Pete Nickeas

What better way to dust off this blog than to announce that Erin and I were married this weekend.

It was a beautiful ceremony at the Birdhaven Greenhouse in Joliet. It rained a good chunk of the morning, and on the ride between the wedding and the reception … but the sun was out during the ceremony.

Erin was wearing a stunning ivory dress with muted designs across the midsection. The classy and elegant dress was a reflection on her physical beauty as much as her character.

All the men were wearing gun metal gray tuxedos with white shirts. The groomsmen were wearing green vests, the ushers and our fathers were wearing black, and I was wearing ivory.

The wedding party walked into “Here Comes the Sun,” by the Beatles. Erin was walked up the aisle by her father to the theme song from Forest Gump. When our 10 minute ceremony was complete, we walked back down the aisle to Sweet Home Chicago.

We took a limo from the wedding to my grandfathers house. He fell ill a few weeks ago and is recovering but unable to attend - so the whole wedding party crammed into his apartment for photos.

We departed his house for the reception at a VFW hall in Villa Park. The wedding party walked in to Eric Clapton’s “Layla” and Erin and I walked in to Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”

Before dinner, we toasted to my younger brother Mike — serving in southern Afghanistan in the 1st Marine Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps. He is halfway through his second foreign deployment and was unable to attend the ceremony.

Erin and I scarfed food and started stopping by tables and talking with people. I only had a brief opportunity to drink in the limo on the way up — my guys were carrying flasks full of Jameson and I had a couple sips but had to keep composed while we made the rounds later that evening.

After touching base with 130 people at 16 tables (and sneaking a shot from the bar), we danced.

Our first dance was to Nina Simone’s moving “Feeling Good.” Erin danced with her father to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

After that, all our Public Affairs Reporting friends and the Mack family on Erin’s side tore up the dance floor something serious. I’ve never seen so many people dancing so enthusiastically in my life. Many people danced. But the PAR people and their dates were something else.

At that point, Erin and I fell into a routine for about 3 hours — dance, run to the bar, get held by whoever was there for shots (”He’s the groom, get him a shot of Jameson” or “Come here Erin, you look beautiful, let’s do a shot”), down the hatch, back to the dance floor.

I don’t know that I can adequately describe the immense feelings of happiness both Erin and I felt that evening. We are blessed to have so many people we consider friends.

Photos in the days to come.

I’ve covered parts of the North Platte River for work - a free bridge, long-range planning, and free money.

Today was actually the first time Erin & I really tried to take in the scenery. We ran from point A to point B on this map but along the river instead of along the road. About two miles, and we kept a 10 minute / mile pace despite the last quarter mile (by my estimation) being uphill, which is good.

Getting up that hill was great, because the view above the river just keeps getting better and better. We walked the two miles back and detoured to a hill to the north of the river (we were running a path halfway between the hilltop and the shore) and got a great view of Casper. I wish I had a camera, because it was really something else.

We’re going to hike this weekend and there will definitely be pictures. When we went up the mountain yesterday, there wasn’t a ton of good views but we didn’t venture around the trails much. More just scoping the place out.

In other news …

This giant zucchini will be turned into two types of cookies and three types of bread over the next day or two, and half of it is going to Jake, since he hooked it up with lots of vegetables.

We cooked a lot this weekend too, and I was surprised how well grilling went Saturday night. Grilled chicken, barbecue chicken, burgers, plus Erin made crab Rangoon type pastries and there was beverages to be had.

So, we’ve got leftovers for most of the week and Erin’s making bread.

And, I bent the shoe horn I have. Who knew those things could bend?

I didn’t do laundry. I didn’t clean too much, but I did a little. I did catch up on sleep, I worked for an hour and a half, and I helped Erin a little with dinner. Plus, a full blog post. We also went grocery/utensil shopping (combined 65 bucks - cooling racks, pizza pan, zester, pour bottles for oils and such, plus food!), and I cooked green chile. Not too shabby! I’m hoping for some Xbox time tonight, too, then perhaps some reading before bed.

Runner Blog Day 5:
I didn’t run with Erin and but I did run farther than the day before, so that’s good. I’ve got to learn to pace myself. I was wiped after a mile.

I figure, I’ve got to get used to running alone because Erin’s not with me on this whole “run for 30 days thing and see where it goes,” which I’m cool with. I’m trying to get to the point where I can be mindless when I run until I feel burnt out and at that point, just try to zone out pain and keep running.

But, Day 6, I had a breakthrough!

Runner Blog Day 6:
We ran a different route today - I say “we” because Erin came with after skipping a couple days because she hasn’t been feeling particularly well.

This is the route we ran today.

And, at the pace we were going, I think I could’ve probably ran for an hour. This route isn’t nearly as hilly as our other route but the hills are long and gradual - there’s more of a “burn” running the other route because it’s more stress on the muscles but this longer route was a bit easier to go the distance. Maybe we’ll alternate routes day by day. I dunno.

Either way, it was nice. Plus, it wasn’t too hot out. Good running weather.

Last weekend, we got rowdy. And that’s the only way to say it.

First off … apparently, to Marines, the 4th of July is not only an extremely important holiday, but also an excuse to get ridiculously drunk.

I’m not a Marine, but my brothers are. And they both came back to Addison for the weekend. Erin and I made the trip from Wyoming, Mike came from South Carolina, and Jack from Maryland. Grandfather came, uncle too, and other family friends. Tony too.

Plus, D came from Milwaukee. Erin’s parents made the trip up from the south suburbs, and my boy Donald from the south side.

Everyone important in my life was there, except a few PAR folks who couldn’t make the trip up, and a couple family members who stay distant.

It was great. It was amazing. It was probably one of the best nights of my life. I mean, it was what a celebration of life should be. Everyone was smiling.

My father cooked like 10 pounds of Italian sausage with green peppers, 10 pounds of ribs, five pounds of burgers, there was all kinds of chips and snacks and other delicious food. I think there may have been hot dogs.

We started early … before 4. And we went til about 2 before everyone knocked out.

We got left for El Burrito and one of Jack’s buddies was laying on the sidewalk in front of the house, hurling, but he couldn’t stand. He wanted a burrito though so we picked him up one. But when we got back, him and another one of Jack’s buddies were passed out on the floor.

El Burrito was delicious, as it always is. I don’t think I’ve been there during daylight in years.

We had to bounce the next day, and it sucked. Not only did we have to drive back to Denver, then to Casper … we knew that was coming. Lucky for me, the hang over wasn’t so bad so driving to western Nebraska, where we stayed for the night, wasn’t so bad.

But I have no idea when that’s going to happen again.

We’ve all graduated … Mike and Jack from bootcamp, me from school. There’s a good chance they’ll be deployed next year when Erin and I get married.

And that, it’s saddening. For real, it’s something that weighs on me. The positive side of all this is, I was fortunate enough to realize how much my family means to me in time to have big ass parties with them. And now that everyone’s gone - my father is basically alone in Addison - the prospects of us convening again don’t look good … at least for a few years.

It’s not for nothing though. Jack’s career in the Marines is something that’s going to help him when he gets out. Mike is like … a Marine’s Marine, I guess. He lives for his job. It’s who he is. And I love my job. We’re doing well for ourselves. The price of that is, though, being distant.

I like to think that at some point, we’ll be back in the general vicinity of each other. Who knows though.

Oh well. Last weekend was great, was the point I was getting at.

Breakfast time! The strawberry flavored frosted mini wheats are too sweet for me. So I water it down by adding frosted mini wheats of the normal variety. That’s called thinking outside the box (get it? get it? I crack myself up).

Anyway, all things considered, the last day or so was pretty decent.

Jon Lester struck out ten hated Yankees yesterday, and I have him on TWO of my fantasy baseball teams.

I woke up this morning to an email from a potential employer, and it wasn’t a rejection letter.

We set a wedding date yesterday. It was the first real binding decision we made in the wedding process so that’s good. It wasn’t the date we wanted, but if we were to be married May 15 at the target location then we wouldn’t have been able to get married outside with flowers and such. Pushing the date back to June 5 makes it so that we can have an outdoor wedding.

Also, I think we figured out that we’re just going to stick it out in Springfield until either Erin or I finds a job. And whichever one of us gets the better opportunity, that’s where we’re gonna go. Worst comes to worst (my peoples come first), I can go beg for my job back at the golf course. I liked working there and they seemed to be alright with me so if journalism doesn’t work out for a few months, I’m going to lose some weight, get a tan, and make some money. Man, if I could do those as a reporter?! How amazing would that be.

Ehem … that was delicious.

Poor man’s eggs Benedict is what it was. Along with some of my other favorite things - coffee, jazz (on the television set), and the Sunday paper.

The recipe is very simple: toast an English muffin, add bacon to it, put a fried egg over the top and smother it in your favorite mustard sauce. As the bacon can be a bit chewy, you’ll want to either a. accept that by eating it with your hands, you’ll get messy or b. use a fork and knife to cut it and mix it all up.

Next weekend I’ll be trying this with a side of hashbrowns.

Last night, I cooked a poor-man’s version of eggs Benedict. Instead of Canadian bacon, regular old bacon, on top of an English muffin. Seasoned with some seasoning. Then, fried eggs on top of that. Then! A mustard sauce. Plus, asparagus on the side.

Oh man, good shit. For real. Served with tea (too late in the night for coffee? I dunno).

Should’ve taken pictures.