City. I can hear the collective, "What?!" now, so I'll
explain. My friend Jessa, who I played rugby with in New York, got married
on Saturday. A few months ago when I told Jessa that I would be biking
across the US this summer she said, "That's great, but I'm getting married
on June 30th, and if you miss my wedding I'll kick your ass." And,
well...she could. So, Melissa and I caught a bus down from Fulton to
Syracuse (we left our bikes at a bike shop in Fulton). We rented a car -
strike that. We tried to rent a car at the Syracuse airport, but for some
reason all of the rental agencies were sold out except Enterprise and all
they had left was a soft top SUV. Even though we paid much more money than
originally anticipated, we definitely had fun cruising down 84, with the top
down, singing all the wrong words at the top of our lungs to various songs
from the 1980's.

On Wednesday and Thursday Melissa and I were planning out what kind of food
we would have when we got back home (we spend a lot of time alone on our
bikes, and sorting through favorite foods is a pretty good way to pass the
time). It was a close contest, but in the end my number one choice was
honey walnut and avocado rolls and sushi, so on Friday afternoon I met my
friend Amy downtown at Hunan Pan to indulge myself. I also got to see
pictures from Amy and my roommate Betty's trip to China which Betty extended
to other Southeast Asian countries and should be returning home any day now.
I was going to meet up with my friend Sarah for dinner, but around 6:30 she
was still at work (this was a bit of a shock since she has half day fridays
during the summer and everyone else was gone at her office... it's amazing
how much I don't miss working.) However the nice part was that advertising
agencies usually keep beer in the fridge, so we had a couple drinks while
catching up in her office instead of a crowded bar. Oh, and they had tubs
of chinese food left over from a meeting - so dinner was on McCann. My
travelling "free food/ground score" mentality is a little frightening.
Later, I met up with my friend Matt and helped him move - ok, i really
didn't help him move but I was there while he was moving and would like to
think that it counts for something.

Saturday morning a bunch of us caught the LIRR out to Long Island for the
wedding. Now some of you might be asking (I know b/c some of you have asked
me) how did you carry your dress and shoes with you on your bike. It was on
a hanger that was attached to my rear rack - flowing behind me in the wind
like streamers on handlebars. No, I gave it to my friend Jane to hold
before I left the city. I was very worried that I wouldn't fit into the
dress, because contrary to popular belief, I haven't lost weight on this
trip. I don't think people realize how much and how often we eat. It's
tough to lose weight when you're eating 10,000 calories a day and half of
them are from ice cream. But, I actually did fit in the dress. And to aid
you even further in your visual of me, I cut my hair to my shoulders before
the start of the bike trip. My favorite quote about my hair came on friday
when a friend said, "wow, you chopped your hair. It looks nice, I like
it...you know I'm lying, right?" So when you combine that with my snazzy
biker tan (white hands with one tan spot where the hole in my glove is -
nicknamed the liver spot - as well as blaring white shoulders and thighs
from my short sleeved jersey and shorts) plus the 15 or so black fly bites
on my neck and face...yeah, i looked hot.

The ceremony was fabulously short, Jessa looked absoutely beautiful and then
we all went over to the reception and had a great time. You know it's a
rugby wedding (her husband also plays for the New York men's team) when you
walk in and pick up your Leigh Nagy seating assignment card, flip it over
and it reads - "Bar". All of the rugby friends were seated at the huge bar.
I guess they figured that there was no need to pay for a table when they'd
all be there anyway. Also, for the bouquet and garter toss there were two
lines for a lineout with full lifting. This is hard to explain for people
who have never seen it, but try to picture two women in dresses and heels
lifting another woman in a dress and heels by the hips and holding her up
there until the bouquet is caught. Now multiply this a few times and you
can envision the scene.

Yesterday I got to do my favorite new york thing which is walk around and go
to movies. So right now I'm just really happy that I got to come back and
eat good food, catch up with good people and just soak up the energy that
emanates from New York.

I am now going to go meet Melissa down by the Holland Tunnel (she went down
to Philly and Rehobeth for the weekend) and we'll then drive back up to
Syracuse.

A big thank you to Jane Kim and her roommates for allowing me to take over
their apartment for the weekend. I've never seen anyone with so much
entertainment stuff - big screen tv, TIVO, dvd player, PS2, DSL lines to the
computers, etc. Too bad I couldn't use it. I turned the TV on once, there
was all snow, I looked at the 4 remote controls in front of me, panicked and
walked over and quickly turned the tv off before I ruined any settings.

cheers,
leigh