Singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long...

I slept pretty much most of the day today this Sunday, the day of rest. Its 22:00 and Ive only been awake for 2 hours, after a monumental and much needed nap. And Im still tired; no word of a lie, I was thinking of eating some tapioca pudding, my favorite pudding of all time, made even more desirable because they dont have tapioca pudding in stupid Ireland, but still decided not to, because that would require walking 20 feet towards the kitchen. Im fine just right here, I thought to myself. Tapioca Pudding. All because Marty got married to Lorrie yesterday at the Patterson Farm at Lindell Beach, near Cultus Lake, Chilliwack.

Im sitting here, trying to type, already having erased a few attempts that werent good enough, trying somehow to do this wedding justice but I cant, Im just not that talented enough of a writer. It deserves a grand scale synopsis, with eloquence that I cant seem to put together right. Nevermind that Im too exhausted and completely brain spent. All I can say is this: There is something about that day that is beyond the reach of words, something that escapes even my best efforts to spit it out, yet at its very least, it captured the best of us, of this circle of friends, sharing a night so rich and different and beautiful that it was beyond everything we could of ever hoped for. Thanks Marty, Lorrie, love ya.

Now for a few highlights:

- Who would of thought, Marty's mom and brother are bloody funny! Marty sucks in comparison, like really. And toast up to Sam: for releasing the heavyweight championship of the world belt and introducing our new favorite couple, Mar-rie Pachow.
- Wedding line of the night, from Table 23: Morris -> 'Love is like a tree. Because trees grow. And everyone loves trees...'
- One thing I learned last night, beware when dancing around Huong with a strappy dress, she tends to inadvertantly flash people. Josh so missed out.
- At 10 O'Clock, after behaving for most of the day, the NPC finally showed up. No Pace Chow... this was the party Marty we know. Not too much later, I helped reverse his jacket to reveal the Paisley side of life, and then it was over. Just like Over the Top, when Lincoln Hawk turns his hat around, its like a switch. By the end of the night, he was dancing topless. Cold times.
- Christian is the winner of the award for looking exactly the same at the end of the wedding as he did at the beginning of the wedding.
- Needless to say, Marty wins for the exact opposite.
- Best Dress: Well Lorrie of course.
- 2nd Best Dress: Everyone looked absolutely stunning... tie. (Political answer, but also honest)
- Rain cleanses........ and makes for a fun dance floor.
- Jill and Lisa were dancing in Uggs. Apparently to annoy me. It worked. I hope the staining from the rain will render them unwearable from this day forward. Cuz that would teach them a lesson.. dont wear Uggs.
- This was the first wedding that I can remember where U2 was not played by the DJ. Or Nsync.. like WTF? I could be wrong... at least I hope Im wrong.
- If everyone wasnt so tired or drunk, Im sure Adams stint sleeping outside on his own would of ended in an epic prank we all could of told our grand kids. Alas, again the combination of inebriation and fatigue thwarts creativity and gets us nowhere.
- Nothing is better than waking up hungover, in a tent, to the smell of sausages and bacon cooking in the distance... like are you kidding me.. so good.
- I mentioned this when we were leaving but... given it was a outdoor camping wedding, Im sure if we all got together for a class action dry cleaning, we would get an amazing discount.

Thanks again to the Chow and Patterson families for a completely amazing wedding for the ages.

Vancouver... I like counting

Im back in Vancouver again. I dont live here anymore, but there is something quite powerful and overcoming when flying into Vancouver in the midst of gorgeous blue skies weather. Watching it from above, the city can take your breath away. If I didnt have any carry-ons, I swear Id start skipping all the way to Immigration and the luggage claims.

And heres another thing that makes me uncontrollably happy... Fiest on Sesame Street with her Iconic song. Try not to smile and turn into a 5 year old all over again.

Worst

Im in a terrible mood right now. Im actually Angry. Im sitting in the Terminal in Central Wisconsin Airport, just finished checking in and I just got charged $100 because one of my bags was overweight. Feck that, United Airlines, like really. Normally incidents such as this dont bother me that much, but its been a snowball situation for the last few days and I finally got to the point where I just spat out the pacificer. Truthfully, I shouldn't really be that mad because firstly I will expense it to work anyways, and to be fair, all Airlines now have restricted the amount of baggage allowable on flights, charging for 2nd bags, decreasing the weight limit per bag, etc. These new rules have been properly disclosed and communicated and it doesnt come out of my pocket, but it doesnt take away from the fact that they are stupidhead rules. One more reason to blame the Chinese and the Indians for developing stronger economies; increasing the global demand for resources, and therefore creating an ever escalating cost of living for the rest of us. Its so much more convenient when it boils down to a generalization, doesnt it?

Again normally I wouldnt be so mad, but hinderances and snags have been been building up for the last couple days. I have already alluded to my currently location: Im back in Wisconsin for round two in this scheduled 3 round bout. I was suppose to leave Friday morning but was informed that I would have to stay longer and work another weekend, my 4th weekend in 6 weeks. Dont mean to stutter, but I didnt mind too much, really, if only it just ended there. Fortunately I had a coleague, Big Paddy with me on this trip for a week. He got to go home Friday though, which left me on my lonesome. For the weekend. Again, by itself, not that bad. It turned for the worse on Sunday night, when I was called into the mill for coverage at the stupid O'clock time of 2:30am. On the night before I was suppose to fly. Seriously. Normally Id only be there for an hour or so, do my thing, and be out of there quicker than quick, so I could go back to my bed. Things did not go well though, things broke down, which made other things break down, and before you know it, I was a zombie crossed with a bear, leaving at 6am, with a 11am flight, and I had not slept yet. This all contributed to me doing something for the first time ever, I missed my flight. I went back to the hotel, to catch maybe 2 hours sleeps.... but my alarm didnt go off loud enough, and I woke up as my flight was taking off. And now Im here in the Airport getting charged $100 for being overweight ( which I was not charged for on the way here, I might add), on top of the $150 change flight fee. And to really piss me out more than anything, because I missed the morning flight, I lose 5 hours of shopping time in Chicago. Yes I was going to go shopping for shoes; now I probably only have 1.5 hours tops, which is basically the time I would allow for purchasing socks. If you subtract shoe shopping time from Noli, Noli starts kicking people in the mouth.

Im whinging, and I really shouldnt post this because it makes me sound like a whinging bitch; bad form. Nobody likes a whinging bitch, apart from Lawyers who client them, of course, but nobody likes them either. Ill regret it, I will, I didnt even get a chance to make it sound more dramatic and interesting. This could very well be my worst post ever. But I dont care, I need to vent and its better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.

And Ill be back in Vancouver soon, for a few days, till I have to comeback here again. Hope that goes well.

Update: Great... as I sit here in the terminal, Ive just been informed the flight is delayed at least one hour because of windshear at Ohare airport... and my shopping time has quickly evaporated to nothing. Yet another reason to hate on OHare. I better start listening to some dancy Goldfrapp on iTouch before I backhand a stranger for good reason, Naomi Campbell / Diana Ross style.

Coffee

I think its been said that the definition of madness is repeating the same mistake over and over, expecting a different result. Or it can be the sign of being outright and blantantly retarded, which makes things even worser for me, in this way, because Im more often guilty of the same. I dont know if anyone relates to me on this or not, but I sometimes find myself repeating a mistake, only because I thought it would be different this next time, hoping and believing that some variable, some element, some ingredient, some condition, SOMETHING... has evolved on its own in the time and space between last time and now to make the situation different; and so I try again and then again. And again. Actually this pretty much defines my social inadequacies.

You see i bring this up, because Im sitting at a Starbucks at Barnes and Noble in Wausau Wisconsin (yep back here again), falling again for a cute Starbucks Barista. Her name is Kelly. We flirt briefly everytime I purchase my tall latte with irish cream, which I only frequent when she is working. Its going no where, I know this, but I try the same things, because of what I explained above. (BTW, as I sit here typing, I know I picked good, because her male co-worker Mr shadow bearded barista dude, is obviously crushing on her as well, its SO obvious) I blame Starbucks actually, its one of the few large scale outfit chains I can think of where there is a good shooting percentage of finding an employee to develop a short fancy on. Or more simplying, at Starbucks there is at least a chance of finding some decent looking birds. Not all the time, or not even a majority percentage, but at the very least above the societal average found when one is walking around the street or taking public transportation. I think everyone can agree, the percentages on the bus are downright pitiful if not upsetting. You can actually ask yourself this: when was the last time you went to Dennys, Walmart or Macdonalds, and found someone you thought was cute? Id have to go back all the way to high school, personally, and those memories probably dont count as much cuz theyre kinda fuzzy; my memory aint what it used to be. Not that there is anything wrong with being ugly, in most cases it just means your earning potential is stunted because youre forced to work at Dennys, Walmart or Macdonalds. So there is something special and different about Starbucks which equates closer to the Abercrombie and Fitch levels of appeal. Only difference is you cant sit at Abercrombie and Fitch, hours on end, with a laptop, being faux-productive. Now, I would probably need 3 hands in order to count the number of times Starbucks has produced up girls worthy of repeat flirting. Its probably one of the major reasons I come to this place in general, so their human resourcing practices must emphasize this on some minute level, because it obviously leads to increased repeat business, despite their mass produced fair trade coffee. And all I could say is, with the recent news that Starbucks is closing down 600 stores this year, it must be all the ones where only ugly people work at them.

Oh damn, Kelly just glanced over, Im about to pass out....