Black Wedding

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Hey Kids,

Today was Wedding Day!

To say this wedding is different from any other I’ve experienced would be understating the fact so severely that I would be borderline guilty of lying by omission if I failed to say so.

First. Being in a commercial haunted house already set it apart. We were given the run of the place from closing last night until opening tonight. The place is dark, creepy, and well worn. The décor is gruesome and the feeling about it is cheap and spooky. We are in a commercial venture of scaring people- in order to exchange vows of love.

Two. The wedding ceremony was held in what I believe was “Satan’s Throne Room.” The podium for the officiant was an altar of skulls. The walls were black and attended by deformed and tortured souls. The lighting was barely enough for any notes to be read.

Three. The grooms’ arrival consisted of one being brought in within a coffin. The other tied to a furniture hand truck. Both were in full costume: a vampire and a Hannibal-type character.

Four. The groomsmen were zombies. The Maids of Honor were in mourning (dressed in black with veils).

The Poe Cake By: BakemeaKake.com

The Poe Cake By: BakemeaKake.com

Five. The attendees were encouraged to dress up. Most did. The cake was a Poe themed cake.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention what was the same.

The exchange of vows. The expressions of love. The sentimentality of what the occasion meant and would mean for the rest of these two gentlemen’s lives.

Tears fell, noses sniffled, and a few even had to be blown. The special nature of the moment wasn’t lost on anyone there that I witnessed.

I’ve noticed a trend of tradition-challenged events; weddings being a main target. My wedding, although not as Haunty as this one, pushed and broke many traditional norms.

What I think is important is the meaning of these events and the understanding of what marriage is, doesn’t change.

From what I saw and heard today, I think the idea of marriage and love were well understood.

 

Day 246

A Hellish Wedding

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Hey Kids,

Tomorrow ends our self-proclaimed “Epic October”.

We started it out with our own wedding. We got the green light and planned it and did it.

Next was our trip to Texas to visit my sweetie’s home country.

Now tomorrow is the next event. My sweetie’s oldest son’s wedding.

And like our wedding, it won’t be your classic setting. We went for mountains, fresh air, and a natural setting; they will be exchanging vows in a constructed cemetery, in the middle of a haunted house venue, while in full Halloween costume.

All guests are expected to join in the dressing up part too.

Both her son, and now my step son, and his partner work at the Haunted house, so this actually doesn’t strike any of us as odd. It sounds like it’ll be weird, creepy, and a whole lot of fun.

I expect it to be also tenderhearted and genuine.

I know that there would be some that wouldn’t approve of the venue, of the costumes, or even of the couple.

To hell with them.

Or I guess, considering the venue, to hell with us!

In a staged cemetery anyway.

 

Day 245

Big Fish

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Hey Kids,

What to do on a lazy Sunday:

Sleep in.

Make French toast out of the last of the sourdough loaf from the other day.

Clean kitchen.

Go to a matinee movie. (Bridge of Spies. Excellent movie!)

Walk around the outdoor mall. (For some unknown reason to me, the best mall in Utah called the Gateway sits half abandoned of stores and nearly void of people.)

Such a sweet girl.

Such a sweet girl

Visit the Aquarium to check on our favorite fish the Arapaima. (Don’t tell her but she’s getting so big. That’s a good thing for us, but you know those females and comments about getting bigger.)

Finish off the taco fixings from yesterday.

Watch the 2nd half of my team actually winning their game.

Feed the sourdough starter.

Make a batch of root beer.

Finish up our costumes for the wedding. (Costumes?? I’ll explain more later.)

Blog.

Cuddle up to a movie with the sweetie.

Go to bed.

For being so lazy, we actually got a few things done.

 

Day 244

Go Utes!

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Hey Kids,

My local university and employer of over 23 years, Utah, has a football team.utah-drum-lg

Going into this weekend they were nationally ranked #3 with a perfect 6-0 record.

They were to play a struggling USC team.

They lost, 42-24.

Some would see this as a tragedy. It is sad. I mostly feel bad for the players who put so much time and really parts of their souls into the training and practice that allows them to play at this level. But for the rest of us, it’s really just a game and it means very little.

Yes I want them to win every game. But they don’t and they won’t.

I still have to go to work on Monday. I would’ve had to go if they won too. My rent’s still due, my dinner still needs to be cooked, and my need to sleep remains.

It’s sad, but it doesn’t make any real difference in my life.

I hear there’s a game next week.

Go Utes!

 

Day 243

Breathless 18

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Hey Kids,

I remember the tension in the operating room. I was no doctor but I knew something wasn’t right. My little girl wasn’t breathing.

The nurses stiffened up, the humor and comments silenced. They bustled about her until the faint baby’s cry called out.Image004p2

I consoled my wife and told her what had been happening. Caesarian births limit what the mother can see and do.

I followed behind the group of nurses and watched over my little girl as they verified her breathing would continue on her own. I prayed. Hours later, I held her.

2 weeks later, my little girl again encountered challenges to breathing. Her lungs and body still not accustomed and conditioned to fight for breath, would just stop. She would turn blue. An honest blue. We rushed her to the Children’s hospital.

Doctors whisked her away from us and I stood on the outer edge of the emergency room station, straining to hear and understand what could be the reason. A virus called RSV they said.

Eventually she returned to my arms and again I held her tight and said my prayers over her. She returned home and has breathed without problems ever since.

Today she turned 18. This time it’s me who feels like my breath has been taken away as I stand on the periphery of her life straining to hear and understand if she’s ready for adulthood. I pray that she is. And I pray that eventually I’ll get to hold her again.

Happy Birthday Little Girl. I love you.

 

Day 242

It All Makes Sense in Time

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Hey Kids,

The wicked flee when no man pursueth. Proverbs 28:1

I wrote this down yesterday when I read it at the start of the movie True Grit.bible-neethling-efs1755mm-6232880-h

I understood where it fit for the movie, but the meaning escaped me in the real context. Until today.

I explained to another that I had no fear of review, I had confidence in my work and could accept an outsider’s opinion. I now understood.

Do good things and good work, and you need not hide it nor be ashamed.

Day 241

Internet Takeover

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Hey Kids,

Back to the Future or Star Wars?

That has been the internet for two days now.

Monday, the full trailer for the new but 7th Star Wars movie aired during Monday Night Football and the internet soon became clogged with replays of it. People started buying tickets for the December release and crashed the sites selling them within 88 minutes.art,backtothefuture,comic,illustration,movie,starwars-8b146d844d7f7e3477f82e4026f39602_h

Today was the date depicted in the movie Back to the Future 2 as the future. Everyone made their comparisons to what the movie saw as our future today and what it is for reals. They were not exactly right.

I’m a little full of the Star Wars and Back to the Future references, although I’m not against either.

But you know what’s really cool?

With so much Jedi and Marty McFly in the timelines, a whole lot of crap got pushed out.

I’m OK with that.

 

Day 240

Dance

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Hey Kids,

The last dance.

I remember going to the school dances and spending so much of it preparing to ask that one girl for the last dance.dance-12

The last dance would be a slow one; one to cherish, one to get close and create a moment. Even if for only me.

At the end of the song, the house lights came on, the girl returned to her friends, and I realized that the entire evening had become reduced to one song. And one girl.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m boohooing; I had some incredible last dances with some wonderful crushes.

Now with the wisdom of age, I understand I would’ve been better off if I had just stopped waiting for the magic moment and enjoyed all of the moments, danced the whole dance with whatever girl would grant me the honor.

And the situation still exists.

Every day is a new song at the biggest school dance of them all.

Do I want one special dance at the end? Or a lifetime of dancing to all the songs?

Seize the day, I say.

Dance.

 

Day 239

Melodic Mile Markers

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Hey Kids,

Time can march, but it can’t dance, without notice.

On the drive home yesterday, I plugged in some CD’s that I had made some years ago for another road trip.1dc72a674b4f38617ca75bc6040a4cec

I had found a radio station out of France specializing in 80’s music. I set my desktop to record and would come back later and edit out the songs I didn’t want. It was the new way of recording the music off the radio with a cassette tape, like what I used to do back in high school. The songs on the CD even had the same abrupt start and stops like the cassette tapes did. There wasn’t any way to edit the DJ’s talking, the commercials, and the song overlaps. Editing is easier now, but not really worth the time.

The hits of the 80’s played for several hours across the desert roads of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. They kept me awake as the rest of the vehicle occupants slept. They kept me thinking.

I remember when those “classics” were “newly released titles”. The lyrics and melodies bled into thoughts of when I last or first heard them. Dances, classes, people, and drives in my parents’ 75 Oldsmobile Regency, all come back to the forefront of my thoughts almost as if they were happening right then. It’s as close to time travel as I will ever come.

At times it’s hard to pinpoint how long it has been since this or that happened. Time seems to march forward with that slow and steady pace that folds days into unrecognizable years.

Music, however, is the mile markers along the long lonesome highway that reminds you exactly where you are and where you’ve been.

 

Day 238

Riding and Thinking

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Hey Kids,

Yesterday I woke at 7.

Did the day: ate breakfast, watched the parade, packed up the car, watered the flowers on Annette’s mom’s grave, grabbed my last Texas BBQ sandwich, and then drove 21 straight hours with two one-hour meal breaks.road trip

Before I go to sleep tonight, I do have a few thoughts from the drive.

I expected to rent a Toyota. They gave me a KIA Optima. I worried. Was this just another Yugo? Were the knobs going to start falling off? How fresh were the hamsters? The car was fantastic, hope I get the occasion to drive another. Really.

Didn’t pay over $2/gallon for gas once I left Utah. I didn’t pay it again until I got back to Utah. Why? I still think buck-eighty gas is still too much to pay but it reminds me of back when we were free to travel without dipping into the grocery money. I love the environment and I hope and pray that a free, renewable energy replaces fossil fuels, but until then, what good is it to have a beautiful environment if most can’t afford to go and enjoy it.

That being said, get out to where you can. Seeing new parts of this great country makes one realize how blessed we are to be here. Never thought I would enjoy Texas as much as I did this past week until I went there. Wouldn’t have ever known without seeing and experiencing it for myself.

Love, love, love the higher speed limits! 55MPH sucked, sucks, and will always suck. (Sorry, I’m still bitter)

Time to get some sleep.

 

Day 237