As you can see, I finally got some pictures in my e-mail from our wedding extravaganza. I have also been playing around with my wife's digital camera. Me finding out how to put pictures in an entry has opened a virtual Pandora's box. I promise this will be the end of the pictures for a while. :)
Weddings and exhaustion have kept my weekly list of favorite songs on the backburner for a while so I thought I'd try to make up for it today by highlighting some of my favorite songs so far this year. The year is already 1/3 of the way over, but we are going to try not to focus on how depressing time flying by actually is. Here now, in no particular order, are my early nominees for best songs of the year. Though with 8 months to go, it is unlikely that even half of these will make my year-end list. Nevertheless, I like these songs and think you should listen to them.
"Ohio is for Lovers" by Hawthorne Heights Hawthorne Heights : The Silence in Black and White : 'Ohio Is for Lovers' AOL actually debuted this song late last year and I didn't really care for it. Now Sirius plays it a lot and it has been drilled into my head. Repetition often breeds results, kids.
"The Bucket" by Kings of Leon Kings Of Leon : Aha Shake Heartbreak : 'The Bucket' A lot of great music must come out over the summer and fall to make this one drop out of its Top 10 potential for 2005. I LOVE this song. I also get quite a kick out of Kasey singing '18 balding star'.
"Sugar, We're Goin' Down" by Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy : Evening Out With Your Girlfriend : 'Sugar, We're Goin' Down' I like to think that this band is named after the obscure Simpsons character, but I'm not going to bother to find out. Catchy song, even if I have no idea what they are saying other than the title. Something about a gun...
"Walking With A Ghost" by Tegan & Sara Tegan & Sara : So Jealous : 'Walking with a Ghost' I have liked this song for a long time, but hearing it cross over to the Sirius pop station and on TV shows makes me believe that these twins are going to be HUGE. But I saw them first! Check my old Top Tens!
"Chocolate" by Snow Patrol Snow Patrol : Final Straw : Chocolate Sometimes you just like sappy love songs in spite of yourself, and this is the third time SP has done that to me! The video is chaotic and will certainly hold your attention.
"All That I've Got" by The Used The Used : In Love and Death : 'All That I've Got' I don't think I will ever love a Used song as much as I love 'The Taste of Ink', but this one is a solid second.
"Jerk it Out" by Caesars Caesars : Paper Tigers : 'Jerk It Out' I expect this song to be a mega hit for the entire summer. It's just a lot of fun and it sounds like something you would hear blasting out of people's cars in the 'windows-down' weather.
"Dakota" by Stereophonics Stereophonics : Language. Sex. Violence. Other? : 'Dakota' I don't entirely love this song- for now it's pleasant background music that I wouldn't turn off. I'm leaving it room to grow on me.
"Love in a Trashcan" by The Raveonettes The Raveonettes : Pretty in Black : 'Love in a Trashcan' This song has got a little surfing vibe going for it. I don't know how else to explain it but that's what I think of when I hear it.
"Finding Out True Love is Blind" by Louis XIV Louis XIV : The Best Little Secrets Are Kept : 'Finding Out True Love Is Blind' How can you not get at least one chuckle out of a song that promotes racial harmony through promiscuity?
Other Contenders I have no comment on:
"Honest Mistake" by The Bravery The Bravery : Bravery : 'An Honest Mistake'
"Galvanize" by The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers : Push the Button : 'Galvanize'
"Daft Punk is Playing At My House" by LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem : LCD Soundsystem : 'Daft Punk is Playing in my House'
Even More Contenders (whose songs are not available on AOL):
"Decent Days and Nights" by The Futureheads
"You Can't Steal My Love" by Mando Diao
"I Predict A Riot" by The Kaiser Chiefs
"We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service
"Strange Design" by Midnight Movies
"Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well" by Mike Doughty
"Worlds Apart" by ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
"Spit it Out" by Brendan Benson
This weekend was an interesting contrast compared to the one before it. The wedding weekend was full of fun and adventure and this one that just ended was full of work and misery.
I don't talk about work much because it's boring- not that being there is boring, but it just doesn't make for interesting things to talk about. Anyway, about six months ago, Wal-mart changed up the way trailers get sent to Centerpoints (that's the area I work in). This move greatly affected my schedule for reasons I won't go into. The bottom line is, instead of walking in on Saturday morning to 30-40 trailers to unload with more coming in all weekend, we have been walking in to 10 or less with nothing coming in until Monday afternoon.
Up until this point, it has been the post-Christmas slow season for the entire place and everyone has been taking long-term voluntary lay-off or burning through vacation time. But this weekend, things picked up for the rest of the place and they pulled that old line on us- you are all Wal-mart associates and you have to staff the building where needed. So every single one of us, who had gotten so used to taking our time on stuff and mopping the floors to kill the hours now suddenly got sent into the bowels of the warehouse where no one goes voluntarily.
On Saturday, my boss shut us down completely and sent the entire department to the shipping dock for back-breaking labor. Sunday and Monday were in different places, for me anyway, but there's just something about not doing what you normally do that makes the day drag.
Also, I was sick Sunday night and went to bed almost immediately after I got home. There's an entire day of my life I'll never get back.
I'm getting bored just writing this, so I'll get to the worse stuff.
Homer the hamster is no longer with us. Poor Kasey had to learn about death just five days after getting her new pet. My wife is pretty sure we can return it for a new one since we have the receipt.
The capper to the weekend was finding out that my father got fired from a job he loved. I won't go into why, but it sounded really unfair.
The only good news is that my cousin's friend who I mentioned in the wedding entry has come up with some stuff and when I see it, I might finally have a cover for my book.
Chewbacca mourns our hamster.
Last night I remembered that my wife also had her digital camera at the wedding, so I decided to take a look and see what was on there...
First, on my Thursday night trip to Wendy's, I got a peek at the cook preparing to make the chili:
Then I finally found a picture of me giving that fantastic toast:
The reception was a wild scene! On the left you can see that the bride and groom couldn't wait to get their hands on one another:
The other day as my wife was getting out of work, she called and asked if she could bring home a surprise. I thought, "Cool- pizza." What the surprise actually was, was my worst nightmare. I have nothing against animals- I just don't want them in my house. We tried a cat and got rid of it for being too crazy. We got rid of a puppy for being too destructive. And we got rid of our fish because they died. Now, what the hell is this thing supposed to do?
Special thanks to Lisa for helping me become an old pro at putting pictures into my entries...as long as it worked. :)
- I am not going to re-post my recap of last night's LOST repeat. If you need it, you can find it here: LOST - LOST- Episode 16: Outlaws
- Not much going on, but I figured I should put something in here since I haven't written since Monday night. Honestly, I've been waiting for more wedding pictures but no one has sent any yet. I was thinking about posting what I said in my toast, but I would like a picture of me doing it to accompany the entry.
- Yesterday, as I was mowing my dead lawn, I said to myself, 'We really need some rain- this April has been kind of dry.' After lunch, it started raining for the rest of the day. Either I have a direct line to God, or I have powers I am not fully aware of yet.
- We finally watched Closer last night. I say finally because we have had it rented for a week and a half. I thought it was a really great movie, but then, I am a sucker for moody character pieces. I recommend it... with the warning that the language is quite graphic.
- That's all for now.
PS- Jewelsl85 is bad at checkers.
As much as I would love to pepper this entry with pictures, I can't do it just yet. My wife's camera only took pictures of Kasey and forgot about me and the bride and groom. When I get sent some other pictures of other people, I will put them up. I looked totally hot. And now for my weekend...
PART 1: THE TRIP
We left our house at 7 o'clock on Thursday. First stop was my mom's house. We arrived in time for the second half of Survivor. Way to hang in there Stephanie! Though she almost blew it all for some pizza... After that, I went and got us Wendy's in my pajamas. I might as well have gotten dressed though since I ended up getting dragged to Wal-mart in spite of all my best pouting and whining. It was okay because my wife's quest for shoes to match her outfit ended surprisingly quickly and I needed a notebook and eyedrops anyway.
The next day we were off on the meat of the trip. From Albany to New Jersey. I usually dread this trip because a car ride with Grandma means the four-year-old gets to pick what we listen to. But not this time. Amazingly, I was allowed to take my Sirius along with me. Everyone else may have been grumbling, but I was pacified. Besides, I had the most to be nervous about of everyone in the car, so I should have gotten my way! At any rate, the ride went fast for me.
The first thing we had to do was pick up my tux. Man, I looked good! A little too good, which forced God to give me a few pimples so I wouldn't upstage the groom with my sex appeal. I looked good in the tux, but it's just not my world to be dressed like that. I even had trouble with the cufflinks and a clip-on tie. The lady had to do it for me, but she didn't show me how to do it myself...I guess she never heard that Teach Me to Fish proverb thingy.
After we picked up the Groom (who had nothing to do because the Bride was out getting nails done and whatnot) we headed off to the hotel to check in. I had forgotten how much New Jersey traffic sucks. Bergen County is way too populated and you could add ten minutes to a five minute trip just trying to merge onto the highway. But we made it. Little did I know, I was in for the funniest moment in family history since my mother mixed up the word 'cob' with the word 'muffin' and asked if we were done with our corn on the muffin. Only this new moment would belong to my father...
I was casually getting ice and soda when I saw my dad getting out of the elevator, having just arrived seperately from us. We exchanged pleasantries and then way too soon for him to have gotten to our room I hear him pounding on a door and using his playful police voice: "Open up!" Who is it? "Never mind, just open up!" Yes, my father was knocking on the wrong door because he had read 209 where it said 229. Before I could even get over there, he was hastily apologizing to a startled black man. Once I saw that my father was not going to be injured or arrested, I just about collapsed in hysterics.
PART 2: THE REHEARSAL
After allowing enough time for traffic we never hit, we arrived at the church for rehearsal. I don't know about anyone else, but running through everything that was going to happen made me feel more apprehensive. Only I could screw up something as easy as holding your arm out for a woman to take, but I did it on my own wedding day and I did it again during my practice run as the BEST man. And they still wanted me to hold on to the rings!
Dinner was in an upstairs banquet room at Charlie Brown's Steakhouse. I didn't even know they had rooms like that at a steakhouse and was only a little let down that I wouldn't be having steak. My mother told me I could go downstairs and buy my own steak, but I thought that would have been rude. Though lacking in steak-like qualities, the food provided was quite good.
Then the Bride and Groom gave me my presents, which is really the only reason to be in a wedding party at all, truth be told. I received a lovely golden case with my name on it which contained some playing cards. I plan to take the cards out and use it to hold...something the size of playing cards. I also got a box set of miniature action figures of Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kreuger and Leatherface. Classic horror rocks! Toys rock! I love it.
I was not done getting stuff, though. The Bride and Groom handed out a quiz to see how well everyone knew them. With a minimal amount of answer-comparing with others at the table, I was able to take home the prize with a score of 12. My brother seemed quite pleased that his BEST man won. The prize was a picture frame and the Martina McBride CD that has their wedding song on it. Girl stuff! I was hoping for more horror memorabilia.
PART 3: THE WEDDING
Finally, the big day came, and after hastily writing down my toast in the bathroom, then hanging around watching the end of TOYS starring Robin Williams (man, how do some movies ever get made???), we got ready. Things went smoothly, except when I stepped on Mom's dress in the hall. In my defense, it was too long!
Small town churches book things tight, I guess, and we ended up waiting outside the church for over half an hour as a funeral went on inside. By the time it was over, it was the exact scheduled time for our service and everyone was out there colliding. A little awkward seeing the sad people trying to make their way through the happy people, but there were no fights. I was one of the first inside and was immediately thought to be the groom. Told you I was hot. I corrected their error and we were on our way to the front of the church to hide from the arriving Bride.
Groom and BEST man both admitted that we had to pee and considered the possibility that it might be a really long time before we got a chance to. So we checked every door for a bathroom but were thwarted at every turn. At one point, I even propped a door open with a brick so the Groom could run downstairs to the basement bathroom. Unfortunately, all the doors were locked down there too. Ten seconds after he came back, mass started and we were sent out.
PART 4: THE LIMO:
We could tell right away that the limo ride was going to be interesting. When we got in, the driver asked us which way to go. I didn't quite catch this, but my sister says he said, 'I know the way, but I'm too tired to remember'. That wouldn't be the worst part, however.
Kasey started it, but the girls were getting just a little too excited about passing by the hotel we were staying at. One lean-over to see and a hard brake later, and my cousin's girlfriend had spilled champagne all over my sister's dress. They spent most of the trip trying to dry that off. It stained, but luckily it was hardly noticeable and dried quickly.
As for the driver, he ended up going the right way, while the other two limos made a wrong turn. We ended up being the first ones there.
PART 5: THE RECEPTION
Cocktail hour was held in an epicly gorgeous hall in a Garden of Eden-like atmosphere. I didn't get to see much of it though, because the wedding party got dragged off for pictures. I wasn't in as many of them as I thought I would be as the BEST man...but man did we end up being hungry. The queen of the waitresses was very nice and brought a plate of food out to us...just as the photographer shouted, "I need the entire party now!" It would have been funny if not for being so torturous.
Next we were herded downstairs to prepare for introductions and we finally got to pee! As we were lining up, my sister's partner- the Bride's brother- took a call on his cell phone and actually said, "I'm in my sister's wedding- I'll call you back." At the top of the stairs, the Ring Bearer started throwing a temper tantrum and wanted no more to do with any of us. He would only stand there and cry so I had to grab him under the shoulders and toss him down the stairs to his dad, who was also in the party. It was funny, but I regretted that I had to be seen before I was introduced.
What wasn't fair about all of this is that while everyone else got to loosen up and have fun at this point, I still had to be nervous about my toast. I can't tell you how many times I checked my pocket to make sure it was still there. Thankfully, my part came almost immediately after that 'first dance' crap.
Though I swear it wasn't my voice coming out of the microphone and my hand was shaking more than Michael J. Fox, I somehow managed to knock it out of the park. My brother hugged me, and all night I kept hearing how great my toast was and that you can tell I'm a writer. I brought everyone to tears and laughter with my gift for words and I was proud.
PART 6: THE END
When things were finally over, and the people setting up for the next party practically kicked us out, it was time for the after-party. But first, it was back to the hotel. On the way there, we saw a midget. An honest to God midget, Jewels! Then a lot of us hung around the room and watched The Price is Right Special. Later we went to the hotel bar, but my wife and I didn't stay long because it was too loud and smoky and Kasey was clearly not going to stop dancing at any point unless we forced her to. That's right- while every other kid was sleeping by the end of the reception from all the running around and dancing, Kasey was still raring to go at the hotel bar. I'm sure I said this already, but we will have to watch her for sure. She threw a tantrum to end all tantrums back at the room, and then fell asleep two seconds after putting her head down.
There are many more stories to be told, because a lot of stuff happened. I didn't even mention one of my cousin's not being able to come because she had her baby on the eve of the ceremony. The baby and mom are doing great and are home by now. April 16th is going to be a VERY special day from now on, that's for sure.
I will be back as the days and weeks goon, as we obtain more pictures and I remember more stuff. For now, I am wiped out!
