Mattlog

Wedding Memories... Pt. II

Friday morning, the bechelor party.

We golf. Golf for my dad is like me and video games, it's how he relaxes. So my sis and I and father hop in the car and play some golf. I played pretty well for not having played in about a year. I've hit a couple of buckets of balls, but haven't played any real golf for a while.

So I play with a couple of pastors in my dad's circle of other pastors and we enjoy ourselves and it doesn't even get too hot.

Afterwards Karen and I make our way back to the Lake house shower change and pick up the other two K's and drive up to Lohman where my dad still abides. We sing some Rent and our enjoy our trip.

We eat, and make a run through the rehersal which looked like it was going to be a shambles. We take 20 minutes just to get everyone down the aisle correctly. We make our way through the rest of the service and head back to meet up with my aunt and uncle on my mom's side. It's nice to have them there to put a sort of blessing on the festivities.

Every time they pop up though, they have a new card game to show the troops. SO we waste the rest of the night away, playing the new game and by 2 we're in bed asleep.

I have a nightmare. Demons have taken over the lake house and the air is swirling and choas is insuing. I wake up still a little freaked out theres a lump in the corner I swear is rocking and demon waiting to pop out. My conscious mind has surmised that the sounds of the de-humidifier behind the couch and the fan above has been causing the swirling sensation. At anyrate it's not too long before I'm back to sleep with now firther spooky dreams.

The next morning I wake up to shower and shave. By noon we're all up in Jeff City ready for pictures. And although it takes forever to start (miscommunication apparently the culprit) the wedding goes off without another hitch and my dad is hitched. THough I noticed I'm slightly irked by the announcement of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Gauck, it may be something I don't ever get used to.

More irksome though is the brining of Kristen over to visit the house I'd known as home for the last 15 years. Only to find that all the stuff I might have recognized has been moved out so that Inge's stuff could be moved in. With new painting in the Kitchen and the Hallways the house doesn't even feel the same.

It occurred to me that these changes hadn't even crossed my mind. In my mind everything would be the same with the exception of a new female figurehead in the household. But nope, eveything feels different. The house, my old room, Mr and Mrs. Gauck.

It's not so much angered me as made me sad for the old days. Those moments of my past. Hands of Hand over Foot while Les Miserables blared on the stereo. Eating Spaghetti before High school plays. Christmas and Thanksgiving past....

All new expierences await the new looking house.

Anyway, my dads honeymoon was mis-planned. A mistake typical of me. My dad was thinking with the wedding on Saturday that would start their same honeymoon. However, didn't take a recpetion and what not into consideration. So, some finger food and punch, we said good buy the aunt and uncle, made plans for Thanksgiving, and they left. Then we left. Said good buy to dad and Inge and headed back to the lake house.

On the way back Ken KAren and I wrote a musical based on the JFK assassination. Kristen looked on bewildered.

Back at the lake, Dad and Inge decided to forgo their hotel plans in Branson and just stay the night at the lake. Their arrival set about 1 1/2 hours after ours. Ken and Karen passed out quickly on the couches so Kristen and I took the canoe out on the quiet lake and stared fondly at each other for about an hour. We noticed the arrival home of Dad and Inge and jumped out tied the canoe up and went and talked witht hem on the deck with a beautiful view. Popped open some of the wine we kids bought as gift, three Texas and three MO. wines. Drank a nice bottle of white, and then opened a red. Kristen had a go at the red but found it, as my dad put it, impertanant. So I finshed and hers and as almost always happen when I drink wine, I was hammered. Got the munchies for Taco Bell so after my dad made his final good byes my brother and I made a run to Taco Bell.

It wasn't long before we all hit the sack and slept. I slept SO well.

Wedding Memories... Pt. 1

SOOOO Long.

It's the summer what do you want from me.... Kristen just got her new apartment so I'm sepnding time split between mine and hers...

Anyway, my dad's wedding... great, fun, nice.

Kristen and I decided to fly this time... the drive up last time about drove her crazy. I hate it but can do it to save 400 bucks but it's a special occassion and not a float trip or something.

So we flew up on Wednesday... we got super saver tickets so we flew from Austin to Cincinatti, had a 2 hour lay over where we jammed to some WKRP and then flew from there to Springfield. Picked up by my brother we grabbed some food and hung out at his apartment for a while. Kristen and I grabbed a nap. We visited with Ken for a while longer than both he and Kristen passed otu again so I did some internet looking until my sis arrived home from work around 11. We hopped in seperate cars, Kristen and Karen in 1 and my brother and I into another and were off. I'm running a Star Wars RPG here with some friends so my brother and I discussed some storylines and ins and outs of good gaming. (He's a gamer from way back.)

We arrived at my dad's lake house. This is the house he'll retire into. The church own's the house my dad's lived in for the last 15 years so he was getting antsy about retirement looming over his head so he started looking for a place on the Lake of the Ozarks to retire into. Someplace he could fish and enjoy the next 20 years of his life.

So he found this place on a private lake, no speed boats or anything, and he and the lady he'd been seeing, Inge, decided to buy it together. At that point they figured they aught to get married make all look on the up and up. So he proposed which brings us to this weeknd.

So pop wakes us up around 7:30 in the AM partially because as an old guy that's when he gets up. (Though with more thought I've realized he always got up that early.) And partially because they were having some built-in bookshelves... er, built in. So my brother hops in the canoe my dad and I in the other boat and try some fishing... but nothing's biting. My dad gets two and all I got was a rock.

At some point my sis calls and my brother paddles over to pick her up and the four of us are out on the lake it's quiet and nice and not too hot.

About noon we head back for lunch. I creep down to where Kristen had been sleeping and she's OUT COLD. They've been sawing and drilling for 4 hours and she slept through it all. Ken and I venture out for some hair cuts and Karen and Kristen shoes. Kristen also gets her nails done by a Korean guy who she can't understand and makes him repeat everything... but the guy keeps so psuhing for conversation so Kristen keep being polite.

We end the night by cooking some steaks drinking some Bloody Marys and watching Sense and Sensibility.

Here's me as the wacky neighbor: