A Word About The Wedding
I arrived in Louisville on time on Thursday, rented my car, and walked back to the baggage claim to watch my suitcase roll out of the carousel first. When I stepped outside the air was perfect, and the sun was shining. I made it maybe five steps from the sliding doors when a shouted "Johnny!" broke through the noise in my headphones. Startled, I looked to my right and saw Uncle Jim and my cousin Dan standing next to their car. I hung out with them for a bit, and got moving for Lexington, 70 miles away.

The countryside between Louisville and Lexington is sublime. I assert that it's one of the examples of the human hand actually enhancing the aesthetics of a natural landscape. The rolling green hills quartered off with uniform black/brown wooden fences continues to make the visitor gape in awe. Unfortunately though, the traffic causes such gapings to be short-lived, as the very crowded dangerous highway that connects the two cities in Kentucky's populous heartland is almost always achurn with jockeying vehicles. I was happy to get off the road when I got to Lexington, and loosen my grip on the steering wheel.

The wedding rehearsal was at 6pm, and I had about an hour and a half to get dressed and get to the church. I was an usher, and since the rehearsal was on Thursday, I wasn't expected to be there. But, since I was happily unemployed at the time, I had no problem at all with ariving a day early to attend the rehearsal and enjoy some quality time with my cousins. I took about twenty minutes before the rehearsal began to look around downtown a bit. Lexington has a very pretty downtown. It's unmarred by modern highways, leaving it almost completely intact.

The rehearsal went without a hitch, and the whole group ran over to the Lexington Country Club for dinner and drinks, followed by a nice relaxing sit on the outdoor furniture at the Campbell House, where we were staying. I slept a long, comfortable sleep with many pillows, and dreamed pleasant dreams.

In the morning, I received a knock on my door at about 11am, asking me to come and help set up the reception location with the rest of the wedding party. I still had to wrap my present, but when I had done that, I hurried over to a nearby horse farm and helped string lights and set up the worst damned tent in the history of pain. Nobody knew how to set it up, and the weather had taken a nasty turn for the wet.

It began raining on Friday morning, and it didn't wholly stop until Saturday evening, well into the reception. Apparently, Louisville and Lexington got national news coverage because of the peculiarity and amount of rain they received. I must have watched five or six inches fall on Friday alone. I muddied up every piece of clothing I had on Friday, including the only jeans and normal shoes I had with me. Later that night, as if to laugh at the four or five hours we spent erecting that damned big-topped reception tent, the storm unleached its full fury on it, reducing it to tatters, and pulling the three-foot rebar stakes we had driven.

So, the reception was held in the barn, which actually worked out very well. Bart and Catherine arranged for a zydeco band to play, and a local Cajun restaurant to cater the event. They had kegs of locally-produced Kentucky Ale, Kentucky Light, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The reception, despite the driving rain, was a huge success. The rain subsided entirely by about 9pm, and the temperature settled to about 68 degrees.

After the reception, we rode back to the hotel in rented vans(another great idea), and people passed around bottles of Bourbon. We closed the hotel bar, and I almost lost my dinner on a shot of Woodford Reserve. In Kelly style, we all stayed up way too late singing and talking in the hotel rooms.

The next morning, everyone cleared out, amazed that the sun could shine in Lexington, after all. Julia's flight didn't leave until after 4pm, so she arranged for a ride on the hotel's airport shuttle and cooled her jets for a while. I drove James and Adriana to the airport in Louisville, and checked into my hotel downtown. I had a great trip, and capped it off with an evenig enjoying Louisville's excellent downtown, and another long night's sleep with many pillows.

matthew (your cousin) spoiled the calm with:
yeah what a great time. now how about some pictures...?

7:12 PM, Sep 28, 2006

Rachel said:
The pictures gig is definitely seconded. Definitely.

And hey - see you in Minne!

8:57 PM, Sep 28, 2006

Will (your other cousin) responded:
Yeah how bout some pictures from the wedding which I so unfortunately missed! oh and rachel I need your new phone number (if you have one) you crazy oregonian. call me

10:08 PM, Oct 1, 2006

bahua brooked no delay in saying:
Rachel's number hasn't changed. Enjoy the pictures.

4:51 PM, Oct 2, 2006

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