Mr and Mrs Tim McBride-- Vicki got hitched!!

My roommate from Basic Training and good good friend decided to go and get herself hitched and, despite being across an ocean from her, I wasn’t going to miss it for the world! So, the morning after a wild night in London (see previous blog) I was on an airplane to Chicago to witness the union of Victoria Ross and Tim McBride.

Upon landing in Chicago after a long, but on the whole not so bad, flight, I made my way through the Chicago airport. My baggage came quickly, I got to go to through the military line at customs (LOVE IT) and made it to the rental car agency quite easily. I got my car and started driving to Orland Park for the wedding. I almost turned out of the parking lot onto the left side of the road but remembered what country I’m in and, thankfully, made it to Orland Park with no problems. Two observations about my drive to Orland Park:

1. LaGrange is one of the cutest little “Main Street USAs” I’ve seen in a long while. What makes a town English (or European) is the “High Street”, what makes a town Americana is “Main Street”. This one was adorable.

2. Here is a sample of the food places I saw on my way. Welcome to America: Wendy’s, Fatburger, Hooters, Panera, Chick-fil-A, 5 Guys, Dunkin Donuts, Red Robin, Olive Garden, Panda Express, and many more.

I finally arrived at the hotel, checked in, and relaxed until it was time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I was going to ride along in the caravan that was going from the hotel to the church but it turns out that Missy and Scarlett (two of the bridesmaids), who were driving Vicki’s car, were in a bit of a fender bender and therefore Vicki had no way to get to the church for the wedding ceremony rehearsal. I came to the rescue and drove Vicki, Collette (other bridesmaids), and Margaret (basically Vicki’s mom) to the church for the rehearsal. While there I also served as photographer and took tons of pictures on Vicki’s camera throughout the rehearsal. I must also include the fact that I MET BRIAN MCBRIDE!!!!! Here I will go into a bit of a side story about Vicki and Tim and my hopes for their relationship; you can skip ahead to the next paragraph if you don’t care.

So in late 2006 (I think, maybe early 2007) I received an email from Vicki with a picture of Brian McBride in a match with the US National team. The email simply asked “Do you know who this is?” Now, being the ridiculous US football fan that I am, I of course knew who he was and proceeded to tell her all about him- the teams he had played for, his strengths on the pitch, etc. Wondering why she was asking, I asked her why she cared and her response was “Well, you know that guy I just started dating? Tim?” “Yeah.” I replied. “Well,” she responded “his name is Tim McBride.” That was when I freaked out, learning that Tim was Brian’s younger brother. From that point on I have never rooted for a successful relationship more than I did for that one! I basically wanted them to get married solely so that I could meet Brian McBride at the wedding. Fast forward 3 years.

While we were waiting for Scarlett and Missy to arrive at the church, Vicki introduced me to Brian, telling him the story of when Vicki found out who Tim’s brother was and had no idea who he was. Brian thought it was pretty funny and we talked a little bit about Oxford and living in England and it was pretty amazing..... I played it cool though and carried on the conversation like a normal human being but it was pretty amazing to get to chat with one of the greatest footballers in US history. After the rehearsal we headed over to Traverso’s Pizza, a pizza joint where Tim worked in high school, and had some great pizza dinner, tried not to cry as Tim and Vicki gave their little speeches, and tried not to fall asleep on the 4 hours of sleep I was working on in the last 48 hours or so. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and the girls hung out a bit longer, chatting and gossiping and eating oreos. What a total girlie thing to do. Finally I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer so I went to bed, passing out completely the second my head hit the pillow.

Despite being absolutely exhausted, the jetlag did hit me and so I was up and wide awake at 6 the next morning. At least that gave me time to get in a workout (using my new TRX in my hotel room) and shower before heading out to eat some breakfast (PANERA) and get my wedding gift (yeah, kinda last minute but I didn’t want to have to deal with buying it in the states). I then watched the West Ham-Man City game (yeah, back in the states and I’m STILL watching football) and just relaxed in the hotel until lunchtime (5 Guys) before changing for the wedding.

I then headed over to the church for the actual wedding ceremony which was beautiful and moving. Vicki looked absolutely GORGEOUS in her dress and I loved the look on Tim’s face as he watched her walk down the aisle.

It was Catholic ceremony so there were times during which I was a bit lost, but on the whole I enjoyed the ceremony and was so happy I got to see it. After the ceremony I returned to the hotel and waited for the cocktail hour and reception (which were held in the hotel’s conference centre) and while waiting watched the end of the Army-Navy football game.



At the reception I sat with Katie Murrell (who I met while working as Group Commander my last semester at the Academy) and Kyle Rainwaters (who was in my 4 degree squadron) and enjoyed the dinner and dessert and dancing. Vicki then made it her mission (which no prompting by me whatsoever) to get me a photo with Brian which, of course, I didn’t object to.


I won the prize for having traveled the farthest for the wedding (coming from England sort of helped my case) and got a bottle of champagne for my efforts.
Despite being exhausted and having an early flight to get to, I of course stayed for the whole reception, before saying goodbye to Tim and Vicki and getting some sleep before driving back to the airport the next morning.

Woke up to a small blanket of snow and very icy roads and, considering I haven’t driven much in the last year and not at all in the snow since early 2009, I was pretty nervous about the drive to the airport. I left really early to make sure I got there in time and, thankfully, made it back without a hitch. Also thankfully, my flight was one of few that wasn’t cancelled out of Chicago and so I got in the air and on my way to California with no problems whatsoever. Its soooooo good to be home, especially considering the fact that it was 81F (27C) when I landed with a beautiful SoCal sun!

Varsity Rugby

The day before I went home for the holidays was spent in London, first at the Varsity Rugby match and then the Varsity Ball. Every year, most of the sport teams at Oxford and Cambridge play each other in what is arguably the biggest game of the year for both squads. Some events are larger than others (like rugby, rowing, and mens football) whereas most of the competitions take place on one day during Hilary term. The rugby match is one of the biggest Varsity Matches of the year (if not the biggest) and has seen countless internationals and professional rugby players take part. This year (and most years I’m aware of) the match was at Twickenham, the national rugby stadium. After watching some rugby internationals on tv this fall I realized that it would be good fun to attend the Varsity this year and so I was lucky enough to find a group of guys who were going that I could go along with. I didn’t really know what to expect (apart from a game and a ball and probably some alcohol) and wasn’t really made any more aware or knowledgeable by Jack’s explanation of “just you wait, lots, and I mean lots, of banter.” I’ve been here well over a year and I’m still not 100% sure on the definition of banter but I knew it would be fun and exciting and headache inducing all at the same time.

We (being a big group of guys I play football with at the gym and my football teammate Bonnie) met at the Oxford train station to take the train to Twickenham. We sat in First Class (there were no more seats so we figured, why not) and despite the train being stopped for about 30 minutes due to an “incident” up the line, we made it to Twickenham with plenty of time to spare before kickoff. After eating the traditional “Dirty Burger” outside the stadium and buying the traditional (there were lots of traditions it turns out) pint of Guinness once inside, we took our seats and waited for the game to start.

It was really cold but the sun was out which made the weather slightly more bearable. After upsetting Oxford last year, Cambridge was favoured to win again this year and so we weren’t too optimistic about the result. After the team introductions and the national anthem (I can’t help but sing My Country Tis of Thee whenever God Save the Queen is played) the game began. Oxford got off to a great start, pulling out to a 15-0 lead before Cambridge kicked a penalty just before the half to bring the score to 15-3 at the break. During halftime, the groundscrew went out to clean/touch up the pitch, and they were wearing Santa Claus and elf costumes. That was fun and festive.

Cambridge put up a good fight in the second half, giving Oxford some trouble and forcing some good defensive play but Oxford stayed strong and scored a late try to pull away for a final score of 21-10. The highlight for many in the crowd (though not for me, I assure you) was when a Cambridge student decided to invade the pitch wearing nothing but a Cambridge scarf. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. The psycho must have been freezing! The only amusing thing about it was the fact that nobody chased him or anything. Basically, he ran around on the pitch a bit, did a few funny poses, everyone just stared at him (security and players included) and once he realized how cold it was or how naked he was, he just ran over to the security guys to allow them to escort him off the pitch. Most interesting pitch invasion I’ve ever seen.

A couple random observations about the game:

-The stadium, which holds about 80,000 spectators, wasn’t anywhere near full but there were still 30,000 people there, a huge number for a Uni event in the UK. It was an interesting contrast, however, to the ridiculous number of people that attend college football in the states every week. This is the biggest game of the year across the entire country, and yet schools like Nebraska or Michigan or Texas turn out huge numbers of fans weekly. Different world...

-Rugby is an interesting game. What would inspire somebody to run at another person at full speed, crashing into them with full force, with no form of protection whatsoever? Now, I know there is skill involved in rugby; I know there is an immense amount of athleticism involved; however, I will fight you daily, and twice on Sunday, to convince you that football is a much more beautiful and entertaining game than rugby. And I know for a fact that Tommy, Jack, and Danny would all have my back on that front.

-The replacements (substitutes) warm up in the end-zones (or whatever they’re called in rugby), while the game is going on. That was interesting to see. Also interesting, the fact that when players go down injured, the game continues around them and the medical staff comes onto the field to treat them as the game is going on. Imagine how much less diving and injury-faking would happen in football if they did that!

After the match we joined the massive crowd heading back into London. Tommy got on a different train than the rest of us (oh Tommy) but all in all we made it back to the centre of London to High Street Kensington where most of the guys were staying in a hotel. We got some dinner at the Whole Foods Food Court (pretty surprised by the fact that there is a Whole Foods in London) and then Bonnie and I headed over to Austin and Ben’s house on Russell Square to get changed for the ball. I would now like to discuss something that must surely be a first (and quite possibly last) in my life. Let us reflect on the fact that:

a) Bonnie borrowed my dress and my shoes because she didn’t have any appropriate ones of her own

b) I was responsible for Bonnie’s hair and makeup for the evening

c) I was responsible for my own hair and makeup for the evening

I think it’s official, ladies and gentlemen, I am, in fact, a girl. I know there were some serious doubts there for a while but hey, what do you know! Anyways, I digress, we got ready and bundled up for our trip back across London to the crew’s hotel where we had a few drinks before heading over to the club for the ball.

The ball was held at Amika which, apparently, is actually a pretty big deal club where lots of important and famous people go. It was a bit small for the number of people they would be expecting and the doormen were pretty ridiculous about letting people in if they had been drinking. A few of the girls who joined our group during the match were not allowed in because the doormen considered them to be too drunk. Thankfully we had no such problem getting in. Those who know me well know that I’m not really big club/dance person but I actually had a really good time. Hanging out with Bonnie and Tommy and Danny was awesome, despite the ridiculous steep prices for drinks in the club, and before we even knew it, it was 3 am and the realization that I had to be on an international flight 6 hours later dawned on me quite heavily.... Bonnie and I took a taxi back to Ben and Austin’s (where they were actually still awake), packed up our stuff, and got ready to leave the next morning. By the time we were done with that, I had 1 hr 40 min to sleep and I’ve never been so angry when my alarm went off in the morning.

Despite the small amount of sleep, we got up and out of the house with no problems. The tube to Paddington and train to Heathrow went without a hitch and finally, exhausted and either hung over or still tipsy (not quite sure) I made it to my gate ready for a long and not so pleasant flight to Chicago. Much to my disappointment I learned that the audio on all of the “A” seats wasn’t working and wouldn’t be working for the entirety of the flight. What seat was I in? 29A. Oh well, so much for movies!! I slept in 20-30 minute increments throughout the flight, getting about 2 hours sleep total, and landed in Chicago absolutely exhausted but excited to see Vicki and have a fun time in Chicago. Please see next blog for fun wedding stories!

Best of both worlds: Christmas and Hanukkah in Ox

It’s the holiday season, my favorite time of year, and before I go home to celebrate the holidays with my family, I got the joy of celebrating them with my England family. First was Thanksgiving (see previous blog) but then time for Christmas and Hanukkah!

First on tap was the OUWAFC Christmas Dinner. Soupy was kind enough to arrange for it to be at Café Coco’s, where she works, and we had a great two course dinner, wine, and cheap cocktails all evening long. Take that, a group of football girls, and Christmas themed fancy dress, and you’re obviously in for a lovely evening. There were varying degrees of effort (or lack thereof) on costumes, as to be expected. In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I put about zero effort in, but my gingerbread pajamas (oh wait, pyjamas) were comfortable and that’s all I care about. My favorites had to be Soupy (as a very fat snowman) and Juice as a homemade star.

We had a few drinks before dinner and then sat down at the table to eat. When everyone arrived, I gave a Christmas toast (why do I always wind up giving the toast for football dinners??) and we broke the Christmas crackers. Inside mine was a horrible joke (so bad that I don’t even remember it) and an eye patch. So bizarre, but whatever. Then after dinner, while waiting for dessert, Liz decided to bring a West Point tradition to OUWAFC. At the West Point Christmas Dinner it is tradition to sing the 12 Days of Christmas, led by the senior-ranking member of the group. Sine I am a)the acting President while Kim is away b) the Blues captain and c) the highest ranking military member of the group, there was no way for me to get out of leading the song. So I did. It was fun. Or not.

Anyways, the food was really good, and after dinner, we just hung out in the lounge/bar area. Ben, the amazing bartender, introduced us to many new and exciting cocktails and we stayed at Coco’s until they were literally mopping the floors around our feet.

All in all, it wasn’t a crazy evening, no real shenanigans ensued, but it was a great night with an amazing group of girls and I had a really great time.

Not content to celebrate just one holiday, on Saturday night I hosted a Hanukkah party at my place and introduced my friends to their first ever Hanukkah. No Hanukkah is complete without latkes and sufganiyot and so I decided to attempt them both. I loaded up on potatoes and oil and got down to work. I borrowed a food processer from Neal in the hopes that it would make life easier in terms of grating the potatoes.

However, the food processor grated them too finely, which was not what I needed to the consistency of the latkes, and therefore I was forced to grate all the potatoes by hand. Lots of them. It was quite the little workout for my arms (after already going to the gym that morning and carrying crates of alcohol back to my house in the afternoon). Grating the potatoes by hand took about twice as long as I had anticipated so I started frying up the latkes much later than I intended to, but oh well.

Laktes are basically glorified hashbrowns. Grated potoes, onions, eggs, flower, and salt are mixed together and put into pattyshapes and dropped in hot oil. Cooked until they crisp up, they form nice little potato pancakes. It took a little over an hour to cook all of them up (making 4-5 at a time in two different frying pans), but all in all I made about 3 platesful (probably somewhere between 50-60 latkes). Everyone was starving by the time they were finished but before we ate we needed to light the candles.

I said a few words about the story of Hanukkah (sort of incoherently really) and then had Neal light the candles while I sang the blessing. I love singing but mostly in the house when I’m by myself. I don’t like singing in front of people but it had to be done! After the blessing and Maotzur (the song my family always sings directly after the blessing is sung) it was time to eat!! Latkes are usually eaten with sour cream, applesauce, or both, and they were as amazing as ever! After all the time it took to cook them it was crazy to see how quickly they were eaten, but I guess that means they were good and people liked them!!

After the latkes, I went back to the kitchen to make the sufganiyot, but not before teaching everyone how to play dreidel. I left them to their own dreidel playing devices only to find out that the guys had decided to destroy 4000 years of cultural and religious tradition by creating the game “War Dreidel” where instead of just playing the game, they made it into a competitive, combative, violent game. Boys will be boys....

While making the sufganiyot we had a bit of a scare considering that one of the ingredients in the directions (baking powder) was not listed in the list of ingredients. Since I just went down the list to make sure I had everything, I didn’t realize that I needed baking powder and didn’t have any. After a bit of frantic freaking out and a quick iChat call to my mother, I remembered that I do have baking soda which can be used as a baking powder substitute. I finished up the batter (the stirring of which made for another little arm workout) and heated up the oil for those as well. Sufganiyot are basically donuts, make with buttermilk, flower, sugar, and some vanilla. You take the batter and drop little blobs into a pot of hot oil where they fry up quite nicely. Its really hard to drop them in without them becoming completely deformed, but Soupy and Bonnie helped me and were expert sufganiyot makers. Again, those were extremely well received and eaten as soon as they were presented from the kitchen.

Thankfully, this marked the end of my responsibility for the evening and it was nice to just sit and relax with my friends, watch a bit of football (both kinds) and just chill. It got to be pretty late by the time everyone left but it was a great evening and a great reminder of the amazing people I’ve met here in Oxford.

However, my house smells very very strongly of oil and fried potatoes which is kinda nasty. Other than that, successful evening and lovely holiday week. Coming up this week is a lot of fun, so keep an eye on the blog for whats coming:

Thursday: Varsity Rugby match in London and Varsity Ball afterwards

Friday: Fly to Chicago, drive to Orland Park, Vicki’s rehearsal dinner (where I get to meet Brian McBride and, of course, see the best Basic Roomie EVER)

Saturday: Vicki’s wedding

Sunday: Fly home!!

Should be a good time!