Nuptials

Nolan’s wedding has come and gone, which meant that I spent almost all of yesterday decked out in a kilt (and I looked pretty good, if I do say so myself). The wedding was short and sweet, and the reception was a total blast.

I actually happen to like weddings, and one reason is that I get to see friends I haven’t seen in years. One of life’s unescapable facts is that people grow apart. We enter new stages of life, move away, and life goes on. But there are moments when you can get a bunch of friends together and it’s like travelling back in time, like all of those intervening years never happened.

So there we stood, screaming Ween’s “The Blarney Stone” at the top of our lungs while hoisting our steins, gettin’ our freak on to “Baby Got Back,” holding each other up while singing “Fluffy,” and basically raising all sorts of hell. Maybe it was the kilts, the free Scottish ale, or just the fact that all of the boys were back together, if only for a little bit.

Last night, when I got home, I said a little prayer, or at least, as close as I can come. A prayer for all of my friends — Nolan and Melissa, Daniel and Lisa, Shawn, Eric, Clint, George, Judah, Shiloh, Nick, David, Kevin, and all of the others. I know that everyone’s going their separate ways, that everyone’s going through changes. Nolan and Melissa are off to Virginia, David’s moving out to Colorado, Shiloh gets married in July, etc.

However, no matter how much things may change, I hope we can continue to have these moments when the years fall away, when we can make complete asses out of ourselves, hoisting our steins high in the air, and for just a moment, nothing else in the world matters.