This is part three of my blogging mini-series. Thanks for sticking around. In this episode I will discuss the events and observations from a very busy Saturday.
The weather couldn’t have been better for this day. The humidity was low, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the temperature was comfortably warm all day. A virtually perfect day in that respect.
I started the day late, as I was out pretty late the night before. As I was washing the clothes that I had intended to wear to the wedding, I changed my mind. So I actually went clothes shopping. Now, I’m never going to be confused as someone who is a metro-sexual, or even someone with great fashion sense. But I think I did pretty well picking out what I wore. If I do say so myself, I looked pretty darn good.
Nearly my entire family was at the wedding, with the exception of my older brother and his family (but they are split between Kansas City and Iraq right now). The wedding was really nice. It has been a long time since I’ve been to a wedding at my church. It looked really good. The reception was nice too. The food was excellent, and the planning of the seating assignments was pretty good too.
It was great seeing people that I haven’t seen in many years. I was given the opportunity to have conversations with people that I really haven’t talked to much before. Its weird, but growing up in a church like mine you can go years knowing a family, or knowing of a person, but not actually having a conversation with that person. That was the case with two of the people at my table.
My brother and sister, and their respective spouses were sitting together at a separate table from me. I spent some time over there talking with them. Now, this shouldn’t be worthy of bringing up, let alone using an entire paragraph to discuss, but it is. I have a great relationship with my sister and her husband. I am so grateful for that. My relationship with my brother and his wife is returning to good after a long period of contentious and unfriendly exchanges. I really doubt they will read this, but I am very happy to have that thorn removed from my side, after nearly a full year. I am looking forward to being able to restore the relationship between us and more importantly to build and strengthen my relationship with their kids. It is going to take time, but the rewards will be worth it.
The only bad thing, or rather disappointing thing, that happened at the reception was my inability to get to talk with two of the brides sisters; Karol, my friend since childhood, and Kim, who I wanted to thank for the great advice while deciding on getting a dog. The only one of Kathy’s sisters that I was able to chat with is the one I know the least, Krystal, and that wasn’t until the next morning at church. There is a decent chance that Karol will read this. Sorry Karol, I really wanted to talk to you but I kept getting blocked out, and then I was getting pulled out the door by another commitment.
Although my reintroduction to Karol’s husband made me chuckle after the fact. He was doing his usher duties by the door into the sanctuary when he saw me walk up. ‘I know you, don’t I?’ he said as I approached. I spent a couple days staying at his house and he drove me and Derek around NYC, including a game at Yankee Stadium. But, in his defense that was what, four years ago?
In all seriousness though, it was wonderful to see everyone again, even those I didn’t get a chance to talk with. I was glad that I could participate in such an important day in a friends life.
After the reception I grudgingly went help entertain Mary’s out of town guests at a local drinking establishment called JD Key Club. This is a very popular dueling piano bar. The place was packed. There was very little room to move at all.
The basic concept of this place is this; you’ve got two guys playing piano facing each other. They interact with each other, trying to out do the other, but also feeding off each other to entertain the crowd. You can make requests for your favorite song (along with a tip of course), but then you can also pay to get them to stop playing a song.
Being a place that typically draws the college set I expected to be one of the older people there. I couldn’t have been more wrong. There were people there that made me feel quite young. But the vast majority of the people there were, predictably, under 25. Now maybe this is a sign of my age and my fading tolerance for that type of environment, but I thought the entertainment was a little raunchy at times. For the most part it was fun and entertaining. But there were more than a few moments when I was thinking ‘ok, was that really necessary?’
Afterward we went to Big Boy. Part of the group I was with was a couple college kids. One a senior (finance major) at Univ of Minn, the other is a recent graduate with an accounting degree from Univ of Minn. I found that I had a lot in common with them, and enjoyed talking to them. But it’s the weirdest feeling talking to a person that age about what they can expect in their career. It was kind of a surreal experience in a way, since I don’t really feel old enough or experienced enough to be doing such a thing. We were out until well after 1am. I haven’t done that in such a long time. I really paid for it though the next day (more on that in the next episode).
With that I am going wrap up this episode. Stay tuned for more.
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