Jake's wedding and Chorus Premiere

What else is new?

Saturday was Jake's wedding. I went down to Front Royal late on Friday night, and hung out with Sarah, Ken, and Alaina. I spent the night at Ken's house, and at 4 AM, we got up. We arrived at the parking area just after 5 AM, where Bob T. and Sam P. were waiting for us. We drove out of Front Royal just after we loaded up our stuff, and then got on the road. We got to Asheville, NC, at 10:30 AM, three hours ahead of schedule. Traffic on good days rocks...

The wedding was awesome. Jake and Laura were married in the same church where Mike and Liz were married last year. It was cool going back in there and sitting downstairs instead of singing.

All the Christendom guys were in one pew, and all of us were in suits. We were all on Jake's side of the church. In the first two pews, there was the family. From the beginning, it was obvious who were Catholics. The entire first two rows, with the exception of Jake's father and the groomsmen, were all seated throughout almost the entire Mass. Before Mass began, they were turning around and chatting with each other.

Third pew from the front, right in front of the Christendom guys, was Therese O. and her family. Obviously good Catholics, so I don't need to say that the difference between the second and third pews was monstrous. Behind them, to quote Ken, "was a wall of suits." And it's true. Every Christendom guy was dressed in a suit. And we were studly...

When the wedding began, Jake and the groomsmen came out from the front of the church. The wedding procession began, and everything got underway.

The music wasn't so great, I'm sorry to say. The organist sounded nervous -- I know he's really good, so I really noticed his little slips. When he stopped and the violins started, from the first note, I could tell that they were amateurs, so giving them credit for their level of experience, they were really good.

Further on in the wedding, Jake had me cracking up in my pew. When he and Laura were listening to the sermon, they looked at each other and grinned a couple times. It got me laughing, just seeing how happy they were. Shortly after that, at the presentation of the gifts, Jake and Laura were standing at the front of the church, waiting to receive the gifts, and then, in turn, hand them to the priests. While they were standing there, Jake was singing along with the Offertory hymn. That got a big smile out of me, and then Sam started cracking up next to me. I looked up, and Laura, who had been quietly singing along, had stopped and turned a little red. Jake turned to her and smiled (while continuing to sing). She tried to continue singing, but couldn't. I about died laughing.

I should point out that as much as I laughed in the church, it was all under my breath. As difficult as it was sometimes, I kept it as quiet as I could...

Now, for the priests: Father Buddy, from Florida, gave the sermon. His first words were, "I can feel the presence of the Lord rockin' and rollin' in this room!" My jaw hit the floor. But his sermon only got better. It ended up being a very good sermon, considering the poor start...

The sign of peace was also interesting. I should insert a comment before continuing that there was a little Asian woman in the congregation. I didn't see her, but Ken watched her. You know how some people are very active with their hands during Mass, i.e., raising them during the Our Father, doing other interesting things when they say, "And also with you," etc. Here's what happened:

Father Buddy was the concelebrant. The primary celebrant announced the sign of peace with the words, "The peace of the Lord be with you all." She responded with the usual, "And also with you," but she made a motion with her hands that looked like she was pushing the "peace" back to Father. Or throwing it back. I didn't see it, but that's as well as I can describe it here without the motions. This was followed up immediately by, "Let us offer each other the sign of peace." At this point, Father Buddy raised his right hand in the air with the "V for Victory" peace sign to the congregation. That was the second time my jaw hit the floor...

After the wedding, several of us went to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies for Jake's car. We arrived at the reception, and at a good distance away, we prettied up his car. When we were done, there was shaving cream all over it, as well as white soap/paint all over it.

When we were finally done, we caught the tail-end of the toasts, just before the dancing. The reception was a lot of fun. I danced to the Electric Slide, and that's about it. I was having too much fun chatting with everyone else.

We managed to pull Jake off the main floor, and got him outside with all the Christendom guys. We had some pictures taken with him, and then Sam and I carried him back inside on our shoulders to the dance floor. As we were passing people, I heard the question, "Where is Jake, anyway?" And people looked around, and laughed. I hope it was as fun for Jake as it was for all of us...

Ken told me that Jake wanted to have the guys sing Red is the Rose for him and Laura as they left, so we rounded up all the guys who knew the song. We ended up with a group of about ten guys, and it sounded really good -- at least to me, it did. Jake said it sounded good, but I think he was just saying that...

The drive back to Front Royal was uneventful -- we got back about 1 AM. This time we had Bob and Michael C. with us. We dropped Bob off at his car, and drove Michael back to campus. We almost hit a deer about ten miles from Ken's house...

Today was the day for the premiere of Chorus, the film by Mirandum Pictures. I sang at Christendom on Sunday morning, had the select choir practice, and then hung out at Eric's for a while. Colin O. was there, and we signed into X-Box Live, and got whaled on in Halo 2. After this, I helped out Catherine B. by setting up speakers for the reception following the premiere. I put on my tux and drove to the theatre for the showing. After Chorus, went to the after-party, where I got a lot of, "Hey, aren't you that driver? What happened to you? Are you OK?" At about 11 PM, I decided it was time to go. I changed at Dane's, and went home.