It's been over a month since I've last written. In the month of July, I have attended 3 weddings and a baseball game.

WEDDING #1: Bobby Sloan and Crystal Goldman - the couple whom I hold myself at least partially responsible for their relationship. I had no date to their wedding because I got invited with short notice and Colleen was already scheduled to work that night. So I went stag. When I arrived at the church in Grayslake, there were several dozen dressed up mexican people outside the church, all speaking Spanish. I was confused, because I knew Bobby and Crystal were far from being even the least bit Hispanic, so who were all these people? Was I at the wrong church? I went inside and there was another group inside the church. I peeked in there and didn't see anyone I recognized, so I had to verify that it was in fact the Sloan wedding with the girl who was holding open the door. I was in the right place (and as for all the Mexicans, there was a baptisim earlier in the day). The ceremony was nice and not too long. Afterwards, everyone went outside and waited for Bobby and Crystal to come out. Some people throw rice, some people blow bubbles, but at this wedding, everyone got a sparkler and lit it when they came out. It was a cool idea, but in the bright summer sun, it's a little difficult to see the sparkers. And we were in such a tight crowd, I was sure that someone's dress was going to catch on fire. But everything turned out okay. The wedding was out about 2:00 and the reception didn't start til 5:00. So I decided to go back to the apartment and play video games until it was time to go party. I got to the reception a little after 5. The booze was freely flowing and I got a chance to mingle with Bobby and Crystal, and Bobby's parents and siblings. But other than that, I didn't know anyone. So it was kinda weird for a while, especially since I didn't have a date. Eventually it was time to sit down at the tables. I was sat at a table with some of Bobby's co-workers and a couple GCHS alums (Amanda and some girl who's name I forgot). I didn't really know either of them that well, but we chatted for a little while. There was a guy who was sitting next to me who didn't really know anyone either. His wife works with Bobby and Crystal, so he was there with her. We started talking and had a great time. I laughed my ass off the whole night. I was glad he was there because otherwise I probably would have gotten bored during dinner. The food was excellent and we polished off most of the wine and champange bottles on the table. It was hard for me to go up and dance at first, because I didn't have anyone to go out there with, and I didn't really know that many people there. But halfway through, and several drinks later, I was up there. I had a blast. It did end kinda early though...10:00 I think. But I do wonder if I ended up hanging out with them on that New Years Eve many years ago, would they be together today? Hmmmm....

BASEBALL GAME: For Ryan and Angela's combined bachelor/bachelorette event (sadly, no strippers involved)we went to Miller Park to see the Brewers play the Nationals. Along with the game was an afternoon of tailgating in the stadium parking lot. This was, in my opinion, the better half of the day. It was kinda hot, but we managed to stay somewhat cool. There was much drinking and grilling, and some jet planes even flew some formations above us, putting on an impromtu airshow. When inside the stadium, the game was okay, but I had a better time hanging out in the parking lot. Since there were so many of us (20 or so)everyone sat in a long line, so there was no chance of the person on the left side mingling with a person on the right. It was also kind shitty paying 5 bucks for a beer when we knew we still had tons sitting in the car on ice. It was still a good time though. Mel got out of control and stood up on her seat yelling things. And most of us made some cash selling our Ty Cobb bobble heads for $5 to the guy in front of us. It was also fun cheer for Overbay. O...O...O...O...O...O...O...O.

WEDDING #2: Candice (Colleen's friend) and Jamie. Colleen was the maid of honor. She had to come up on thursday to do maid of honor duties and the such. I thought I was just going to come up there on Saturday for the wedding. But Colleen freaked out and said that I needed to come for the rehearsal dinner. I knew of no such thing. I didn't know that it was customary to bring a date to the rehearsal dinner. So I rushed up there on Friday after work. When I got there (Jamie's parents house), the rehearsal was already over, and people were eating party subs from Subway (which were splattered with a thick layer of mayo...bleh!). We hung out for a little bit, I ate a mayo sandwhich and then left. It was kinda pointless for me coming up there, but I had fun. We went out to the Chancery with some of Colleen peeps later that night. So for the wedding, I was put on video camera duty. I had brought my crappy camcorder and did not have a tripod. I thought to myself, if I'm going to tape a wedding, I should do it right. So I made the decision to drive from Waukesha to my work in Highland Park to pick up a decent camera and tripod. I did this on Saturday afternoon, when Colleen was getting her hair done and stuff. It only took me an hour and 15 minutes to get down there, but then getting back almost took 2 hours because of traffic and lane closures. When I returned to Waukesha, It was starting to look stormy...bad news for an outdoor wedding. There were National Weather Service advisories and everthing. Thunderstorms, high winds, etc. I rode over to the wedding with Colleen's parents in the pouring rain. The rain had pretty much stopped by the time we got there, which was good. But the backyard (where the wedding was being held) was a mess. The archway they were getting married under had blown over, there were gallons of water that had collected in the tent that covered the seating area. We helped put the altar back up, remove the water from the tent, and dry off chairs. The sky had cleared, and it was time for a wedding. It was by far the shortest wedding ceremony I have ever seen. About 10 minutes or so. The video turned out good. The reception was right there out in the backyard and the house. When it was time for Colleen to make her maid of honor speech, she was SO nervous. She had to rehearse it to me ahead of time. She did great though, and she had a lot more heart-felt things to say than some of the other people. Even though the rain let up and it was a good time, it does kinda make me not ever want an outdoor wedding, because you are constantly at the mercy of mother nature.

WEDDING #3: Ryan and Angela. Probably the highlight of the summer so far. So much fun. We all cruised up to Green Bay on Friday and stayed til Sunday. It was like a mini vacation. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. We went to the church and went through it almost too quick it seemed. Afterwards we went to a bar/restaurant place for dinner and booze. Freund got me a nice dartboard for my wedding party gift. We ate pizza and chicken wings. A bunch of us eventually did shots at the bar, even Freund, his first shot ever in fact. We headed to the casino later on and I managed to lose $40. Alex managed to win a little over $400 though. I guess the plasma TV he won last month was enough. The night ended and the big day was upon us. The girls had to get up early Saturday to get their hair done. But the guys got to sleep in and hang in the hot tub at the hotel. The moment we left the hot tub, the entire day was thrown into high gear. I was counting on some more time to rehearse my best man speech for the reception, but that time I did not get. After getting ready, it was time to get over to the church. When there I had to set up the video camera and brief someone on how to operate it. By the time I was done with that, we were rushed outside for some pre-wedding pictures. And then it was time for the actual ceremony. The pastor was real cool and had some nice things to say. The church was pretty cool looking as well. The ceremony went well and I may have even gotten slightly teary eyed. For some reason I was really nervous about hanging on to the rings. I just pictured them falling through a small hole in my jacket pocket, falling into a storm drain, Angela's mom finding out about it as she proceeds to beat me senseless. But no such tradegy occured. One of my favorite parts of the wedding was when Angela was being escorted from the back of the church to the altar and Ryan pulled out his cell phone out of his pocket just to make sure it was off. We wouldn't want any phone calls interrupting your wedding, now would we. After the cermony there were more pictures of course. Many of which we had to do several times in various locations (church, outside reception hall, inside reception hall) because apparently there was some sort of camera/film catastrophe. With the photo fiasco aside, it was already time to sit down at the reception to eat dinner. At this point I was extremely nervous because I did not have enough time to rehearse. I did have it all typed out on a sheet of paper, but I didn't want my eyes to be glued to the paper the whole time. So, as I ate the very tasty dinner, I had my paper next to my plate so I could review. People were talking to me, I almost wanted the to stop talking so I could keep reviewing. At one point I even went to the bathroom and sat in the stall with my speech for a few minutes. I returned to the table, Kari made her speech, and then I knew I was up very soon. The time came, I grabbed the mic and got started. I was very dependant on the sheet of paper, but I got everything out that I wanted to say in the order I wanted to say it. And I even made people laugh, which was cool. With the speech over, I was relieved, but not entirely. My speech segued into the public showing of the DVD that I had created for Ryan and Ang. I wasn't really nervous because I thought they wouldn't like it, because I thought I did a damn good job. It was just the first public showing of my work in a large venue. It made people laugh, it made people cry, and made lots of people come up afterwords and tell me what an incredible job I did on it. One person even said that "at the wedding ceremony, I didn't cry, but I cried when I watched the DVD." That's pretty powerful stuff. It was kind of a rush to get so much positive feedback. With the speech and DVD over, I was obligation free, and now it was time to get drunk, dance, and get crazy. Which is exactally what I did. Everone has such a blast on the dance floor. However, I did decide to sit out the polka songs. But Ryan got me to dance the Chicken Dance, so I hope he is happy. I even danced to the Hokey Pokey, but only because Angela's mom dragged me out there. Freund's attempt at getting me to catch the garder succeeded, but Colleen was not so successful at catching the boquet. Oh well, we'll probably be the next to get married anyway. Before we knew it, there was no one but the wedding party left on the dance floor, it was past midnight and the DJ had played his final song. The whole reception hall was pretty much vacant. It was over so quick. Back at the hotel, a bunch of us chilled in Adam's room for the after-party, while Ryan was in his suite getting some much needed poon-tang from Mrs. Freund. After a couple of drinks and a run to Wal-mart for munchies, the night had come to a close. My fingers are about to fall off from typing, so I'll keep the rest short. Sunday - gift opening at the hotel. The Freund's got many lavish gifts, such as a Tivo. But none as lavish as the pube wig, which got a good laugh from all. Adam got Sandy's (the bridesmaid he was trying to hook up with) number. We loaded up presents in the car, said our goodbyes and hit the road back to IL. Ryan and Angela couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend. I was very glad to be a part of it. Seacrest out.