Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

Matthew 8:20

The Wedding

So after many months of anticipation, the big day arrived. At long last, we met Hexar. Ok, so really Bill and Katherine getting married was the important thing and I had never heard of Hexar, but that's ok.

So much happened that it is hard to remember everything. First, I got back from my family's house in Colorado on Tuesday, and spent that day catching up and trying to get my bags which had taken a separate bus. Wednesday was busy moving stuff into storage and helping Ning, Alison, and Laura move out of their apartment. That always takes longer than you expect and I missed seeing a friend who had spent the last semester in Spain. That was too bad. The next day (Thursday) we were off again, this time to Katherine's home town of San Angelo. I had been there once our freshman year, when Bill and Katherine started (officially) dating so it was interesting to go back now that their dating had reached its culmination. I left from Houston with Ning and Laura and we drove to Laura's parent's house in Buda, splitting the driving between me and her. We spent the night their mostly talking with her older brother, Nate, and left again in the morning. Then we drove to San Angelo and met up with Bill and Katherine (and a lot of other people). The guys took Bill and the girls took Katherine for their respective Bachelor/Bachelorette parties. We went to a cabin on a lake where we paddled about in canoes and kayaks, played with axes, grilled food, and watched Braveheart. The grill was this massive thing that we built into an inferno. The grate itself was over six feet long and two or three feet wide! You could cremate someone in it. We just chopped beef, salmon, and vegetables directly onto the grill and let them cook. Later, when we were cleaning it, it got so hot that the grill warped upward almost an inch. Then Bill gave us each a present. He got us swords which we enjoyed immensely. We sliced a watermelon and a couple of the guys (mlai) bent their swords by striking them against a tree as hard as they could. Just goes to show why Pakistan has never been known for its fantastic swords. Later we watched Braveheart projected onto the cabin wall. It was great having a sword to wave around at all the right times. All in all, it was a great time of men just enjoying being men.

The next day we went back to town and got our tuxes and basically stayed out of the way as much as possible. We did the rehearsal, which didn't seem very well organized. It seemed like the pastor hadn't done a wedding in a while or didn't know how to organize everyone. It was really surreal when they started rehearsing the vows and had to have a stand-in bride so that Katherine wouldn't be saying them too early. So there was Bill looking at another girl saying his vows to Katherine while Katherine was two feet behind him. Weird! That night we went to a country club for the rehearsal dinner. It was a really good meal. We had beef wellington that was a little too rare (Alison couldn't eat it) but the breading on it, and the peppercorn sauce were excellent! We had a fun time roasting and toast the bride and groom. Everyone got into it (although Will got a little too into it). I think it was a toss up for the best roast between Kate and the Judge (Mother of the Bride). After a long happy night, the ushers tried to convince us to go to their place for an after party, but all they were going to be doing was drinking (or if I went they would spend the next few hours trying to convince me to drink) so I decided to spend the time with Bill instead. Will even went back with us, which I think speaks very well of him. At the hotel we just kinda watched tv and got ready for the big day.

When we woke up, we all went and got breakfast at hotel lobby, followed by a few errands and then going to get more food at a Mexican place. Then we went skeet shooting. That was a lot of fun, but things were getting a little expensive. I shot my 10%. I had only shot shotguns once, so it took me until half way through before I realized why my aim was so off. The other time had be clay pidgeons from a tosser so they always went along the same path and these were on a course so they came from all directions. But what I had been seeing, which I thought was shot, was actually just a wrapping around the shot, so it wouldn't fly the same. Once I got that down, I hit over 20% so I made up some of my lost score. It was a fun and very manly way to spend some time before getting married. Incidentally, the girls were at a princess party where they got manicures and did girlie things.

Finally the time arrived for us all to go to the chapel. We took pictures with Bill (and then I took some of him and his family on my own camera because I never got to see pics from the last two weddings I was in). He was a little nervious but after some prayer and a little 'Stretching With Bill' we were ready to go in. It was a great service. They chose not to use the traditional wedding march, but had another classical piece that was very grand. It was the coolest thing when we all got into our positions and Bill and Katherine came up the stairs and we formed a circle and started worshipping. It became something bigger than just a wedding, but a time to glorify God. Mike and Michelle led the music and we all sang along. I don't know how the crowd took it, and frankly I don't care. It had nothing to do with them. After worship we proceeded. The preacher talked abit about how they would get on each other's nerves, but would be able to withstand anything if they could forgive. Bill started to tear up but held it in and I couldn't see Katherine's face because she had her back to me. But Ning tells me that she was pretty emotional but didn't cry either. Ning did cry a little bit, which was good. People should let the tears roll in that situation. Ning says that I got all red and teary eyed, and I couldn't see myself to contradict her, but I didn't feel like crying. I was grinning from ear to ear, and couldn't understand how most of the people could hold such a straight face. I was filled with joy that I couldn't contain! Well finally they said their "I will", were declared man and wife, and held a short but passionate kiss. Then they turned and walked down the aisle. We followed and all started laughing and smiling as we got out of the sanctuary. Then we walked to a hallway somewhere in the church and hid while everyone else left for the reception. It really did feel like we were hiding because we had just come from this grand ceremony and were now just standing in a hall talking about the trains on the dresses and such things. How anticlimactic. Once people left, we filed back in and took more pictures before going over to the reception. Unfortunately, I took a bit longer to get over there because I was messing around with picture stuff, so we got there just in time for the cutting of the cake. After that they told us that they were going to have their first dance, so we went outside. After a while we realized that 'they' were wrong and everyone was inside enjoying dinner. No sooner had I gone in than the Judge came by and said "If I promise that they leave your food here, will you all go out and dance?" Well, she fell through on her end of the deal, because when I came back 3 or 4 hours later, my food was definitely gone. Oh well. I had a great time dancing and new that it was better than the food anyways. I slow danced with all my female friends and danced in groups with everyone together. I did think it a little ironic that they played oldies when Katherine doesn't like oldies. It was a warm night and if I were wearing anything other than a rented tux, I would have been in the the pool. But if figured a tux that was $127 to rent was probably a lot more if it got wet. After a while Bill and Katherine came out and we all threw rose petals on them as the walked towards their waiting limo. Then we danced on. I had never seen Chase, Jeremy, or Ethan dance, but they all wiggle away with the rest of us (before hitting the wet bar). Of course Denny and Alan could not be persuaded to get into the groove, but Hexar was brave and danced with the girls (especially Renea ;) even though he didn't know any of them. Judge Walther danced. Doctor Walther danced. Will danced. I danced. Will danced with the Judge. Everyone had a great time and continued to say what a great party it was for days afterwards (and will continue to say so for months if not years more). But all good things must come to an end. The band left, we all stayed around and talked, the Judge called off some deputies that came to investigate a noise complaint, and finally we left. We went back to the apartment where everyone got out of their fancy clothes and took showers.

Unfortunately this tale was not without its little tragedy. Bill and Katherine's wedding was the last hurrah for our group at Rice and everyone had scheduled their summers around it. That night was our last night together. The next morning Ning flew out to New York before returning to Singapore, Ben and Alison were going back to California, Billy and Adina were going to Mexico, Mike was going back to Dallas and the rest of us would spend some amount of time in Houston. We all wanted a little bit more time together so at 2am we all went to Whataburger to hangout. Afterwards I talked with Ning until we were exhausted. Before going to sleep I read John's account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

The next morning was a new day and only God knows what the next adventure may be.

Praise be to Emmanuel, God who never leaves us.

HaloScan

I decided that I like the HaloScan commenting better than the Blogger commenting because it doesn't try to intimidate you into signing in or setting up an account. Don't worry, I'll keep remodeling my page as I find time.

Here's my weird news of the week

Yahoo! News - 7 Arrested in School Cafeteria Food Fight: "7 Arrested in School Cafeteria Food Fight "

I had a fun time taking pictures today. I went down to the local sculpture park twice (once in the day and once at night) and got through maybe a third or fourth of it. We didn't stay too long at night because there were a lot of mosquitos and West Nile Virus is pretty bad here. Tomorrow I'm going hiking, so hopefully I'll get some more good pics.

There was a great thunderstorm at my parent's house tonight. I took my camera out and tried to take some pictures. One came out well but it looks more like a sunrise than a thunderstorm.

Rest In Peace President Ronald Wilson Reagan. The world needs more men like you.

So I thought I would write up a quick (hopefully) update about what things have been going on in Colorado. Let's see. I mowed the lawn today, it looked like it might rain, but it didn't, some guy converted a bulldozer into a tank and went on a rampage in a nearby town, I fixed a cukoo clock, and we had homemade pizza for dinner. So everything is pretty normal. Micah, my dad and I are going camping tomorrow, so that will be good. Now that I have a good camera, I might be able to get a shot of the bear that bugged us last time we went camping. I've been applying for funding to GIAL and trying to arrange housing. I've also been reading a variety of books, hanging out with a friend from Oregon who has been living with my family, and watching more tv than I like. Oh, and I also got a menengitis shot today. Fun stuff.

Here are my two weird things of the week:

-Last Widow of a Civil War Veteran Dies
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/05/31/obit.martin.ap/index.html

-Amish Amusement Park
http://www.ettractions.com/ettractions/att/17348.asp