Livin' The Dream

Some friends of ours asked me to perform their wedding ceremony last night. They love each other, so that seemed like a natural progression of things. They wanted a small ceremony with their closest family and friends...

...and at the same time they wanted to celebrate what is certainly worthy of celebration. Their choice of venue was a fancy-schmancy place in downtown Dallas named The Crescent:



Since the wedding was later in the evening with a dinner following, the couple was nice enough to provide Tracy and I with a room for the night. Now, Tracy knows how to handle herself in a place like this, but I manage to become overwhelmed with the little things. For example, in this hotel they park the fancy-schmancy cars right out front...notice Mercedes, Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar. Oddly enough, my Corolla was nowhere to be found.



Here's the courtyard where they got married. I laughed out loud when the bride entered and everybody stood up, she said, "Everybody's standing up! That's so sweet!" She cried giving her vows, which I thought was sweet. I had to remind the groom to look at her while he was giving his vows...and it isn't the first time. Often, the guys get focused on the "repeat after me" part and look at me to make sure they get all the words right.



This is one of the definitions of fancy-schmancy to me: A raked ash tray with a flower in it.



A few observations about this wedding and this hotel experience:

When a couple is getting married and they're good friends, you can see that when they're just hanging out.

Couples that get married older tend to have a keen awareness of the gravity of what they're doing when giving vows and exchanging rings.

On one hand, hotels are hotels. Some may have nicer furniture or door handles or shower heads or towels or bath robes, but ultimately it's just a rented room.

Parents should act when their kids wake up at 6:30AM and start yelling and such, by taking them to breakfast or to the pool area or for a walk. Just telling them to be quiet or yelling at them to stop trying open the adjoining door of our rooms really doesn't do much. By the way, your kids are brats and I think you have a lot to do with it, folks.

If I were to purchase everything in our room that is beverage related or food related, I could make half a mortgage payment. There's a 2004 Merlot from Coppola Wineries (Tracy and I visited there once)...a small bottle (375 ml)...that goes for $33. A 12 oz. cola is $3.50. There's a bunch of stuff, too.

Some places cook a steak to such a degree that it makes dining a truly fabulous experience.

Watching grown-ups drunk-dial may actually be worse than college kids.

It doesn't take much to get 13-year old boys to attempt to pour juice off a balcony. It doesn't take much more than that to get their mom to bring that to a screeching halt before it becomes more than an idea.

I don't understand how much porn is being purchased in hotel rooms, but apparently there's a big demand because there were three different categories on the main menu where the regular old movies are.

I don't wear bathrobes and can't imagine ever wanting one, but I'll put this one on and stroll around the room just for kicks. 13-year-old boys will wear the house slippers to the after-dinner get together which is so funny even the mom laughs out loud.

No matter what else is going on in your brain, your radar locks in on someone laughingly telling a story that uses the phrase, "...and I get home and there's blood everywhere..." and the story is really pretty funny.

That I have no idea how much to tip or who all gets a tip...so I generaly avoid it. For example, a bell hop (do they still call them that) asks me if I need help with my luggage. It was small and I really didn't need help, but I said "no, thanks" after thinking that I might have to tip that guy.

That celebrating with those who are celebrating is something we should do more of.