Nephew's Wedding

Saturday (Aug. 2, 2008) was devoted to the wedding of my nephew but there were a lot of details needing attention before the ceremony. Important stuff like finding a wedding card, signing the card, shoving some cash in it, getting the names right on the envelope, and yes: remembering to take it with us which I forgot but we resolved that a couple hours later.

My family, not unlike many has no charter membership on dysfunction. So sister (mother of the groom) was dreading extended hours in the presence of (let's just call him) "jerk face" (in other words her ex, aka father of the groom) and his "jerk face" new wife (new, hell they've been married years now). I'm guessing Mr. & Mrs. "jerk face" were feeling about the same but hey, that's part of how modern weddings go, y'know. The best advice for them was to understand the day was entirely about the bride and groom and act accordingly.

Janice suggested she could get mom delivered to the country club so sister would have one less stress since mom is getting into advanced Alzheimer's. We arrived in town on motorcycles (brother on his and Janice and I on ours) so Janice was using sister's car while brother and I provided front and rear escort on our bikes. I was riding lead with map and address in possession. Hand drawn maps have their disadvantages and so it was this time. Although the street to the south appeared to lead to the country club the fact was I should have gone further north to the next major street. Add a bit of erratic behavior on the part of my bike and we were looking at being late. Cellphones to the rescue: totally stressed sister gave accurate directions and Janice went ahead to deliver mom while brother and I dealt with my bike. The bike continued misbehaving right into the country club parking lot and hasn't since, some 300+ miles. Anyway we arrived in time and were ushered to seats. Tense, yes but we made it.

Music, first the preacher person proceeds to the front, nephew and sister proceed to the front, they embrace, sister goes off to the right and nephew turns toward the gathering. As he surveyed the crowd his gaze fell upon brother, Janice and I. His expression was first surprise, then pleasure, then nods of acknowledgement before continuing his survey of the gathering. As already said there's no charter membership on dysfunction. For me it's a feeling of never quite getting to know nephews and nieces but at that moment, well let's just say it felt incredible.