Greetings sports fans!
Wow. Has it really been since March? It's been a rough few months, I won't lie. But it's in the past, and it's not was I came here to talk about.
Here I sit at 9:30 in the evening on the last official day of my 17 day summer vacation of 2007. My first, may I add, real two week vacation of my young career. It was spectacular. I wish I could just bottle it up and drink it whenever I needed a boost... because that's what it was.
For those who may not know, one of my best friends, Michael Ricketts, got married to the love of his life, April McDonald. It's really great to see two people so into each other actually make it work. Refreshing really. Like a shining example of what we all wish we had and are working for.
I flew home on Friday, July 20th and crashed at an old/new buddy's house, Phil Sheppard, who was standing in the wedding along with Bri and myself. The bachelor party, codenamed "R-Day" followed on the 21st. I could go into detail, but I would be breaking a very solemn and sacred oath of silence, so let me just say this...
Dresses and pretty hats were purchased, paintballs did fly, welts were had, gatherings were created, guitars were strummed, barbeques lit, friends bonded, shots consumed, idiots danced white russians in hand, individuals danced like fairies, individuals passed out on toilets, jigs were jigged, beers were chugged, strippers were seen, stripper funds were lost, girlfriends were worried, cigars were smoked...
and a great time was had by the only person who mattered.
The following week was spent in St. John's in what can be best described as "stupor-phoria". Happier than a bender, but with more collateral pain than pure bliss itself. We had campfires with way too much screech, wing night with 34 people, an evening with the Ennis', a party on marigold place, some george street fest action, and some wedding eve this-is-your-last-chance-to-bail male bonding time. A great week indeed, which lead up to a great wedding.
I wasn't really nervous about being the best man & MC... more so, I just didn't want to let anybody down. Anyway... things went very well, the speeches rolled along, and my attempt at an impersonation of a shitty beat-boxing attempt seemed to go over well. As long as those two kids were happy, I was happy, so it was all good.
Finished off the week in St. John's with a whale watching tour which was pretty spectacular. The mainlanders that Gloria brought down with her even got to try their hand at jigging cod. A great night for sure. It was just great to have pretty much everyone in one place again, if only for a few days.
After this, it was back to Grand Falls for a week with the family and the hometown boys & girls. It was literally home for a rest... I had been drinking for close to 9 days straight with only a few breathers, so I needed some drying out time. This, of course, was short lived, and a trip down to Kelly's to see Johnny's band Ted Dancin' last Thursday proved to be a "roofing" experience. I don't know what was in that draft, but by 1am I was fit to be tied. Follow this up with a big Friday at Bri's and you get the picture. So... the actual "rest and relaxation" wasn't really in the cards for this vacation, save a few days, but hey... would I really have it any other way?
All in all... kickass. Now... if I could just go to sleep tonight, and fix it so that it's July 20th again when I wake up... then I'd be all set.
Snap.
Reid
