A Lot of Catching Up to Do *updated*

Yeah, so I’ve neglected this place for almost a year and I think it’s time to make a comeback.  Clearly, a lot has happened since my last update, so this’ll probably take more than one entry.  I’ll try to keep it to as few as possible.

Let’s see…My last real entry was back in April, so we might as well start there. 

Back around April and May, we were in full-throttle wedding mode.  In fact, that’s all I can really remember about those two months—so much so that when I wrote out notes for this part of the entry, I simply wrote, “Wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding.”  We had most of the details finalized by that point.  Basically, we were just counting down the days, coordinating out-of-town arrivals and watching the RSVP cards pour in.  I was beginning to get excited about seeing my family for the first time since Christmas.

Sometime toward the end of May or beginning of June, I had a conversation with Annette.  She told me that her brother had joined Army infantry school.  He hid a back problem that probably would have kept him out.  She told me that he would graduate from basic training at the end of June or early July in .  She had to make a choice between seeing her brother graduate, (and apparently not seeing him again for two years) and coming to

Kansas for the wedding.  She could not afford both.

Understandably, she chose to see her brother graduate.  I told her—truthfully—that I would not hesitate to make the same decision if I were in her shoes.  It was going to suck not to have my best friend at the wedding, but when your brother is almost certainly going to , you do whatever it takes to spend some time with him before he goes.

About 20 of my friends and family did make it from

California .  I spent a lot of time with my mom in the days leading up to the ceremony.  We talked by phone at least once a week, but I think it made her feel better to actually see how I live here.  She was able to see that I wasn’t just acting happy.  It also showed her that

Wichita isn’t that different from

Sacramento .

 

 

 

 

 

People told me that the day would go by so fast and I wouldn’t remember any of it.  Seven months later, I disagree wholeheartedly.  I remember it like it was yesterday.

I remember my first feelings of panic setting in about three hours before the ceremony…waiting for my brother to come down from his hotel room and falling more and more behind schedule.

I remember those feelings subsiding until I was fully dressed in my tuxedo and

Erin was pinning on my boutonniere.

“How are you?” she whispered.

I suddenly realized I felt very constricted in that tux.

“I-I’m OK.” 

The words came out much smaller than I expected.  I paced up and down the main aisle of the church for a while and calmed myself back down.

I remember seeing Marci for the first time as she came down the aisle.  My jaw hit the floor the moment I saw her.  I told myself to say something to her as soon as we were up on the altar together, but the words wouldn’t come out.  She beat me to the punch.

“You look amazing.”

“So do you.”

This time, my voice was strong.

I remember us laughing our heads off when the slide show didn’t start right away and we realized how long we had to stand up there just looking at each other.

I remember the reception.  Man, do I remember the reception. I had more pictures taken of me that night than in the entire rest of my life combined.

I remember how she seemed to float around the room.  I remember shaking my head and laughing as I watched how she danced to “Footloose.”  I imagine that’s exactly how she felt.

I remember the way she glowed.  It stayed with her all the way into the next morning.  I have never seen anyone look so beautiful.

Looking back on it, the day was exactly what everyone said it was going to be—the best day of my life.