Vacation, part III, the wedding

  

We went to dinner the night before the wedding with my brother and his fiancee, we went to the wedding and reception, never was I formally introduced to the woman.  Of course, the wedding wasn't formal, but still, you'd think you'd introduce your sister to your new wife, wouldn't you? It's not like my brother and I are estranged or have had any fights.  Could be he was "punishing" me for reading those damn liberal books (the Hunger Games) and having heathen, rainbow-haired children.  That would be like him.

The wedding itself was strange.  Like Brian said it was like they couldn't decide if they wanted it formal or casual and did some of each.  They had the fancy attire but it was in someone's backyard.  And then everyone in the wedding party except the bride & groom changed into t-shirts and jeans immediately after the ceremony.  They didn't have a photographer so the bride's pushy sister did it.  And by pushy I mean no one could actually see the bride and groom because she was right in their face the entire ceremony.  No one could hear anything either, with the dam sirens going off and the barges tooting away down the river.

There was lots of complaining about the wedding. It's to be an outdoor wedding in Arkansas, in the summer, on a Thursday evening, two hours away from nowhere.  In addition, no one knows what the hell is going on and everyone is mad at everyone else about everything.  The menu has changed so many times the caterer doesn't even know what she's serving.  And yes, she's only serving the food, my brother is cooking the food.  Well, except he thought that our other brother was cooking the food but no one told him that.  And wasn't it going to be fried chicken? No? It's barbeque now? Oy!



And did I mention the bride is 6 months pregnant? Yes, planned pregnancy and she's due September, exactly a year after my brother's daughter had her first child who she gave up for adoption.  Lovely. Nice timing.  I couldn't care less about the being pregnant before the wedding part but come on, let's use some common sense and not put the teenager through a birth exactly 1 year after her own.


The snapshot that totally epitomizes my trip, the 6mo pregnant bride at her wedding in the flowing white dress smoking a cigarette.  If she had had a can of beer in the other hand it couldn't have been more perfect.