Love's uneven remainders
"Hey, i've got another funny story for you..."
Last Thursday was nearly eleven hours spent waiting in airports, maybe three actually in the air. My flights got all cancelled and moved around thanks to an ice storm betwixt Norfolk and Charlotte and later a dead battery in Charlotte itself, but i finally arrived cussin' in Mobile a bit after midnight CST. Matthew and Demosthenes and Sun-Hee picked me up at the airport - Matthew's car still smells like a wetsuit, after all these years; and straightaway we were back in college, cutting up the way we always did. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.
We don't apologize to anyone, least of all Mikey when he lames out and goes to bed early.
Next morning Matthew and i went to the airport to pick up his friend Hannah, while the other guys tried on tuxedos. I was guarding the car and listening to hell of Beach Boys tunes when Joe showed up - seems he'd arrived in Mobile without calling anyone, without a definite plan, and with vague ideas of renting a car. We were there for him.
After lunch at Burger King we crossed the causeway at the top of Mobile Bay and spent the afternoon taking out pent-up travel frustrations on little clay discs.
Shotguns are awesome.
Matthew: "The Kid, i can't wait until you try to run for office."
Ryan "McNifficent" McNiff, Matthew "The Groom" DeLaney, Adam "T. rex Killa" Austin, Joe "Joe Sai" Simpson.
Willie T. cuts up; McNiff looks on.
McNiff had rented a convertible in Pensacola, a red one. It was so hot.
...but not literally. I learned that when it's 50 degrees outside, and you're driving at 55 m.p.h. with the top down, it gets very very very cold.
Code Red
The rehearsal festivities took place Friday night in Fairhope, a quaint little upper-class village forty minutes away from Mobile, across the bay. We checked into the hotel - i bunked with Joe and McNiff - and various other people, assorted DeLaneys and hangers-on, started showing up.
Being a lector in the wedding was pretty cool; i got to do my part toward blessing Erin and Matthew's new life together, without having to do any of the extra crap the groomsmen had to do. I also met Erin for the first time in real life (Facebook doesn't count), and we bonded over the fact that Matthew left us both at the church after the rehearsal - her mother and stepfather drove us both to the dinner after.
This is the only picture i took at the rehearsal that came out at all.
And the dinner... what a dinner. Open bar, too.
We toasted the bride-and-groom-to-be for at least an hour after the meal was over. Demosthenes' "Four Things that Stand Out About Matthew DeLaney" speech quite possibly caused several people to wet themselves (the four things: 1. Flexibility, 2. Humility, 3. Sexuality, 4. Christianity); several of Erin's friends were near tears for non-hilarity reasons. Joyful always, through and through.
Greg and Chainsaw adlib a song about Matthew, loungecore.
Later, back at the hotel, we destroyed Walt's room.
Dudes piled on Mikey!
John "Chainsaw" Hunter, Joe, Walt "Tino" DeLaney.
Joe and McNiff
Leigh DeForth and yours truly.
Matthew and McNiff.
Chainsaw, Chainsaw's 'picture face,' Joe.
Somebody had grabbed a bag of kumquats from the dinner, and it turns out that these make fantastic foodfight ammunition - hard enough to sting when they hit sensitive areas, yet soft enough to splat all over walls. It also opened up some great jokes along the lines of "what kind of stains did you say Walt has all over his walls?"
"Do you, Matthew, take..." "Uh, yeah."
Erin's dad walks her down the aisle.
Matthew takes her the rest of the way to the altar.
The wedding was beautiful. I think i've mentioned that.
First dance.
The groom feels up my beard.
It's obvious Matthew and Erin were meant for each other even sometimes when they are just being photographed while eating.
Brady Bullock, Rhoda Hernandez, and one hell of a weird perspective.
Demosthenes and Sun Hee.
Heather and Chainsaw.
3/14 of the best damn cover band ever.
Susan Forrester, doing something.
"Do you realize," Sun Hee said to me, "that the only people dancing are Matthew's idiot friends?"
I realized this was true; and that i should join them.
The DeLaney siblings: Matthew, Walt, and Maggie.
Demosthenes and Kate, who caught the bouquet.
Jessica and Chad.
Walt and Demosthenes cut a rug.
Sean: "Strokin'" was, in fact, played at the reception.
Then we went out in the rain and threw flower petals at the new Mr. and Mrs. DeLaney, and they climbed into their car and made their escape.
Note: yes, that is a velour tracksuit.
The afterparty
The friends of the bride and groom left all the old folks back at the place where the reception was, and headed out to a bar called the Ravenite for pizza and beverage. I left half of my Deluxe Greek pizza sitting on the table when we left and man was i pissed. That was good 'za.
Hannah and Walt and Mikey.
Mikey got sauce all over his shirt. Bourbon faded him pretty quickly:
(Lisa was a trooper.)
...but he rallied in time to shake his groove thang with some 40-year-old women:
Matthew and Erin keep an eye on our small Jewish friend.
The Men of 316, plus Big Jon.
Brady and Rhoda, again.
Back to the hotel once more. We partied down in another room: Walt stole the trash can from the lobby and dropped it on me (my arm still hurts); Greg folded Lisa's roommate Curry up inside a mattress; fortunately, we were out of kumquats.
Epilogue
Here is one hell of a wedding favor:
Greg and i were on the same flight to Charlotte; his sister drove us to the airport, where i discovered that all of Thursday's flight rearrangements had resulted in part of my return itinerary being cancelled. Fortunately, this proved surmountable. Six hours, two flights, one layover, and a detailed reading of the Skymall catalogue later - i was home.
Last Thursday was nearly eleven hours spent waiting in airports, maybe three actually in the air. My flights got all cancelled and moved around thanks to an ice storm betwixt Norfolk and Charlotte and later a dead battery in Charlotte itself, but i finally arrived cussin' in Mobile a bit after midnight CST. Matthew and Demosthenes and Sun-Hee picked me up at the airport - Matthew's car still smells like a wetsuit, after all these years; and straightaway we were back in college, cutting up the way we always did. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.
We don't apologize to anyone, least of all Mikey when he lames out and goes to bed early.
Next morning Matthew and i went to the airport to pick up his friend Hannah, while the other guys tried on tuxedos. I was guarding the car and listening to hell of Beach Boys tunes when Joe showed up - seems he'd arrived in Mobile without calling anyone, without a definite plan, and with vague ideas of renting a car. We were there for him.
After lunch at Burger King we crossed the causeway at the top of Mobile Bay and spent the afternoon taking out pent-up travel frustrations on little clay discs.
Shotguns are awesome.
Matthew: "The Kid, i can't wait until you try to run for office."
Ryan "McNifficent" McNiff, Matthew "The Groom" DeLaney, Adam "T. rex Killa" Austin, Joe "Joe Sai" Simpson.
Willie T. cuts up; McNiff looks on.
McNiff had rented a convertible in Pensacola, a red one. It was so hot.
...but not literally. I learned that when it's 50 degrees outside, and you're driving at 55 m.p.h. with the top down, it gets very very very cold.
Code Red
The rehearsal festivities took place Friday night in Fairhope, a quaint little upper-class village forty minutes away from Mobile, across the bay. We checked into the hotel - i bunked with Joe and McNiff - and various other people, assorted DeLaneys and hangers-on, started showing up.
Being a lector in the wedding was pretty cool; i got to do my part toward blessing Erin and Matthew's new life together, without having to do any of the extra crap the groomsmen had to do. I also met Erin for the first time in real life (Facebook doesn't count), and we bonded over the fact that Matthew left us both at the church after the rehearsal - her mother and stepfather drove us both to the dinner after.
This is the only picture i took at the rehearsal that came out at all.
And the dinner... what a dinner. Open bar, too.
We toasted the bride-and-groom-to-be for at least an hour after the meal was over. Demosthenes' "Four Things that Stand Out About Matthew DeLaney" speech quite possibly caused several people to wet themselves (the four things: 1. Flexibility, 2. Humility, 3. Sexuality, 4. Christianity); several of Erin's friends were near tears for non-hilarity reasons. Joyful always, through and through.
Greg and Chainsaw adlib a song about Matthew, loungecore.
Later, back at the hotel, we destroyed Walt's room.
Dudes piled on Mikey!
John "Chainsaw" Hunter, Joe, Walt "Tino" DeLaney.
Joe and McNiff
Leigh DeForth and yours truly.
Matthew and McNiff.
Chainsaw, Chainsaw's 'picture face,' Joe.
Somebody had grabbed a bag of kumquats from the dinner, and it turns out that these make fantastic foodfight ammunition - hard enough to sting when they hit sensitive areas, yet soft enough to splat all over walls. It also opened up some great jokes along the lines of "what kind of stains did you say Walt has all over his walls?"
"Do you, Matthew, take..." "Uh, yeah."
Erin's dad walks her down the aisle.
Matthew takes her the rest of the way to the altar.
The wedding was beautiful. I think i've mentioned that.
First dance.
The groom feels up my beard.
It's obvious Matthew and Erin were meant for each other even sometimes when they are just being photographed while eating.
Brady Bullock, Rhoda Hernandez, and one hell of a weird perspective.
Demosthenes and Sun Hee.
Heather and Chainsaw.
3/14 of the best damn cover band ever.
Susan Forrester, doing something.
"Do you realize," Sun Hee said to me, "that the only people dancing are Matthew's idiot friends?"
I realized this was true; and that i should join them.
The DeLaney siblings: Matthew, Walt, and Maggie.
Demosthenes and Kate, who caught the bouquet.
Jessica and Chad.
Walt and Demosthenes cut a rug.
Sean: "Strokin'" was, in fact, played at the reception.
Then we went out in the rain and threw flower petals at the new Mr. and Mrs. DeLaney, and they climbed into their car and made their escape.
Note: yes, that is a velour tracksuit.
The afterparty
The friends of the bride and groom left all the old folks back at the place where the reception was, and headed out to a bar called the Ravenite for pizza and beverage. I left half of my Deluxe Greek pizza sitting on the table when we left and man was i pissed. That was good 'za.
Hannah and Walt and Mikey.
Mikey got sauce all over his shirt. Bourbon faded him pretty quickly:
(Lisa was a trooper.)
...but he rallied in time to shake his groove thang with some 40-year-old women:
Matthew and Erin keep an eye on our small Jewish friend.
The Men of 316, plus Big Jon.
Brady and Rhoda, again.
Back to the hotel once more. We partied down in another room: Walt stole the trash can from the lobby and dropped it on me (my arm still hurts); Greg folded Lisa's roommate Curry up inside a mattress; fortunately, we were out of kumquats.
Epilogue
Here is one hell of a wedding favor:
Greg and i were on the same flight to Charlotte; his sister drove us to the airport, where i discovered that all of Thursday's flight rearrangements had resulted in part of my return itinerary being cancelled. Fortunately, this proved surmountable. Six hours, two flights, one layover, and a detailed reading of the Skymall catalogue later - i was home.