Packin' it in.

I know what you're thinking.

"Emily, you live in Central Mass. Isn't that where all the action is?"

You'd be surprised. There isn't much going on here. Well, unless you count two large cheese pizzas for $16.99 excitement -- and some Friday nights, believe me I do. 

In a welcome change, my social schedule was quite packed this weekend. Take a stroll through the last 24 hours with me...

Friday night: 8 p.m. Jeff and I drove down to little Rhodey to catch my favorite local band, Monty Are I. MAI is a fabulous little outfit, keyboarded/mixed/background vocaled by my best pal, Andrew. And here's a fun fact! Did you know my blog title name "But until then" was inspired by the boys? Well, it was. Save that for your trivia nights!

We met Justin outside a rainy Club Hell. (Yes, Club Hell. No comment.) Moment I know I'm getting old #264: I hate clubs. I do. I hate walking into a place and having to yell to talk to people. I love seeing MAI, but I hate the opening acts because it's just more noise stifling my convos (no offense to the specific bands that night). Also, don't enjoy awkward conversations with people I haven't seen in years. Look, you don't really want to talk to me. So let's just pretend we don't see each other and call it a night. 

But, these are the things I do because I love my friends.

The band went on around 9:45... and look at these awesome pics I snapped!

Sweet huh?

How about this one?

Well, at least I got Steve in that one.

I guess being friends with a band member can get you a ticket and even get you a free drink, but it can't get you a decent view. Ah well. The music was great, and it was nice to bop around to songs I hadn't heard in a while. The new stuff sounded great, etc etc. Can't wait for the CD to finally come out, even though I have a nice sneak preview on my computer now.

We couldn't hang out for too long because we had to get up in the morning....

Saturday: 1 p.m. Our wedding tasting! Oh. My. Gosh. The food was really good. I had high expectations, but the food met them, if not exceeded them. Plus the service was excellent, really high class.

Here's a rundown of the appetizers we tried: Apple Chutney Cheesecake, Mini Beef Wellington, Crab Cakes, Shrimp Shots, Quail wrapped in bacon, buffalo chicken shots, rare duck fritters, mini lamb chops, Gorgonzola purses and goat cheese rounds.

The mini chops, buffalo chicken shots and the duck fritters.... (those will also be our linens)

So we have to pick five and the definites are the Wellington (the best of all), the crab cakes and the Gorgonzola. Then it's between the fritters, the shrimp and the chops. So hard to choose!

Moving onto the entrees. We are having two stations. One is a gourmet pizza station where we'll have Mexican Pizza (so good), Athenian Pizza (even better?) and Buffalo chicken pizza (that's right). But it's all very classy looking. Well, tell me what you think...

We were both pretty over the moon with the pizza, and I think it will be a big hit with people. Then we tasted our second station: Tuscan Grill.

That's shrimp skewers with a tomato caper sauce and asagio polenta on the left side. On the right side is marinated bistro steak with a mushroom sauce over wilted spinich with grilled vegetables. Yum, yum, yum!!! 

I love that we are giving people plenty of choices and that none of it is really typical "wedding food." I mean, I've never even had polenta before. I hope people like it!

Then the dessert. Oh the dessert. I know what you're thinking, didn't you give up dessert for Lent? Yes, I did. However, I did so with the caveat that I would get to try my darn wedding cakes! And they were so good. We're going with a buttercream frosted yellow cake with chocolate mousse. Oh, and the Coldstone Creamery bar! Which we didn't try but I know will be great! Overall, I am so so so happy with everything, which makes me even more excited for the wedding!

Saturday: 4 p.m. I had arranged a little coffee date for the late afternoon with my blogging buddy Jessica. I worked it out so Jeff could cover a story for the Globe and I could meet her for an hour or two at the same time!

I haven't seen this girl in years, and it's sort of surreal when you meet someone where all your interactions are purely Internet-induced. You hear your own voice when you read what they write, so when you hear their real voice it's like, "Huh. How bout that?"

Well, Jessica is just as cute/nice/sweet/quirky in person as she is on her blog. We chatted girl talk: Weddings, TV, Music and eating toilet paper. You know, the usual. Oh, and her ring is amazing, props to her "fianz." Hope to do it again soon!

Quite a weekend right? Just got off the Mario Kart course and am hitting the sack in a few. Lazy Sunday tomorrow....