Weddings, Funerals, New Beginnings and the End of Summer
Sylvia’s Wedding in Pittsurgh through Labor Day in NYC
Sylvia’s wedding was the 19th so Jason and I drove down to Pittsburgh for a very short three-day vacation. It was great to see everyone again. It’s weird how time moves - it feels like just yesterday I was hanging out with them at PHI and yet it seems like an eternity since we’ve all hung out like that. I miss those days. There are still no takers for my big Real World house in NY though.
The Pittsburgh trip was non-stop madness. We left at 6am and got in around 1pm. It wasn’t a bad drive at all. We had lunch with Josh and then hung out with Roxanne and Derrick. Then we checked into the hotel and quickly drove off to the Andy Warhol Museum. The new exhibit was John Waters, the crazy director of Pink Flamingos. Andy and John are two of Jason’s heroes so he was thrilled. I loved the exhibit too and of course I took a ton of pictures. The coolest part was that when we were spending away our life savings in the gift shop the guy behind the counter was totally flirting with us and talking about how John Waters had visited the museum quite a bit. (Jason got an autographed copy of the book.) Among the celebrities who had been there were John and Nick from Duran Duran. The guy got them to autograph by where they were mentioned in the Andy Warhol diaries so of course I took a picture of that. Oh the randomness.
After the museum we had dinner at Fuel and Fuddle and then met the gang for drinks at PHI. Derrick and Josh pretty much spent the whole night drinking with us. Derrick was even trying to arrange a threesome with us and his fraternity brother Chris who had been in Peru all summer and needed some action. Oh the hilariousness. I had a great time catching up with everyone. Mel, Roxanne and Courtney came by after the girls were done with their bridal shower/bachelorette party madness. We all got trickity trashed and basically turned PHI into the gayest dance party in Pittsburgh.
The next day was the wedding and while I had good intentions of getting up early to swing by KDR and see people that pretty much fell off the radar as other things had to get done. We grabbed lunch with Josh and Roxanne, made a trip to the liquor store, got dressed and then headed off to Phipps Conservatory. It was a thousand degrees outside but the ceremony was beautiful and short so the heat wasn’t too much to bear.
The reception was at the top of Mount Washington. The view was beautiful, until the crazy storm swept by. Scary. It was so great to see everyone at the wedding and catch up with them. Our table was by far the coolest - me, Jason, Mel, Chris, Josh, Roxanne, Kristen and Neesha. Courtney swung by for a while and we joked that she must have done something terrible to Sylvia to end up at the table was at. LOL. I took a ton of pictures of course. There was a lot to photograph - everyone dressed up in nice clothes, the beautiful tea ceremony, Sylvia’s two gorgeous dresses, people trying to slow dance, and of course the wedding cake!!! The food was great and while the reception was over 5 hours no one really wanted to leave. Once we finally did, I invited most of the wedding back to my hotel room for the Official After Party. At one point we had about 25 people there, with at least 10 people sitting on the bed since we didn’t have a love seat.
The after party was hilarious times. We were exchanging stories about our undergrad madness - the KDR parties, PHI madness, the traffic cones! Our group is crazy and incestuous by I love them all. It was nice to make some new friends too. I reconnected with Jim, who I only knew vaguely from Sig Tau. He, Jason and I got along really well. It’s great to have so many friends and while I wish we could all get that house in NYC, having people in different locations is a lot of fun. Jason and I really want to go to San Francisco next summer to visit Josh. London and Amsterdam is now on the calendar for Summer 2007.
Sunday morning was very sad. I had to leave Pittsburgh (again!) and make the drive back to adulthood. The trip was way too short. It’s good that I got home when I did, though, as family commitments took over that week. I found out Monday morning on my way to work that my cousin Danny needed to get in touch with my parents and that it was important. Yikes. His mom has been really sick so of course I thought the worst. When I finally got Danny on the phone later that morning he told me that his dad had died very suddenly. His dad, my Uncle Al, my dad’s best friend, the coolest guy you’ll ever meet, had died. I was flabbergasted. My parents were still in Hawaii so I called them with the terrible news. They were coming back Wednesday, which was just in time for the wake.
I was stunned and confused all through work, wondering why Uncle Al was gone. I had to keep in together though since I knew my dad was going to be devastated. The night of the wake I went to my parents’ house. My Uncle Stu picked them up at the airport and then we all drove out to Long Island. I’ve never seen a wake like this. There was a line outside that was over 100 people long. We had to have my cousins come outside to get us to skip the line. Uncle Al was a Nassau County Detective Sgt. and was on the force for over 30 years so he had a TON of friends. He was also big into philanthropy and community service so he was extremely well known around town. Everyone there was in shock and seemed inconsolable. My dad was even more of a wreck than I thought he’d be. We stayed for most of the three hours but decided to leave because the line outside was still big so we knew we wouldn’t be able to spend time with the family afterwards.
The next morning was the funeral and it was an all-day event. The procession from the church to the funeral home was over 100 cars. There was a big police escort and they completely stopped traffic for 5 exits on the Long Island Expressway. It was like nothing I had ever seen. The dinner afterward was equally sad as people recounted hilarious stories about Uncle Al but for the most part everyone was just devastated. We got back to my parents’ house around 6pm and then I had my final night of my summer bowling league. By 11pm I was finally back at my apartment exhausted and still kind of in shock. I don’t know how my cousins are dealing with all this. I know Aunt Susan and Lauren came over during Labor Day weekend to see Mom and actually spent the night. Aunt Susan is still sick but at least Danny and Gina still live at home and can help take care of her.
While Mom was busy with guests over Labor Day, I was playing matchmaker. Two friends came into town and hit it off really well. Yay for love. Well, okay it’s not “love” yet but it’s definitely “like” with lots of similar interests and definitely some action. I’m happy to finally have some quality gay friends to really be myself around. The weekend was awesome - we walked around the West Village, hung out at Chelsea Piers, went clubbing at Splash, visited the Intrepid, went to the big Toys R Us in Times Square, played Trivial Pursuit, drank some beer, played with Legos, and watched some How’d They Do That on the Science channel. Overall it was one of the best weekends ever, especially since I proved to Philippe that the pronunciation is CinnabOn.
Can you hear me?
Are you near me?
Can we pretend to leave and then
We'll meet again
When both our cars collide?
What's the worst that I can say?
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight
And if you carry on this way
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight
-My Chemical Romance, “Helena”
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
-Green Day
Sylvia’s wedding was the 19th so Jason and I drove down to Pittsburgh for a very short three-day vacation. It was great to see everyone again. It’s weird how time moves - it feels like just yesterday I was hanging out with them at PHI and yet it seems like an eternity since we’ve all hung out like that. I miss those days. There are still no takers for my big Real World house in NY though.
The Pittsburgh trip was non-stop madness. We left at 6am and got in around 1pm. It wasn’t a bad drive at all. We had lunch with Josh and then hung out with Roxanne and Derrick. Then we checked into the hotel and quickly drove off to the Andy Warhol Museum. The new exhibit was John Waters, the crazy director of Pink Flamingos. Andy and John are two of Jason’s heroes so he was thrilled. I loved the exhibit too and of course I took a ton of pictures. The coolest part was that when we were spending away our life savings in the gift shop the guy behind the counter was totally flirting with us and talking about how John Waters had visited the museum quite a bit. (Jason got an autographed copy of the book.) Among the celebrities who had been there were John and Nick from Duran Duran. The guy got them to autograph by where they were mentioned in the Andy Warhol diaries so of course I took a picture of that. Oh the randomness.
After the museum we had dinner at Fuel and Fuddle and then met the gang for drinks at PHI. Derrick and Josh pretty much spent the whole night drinking with us. Derrick was even trying to arrange a threesome with us and his fraternity brother Chris who had been in Peru all summer and needed some action. Oh the hilariousness. I had a great time catching up with everyone. Mel, Roxanne and Courtney came by after the girls were done with their bridal shower/bachelorette party madness. We all got trickity trashed and basically turned PHI into the gayest dance party in Pittsburgh.
The next day was the wedding and while I had good intentions of getting up early to swing by KDR and see people that pretty much fell off the radar as other things had to get done. We grabbed lunch with Josh and Roxanne, made a trip to the liquor store, got dressed and then headed off to Phipps Conservatory. It was a thousand degrees outside but the ceremony was beautiful and short so the heat wasn’t too much to bear.
The reception was at the top of Mount Washington. The view was beautiful, until the crazy storm swept by. Scary. It was so great to see everyone at the wedding and catch up with them. Our table was by far the coolest - me, Jason, Mel, Chris, Josh, Roxanne, Kristen and Neesha. Courtney swung by for a while and we joked that she must have done something terrible to Sylvia to end up at the table was at. LOL. I took a ton of pictures of course. There was a lot to photograph - everyone dressed up in nice clothes, the beautiful tea ceremony, Sylvia’s two gorgeous dresses, people trying to slow dance, and of course the wedding cake!!! The food was great and while the reception was over 5 hours no one really wanted to leave. Once we finally did, I invited most of the wedding back to my hotel room for the Official After Party. At one point we had about 25 people there, with at least 10 people sitting on the bed since we didn’t have a love seat.
The after party was hilarious times. We were exchanging stories about our undergrad madness - the KDR parties, PHI madness, the traffic cones! Our group is crazy and incestuous by I love them all. It was nice to make some new friends too. I reconnected with Jim, who I only knew vaguely from Sig Tau. He, Jason and I got along really well. It’s great to have so many friends and while I wish we could all get that house in NYC, having people in different locations is a lot of fun. Jason and I really want to go to San Francisco next summer to visit Josh. London and Amsterdam is now on the calendar for Summer 2007.
Sunday morning was very sad. I had to leave Pittsburgh (again!) and make the drive back to adulthood. The trip was way too short. It’s good that I got home when I did, though, as family commitments took over that week. I found out Monday morning on my way to work that my cousin Danny needed to get in touch with my parents and that it was important. Yikes. His mom has been really sick so of course I thought the worst. When I finally got Danny on the phone later that morning he told me that his dad had died very suddenly. His dad, my Uncle Al, my dad’s best friend, the coolest guy you’ll ever meet, had died. I was flabbergasted. My parents were still in Hawaii so I called them with the terrible news. They were coming back Wednesday, which was just in time for the wake.
I was stunned and confused all through work, wondering why Uncle Al was gone. I had to keep in together though since I knew my dad was going to be devastated. The night of the wake I went to my parents’ house. My Uncle Stu picked them up at the airport and then we all drove out to Long Island. I’ve never seen a wake like this. There was a line outside that was over 100 people long. We had to have my cousins come outside to get us to skip the line. Uncle Al was a Nassau County Detective Sgt. and was on the force for over 30 years so he had a TON of friends. He was also big into philanthropy and community service so he was extremely well known around town. Everyone there was in shock and seemed inconsolable. My dad was even more of a wreck than I thought he’d be. We stayed for most of the three hours but decided to leave because the line outside was still big so we knew we wouldn’t be able to spend time with the family afterwards.
The next morning was the funeral and it was an all-day event. The procession from the church to the funeral home was over 100 cars. There was a big police escort and they completely stopped traffic for 5 exits on the Long Island Expressway. It was like nothing I had ever seen. The dinner afterward was equally sad as people recounted hilarious stories about Uncle Al but for the most part everyone was just devastated. We got back to my parents’ house around 6pm and then I had my final night of my summer bowling league. By 11pm I was finally back at my apartment exhausted and still kind of in shock. I don’t know how my cousins are dealing with all this. I know Aunt Susan and Lauren came over during Labor Day weekend to see Mom and actually spent the night. Aunt Susan is still sick but at least Danny and Gina still live at home and can help take care of her.
While Mom was busy with guests over Labor Day, I was playing matchmaker. Two friends came into town and hit it off really well. Yay for love. Well, okay it’s not “love” yet but it’s definitely “like” with lots of similar interests and definitely some action. I’m happy to finally have some quality gay friends to really be myself around. The weekend was awesome - we walked around the West Village, hung out at Chelsea Piers, went clubbing at Splash, visited the Intrepid, went to the big Toys R Us in Times Square, played Trivial Pursuit, drank some beer, played with Legos, and watched some How’d They Do That on the Science channel. Overall it was one of the best weekends ever, especially since I proved to Philippe that the pronunciation is CinnabOn.
Can you hear me?
Are you near me?
Can we pretend to leave and then
We'll meet again
When both our cars collide?
What's the worst that I can say?
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight
And if you carry on this way
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight
-My Chemical Romance, “Helena”
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
-Green Day