A 2 Hex Zone of Matrimony
I move with her lips
The dream is a night
But eternal the kiss
And slowly I come to her
Slowly we shed
The clothes of our doubting
And slowly we wed
--Leonard Cohen, "Slowly I Married Her"
Sitting at the Pare family home in Massachusettes while Roni's parents go to pick up her attendants for the trip to the airport. Wow.
Flew in Thursday night immediately after work, crashed at an Econo Lodge and met James the next morning to try on the tux. Hot. I mean, Hott with two "Ts". I looked *awesome*, it took all of a minute and a half, and we didn't need to be at the rehearsal site for over three hours. So there was time for 25 ounces of frosty Sam, a steak, hitting a Sales Tax-free Newbury Comics (picked up the new Calexico, DBT and Scott Miller records, the latter of which is by far the sexiest thing he's ever put out).
At the rehearsal site, met up with Katherine, Shannon, met Bob the Officiant (he had a certificate of solemnity approved by the state and everything) and his wife Jess, both of whom were awesome and probably spent as much time talking with me as the people I *already* knew. Also began meeting the Pare clan who rock and were kind to me way above and beyond the call of duty. Good to see James' parents again, and the extended DeBruicker family (all of whom look *exactly* like you'd expect).
Rehearsal dinner was at Pondview, a lovely upscale restaurant with -- if weather had been warmer -- paddle boats! The salmon was perfect, the hors d'oeurves were fantastic, and the group managed to kill an entire case of champagne, a case-four bottles of Chardonnay, about a case of beer.
From describing the evening later,
Bob: You know, James, I think you were at war with champagne that night, and you were *losing*.
R: I considered my time a love affair.
Bob: Yeah, an *abusive* love affair.
Katherine: Actuallly, Rich, I think you spilled some of your love affair on me.
R: Oh, if I only had a nickel...
Following this, it was out for one last night of insane wildness with James and his cousins. Particular props for his cousin Julia who not only has the softest smile and prettiest, bluest eyes I've ever seen but was more than willing to dance with me to more than one song and even continually trust me to dip her. She was an utterly charming delight, even if the restaurant/bar wasn't really set up for dancing as such.
In that same vein, bars in Haverhill, Mass, will throw you out for *nothing*. Bouncers and all! Learn from me, children, learn from me.
The next morning we went to rent the bulletproof Mercedes (no, I'm not kidding, quarter-inch bulletproof glass, automatically reinflating tires, a cell-phone built into the dash and a collection of CDs assembled entirely from reposessions). It was awesomely Dennis Lehane. Also ate some Kelly's roast beef sandwiches, justifiably world famous. Good god that was an awesome sammich.
The ceremony itself was gorgeous, the decorations looked amazing, the vows James and Roni wrote were beautiful, Shannon's matron-of-honor toast nearly made me cry (and did make James' father cry). It was stunning. And luckily, Jess' candid photos were given to the bridal party in unedited form so even the photos of me making terrible faces or chugging beers are in my possession. And the photos that look like Roni just clobbered somebody with the bouquet, usually her husband.
I was insanely honored to be invited out and everything was as close to perfect as the vagaries of fate will allow. Conversations about Doctor Who pornograpy, playwriting and all. And now, back to Columbus and reality and work.
Love to all of you,
R.
The dream is a night
But eternal the kiss
And slowly I come to her
Slowly we shed
The clothes of our doubting
And slowly we wed
--Leonard Cohen, "Slowly I Married Her"
Sitting at the Pare family home in Massachusettes while Roni's parents go to pick up her attendants for the trip to the airport. Wow.
Flew in Thursday night immediately after work, crashed at an Econo Lodge and met James the next morning to try on the tux. Hot. I mean, Hott with two "Ts". I looked *awesome*, it took all of a minute and a half, and we didn't need to be at the rehearsal site for over three hours. So there was time for 25 ounces of frosty Sam, a steak, hitting a Sales Tax-free Newbury Comics (picked up the new Calexico, DBT and Scott Miller records, the latter of which is by far the sexiest thing he's ever put out).
At the rehearsal site, met up with Katherine, Shannon, met Bob the Officiant (he had a certificate of solemnity approved by the state and everything) and his wife Jess, both of whom were awesome and probably spent as much time talking with me as the people I *already* knew. Also began meeting the Pare clan who rock and were kind to me way above and beyond the call of duty. Good to see James' parents again, and the extended DeBruicker family (all of whom look *exactly* like you'd expect).
Rehearsal dinner was at Pondview, a lovely upscale restaurant with -- if weather had been warmer -- paddle boats! The salmon was perfect, the hors d'oeurves were fantastic, and the group managed to kill an entire case of champagne, a case-four bottles of Chardonnay, about a case of beer.
From describing the evening later,
Bob: You know, James, I think you were at war with champagne that night, and you were *losing*.
R: I considered my time a love affair.
Bob: Yeah, an *abusive* love affair.
Katherine: Actuallly, Rich, I think you spilled some of your love affair on me.
R: Oh, if I only had a nickel...
Following this, it was out for one last night of insane wildness with James and his cousins. Particular props for his cousin Julia who not only has the softest smile and prettiest, bluest eyes I've ever seen but was more than willing to dance with me to more than one song and even continually trust me to dip her. She was an utterly charming delight, even if the restaurant/bar wasn't really set up for dancing as such.
In that same vein, bars in Haverhill, Mass, will throw you out for *nothing*. Bouncers and all! Learn from me, children, learn from me.
The next morning we went to rent the bulletproof Mercedes (no, I'm not kidding, quarter-inch bulletproof glass, automatically reinflating tires, a cell-phone built into the dash and a collection of CDs assembled entirely from reposessions). It was awesomely Dennis Lehane. Also ate some Kelly's roast beef sandwiches, justifiably world famous. Good god that was an awesome sammich.
The ceremony itself was gorgeous, the decorations looked amazing, the vows James and Roni wrote were beautiful, Shannon's matron-of-honor toast nearly made me cry (and did make James' father cry). It was stunning. And luckily, Jess' candid photos were given to the bridal party in unedited form so even the photos of me making terrible faces or chugging beers are in my possession. And the photos that look like Roni just clobbered somebody with the bouquet, usually her husband.
I was insanely honored to be invited out and everything was as close to perfect as the vagaries of fate will allow. Conversations about Doctor Who pornograpy, playwriting and all. And now, back to Columbus and reality and work.
Love to all of you,
R.