Multiply Works Right, The Wedding (Part 1 of 2)

I’m sorry, MySpace, I found a new love.  She’s much cleaner, and plays well with others.  Don’t worry, I won’t forget you, but, I’ll be spending a little more time with my Multiply account instead.

Ok, overly dramatic.  But I have to admit – I really like Multiply after I started playing with it.  I had a little extra time tonight, so I set down and made an account, and as per my usual, I started jumping through all the hoops of what it could do.  Some things are pretty much the same damned thing as MySpace, but some things are a lot slicker (though the editor?  Yeah, it’s friggin’ dumbed down from MySpace, though I can still edit HTML to do advanced stuff If I need to.)

One of the things I love is how Tagging works (and how it auto-generates a tag cloud for you, and keeps track of you used tag cloud items for later tagging.  Nice.).  The photo uploader WORKS LIKE IT SHOULD.  Big pet peeve of mine with MySpace (along with the fact that it wants me to scale down all my images.)  It also allows you to tag who’s in a picture – fucking genius!  Click, and it brings up a list of people you know, and you say who’s in the pic.  That’s like, a perfect idea!  I uploaded waaaaaay too many pictures in nothing flat – in fact, it took me longer to get the pics out of my old personal gallery system than it did to put ’em in here. (I didn’t upload them all to here – there’s 36 pages of stuff with my old phone camera I didn’t bother to put on here for instance 😉

MySpace also tends to piss off FireFox on the Mac from time to time.  And if it crashes in the middle of one of my large posts, well… I’m just fucked.  And while I was writing this, I flipped over to my MySpace, and FireFox harfed.  I restarted the session, and unlike MySpace, it kept all my text.  Hm.  Not sure why really, but I like that 😉

Now on to the meat of this post…  Heather and Nick’s wedding.  Get yourself a tea, coffee, or beverage of choice.  Actually, better get two.  And a snack.  This is three days worth of stuff packed in one post 😉

The first thing I gotta say is I really wasn’t looking forward to having anything to do with the wedding or events related to it.  I’m pretty self-centered somedays (yeah, big surprise ;-), and I had some issues I was tryin’ to figure out (and I’ll get into that later.)  But one thing is for certain – Nick and Heather both made sure I knew I was invited, and Nick made sure I knew I was invited to the bachalor party.  This is one of those things – self centered or not, issues or not, I’m not going to let a friend (or two in this case) down by not showing up to an event like this to show my love and support.  They’d do it for me, and I’m gonna do it for them. 

I showed up at Hooters, and well… I didn’t know much of anyone there.  Nick, and the Twins when they showed up.  I knew Drew by sight, but I don’t actually know the guy.  Oh, and same with Nick’s brother.

I spent most of the night chatting with Nick or the twins.  Wasn’t to snub anyone else, I just.. well, wanted to chat with the people I knew most of the time :-)  For me it was mostly uneventful – I just kicked back, watched, and make sure I saw a smile on Nicks face at all times.

Except for that ONE little thing I did.  Ya see, I’ve nixed any illusions I’ve ever had about getting re-married.  Years ago I talked Nick into getting on stage with some of the girls at Jezzabells.  He left with two hand prints on his stomach that lasted at least a week.  I told the gal this time it needed to be around 8 days instead 🙂

Yeeeeaaahhh… they didn’t do what I expected.  Instead, they beat his ass with belts.  Not exactly as much fun or as interesting, and they broke the belt on him.  That’s the only time Nick wasn’t smiling, and I felt bad about it.  Later, I realized something:  That S.O.B. is gonna be looking for some serious revenge on me if I ever get remarried 🙂

The night ended pretty early for me – I had a serious head cold, and no money.  So, unlike my usual of closing out the bar, I think I headed home at 11PM.  Again, boring night for me 🙂

This is where, for me, things got more interesting.  And my story telling is gonna get more interesting because of it 😉

Nick made sure I knew I was invited to the wine and cheese thing (which I didn’t go to due to still having a head cold), and the rehersal dinner thing.  Something I never really asked Nick and Heather was who all was coming.  *SHRUG*

So I’m approaching the door to Delano BBQ, take a deep breath, and open it.  See, I’m really expecting this part to suck.  I don’t want to see everyone on the other side of the door, cause at this point I’m feeling like well… things have changed.  See, Heather and I never did the split up friends thing where people picked one side or the other really (or at least not in my opinion, she may feel differently.)  And her dad and Morgan made it very clear we were still friends or family or whatever.  But I haven’t talked to much of Heather’s family outside of those two, and from the experience at the bachelor party, this is gonna mostly be people I don’t know anyway.

Boy was I fucking wrong.  First face I see – Clayton.  I think I snuck past him just long enough to butt fists with Nick first, I’m not sure.  After that I see Tisha…. then Chris and Llonda.  Wow.  And then the shocker – Nora.

Ok, now, Nora has always looked like a little high school girl to me – even at her going away party where she was pleanty old to drink, she still looked about 16 to me.  Cute, but that 16 year old sort of cute.

I didn’t realize who she was at first until she got up close and spoke.  Nora, I gotta tell ya – you no longer look 16, you grew up finally!  You look AWSOME!  If you weren’t married, you would have had to put up with me asking “Soooo…. whatcha’ doing after the wedding?” ;-)  (Relax, I’m joking)

At that moment, I realized two things:  One, I’m an idiot. Not a huge revalation, as I’ve realized that before, but tend to forget it.  Uhhh, who would Nick invite to his wedding?  Clayton, Tisha, Llonda, etc…. Somehow I didn’t expect to see ’em.  Second, this was no longer going to be boring – I’m about to have a buttload of fun.

It’s amazing how quickly old friends jump back into laughing so quickly.  I’m sure most of the room was getting irritated by my over the top laughter.  Throw a couple more people in the mix, and you would have had the whole old gang back together.

Aparently “Davis Party” is a term that manages to cover a lot of territory.  Like how it would be that Chris has at one time or another seen Nora’s boobs – explained to her hubby as “Davis Party.”  In fact, one of the running comments about this group over the weekend is that we all knew way too much about each other. 

It’s very true though – we’ve seen the good and the bad in each other many times over the years.  That’s both physically and mentaly (and let’s face it – never in our lives can we be scarred as badly as playing Strip Poker with Harvey.  Jesus Christ, did it never occur to anyone to let the boy win a few hands?!)  We seen each other eventually find good matches in our life (Heather & Nick.  Clayton & Tisha.  Llonda & Chris.  Nora, are you sure about this guy? ;-), but only after we’ve see each other go through a couple of bad matches (Clayton & Gypsy.  Clayton & Amanda.  Clayton…. oh, I’ll stop now 😉

Oddly enough, “Davis Parties” aren’t really “Davis Parties”.  Yep, I hosted ’em.  But at one point Meredith co-hosted.  Then later Heather was my partner in crime for a whole lot more of ’em.  But it was always the people that were there that made ’em – something about the groups willingness to go along with crazy ass ideas that any one of us could come up with.  Heather’s Hershees Kisses for example – who the hell would normally think that was a good idea?  Our group.  Wear at little as possible party?  Our group. 

The inital chit-chat is the normal “So, what have you been up to these days?” sort of thing.  I lied – I didn’t actually tell much of anything I’ve been up to :-)  I just said “Work” and moved on – I was more interested in hearing what everyone else was up to.  And with me, nothing is ever simple (and I like it that way it seems) – even explaining what I’ve been up to is a pretty long drawn out tale!  But pretty much everone’s answer was about the same – “work”, with a little more description.  Make me wonder how much longer everyone else’s tale really is 😉

After a bit, I got to have my minor panic moment:  Darlene (Heather’s mom) walked in.  Morgan happened to be setting beside me and she said she could see me freak a bit.  There are very few people I really give a shit what they think of me.  Darlene is a special case on that one – she’s my (ex) mother-in-law who I respect a whole lot.  She’s always treated me WONDERFULLY.  She made me feel like family with the Oliver / Bumguardner clan.  And then Heather and I got a divorce.  I’ve only talked to her once since then. 

Truth is, I couldn’t look her in the eye and find out that she hated me or anything like that because of the divorce.  It scared me like you wouldn’t believe.  Not a whole lotta people’s opinions of how I live my life matters.  But she’s mom-in-law – her’s matters to me.  I knew coming to the wedding, eventually I was going to have to see her.

I was edgy for a while, but finally managed to ignore the situation – she hadn’t walked up and said Hi or anything, so I guess I’m safe for the moment.  Went back to talking to the gang again, and eventually Darlene saw me and came up and gave me a big hug.

The world was alright after that.  Later at the wedding Darlene told me I’m pretty much always going to be welcome.  Didn’t really matter – actions speak louder than words.  The hug was genuine, and it meant I wasn’t a bad person for getting a divorce from her daughter.  Stupid how much a thing like that matters, but it does.  Deep down, it really mattered to me alot.  I’m not sure what I would have done if she had ignored me the whole wedding.  But I’m sure it would have put a damper on things for me.

That’s the major highlights for me when it comes to the rehersal dinner.  Well, except when someone says we’re going to Pete’s house :-)  I had to see Llonda’s car do the Transformer’s trick once before we left, then chatted with Nora on the way over there.

I scraped the bottom of my bank account to snag a bottle of W. L. Wellers 107 on the way – I don’t have money to spend really, but some things are important.  Rent is important too – unluckly I didn’t have enough for rent yet, but I was supposed to get money the next day so It’s all good (it wasn’t by the way – didn’t manage to catch up with the customer, now I’ve got to borrow money from my father for rent.  Ug.)  Last time I was at Pete’s I drank his Wellers.   All of it.  By myself.  Brand new bottle.  So I owed him.  OK, that and the fact every 10 minutes he’d be picking on me about owing him a bottle of Wellers :-)  One thing about Pete – if ya wanna be able to pick on him, you better come prepared.  I verbally spar with Pete every chance I get – he normally comes out on top.  But not always 🙂

The gang was there again, minus Heather & Nick (who were off doing other things at the time), and I probably was there less than 3 minutes when I cracked the top on that Wellers ;-)  Mmmmmmm 107… I love that stuff!  Just, uh, don’t eat cashews and drink Wellers aparently.  Llonda didn’t find an explenation why, but, Drew can testify it’s lible to make you loose your Wellers!

The highlight of the night was Pete in a form that none of us had ever seen him – bloody 3 sheets to the wind.  Poor Nora – she got adopted since she was a vet (and more importantly, a vet with boobs!).  Poor Tisha – she got ejected from the family because Pete liked Nora better!  I’m sure that got rectified the next day.

Pete is hosting Nora and (aw crap… I’m sorry Nora, I forgot his name.  What’s your hubby’s name?) wedding anniversary aparently Dec 3rd :-)  I didn’t catch what all other events he was planning at hosting at his house.  But let’s face it – he doesn’t remember any of if after a certain point.  If there’s a party that needs to be hosted around Wichita, I’m sure someone can tell Pete “But you said….!” 😉

And while I could pick on Pete endlessly about being drunk as a skunk that night, I won’t.  I’ve already picked on him enough about it, time to let it pass.  What was great was his pride for Nick, and his pride in gaining Heather as a new daughter.  He raised his glass to many things, but most of them were to Heather or Nick, or both.  It’s always easier to get drunk when you’re already happy – and Pete was more than just happy.  He was positively beaming with pride and joy.

I’ll walk away from this day with two images perfectly in my head, and if I could have a photo of it I’d love it.  But that’s what this blog entry is for – an image built with words, to recall the moment.

The first one is being only a couple of steps in at Delano BBQ with Clayton and Tisha standing  in front of me to the right of me, and Chris and Llonda standing to the left, and Nora walking up and saying hi and me realizing who she was.  Four people I haven’t seen in 18 months or so, and one I haven’t seen in three years.  For a split second I forgot why the hell I was even there.  Sometimes people say you don’t know what you’re missing until they are gone, but I say bullshit.  You don’t know what you’re missing until you see them again – it was easy to forget everything for a moment as all the great memories of the people I havent’ seen in ages flood back in.

The second one is Pete setting at the table outside, raising his glass.  The truest picture of pride in his son that I’ve ever seen.

Too bad the night ended so soon.  At midnight I’m raring to go… but we’ve already all gone back to our homes for the night.  The night was all too brief.  But there’s another one right behind it.  The big one.  Despite the head cold and everything, I’m now excited and wound up and fretting and worried and… up until 5 AM.  Which means I don’t catch my customer in time to pick up my money the next morning.  Damnit.

And I’m gonna stop there for tonight.  Gotta get some sleep.  I’ve already written most of the next part, but, I want to put the wedding and the post-wedding festivities together 🙂