Take Me To Another Place

I tried posting this the past two nights...we'll see if the third time is the charm. So I travelled down to Knoxville, TN for a family wedding this weekend. I had a nice time. I saw some cousins and relatives I haven't seen in years. It is nice to see how everyone is doing and come together in a happy occasion of a wedding.

At one point I intruduced myself to my cousin's husband. His reply was "Oh, you're fast cousin M---." I don't think I've ever had adjectives attached to my name...well none that I know of. For whatever reason there are people (good and bad) who we don't call by just their name, but their name and a descriptor. He's not Mike, but Smart Mike, not Chris, but Smelly Chris, not Joe Davola, but Crazy Joe Davola. You could say "I was out with Dave the other night..." and people will look at your funny, like they don't know Dave. Then you say "you know, Big Dave" and they know exactly who you are talking about. There are only a select few individuals who have this honor. How they get it? Beats me, but I'll chalk it up to some sociological phenomenon.

I know I blasted my little sister a bit on my last post. I did, however, stick up for her (like a good brother should) at the wedding. She was in front of me getting drinks and she was carded. OK, I understand there are underage drinkers out there and we, as a society, need to do everything we can to make sure they don't taste alcohol until they are 21...but at a wedding? Seriously? Who gets carded at a wedding? My little sister I guess. So she's running to get her ID and I make some comment to the bartender like "Oh, you're carding?" And in a smug retort she says "Yeah, the drinking age is 21." What? When did this happen? I never knew we had a drinking age, and 21 to boot! I go on talking about how I think it is stupid to card at a wedding. The bartender could have fun with it and say something like "Yeah...its a pain but it is my job and she looks young," but she decided to keep whatever it was stuck up her butt and infomed me again that the drinking age is 21. For the rest of the night I made sure to go to the other bartender whenever I got a drink.

Congrats to Butch and Maria. I wish you a wonderful life together.