I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

Ever since the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral" came out I can almost never go to a wedding and not think of "Four Weddings and a Funeral". For whatever reason the part where an extra is reading 1 Corinthians always seems to come to mind (hence the title "I am become [as] sounding brass ... ), well that and Rowan Atkinson's as one of the priests. Seriously I keep waiting for a priest/minister/pastor to say holy spigot when ending a blessing/prayer. Oh and there was the other bit where Charles (Hugh Grant) is always late to the weddings, which brings me to the latest wedding I went too.

The wedding was Saturday (12/17) for a friend that I have known since highschool and well we were late too it. I had decided earlier in the day to go do some Christmas shopping, while my SG went to a gift exchange for her Stitch and Bitch club. I came back home around 2:30pm put my suit on and waited for my SG to show up. 3:10pm rolled around and I started to get a little worried as the wedding started at 3:30pm, so I dial up SG only to find her on the way home and was unsure as to why I was calling her as she was SURE that the wedding was at 4pm. When I heard that she thought it was 4pm I hung up, see I couldn't think of anything nice to say, and for once I choose not to say ANYTHING.

It was at this point where I somehow entered Zen like calm, there was no driving like the "Bandit" ("Smokey and the Bandit") and there was no point trying to take a short cut down a Hazard county dirt road whereby Rosco P. Coltrane would try to catch my little Honda. We arrived at the church right before the bride walked down the aisle which was nice, you know I mean how many times do you get to say hello to the bride and her bridegroom's before they walk down the isle. Once the bride went down the middle the ushers then let us in after which we proceeded to slink down the left side of the church. More amusing was that friends of ours just happened to be sitting at the end of some of the further back pews and having sensed our late arrival were turned around chortling at us. I found out later that they had shown up only minutes before us, which is only part of why they were laughing. The wedding itself was nice, a little long but nice, mainly because two out of the three pastor's that did the ceremony I have known since Highschool. One of them was the youth pastor when I was in high school and the main pastor was the father of my friend getting married so that was touching to see.

The reception that followed was held in this very nice unique convention center up north close to Polaris built in a brick colonial style. This really didn't matter as SG has told me over and over again as the wedding was inside and the inside looked more or less like a hotel/convention center. The reception was a lot of fun as my ex co-workers from Worldcom were there, along with miscellaneous friends, and people I knew from highschool (pastors, parents, choir directors). I really enjoyed this wedding, and I think it was because most of the time when you show up to a wedding, you sit with a few other people you may or may not know that well. Dinner is spent with mostly strangers and then follows the DJ and dancing. At the reception I basically hung out with a lot of people I really enjoyed being around and the fact that there was all this free booze and food made it even better. Food you say, yes food, the appetizers were excellent (Brie, Smoked Cheddar, Pepperjack, Spanikopita, Shrimp patte, party sausage things, etc, etc), the bar was open and pretty well stocked. The only potential irritating thing was that the bar closed from 6:30-8:30 while dinner was being served, I was able to turn this into a game as I continued to remind everyone how much time before the bar was closing. I remember walking in and noticing this and turning to Tito and telling him "Hey you know the bar closes in like an hour and a half" at which point he downed the beer he was holding and returned a few minutes later with one in either hand. Ahh yes when you start two fisting you know it's a good time. I made sure such behavior continued as I would periodically look down at my watch and tell him and those around me in a casual sort of manner that it was getting closer and closer to 6:30pm. This is not to say that I just pushed those around me, I also partook in many a fine beverage. There was a point in the first 45 minutes or so that when the bartender mixed me a drink I am almost positive he put no alcohol in it and was laughing as he handed to me, LAUGHED! Well I got around that by having Ratz get me a White Russian, no bartender was going to stop me from getting obnoxious.

One of my favorite lines all night was when while eating dinner a waiter walked up to Tido and asked him if he wanted red or white wine. Tito's response, "Yes" the waiter stood there for a second and then filled both the red and the white wine glass. Tido's only response to doing this when his wife started chiding him was "What? They gave me two glasses." Excellent. The dance itself was pretty enjoyable as it was a band instead of a DJ with a computer and winamp. Granted the selection of music was limited to what the band could play however that didn't stop them from playing Toxic by Britney Spears (Not the first time that I have heard the song covered by a man) and of course a little Bon Jovi Livin' on a Prayer to close it all out. Which reminds me the first time I heard Toxic covered was by Nickelcreek, which strangely was excellent. I mean you wouldn't think a man singing in a blue grass band would be able to pull that kind of thing off.

The aftermath of this whole thing was that there was some passing out and some vomiting, luckily not by me as I was the ever responsible designated driver. Apparently while I was getting my Bon Jovi on some of my friends and SG were drinking tequila shots among other cocktails. I didn't realize this but it started to make sense when she started trying to take my drinks away from me. Silly SG Jack Daniels is for drinkers. While driving home SG fell asleep/passed out on my shoulder while I heard a friend of mine, who is big enough that we add "Big" whenever to referring to him, vomited profusely on his hour long drive home.

Eat your heart out Bon Jovi.