I recently had the privilege of attending my first actual church wedding.

Maybe you have heard of Shea and TJ tying the knot... if you're on this site then there is a very good chance that you did. If you have not read anything on the wedding then you may want to check out Shea and TJ's journals and the wonderful report Clive put together for the post, before and maybe instead of reading anything which will be in my journal here. This information will be factual (or as near as I can get with my memory) and it will contain much information that you might feel helpful in describing the wedding and following reception.

I guess all stories have a beginning and this one shouldn't be any different. The only problem is which beginning to start with. I could talk about the first time I met Shea face to face or even the first time I met TJ face to face, but is that really where I want to start? hmmm. I could go into the past of my friendship with my guest Aaron O'Keefe, but maybe I will save that for later. I guess it would be safe to start off briefly with saying that Shea and TJ actually invited me during the Feb NYC meet-up.

Now you may be asking yourself why would they, after meeting me personally, actually agree for me to show up at the wedding... the only explanation I could give you that would sound plausible is alcohol - and lots of it. So here we go I have been invited and I don't have a thing to wear (I haven't ever bought a suit... I think I wore a borrowed one in a school play once but that was years ago). So after I get the invitation in hand I go about getting ready. Now I don't have near as many things to get ready for as, lets say, the bride and groom, but I still have some things to do. The invitation is for Donald Jones and Guest. Well I go out and get me a guest... a lovely young lady who is going to be my date for the whole shindig.

Unfortunately a little while later she takes a job prevented her from going so I said to myself, 'what shall I do now?' Well what could I do but look for a new guest. I have known Aaron O'Keefe since we were freshman in High School and, as a matter of fact, he is the person that actually introduced me to h2g2 in the first place.

Well it seems our intrepid explorer decided to get his butt back from overseas and we have been trying to get a chance to hang out... so I, of course, suggest the wedding. He is thrilled with the idea and decides to extend his visit to a whole week. With the guest part taken care of I head out to get a suit. I am happy to say that I am now the owner of a very nice (IMHO) suit in which I can now go out to things (not sure other then weddings) that need one. I tell Aaron of my purchase and he tells me 'Oh man I don't have a suit!'. I suggest a shirt and tie because that is what Shea had told me originally to wear. He says there is no way he's going to let me get to wear a suit and him only a shirt and tie so he decides to wear his Dress Blues. So now I have a guest and a suit now it should be a simple matter of waiting out the time - oh and figuring out how I am actually going to get to and from the wedding

At some point or another I work it out with Clive and Amy†, so that they will be able to crash at my place before and after the wedding. So everything is working out just about fine... Aaron will be driving down on the 3^rd, then I will get Amy† and Clive at Penn station on the 6^th, then we all head out on the LIRR on the 7^th. Well room opens up before the wedding for my fellow researchers so that they will actually be able to stay out on Long Island before the wedding and will only need to crash at my place after the wedding... so what does this do... it frees me of all responsibilities and I don't have to be anywhere before the 7^th. Now you may be asking yourself once again 'what the heck is this guy babbling about and why would I need to know any of this?' well this is my story and I will tell it like I want to.

So I have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work; Aaron, after trying to go instead to Canada rather then hang out with yours truly, arrives on Wednesday night. Now much of Wednesday through Friday is a blur and most of the things I do remember I will not put in this story - let's face it, those things would make a much different story! I will say this, there was much and general acting like dag on fools those days before the wedding. There were some late nights and not much sleep - matter of fact we had left the city early Friday with the intention of getting some much needed sleep before the big day and that fell through horribly. We ended up staying up watching movies, and you guessed it, drinking till oh about two hours before we had to get up and get ready to head off to the wedding. So you can see the kind of mind set and shape we were already in.

Tacsatduck

01.08.02 Front Page

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