Lisa's Wedding

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This past weekend I was in Sagautuk, Michigan for my friend Lisa’s wedding. Sadly she was not marrying me (I’ll find a way to go on, somehow…) but a great guy named Matt. It was really clear to see at the service how much they love each other, how happy they are and will be. It was a perfect day for a wedding. Everything was fantastic, from the weather, Lisa looking gorgeous in her dress, and oh yeah, the open bar.

I’m so glad I was able to go. For a while I didn’t think I could, money being what it is, but my friend Mandy just moved back to Des Moines from Alaska/Portland/Etc. (there’s only seventeen states she hasn’t been to; we counted) and let me tag along with her for the long drive to Michigan. We had a lot of fun and I feel like I got to know her a lot better. It’s great you can know someone for years and feel like you’re meeting them for the first time. And even though Mandy hid off to the side to avoid the bouquet, it zeroed in on her as if laser guided.

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We picked up fellow IWP member and my Girl Friday (aka Erika) at the Grand Rapids airport (after a two hour delay, but Mandy and I found a nice brew pub, and a ginormous moon, after turning our noses up at $6 pints of Guinness) and finally we made it to Sagautuk and the lovely, the thinly walled, Ship N’ Shore Botel. Conan, Amy, Andrew, and his girlfriend Whitney were waiting for us, and the next morning, Ilona flew in from Paris. I figured she’d be exhausted, but she had the time of her life. She was brighter than I’ve ever seen her. She danced like it was going out of style, and even danced with me outside the tent, where I had to retreat after I’d gone deaf.

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We endured kamikaze bees (two bullseyed Mandy’s beers), and later, the most lewd, horrific, beyond-words piano singer in the entire western world. In the basement of a nightclub playing Britney, no less. He sung of porno tapes and Cheeto’s, two things that should never go together, but he did it, and we’re scarred for life. We also avoided paying $3 cover charge just for pizza, played pitch, went to the beach, and made prelimnary plans for the 10th Anniversary Reunion back in Ireland.

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It was a great, fast, tiring two days, but like every other day I’ve spent with these friends, I never wanted them to end. We weren't all there, but we were in hearts and minds. I suppose Friday would call our group The Parenthetical 11.

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