Anticipation

After spending Friday night and Saturday afternoon in Madison, I quickly recalled why I looked forward to fall during my college career. The city is buzzing with anticipation and excitement. Sure school will be starting soon, but there's so much to look forward to in the meantime. For at least 1 week each fall, college students around the nation have nothing on their plate aside from staying up late, sleeping late, and repeating. There's no doubt that some have practiced this despite classes, but for most college students this is one of the few times each year to just hang out. In my opinion, this is one of the best few weeks on the calendar year for college students. Even after the "bender" ends, there's still a lot to look forward to. The first day of classes, a.k.a. syllabus day, is pointless and boring from an academic standpoint, but it's the perfect time to scope out lectures and discussion sections for the hotties that you hope to sit next to and perhaps invite to a house party at some future date (believe me, this isn't just a guy thing). There was so much positive energy and excitement that it was hard for me not to be swept into it. While driving home Saturday evening, Colin and I discussed how great it is around this time of year for college students.

With that said, I am also starting to get my own feeling of excitement, but mingled with some nervousness. After going to St. Louis last week and checking out the city, it finally began to hit me that I was really going to be moving away. Needless to say I've been a bit overwhelmed and edgy the past week and expect that to continue for the 2 weeks leading up to the move. In the next 2 weeks I will be busy trying to find a place to live, finding furniture for that place, and getting all the other fixings that I need. On top of that I'll also be trying to prepare mentally and emotionally for a move to an unfamiliar city, a new job, and meeting new people. While I'm excited for the change of scenery and the experience, I'm definitely nervous about what lies ahead. If I'm able to adjust even half as quickly to this as I was to moving in 5th grade and going away to college, I don't have much to worry about. I'm very confident that once I've moved in, it won't take long for me to get my bearings, but in the meantime I'm faced with the notion of the unknown, which we all know is a scary proposition.

My hope is that as I take care of the physical things to prepare for my move, I'll have more time to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for what lies ahead. In the meantime, pardon my one word answers and irritability, it's only going to last a couple of weeks.

The Wedding

So it's been quite whirlwind for the last week or so. Last week of course was Pete's wedding. For those of you who weren't able to attend, sucks for you. It was the quite the party and I don't know that anyone left the Swan Club Saturday night feeling that the first Weiss wedding didn't live up to expectations.

I knew it would be a memorable weekend when my mom gave her grown kids the following rules for the weekend:

- No picking your nose
- No guns (toy variety, I don't think any of us actually own a real handgun)
- No swearing
- No "Weiss family gang symbol"
- No getting drunk

It was a valiant effort by my mom to try to keep us in line, but seriously did anyone actually think this would work. Each of those rules was broken at some point and of course my mom takes the cake by getting drunk and breaking her own rule (WTG mom!).

Friday night, the rehearsal and dinner, was somewhat of a disappointment by my standards. The highlight was watching Joey struggle to keep his mouth shut. Seeing my mom growing a little more stressed as the day wore on, I made a deal with Joey. For those of you who don't know, Joey talks a lot and doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, particularly when he is told do something or is getting in trouble. Since I hate added stress, I told Joey he was limited to 750 words from Friday evening until after the ceremony on Saturday. For every word under 750, he would get a $1 from yours truly. This could've potentially been a very lucrative deal for him, but I know Joey better than anyone and knew he would be lucky to make a buck off me. Needless to say by about 10:00 he was at 500 words already. I released him of the deal since he understood that he should keep his mouth shut unless he needed to speak. After the dinner, there was talk among several of us of going out for the night, especially because this was the Weiss children's chance to get drunk since we couldn't at the reception. Of course, everyone was talk and it ended up being an early night at Nicky's.

The next morning took for-ev-er, for-ev-er, for-ev-er. Granted I wasn't at Pete impatient level, but I just wanted to get this whole thing started. It was one of those cases where the anticipation for the wedding over the past year hasn't been too bad, but the several hours before just suck. When we finally got over to the church, we still were waiting, granted it wasn't as bad when people started to trickle in. Nerves were starting to get tight, tears were flowing and I was having no problem staying composed. Pete seemed to be doing just fine as well, on the other hand Colin, Pete's best man, was struggling. I tried to calm him some, but nothing was doing. I had feeling once things got going he would be fine, but it was taking forever. Luckily for him he brought a couple of small bottles of liquor. After he and I took a couple of sips, he was able to relax a bit. Personally, I think the drink provided a mental block, because there's no way taking a quick sip of vodka was going to actually take the edge off in a matter of seconds. Everyone made it through the ceremony without incident, aside from tears brought to us by Ann and Mary Weiss and Jenny Valentine (There were others, but these 3 produced a greater volume of water in 2 hours than Niagara Falls produces in 24 hours.)

With the ceremony finally over, people started to relax, except of course for those of us in the wedding party who had the joy and privilege of working with Lloyd, I mean Wayne, the photographer. After taking pictures of both families, we began the onslaught of wedding party pictures. Wayne apparently took I liking to my name as he used it more than anyone else's. A few times he used my name while talking to someone else. It got to the point that when I heard, "Tim move a little forward," I looked around to try to see if he was talking to me. Don't worry, I got Wayne back later for his continuous screw up of my name. We then went to St. Norbert for more pictures. At this point I at least had a beer in my hand and everyone seemed to be at ease aside from our feet growing more uncomfortable and tired. (Don't worry, we were all able to enjoy ourselves on the dance floor.) The last pictures we had to take were couple pictures. With two couples in the wedding party being brother-sister, things were a little awkward. When it was time for Sarah Glaser and me to get our photos I knew Lloyd had to be set straight. I convinced him it was good idea for him to get at least one picture with me shooting him with a gun. To his and everyone else's surprise, I proceeded to fire the cap gun at Lloyd/Wayne. One of the rules had officially been broken at this point, and upon my mom finding out she was a little disappointed, but once that picture is developed everyone will recall that as being the lighter side of the picture-taking.

Now it was on to the reception. The highlights of the reception had to be Mark Valentine's non-stop Laffy-Taffy jokes, Colin and Kelly's speeches, and of course the dance. I think once Apache was played, the dance floor really started bumping, that included Mr. Valentine amazing us all with his crazy moves. To be honest, I think the dance could've lasted all night. Sure the DJ had a few slow moments, but he worked his way out of them with the help of some people leading the way to the dance floor. Being the Wisconsin wedding that it was, Drew Georgia and I couldn't resist the temptation to start our own 5th Quarter. The final song of course was Varsity. By the time everything was said and done, some people who will remain nameless, (Matt Paprocki) wanted to keep the party going. The plan was for me and Colin to change and head over to Burnett's house to keep things going. Luckily, Colin was as exhausted as I was and we didn't fulfill our obligation.

When I woke up Sunday, I was as exhausted as when I went to bed. I think the combination of lack of sleep mixed with the stress and emotions going on around me for the past week really drained me. The wedding was a fitting climax to over a year of hype and talk. It lived up to the hype as far as I'm concerned, if people thing otherwise they know what they can do. I was already excited for the next wedding in our family which will be almost a year from now. Fortunately, I'll have other things to occupy me in the meantime.

Because I'm still somewhat exhausted and a little overwhelmed from the wedding and having taken a quick trip to St. Louis, I'll be waiting to post my next real entry until after the weekend. I may have a few quick posts if I have to get some things off my chest or have a random thought that I wish to share, otherwise my trip will have to wait until after the weekend.

Tim

First Try

So this is my first attempt at blogging. I figured this would be the best way of keeping everyone updated on my adventures and exploits while I'm away in St. Louis. I attend to use this not only as a means of keeping people abreast of my life, but also to post my random thoughts on things that are going on in the world. I hope everyone will enjoy it enough that they will keep coming back. I will try to post a couple of times a week, but it could be more if I feel the need to vent or am in one of those moods where thoughts are flying out of my head. I can't guarantee that everyone will understand the content that's posted, but that's how I am by nature. For those of you who read the Sports Guy, I will be using his style at times, (i.e. random thoughts and running diaries). As they say emulation is the greatest form of flattery.

If you're reading this, consider yourselves among the lucky that will continue to have a glimpse into my life as I charter new territory. Maybe someday this blog will reach fad status and put me in a category with hula hoops, 8-tracks and slap bracelets (that is officially the name of this blog).

Since I'm still a few weeks away from leaving the V of A, I will be posting only occasionally. I have feeling following this weekend's wedding I may have to post some commentary and perhaps even review the styles that we see at the Swan Club.

For those of you who read this before the wedding, give me a quick review tomorrow.

Later