Wedding and Honeymoon

Hey out there everybody! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who was able to make it to the wedding, and that if you were unable to attend, you were there in spirit regardless. The wedding went off beautifully, and it was amazing to see everyone there and enjoying themselves. I was too busy to actually do anything besides follow orders from the photographer and the MC, but I tried to get around to say hi to everybody, and let them know that it truly meant a lot that they were there. It was incredible. Then we went on the honeymoon which was just fantastic. We flew to NY, and from there we took a cruise to Canada, which was gorgeous. Everybody was incredibly nice, and while St. John was a little quaint, I really enjoyed it. Erin preferred Halifax, which was a little bit larger city, and had some incredible public gardens. The cruise itself was also great. The food was, of course, scrumptious, and we met some really cool people. Believe it or not, we were the oldest couple at our dinner table. There was another couple who were engaged, and one had just finished undergrad, and the other was still working on it. Another couple were newlyweds like us, though they were 19. The other couple wasn't actually a couple, they were a brother and sister. I didn't actually ask them about their age, because they were a little weirded out by everyone else being couples and were a little quiet. They definitely looked significantly younger than us though. We also got to get on stage and play the newlywed game, since we were the newliest of newlyweds. Everyone else had gotten married on Saturday, but we were married one day more recently. It was a little embarrasing, but we got a free bottle of champagne out of it. Anyway, when we got back, we decided that since we were already in NY, we should just stay a couple of days. We saw a lot of cool things, Rockefeller Center, Strawberry Fields in Central Park, Ground Zero, and The Lion King. The Lion King was incredible. The costuming was not only beautiful, it was ingenious. They probably had to have a mechanical engineer on staff to design these costumes. We also shopped a little bit, and picked up the songbook for Wicked - since apparently Erin used to play piano, and her love of Wicked is strong enough to inspire her to pick it up again - and a couple of things Erin found on Canal Street. It was a great time, overall, and I really enjoyed both the wedding and the honeymoon. The last few days since we got back have been cool. We got Erin's name changed on her driver's license and a few other places, and ran some other "just married" type of errands. Oh, and the other night, I had this crazy dream where I won the lottery, and Rob updated his blog.* Dude, it was crazy. Anyway, I will talk to you all later, so peace out, and word to your mothers!!

*You know I'm just messing with you Rob, but seriously, the beginning of March??

A Very Special Construction Site.

From the moment you get out of the cab, you know that there is something special here. Humans do have a sixth sense, and I think that it's sympathy. The ability to feel the joy or sorrow of others. There is too much sorrow here, and it strikes you like a wall of pungent odor, like entering a Bath and Body Works of mourning. Everyone was staring intensely, though there wasn't much to see beyond the large, chain link fence; just some cones, Caterpillars, that orange plastic netting made up as fencing. As I momentarily broke my gaze, I noticed a sign above me that instructed people not to donate money to beggars, so that they won't have incentive to come and sully this sacred place. And in fact, whether out of reverence, or pragmatism, there were no beggars here. However the same sign declared that street performing here was strictly forbidden as well, since it was important to maintain this place's atmosphere. I felt, quite to the contrary, that the old homeless man sitting a few feet away playing a shaky rendition of "Amazing Grace" on an old, beat up flute is what pushed the trip past everyday tourism into what felt like a pilgrimage. His slow notes were soulful, if not all correct, and they formed a song that sounded like it had been lifted directly from a scene in a movie where they pan across the aftermath of a fresh battle, attempting to drive home the fact that you are looking at dead people, people who had friends and families that will never see them again. Let's just say that as I listened to his song, and read a few names off of the Vietnam War style "Wall" posted in foam core on the chain link fence, I was glad to have my sunglasses on. Poker face, indeed. And as soon as this thought bubbled to the surface of my mind, it struck me. Everyone had sunglasses on. Or at least all the guys did. Even indoors, in the adjacent subway, where you can see the same construction site from a different angle, all the guys had their shades on, pretending that they were too manly to be affected emotionally by the only place in New York where you might actually feel comfortable hugging a stranger: Ground Zero.