My friend, Brian, is one of my BMX buddies, whom I met nearly 15yrs ago. He and I ended up spending many months on the road together, in a van, doing stunt shows at bike shops, fairs, and many bizarre venues all across the U.S. We had some crazy times. He's an accountant now, and handles my taxes and financial planning, yet every conversation still includes snails, ghosts, Cru Jones and Dio (R.I.P.). Anyway, somehow he convinced a beautiful woman, Sarah, to marry him, and amid the legitimate wedding participants, I was to be there to "solemnize" the event.
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I kind of thought that "the world" would be the world's largest 3-D experience... |
I like California, I lived there for many years, and I still have plenty of good friends in the Golden State, but it's a weird, weird, weird place. As much as I despise, loathe and abhor winter, I couldn't leave New England. That being said, I re-acclimated to California (i.e. seeing a Jamba Juice, Carl's Jr, Jack in the Box, Exxon, Mobil, Taco Bell, In 'N Out, Del Taco, EVERYWHERE), and was ready for some fun.
Brian picked us up in his giant Tahoe, you know, cuz you need a truck like that with California's unpredictable weather. We made a couple of quick stops and arrived at the Embassy Suites, our defacto home for the next few days.

Brian also gave me a tip on a good local canyon to go hiking/trail running. Unfortunately, he said to take the highway NORTH, which put me about 30 miles out of my way… so it was a total of 60 miles, round trip, of a wild goose chase, but that's okay, it's his gas. We did finally find Towsley Canyon, which was only a couple of miles SOUTH of the hotel. There was a fun 5 mile loop which we hiked one day and then I ran the next day.


So, it wasn't all chillin' though… I had some serious work to do. I know enough about Brian to implicate him in many deeds that may or may not be illegal, but are at least immoral and indecent. I had to get to know Sarah too. Brian, Jean, Sarah and I went out for dinner and I learned that Brian must have some dark secret that he's holding over Sarah. Otherwise, why would this smart, funny, woman marry a man afraid of snails? Whatever bet she lost, they make a great couple. I was excited to be a part of their wedding, but how the hell did I get roped into this?
I'm certainly no stranger to public speaking, but I was definitely feeling some stress with this as wedding days are supposed to be the most important day in a woman's life, and there were more than two hundred guests in attendance. Oy. Things really started to seem real at the rehearsal and I think I may have been more nervous than the groom.

All in all it was super fun and I was happy to be a part of their wedding. I didn't screw it up, as I feared, and I even had someone come up to me after the ceremony to ask about doing their wedding! At which point Jean became my booking agent and tried to rent me out. She's funny like that. Unfortunately, we bailed out the wedding a little bit after dinner. I was exhausted and my mind was on packing and making the pilgrimage home.
At the airport, we learned that our flight was not only delayed, but overbooked. We elected to get bumped, took a different flight, only got into Boston about 45 later than originally planned, was on a less crowded plane, AND each got $400 travel vouchers. I guess being a holy-man has its perks.
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