| The Chronicles | Special Wedding Issue * | ||||||
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(We've been watching lots of "Seinfeld" lately.) No, you're not imagining things. This is two entries within a week. 'Til Death So, in putting together the past couple of entries, I realized that I neglected to mention attending my cousin Malcolm's wedding. This is what I get when I go quite a while between updates. Saturday morning, a number of weeks ago, I drove over to West Point for a brunch at my dad's cousin's place. My brother was at an ultimate tournament, so I spent a good deal of time with my sister. She felt as uncomfortable as I in mingling with so many distant relations. Honestly, the two relatives that Ray, Sarah, and I most connect with are Dixon and Jefferson. I'm closer in age to Malcolm and McKenzie, but they've seemed somewhat aloof in recent years. Most of the time, I only see them around Thanksgiving and Christmas. After an unappetizing brunch consisting of fruit and some weird cold pasta dish, I headed back to Auburn briefly before migrating to Opelika for the wedding. In my case, the fact that Malcolm's fiancee, Lauren, is from Opelika was pretty convenient. The solemn, candle-filled ceremony took place at First Baptist of Opelika (where I usually attend). Afterwards, the party moved a few blocks down the road. Considering I picked at the brunch, I was quite happy that the reception offered much better fare. Thus, I gorged myself on chicken fingers, cake, and chocolate-covered pretzels. After congratulating Malcolm and Lauren and almost catching the garter, I said goodbye to my sister and dad and checked out. This leads nicely into my trip to North Carolina this weekend. On a quick sidenote, my weekend began on Thursday during the early evening when I went to dinner with Debbie, a girl from one of my Spanish classes. She's really friendly and I've had a number of good conversations with her. Carolina On My Mind Back to North Carolina...this past year, Alex proposed to his long-time girlfriend, Rachel. I looked forward to the wedding. Then, I received an invitation and realized it was in Wilmington, NC. Seven hours is quite a way to drive, especially by oneself, but I was determined to make it. I started looking forward to the adventure aspect, and I have hope that he'd do the same for me. In fact, he assured me that if I have a wedding on the moon, he'd attend. Anyway, I hopped in the car on Friday morning (yeah, oddly, it was on a Friday) and began my trek across the southeast. At the last second, I'd thought to bring my video camera. Luckily, this led to some pretty amusing stuff that kept me entertained for most of the trip. I'll try to edit it into a decent length and post it sometime soon. Apparently, I timed my trip well, because I arrived at the church fifteen minutes before the wedding started. The church was smallish. Reminded me of FBO in style, but smaller...and Presbyterian. When I arrived, I found out that Evan was a groomsman, so I felt a little more at ease. Before I ran into him, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. If it was just Alex and Rachel, I'd congratulate them, go to the reception, and then camp out in my car before driving back. Luckily, I was able to meet some other people through Alex and Becca at the reception, so I had a pretty good time. And, this actually makes four weddings that I've attended in the past year. There are two more on the horizon. Alex & Rachel pose for pictures. Evan with a weird stance. Alex & Rachel at the reception. Per Jeremy's request, here's a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head list of married (or soon-to-be married) folks from my graduating class: Aaron, Russell C, Kate S, Alex, Ryan V, Kate W, Chari, Jodi, Christie, Mary Carole, Brittany C, Staci, John D, Kim, Jessica F, Juli, Atria, Courtney, and Mary Catherine. As far as I know, Christie was the first to have a kid. Pimpin' After the reception, we headed over to the where the bridesmaids were staying. Evan had mentioned an entertainment center, but I was blown away by what I discovered. The house was four stories and on an inlet near the ocean. I walked up the front porch stairs to the entrance. As I walked into the foyer, I noticed a billiards room on the right, a large living room on the left, and a large kitchen, dining room, and sun room in front of me. On the third floor, there were three large bedrooms. On the fourth floor was a gym. In the basement, there was a bar room, a study, and an entertainment room (the projection screen took up a whole wall). There was also a bar outside, a small pool, and a jacuzzi. Parked in back was a yacht and a fishing boat. On the yacht, there were three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living room/kitchen. This whole setup also included at least a dozen TVs. Most of them were flat-screen HDTVs. I really felt like I was on "Cribs". The house was owned by a contractor. The contractor had kids. These kids were in school with Rachel's younger sister. The family was on a cruise, so they let Rachel borrow the house for the weekend. They didn't really set any rules. I hestitate to go into all of these details, because I actually did record a walk-through, but I'm not sure that I'm happy with the results. I'll see if I can edit it down to make it worthwhile for posting. Evan and Becca went to bed fairly early, but I stayed up with about ten of their friends. We mostly hung out and talked. There were so many cool places to lounge around. First, by the pool. Then, under the porch when it started storming. Then, inside for a while. Then, in the jacuzzi. Then, on the front porch. A lot of this made me feel like I was on "The Real World"...all these strangers (with the requisite drama) and a nice house. I think a lot of the drama occurred because of the alcohol and the fact that everyone was living for the moment. After helping clean up a bit, I eventually crashed on one of the couches. In the morning, I awoke to find that everyone else had already cleared out. I groggily made my way to my car and got back on the road. In South Carolina, I made a stop, but I'm definitely going to have to reserve the location as a surprise. Again, you'll just have to wait for the video. The Amusement Park...errr...Church Once I got to Atlanta, I stopped at my dad's place. That night, my dad, Sarah, Ray, Brian, and I went to eat dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Afterwards, we dropped by Barnes & Noble for about an hour. I really really wish that we had one in Auburn. I suppose Books-A-Million and Hastings are decent, but they're not quite the same. Anyway, at this point, I was beat. I'd gotten around 5-6 hours of sleep in two nights. I started to crash, but ended up napping briefly before watching "The Neverending Story" with my sister. It'd been years since I'd seen it. In hindsight, the effects are a bit cheesy and Morla looks like a giant, sneezing, talking piece of poo, but it's a pretty decent flick. If you still don't get the image, Limahl sang the theme song for the film. Oh, and that's one freaky looking dude. The next day, we went to church with my dad. If ever a place could earn the title "Six Flags Over Jesus", this is the place. The place is called North Point Community Church and consists of a major complex. There's so much parking that there's a shuttle bus. Inside, there's a bookstore as you walk in, and two gigantic auditoriums in front of you. This place isn't the traditional ginourmous design though. Instead, the auditoriums are mostly dark. You feel a bit more like you're about to see a play or some sort of show at a theme park. The preschool is called Waumba Land and the youth room is like a small theatre - with coffee tables and couches in the area for the audience. Inside the main auditorium, there are a bunch of automated video cameras, a guy walking around with a camera, and a couple of giant screens (in the other auditorium, they project the service onto one large screen). On the stage, there's a place for the band, and there's a set (in this case, it's an elaborate bakery/deli design). During the music, you feel like you're at a concert with all of the flashing lights. Immediately after the service, you can pick up a CD of it. I kept remarking to Brian and my brother that things have gone a long way since the early church. We felt it kind of sad that all the production was necessary to keep people's short attention spans. That said, I enjoyed the skit before the sermon. The sitcom-style piece wasn't overly blunt with the message and it was well-acted. The preacher was a youngish-looking guy that actually gave a great sermon - pointing out the difference between "religion" and Christianity - noting that there's a whole formality and politeness to rituals like going to church. He emphasized that the relationship with God is the important part. We don't earn God's grace by fulfilling certain tasks. As you can tell by now, despite the cynicism regarding the presentation, I actually did enjoy it. Working In A Coal Mine That afternoon, I jaunted back to Auburn for a busy week. My advanced Spanish Syntax final wasn't quite as bad as the mid-term, but it still required a good bit of studying. Happily, I ended up getting an A on the test. Then, after I finished studying for it, I had to start studying for my Random Signals & Systems mid-term. It's another of those cases where I studied about eight hours for a test. We'll just have to see how it turns out, but I think I did okay. On Friday, I started Elementary German II. Adam happens to be in there. It seems like it's at least the fourth or fifth class that I've had with him. Friday also marked the beginning of employed Marchant. At the beginning of the summer, I talked with Kevin about getting a job. He suggested that I apply at Cock of the Walk - a southern fried food restaurant on a lake. The whole thing has been in limbo since then, but I finally started this weekend. I actually started as a busser - less social interaction is a bit less pressure to me. I might move up to server, but I'm worried that I might be a tad absentminded and clumsy for serving. Luckily, most of the people there seem pretty nice, but the work is quite tiring. On both Friday and Saturday, I worked from around 3 until around 10. As a busser, it's my responsibility to make sure that there's tea, coffee, buckets of cole slaw, lemons, and clean tables. Running around for seven hours hurts my knees the most, but I suppose it's not awful or anything. Though I will say...I've concluded that most people are filthy. They leave packets of butter and sauce everywhere (though the restaurant doesn't help by providing them with lots of side items). Next time I'm out, I'm going to be extra considerate of the bussers. Oh, and another thing. Kevin worked an extremely messy table the other night with a ticket for $80. They left him $3. That's ridiculous. My part of that $3? One freaking penny for cleaning up all their garbage. C'mon people...be considerate of the people working at the restaurant. I realize that food is expensive, but leave at least 15% if the server does a decent job. Other than that...there's not been too much going on. I saw "Dodgeball" and "The Terminal" today though. "Dodgeball" was quite hilarious - I was surprised that it lived up to all the hype. As for "The Terminal", it was well-acted and the story was interesting, but the denouement was a bit of a letdown. Last but not least: belated happy birthday to Jenn. That's all I got. Okay...I've got one more thing. The journal just entered its fourth year. Pretty amazing stuff there. I never thought I could stick with it so long. Looking back over the archives, I wrote 63 entries the first year, 22 entries the second, and 32 entries the third. Keep in mind that the entries from the first year were shorter and much less involved. Well, now that's all I got. | |||||||
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