a capital day? well, it didn’t start out that way. let me put it like this:  if caley (the lovely young lady peeking at you from the tomato plant) had been aware of the misadventures we would face on our way to meet her, she might have wondered if we would arrive at all. thankfully, we did arrive — exactly an hour before shoot time, as always, in the nation’s capital. however, we had intended to arrive three hours before that.

that, however, was before the blowout. a flat tire in itself is not such a bad thing. (i like to think of it as a chance to demonstrate my manhood to eileen. note the cool, collected look on my manly face.) it was the resulting string of events that had me whimpering “why me?” into eileen’s shoulder. our spare would never get us to d.c.; so we asked our (stupid) gps to take us to the nearest garage. it took us to a garage all right — a two-car garage behind someone’s house 10 miles out in the middle of nowhere. needless to say, they weren’t open for business. next we found our way to nearby charlottesville, va, home of the university of virginia and the cavaliers. of course, we pulled into town on gameday.

somehow, the road i chose led us straight through campus where we crept along through throngs of football fans. finally, we found an open garage! i was so relieved, even if the ball game playing on t.v. did slow the mechanics. then we were off — home free, or so i thought. once we arrived in d.c., traffic was at a near stand-still. and that’s speaking conservatively. i mean conservatively. apparently, we had scheduled the shoot not only on the day of the national tea party protests (which meant between one- and two-million extra angry americans), but at the very hour of its climax and at the very location where its principle speeches were being made in front of the botanic gardens.

so, a “capital” day? actually… yes! i guess a day is exactly what you make of it. eileen and i really had a blast on our little road trip, laughing most of the time at the absurdity of it all. the protests were certainly an exciting way to live a little history. we even got some photos of caley in her gown with a hilarious protest sign. i was gonna show ’em here, but i’ll refrain out of respect for the more sensitive of our left-leaning friends. (although if you follow me on twitter, you might just get a sneak peek soon.) and of course, we had an awesome time with caley, who’s been working in d.c. for a few years now and will be moving to virginia indefinitely with her now husband andy. but she’ll always be a georgia girl — and a great friend. (be sure to check back here soon for andy’s and her wedding photos!)

caley, you were a beautiful bride! you certainly rocked the frock. have a great honeymoon, and don’t be stranger to your friends back here in athens.