Speech! Speech! Speech!

And now a classic scene from Arrested Development-

G.O.B.: Speech, speech, speech...

All: (Chanting.) Speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech, speech...

Narrator: The family continued to chant “speech, speech, speech” for no one in particular.

All: ...speech, speech, speech!

Michael: Gee, after all that, I was kind of hoping somebody would make a speech.

Buster: Speech, speech, speech!

Michael: All right, I’ll say something.

G.O.B.: Typical.

  So what was all that about?  Just a way for me to continue pushing my pro-AD agenda so rampant in all my entries.  Today I am posting the toast I made at the wedding.  I have given up waiting for a picture since the professional photographer didn't even bother to shoot it.  There was a nice shot of my hand, though.  GRRR!  I was at this wedding, I swear.

  Almost four years ago, the best man at my wedding, one Jeff Burke, stood up and gave a speech that opened with a joke no one got, and which he "read" from a blank piece of paper.  When given the chance to return the favor now, I had to write everything down.  Yes, I had to do this the right way...so I thought maybe I could embarrass these two by talking about all the women Jeff has used and discarded before finally settling down.  Only that doesn't work because there has been only one woman...and he's not done with her yet.

  Then I thought I could go back to all those wild and crazy moments Jeff and I had out on the town.  But I couldn't go there either because the only parties we've ever been to together were family-only affairs where we played football, board games, or Tree Ball- a game of my own invention (patent pending).

  And that's when it hit me.  At these "family-only" parties, for the better part of a decade, Laurie has been there.  Today we officially welcome Laurie into our family, but realistically, we had already done that years ago.  She's been to weddings, graduations, birthdays, and even actual births.  She has been my daughter's aunt for close to five years.  The celebration we are having today is not a sigh of relief that two people finally found each other or that a wild man has been tamed at last.  But rather, this is a celebration of two soul mates continuing on with their lives together. 

  Like my brother knew what he wanted to say without having to write it down, Jeff and Laurie have the confidence and bravery to know what they want to say to the world with this commitment.  I commend them for it and we should all now raise our glasses and toast them for it.

 

...And scene.