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2:21 am - Mon 9/8/03
wedding day

Wedding Day

(I'd like to take a moment to answer a few questions that have recently been asked in here..."Faithful Reader", I am right-handed, and Gail, I was at the 6:45 show of "Pirates" on Friday.)

Went out with Kevin tonite, playing some pool at Metro Bowl, and having something to eat at Moriartys, a bar next door to where I used to live before moving to L.A (We had a little bit of trouble finding a sit-down restaurant that was open at 9:30 at night on Sunday. Not so much an issue in Tinseltown...).

I think I'd sort of forgotten how much I enjoyed spending time with Kevin (Perhaps a self-defense mechanism to shield me from missing my life in Lansing too badly). But again tonite, I had a great time wth him; We just have this really nice "comfort level" with each other. We laugh a lot, the talk is very free-wheeling, and we're pretty evenly matched as pool players (In other words, we both suck!).

At one point, I told him how hard it was going to be to write about my time back here in Lansing.

Though it's been almost two-and-a-half years, and there have been changes-- some old businesses have shut down, some new ones have started up, etc and so forth-- things look much the same as when I left.

But while things may look the same, they feel very different to me now ("Bucolic" is not quite the word I'm looking for--that feels a little pejorative--but it's in the neighborhood).

When I first moved to Lansing, it was the biggest city I'd ever lived in; In the intervening years, I spent some time in Atlanta, Houston, New York City, and Miami Beach, but this period in L.A. has been the longest I've been away from Lansing since I moved there back in the summer of 1980).

It's weird...I'm immediately comfortable here--there's "personal history" almost everywhere I go--and I'm struck, being here, by how tense I've been in L.A., how much I've struggled, but nevertheless, Lansing is not my home anymore. Next Sunday, after what I'm expecting to be a really enjoyable week here in Lansing, I'll get back on a plane to L.A....and go home, where the struggle to make a satisfying life for myself will continue.

The wedding was on Saturday, at the Brookshire Inn, a country club and golf course in Williamston.

(I'm going to skip a detailed description of the wedding, because, for one thing, I'm not very good at that crap, and two, I think it would be really boring to read. I'll just content myself with saying it was a picture-perfect day for an outdoor wedding, and it was a beautiful ceremony.)

I found myself getting...emotional at two different points during the proceedings.

Emily looked so lovely that I immediately started to get a little "misty" upon first seeing her in the processional; When I first became friends with Jane, some 18 years ago, Emily was just a little girl, and now here she was, a beautiful young woman about to get married. Hard not to be affected by that.

And as she was reciting the vows, and her voice started to quaver with emotion, I heard the two girls sitting next to me start to cry, and I almost went to pieces right with them!

At the reception, I sat at a table with Tom H. and Mary K. (I was sitting just in front of them during the ceremony. I'd ran into them very quickly after I got there. Tom K. had given me a ride, since Mark and Jane had to go in early for pictures).

There wasn't a catered meal, but I actually liked what they did better--a buffet of hors d'euvres (sp?).

Typically, at the weddings I've gone to, I sort of suffer through the wedding in order to get to the food and dancing at the reception, but this time, it kind of went the other way for me; I enjoyed the ceremony, and I'm always up for free food, but after that, things kind of went downhill.

As the DJ started, there was some sort of probem with the power, so the lights went off about five different times, as they were trying to do the various "speciality dances". Then I just felt like the bouquet toss/garter toss/dollar dance/etc went on for days without end, and I started to get tired and bored.

When it was finally time for the dancing to start, I realized I was twenty years too old to be hitting up the bridesmaids for a dance, and twenty years too young to be asking almost anyone else there (Not to mention most everyone being "hooked up" already).

I did the "3rd Wheel" thing for awhile, dancing with Tom and Mary, then with Mark and Jane. I like to dance, so it was fun as far as that went, but I also couldn't help but feel just a little pathetic.

The only time I actually danced with someone was when I grabbed Chrissy, one of the bridesmaids, when the DJ played a polka medly (Jane and I ran into Chrissy at Linens and Things on Friday, while shopping for wedding presents).

As the evening wore on, I started feeling more and more sorry for myself, and switched from the Diet Cokes I had been drinking, to beer (Don't be alarmed kids, I just had four glasses).

Then the evening ended with my bladder acting up on me; I was feeling like I had to go really bad, but not much was actually happening.

A perfect end to a fairly unhappy night.

Well, it's almost 5:00 am, and I simply must get to bed...

 

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