abbinato...a gathering. my new favorite word.

over the past few days, i've been encircling our great capital, never quite entering it, in order to see some of my wonderful friends who live in the dc area. first, on friday evening, i made my way from frederick, maryland, to sarah and rich's house in chantilly, va. (side note: the drive down 15 south is gorgeous!) they have a (relatively) new little bundle of joy...at least i had never met him...so it was great timing for the trip. his name is rich, too, and he has a lot of personality. you might not see it here because he was just so enamored by my camera. sarah and i went to a great indian restaurant called rangoli in nearby south riding, va. it was delicious! we spent lots of quality time together in the short span of my visit and rich and i even got a chance to talk investments. i couldn't have asked for more! :)


the next morning, after a nice walk with sarah around their picturesque neighborhood, i went to another great restaurant, recommended to me by rachel, my next visitee in the dc area! i have known rachel since first or second grade, i think, and we had a lovely time at eggspectation, i got eggs benedict sans hollandaise sauce. i had a sample of the hollandaise sauce and decided that it tastes like chicken. it was a no-go. but the eggs benedict i had, made with poached eggs, spinach and guacamole over wheat toast, was delicious, and i didn't feel too bad about it afterwards! (but apparently i did feel like i was getting my senior pictures done again...see below.)


i drove about an hour and a half south to stafford, va after a memorable run to target with rachel. it's the little things, people. stafford is where josh and kara live. they got married a little over a year ago and i have only seen them once or twice since their wedding. josh and i went to concord christian together at various ages, were in the worship team together in high school, and then he ended up tagging along with me to college, too...and kara i met in college when she was a freshman. i would love to say i introduced them, but i didn't. but there's a good chance that josh never would have heard of grove city college without me. i mean, seriously, WHO has heard of grove city college other than people who know someone who goes there? okay, and people who listen to rush limbaugh. so i think i brought them together.

next comes the story of the craziest circumstance yet to be described on this blog.

josh and kara suggested a drive to a hilltop vineyard for some great pictures. josh and kara had never been there; it was close, right in stafford, and i am agreeable to pretty much anything that includes hilltops and vineyards and such, so the decision was unanimous. the drive was short, ten minutes, maybe, and i could feel the car angle toward the sky as we began to ascend the long driveway of the winery. the car slowly passed over the rocky surface of the road as the winery rose into view. there were several passers-by sauntering around the grounds in the sun, and kara remarked that there was a wedding going on. as my eyes began to adjust from the grandeur at a distance to each of the people closer to us, i noticed the strange resemblance of one woman to the mother of one of my dear friends from college, monica. the resemblance was so strong, that after squinting at her for half a minute, unmoved by the fact that the woman saw me shamelessly gawking, i mentioned it to josh and kara. upon getting out of the car, i began to walk towards her with no intention of speaking to her; it couldn't be her! then, i saw a man. with a strange resemblance to monica's father. that's when i started running.
"mr. and mrs. ammirati...it's me, abbie!"
"what are YOU doing here?"
"i'm on my roadtrip!" introductions of josh and kara and their status in stafford, va were made.
"we're here for our nephew's wedding. monica's inside!"

so you get the idea. the odds of me seeing my atlanta-based friend, whom i will be seeing in two days and have not seen in...maybe six months? maybe more? ...and we ran into them!? monica was shooting the wedding (she's a photographer) and i was able to give her and her husband, joel, a quick hug before letting them get back to work. we were all mystified.


to wrap this up quickly...last night was a lovely time to spend with josh and kara and this morning i will be going to worship with them at their church. i can't believe it's sunday already! and one more note...the title of this blog is inspired by a wine we saw in the store section of the winery. at first, i was inspired by just the look of the word "abbinato" as there is some similarity to by name. and it's italian. so i like it. then i found out that it means "gathering" as in the gathering of the grapes, or the gathering of people to drink wine together. i liked the thought of this trip as my "abbinato," because i am gathering up love from people all over the place by gathering with them. we'll see if it catches on.