A Graduation, A Wedding, and a Rafting Trip can all be summed up by "SHAKE NNNN BAKE"!!!!

Ok, so let’s start with graduation, since that was first on my agenda for my busy weekend. My friend Michelle graduated from the Uniformed Services Medical School (same school as Best Friend Ever). She is now officially a Navy Doctor. I’m so proud of her. During her time at medical school, her and her husband, decided to have a baby. She was pregnant during her 3rd year, when you go on rotations. I cannot imagine going through rotations and being pregnant, let alone finding time to study. She is truly an amazing woman.

It takes so much hard work and dedication, and never once did Michelle falter. Soon she will be moving to North Carolina where she will be stationed at Camp Lejune working in Pediatrics, and perhaps a stint as a flight surgeon. I know that she will be a fabulous doctor; she has such a warm heart.

Our other friend, Katherine, also received her Doctorate. After seeing all these people with Dr’s in front of their names, kinda makes me want to have Dr in front of mine. Who am I kidding? I can barely talk myself into going back to school for a Masters, there is no way in hell that I would get a PH.D on top of that. Sidenote – BFE already has her PHD in neuroscience and in two years will have her MD. Can we say overachiever much?

After we saw Michelle walk across the stage, BFE and I had to leave to go to Sylvia’s wedding ceremony. Sylvia and her husband, Navin, are both Army Dr’s (see a trend going on here) and decided to have a military wedding. The bride looked absolutely stunning in her wedding finery and Navin looked so handsome in his uniform.

BFE and I sat right behind the family pew, and Sylvia’s nieces and nephews were hilarious. I was paying more attention to the kids than I was to the ceremony. They provided endless entertainment. The parents were constantly feeding the kids sugar to bribe them to behave. I seriously had to bite my lips several times to keep from laughing out loud. At one point, two of the kids got in a fight over a lollipop. Too funny.

During the reciting of their vows, the priest turned off the mic so that the guests couldn’t hear. I thought that was a bit odd. I wonder what they were saying. Maybe their vows were inappropriate like, “Sylvia, do you promise not to smack Navin when he doesn’t do the dishes?” or “Navin, do you promise to always be there for Sylvia, even when she balloons like a whale during pregnancy?” Besides that one part, the ceremony was beautiful and the couple looked so happy.

After the ceremony, there was a two hour break until the reception. That gave me enough time to go home, grab my bag, and pick up my car for my trip to West Virginia.

The reception was fantabulous!!! One of the best weddings I have been to in a long time. BFE and I got sat at the fun singles table where we soon became the drunk obnoxious table. I had to get my drink on early since I knew I would eventually have to drive, so I took full advantage of the open bar during cocktail hour. Our table was awesome. The conversation flowed easily, jokes and gently ribbing were being told, and everyone was having a grand old time.

The music was great. BFE and I were one of the first people on the dance floor. We were those girls. Soon after, everyone followed, and it was like we were in da club (I’m so gangsta). The dance floor was packed, which is exactly how I want my wedding to be. I want everyone dancing and having a good time. And clearly at Sylvia’s wedding, we all were. I finally take a break from the dancing, look at my phone and realize that its 10:30pm!!! I have missed calls from Kiah, and text messages from Stephen. All of them are asking where am I and when will I be in West Virginia. Crap!!! I need to get out of here before it gets any later. And I really don’t want to leave the fun party.

I felt bad for leaving so abruptly. I didn’t really say goodbye to anyone cause I knew it would take another hour to do that. There was this guy at my table, who was definitely interested in me and I could tell that he was about to ask for my number, but I just left. I believe Sylvia has now given it to him. We shall see if he calls me. He was very nice and is an Army Dr, and Asian. I have never dated a nice guy or an Asian. Like I said, we’ll see if he calls. It can’t hurt to go on a few dates.

Ok, so my car has a navigation system, which I love BTW. My problem is, sometimes I don’t listen to it when it tells me to do something. I’ll be driving along, and she’ll give me a direction, and I’ll look at it and say, “Were you talking to me?” and miss my turn. Sadly, I’ve done this numerous times. And when you’re driving in DC, it can be even more confusing, cause she will say, “Make the next right turn” but there will be three right turns and I’m never sure which one she means. Needless to say it took me forever and a day before I found the fucking GW Parkway. After awhile I stopped listening to her and just kept driving towards the river cause I figured eventually one of these roads had to take me there.

The drive to West Virginia wasn’t that bad. After I finally made my way out of DC, I actually listened to the Navi system and got there in record time. It helped that I was speeding the entire way and there were not other cars out on the road. I made it at a reasonable hour of 2am. By that point, everyone else was pretty drunk and I missed the fun times. Oh well.

On Sunday, I went white water rafting. My friend Kiah planned the trip for us. It was me, her, Stephen, Lamont, Brian, Chelsea and Jodi. We were a bit out of control. Brian nicknamed our raft “The Miller Light Express.” (I hate Miller Light, more of a Bud Light girl – if I’m drinking cheap beer) You could tell that our guide, Old Buddy Brent was like, WTF did I get myself into.

This was my first time rafting and I had an amazing experience. I must admit I was a bit nervous going down class V rapids (the highest class there is), but it wasn’t that bad at all. We went down the Cheat River Canyon, which was breathtakingly beautiful. We went down a 12 mile stretch where we encountered a bunch of class III-V rapids. From the get-go, we were that group of loud obnoxious people. Kinda like my table at the wedding. Immediately we started screaming, “Shake NNNNN Bake” (if you haven’t seen Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, you must watch). I bet the other groups hated us.

Surprisingly, I only fell in once. It was at the rapid called “The Fist” cause it pounds you. It happened so fast. One minute I was in the raft, the next I felt myself falling into the water. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Apparently the whole side of my raft fell, including our guide, Old Buddy, who was on the other side. Somehow Kiah managed to stay in.

I remembered getting sucked under, and I was holding onto the paddle, cause this place is cheap and won’t let you get back on the bus unless you have your freaking paddle. I looked up, and saw the white foam above me, meaning I was directly under a rapid. I let go of the paddle, since it only seemed to be pulling me down, and let the current take me downstream. After being under for about 15 seconds, I pop back up in front of our raft. I swim towards it and Brian helps me back in. It wasn’t that scary. I’ve been in far worst situations in the ocean where I got slammed to the ocean floor and couldn’t resurface because waves after waves kept coming in. Now that was scary.

So I survived my first class V rapid and from there it was smooth sailing. At least for me. Poor Lamont fell in 3 different times. After The Fist, we were known as the Swim Team, which we accepted with pride. I swear, I think we were the only group that was having a good time. Everyone else seemed so stoic, and here we were cheering after we completed each rapid or cheering as we went through a rapid. Our guide Buddy was loving us. He even started screaming, “Shake NNNN Bake”, sometimes even starting it up.

White water rafting was so much fun and I can’t wait till I do it again. It was such a rush and it felt fantastic whenever we had a clean run through a rapid. We worked well as a team, and we didn’t completely capsize our raft like another group. Man, they looked scarred after it happened. Our guide, Buddy, was amazing, and made the experience so enjoyable. He would always tell us what to expect from each rapid, so we went in with no surprises.

In closing, even though this weekend was crazy busy, I had a blasty blast. Graduation was fun, and can’t wait for two years from now, when it will be BFE's turn to walk across that stage. The wedding was so much fun and I’m not sure if Gwen’s wedding this weekend can top it. White water rafting was phenomenal! I’m so glad that I did it.

If you want to read Kiah’s perspective of the events, then click.