The Married Man

That's what I am...married. Wow.

The wedding weekend went off without too many hitches. The rehearsal was not too bad, but a little long. Our ceremony was kind of long so it makes sense. At least everyone was on time! I made one little mistake when doing the vows, but I was hoping I'd make it through them on Saturday. The dinner afterwards was nice, despite it being a little uncomfortable with Kelley avoiding my family since my Mom was with them. We had a lot of food and once it got dark all the older kids (us) and the young ones blew through our sparklers. That's the best 9 dollars I have ever spent....ever :-)

I think everyone liked their gifts. We got the bridesmaids necklaces and the maids of honor each got a nice engraved bracelet. The groomsmen got engraved keychains and Tom also got an engraved flask. I'm guessing Kelley's grandparents spent more than my parents gave them to run the party, but that was pretty much expected. The wedding morning we boys got up and met at the golf course after I got Zach and Ahmad up. I had watched the weather and it looked stellar all day (which it turned out to be, so that was good). We get started and my first ball goes right into the lake beside the fairway...so we decide each person gets one mulligan off the tee. We all had not really played much before if at all, so it was a great few hours in the morning. I won if that's what you could call it, Shep and Tom came in about 9-10 back and Zach was a few more back while AK was comic relief all day. I'm not too bad at golf and could get pretty good if I keep playing I think. Good lawyer skill.

We left to get food and get ready at Shep's. AK took forever, and we ended up a little late to the church. No big deal though as we got dressed and were ready for the photographer pretty much when she was ready for the guys to take pictures with Kelley. Then I took pictures with the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Finally after waiting for what seemed like the longest 2 hours of my life...it was time to go. The ceremony went well and Kelley was absolutely gorgeous (as a bride should be). Then after another round of pictures and waiting for the girls to pack up their stuff at the church, we were finally off to the reception. It was fun and they even played songs Kelley hates such as the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken dance! The food was very tasty (meatballs and chicken wings) and the cake was also amazing. We apparently had a bunch left, which means people missed out on some good cake. It was weird to have everyone's eyes on you EVERY SECOND of the day, but nice at the same time. Tom and Sarah gave good toasts and lots of people danced (well some of us "danced.") I was definitely happy to have all my family and new family and many of my friends there (law school table ppl, you rock for coming). The two most eligible bachelors according to what I saw and heard...AK and Pastor Steve. What an interesting two guys, but they could certainly find dates at our wedding if they wanted to. Well enough matchmaking.

The week after the wedding was busy busy busy as I tried to catch up everything on my list and got some stuff done. Thursday came quicker than expected and it was time to pack for the honeymoon and leave. We spent Thursday night at Thomas and Lisa's, our friends who used to go to OU with Kelley. Besides Tom and Heather, probably my favorite couple friend we have. We were up late talking and showing them pictures from the reception disposable cameras. Hopefully we can make it up to Cleveland or they can make it down to Cbus often in the next 2 years. After a very short night on their futon, we woke up bright and early before sunrise to go to Akron-Canton airport. A short hop to NYC LaGuardia and a shuttle ride to the pier and then some waiting...finally we made it on the boat, the Carnival Legend. Yay honeymoon!

The honeymoon was great. Kelley has all the pictures on her camera or else I would post some here. The trip down was very overcast and stormy, but once we got to San Juan the weather got better. The Bacardi factory in San Juan was a good tour and I recommend it to anyone going to Puerto Rico. It was also fun to learn all about the future 51st state and see the government buildings. We also tracked down the Hard Rock Cafe and got another bear for the collection. Lots of souvenirs later, we went back to the boat and watched as we left port under a starry sky and bright moon. St. Thomas was our second port and we went to Magan's Bay beach, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It took a taxi ride over the mountain (great views) to get there, but it definitely lived up to the reputation. It was the only beach we went to in the three ports and I do not know if I will find a better beach anywhere. We went back to town after swimming for 3 hours and rode the skyride to Paradise Point up on the mountain. A good ride even though it kind of creeped Kelley out. The views were amazing and we stayed up at the Point shopping and getting good drinks in souvenir cups. Back to the ship and more good food and good shows and good gambling. Our third port Tortola was very unexciting and expensive to shop at, so we went back to the ship early and hit the pools. The food on the cruise was very good, except for the chicken which they couldn;t seem to get right. Other than waiting too long for our bags to be delivered on the first night, there was no complaints about the housekeeping and waiters. Much better than royal Caribbean in my opinion. The casino was bigger, the pools and hot tubs seemed about the same, and this boat had a waterslide! Did not fare too badly at gambling despite losing money. Kelley was up $15-20 at slots, down $30 in blackjack, and down $25 at roulette. I ended up down $30 at slots, up $25 at blackjack, and down $45 at roulette. I could not catch a break from the slot machines or the roulette wheel, so I spent most of my time at blackjack or watching Kelley play cheap slots. Overall it was a good length of cruise for a honeymoon and I think Kelley finally relaxed a little bit! Nice to see that after 6 months of nothing but stress over school, the church job, and mostly the wedding. The last day sucked as we got off the boat early, had to pay $80 for a taxi across town (the shuttle ride on the way to the port was $30), then got to the airport where they said we could not check our bags until 3 PM. It was 11 AM ad our flight would not leave until 7 PM. So instead of going on the subway and seeing NYC, we got to stay in little crappy LaGuardia playing cards with each other all day. 8 hours of Palabra, Euchre, Texas Hold Em, and Blackjack. Then the flight as delayed an hour. Then we finally get on the plane and get to Akron and finally get on the road for Marietta.

Got back and had another short night of sleep before church on Sunday. The sermon was replaced at both services by a 20 minute video presentation from the high schoolers who just spent the last week in San Antonio at the big Lutheran youth gathering that happens only once every 3 years. Looked like fun. Took an afternoon nap while Kelley showed the grandparents honeymoon pictures and then we packed up stuff again. Filled the car with the remainder of the wedding gifts and bridal shower gifts, and on our way. It felt all kinds of good to get home to the apartment. But not for long, as my roommates ran both bathrooms out of TP! So I had to make an emergency run lol. They bought some this morning since I found a new 4 pack in the downstairs bathroom, but we took care of it anyways.

So now we are back. I am back to working for Shipman slowly, and law school matters are impending as well as our move in a few weeks. Trying to get boxes organized this week to make room for more of Kelley's stuff from home and the room is a disaster zone after throwing stuff around packing for the honeymoon. Got onto 3 of 5 journals as well, missing Business Journal and Main Journal. I/S is too new for my tastes and Criminal Law is not really my field (but I would LOVE to work with our great professors in that field), so I chose our second most prestigous journal, Journal of Dispute Resolution. Got the resume updated for OCI right before the deadline so that companies will give me interviews hopefully. Now it's back to trying to get Sallie Mae to give me money and getting ready for school and job interviews which begin the year. Back to the grind.

PS - It's good to be married. It's not much different with me and Kelley, but living together now is better than her living in Marietta or Athens.