My presentation went well on Friday. Thanks for praying. I missed a few presentations as I made the final changes to my handouts, but I don't think anyone minded. I didn't win a cash prize, but it was still a good experience. People seemed to enjoy it, but due to its topic and field, it didn't have very good chances. Still, it was a good chance to see how conferences worked and to critique the presentations so that I could see what things made for a strong presentation.

If you are interested, here is an interesting article talking about some of the politics behind Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Ok, so back to the wedding. After getting back to West U. I walked in to find Daniel Wang and Todd and Ziggy and a bunch of other people all standing around in the little foyer area. (Why were Alison and Mike having it at West U? Not that I mind, but neither of them go to church there. Oh well, it gave me the opportuninity to see Pastor Roger, who I needed to talk with.) I ended up standing in the foyer for quite a while because after the people I was talking with would go into the sanctuary, more people I know would come in the doors. It was reall a great big Rice reunion. I hope that there will be enough people still around to have that kind of party at my wedding (whenever that will be). Well after I said hi to a whole bunch of people (gold star: I remembered everyone's names), I went in and talked with Ziggy for a second before the service actually started. He is now a happily married man (Sarah is also happily married ;-). I was playing second photographer to Todd, which was good because he has a much nicer camera than mine. I certainly wouldn't want all of my pictures to be taken on my little digi cam. One of the reasons I really like being a photographer is that during meetings or concerts or in this case weddings, you are expected to walk around. I don't have to sit in one place for 90 minutes, but I can still listen to whatever's going on and I have something to keep me entertained. I'd have enjoyed college a lot more, and certainly done better in some of my classes if I had been allowed to walk around and snap some pics. The service was neat. They played some worship music and Roger performed the ceremony. They got hitched. I took lots of pictures. All was well with the world. I actually had to dump them onto Todd's computer because my camera was full and I wanted to take more pictures at the reception. So at the moment, I don't have any pictures that I took of the ceremony itself. I know I got a few good ones, but it was dark enough in there that some of them will undoubtedly come out blurry. Afterwards it was fun just hanging out and catching up with people that I hadn't seen in months or years.

Ok, from there I drove some people to the reception which was out by Nasa. Luke came along as my navigator and he pointed out some of the interesting places along the way, such as the Nasa McDonalds and the bar where all of the astronauts hang out. If any of you ever want to meet an astronaut, tell me and I'm sure we can work something out. Or you might be able to wait a few years and Luke will probably manage to find his way into space.

The reception itself was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with lots of people, enjoy the warm evening, even dance a little bit. The food was good, the company was good, the wine was presumably good, and it was just fun to see Mike and Alison so happy and together at last. Ziggy had a good toast in Ziggy fashion and Mr. Chen talked briefly about traditions. I have to say though, that the funniest part of the evening was when Will broke his wine glass by over-emphasizing a point. We were going to show a slide show with pictures of Mike and Alison, but at the last minute they couldn't find the cord they wanted. So Luke and I embarked on the Quest for the Missing Cable. We went to three or four electronics places but none of them had the cable (there was a RadioShack just down the road that probably would have had it, but unfortunely it was closed). So our quest ended in dismal failure and we came back to find that everyone had desrted us. Seriously, when we got back, they were sweeping the floor. Aparently when they had Mike and Alison leave, it brought everyone out by the cars and people just decided that the party was done once the bride and groom left. Of course I don't know what my situation will be like, but I'd like my reception to go to at least 10pm (midnight is better). Afterwards, Luke and I went to coffee with a few people. We were going to go out Salsaing, but everyone decided that we were too tired from standing in uncomfortable shoes to dance more. Ok, so next time I'll write about some of the other momentous events that have happened since the wedding.

In Other News...
I called 911 on Halloween. Aparently some guy was having a schitzophrenic episode outside of the library where I work. He scared some people bad enough that we decided to bring the police in. And you all thought I had a boring job.