October 5, 2024: One of the Final

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Weddings… they’re fun. On Saturday, one of the final guys standing got married. Yep, another one of us to walk the plank… haha. Got a last minute call from the groom to be a couple weeks ago, asking if I could stand up, because of a last minute drop out; I thought about it for like a half a second, and said yes, of course. After all, he may be my last long time friend that gets married.

We’ve known each other for 29 years; worked together for a bunch of them. Luckily for me, I have a couple friends that I’ve known for longer than that. Two in particular that I met in Kindergarten, so that’s… 43 or so years. One of them is married; you know what, I did stand up in that one… it was so long ago, whew… forgot all about it; I do remember the long card games the night before, that was fun. My other original friend is NOT married… prospects of him getting married are probably a very low percentage. If he was to ever get married, oh man… that would be wild. Besides standing up in both my brother and sister’s wedding, I was the Best Man one other time… again long time ago. The groom showed up to church with dark sunglasses on…. yes, the party was already starting. After leaving church, we headed to the reception hall, but it was closed. Have no fear… all of his uncles popped their trunks to reveal plenty of beer and tequila to get us through. A couple hours later, I was splashing water on my face in the bathroom, trying to prepare for my speech, that I had written out; I ended up tossing it and just going off the top… I think I did OK; guessing about 2/3 of the folks didn’t understand me anyways… haha. All good, except the fact that I lost this buddy; I would have known him 30 years this year. Two of my other good friends, one I’ve known for 32 years and the other for maybe 27 or so years, have both tied the knot, so yeah, this guy is one of the last of us still standing, until today.

I got there early, because I needed to rehearse my dance moves down the aisle; of course I handled my business, ha. Now, we had 2 hours to kill; OK, where’s the liquor? Some Hennessey White and a beer did the trick… a little more Hen, Southern, Jack… Yes, we UBER’d. It was a great time. Weddings are always fun, especially one where I see one of my final good friends walk down the aisle; good luck to him… good luck to all of us married men. It ain’t easy, but it’s all worth it, right? That’s always the thought. After getting home, I continued the party by myself, as my wife and son went to bed… listening to music, drinking, then drunk dialing… haha… just one of my good friends and then my dad… just rambling on I’m sure. To say Sunday morning was rough, would be an understatement. I hadn’t felt like this since… oh man, at least a couple years ago; guess I’m due one every now and then. I wasn’t driving; we were safely at home… yeah. All things considered in these past 6 months, I’m glad I haven’t turned to the bottle, or any other substance that would help cover up my pain; another version of me from years ago may have. No, I’ve taken it on head on… patting myself on the back… haha. Congrats to the groom, and bride of course. Thanks for letting us be a part of your big day. One!

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